Alabama House and Senate clash over local legislation as session nears end

The Alabama Legislature ground to a halt on Wednesday afternoon amid a dispute between the Alabama House and a senator over a gambling bill for Greene County. 

The stand-off on the next-to-last legislative day of the session punctuated a tense day in the chambers that saw another filibuster on a bill that would change the governance of the Alabama Department of Archives and History and two Republican representatives getting into a shouting match on the House floor. 

“The question about ending it today was the right decision, I believe, so that everyone stopped, we had a clean break, and then we’re going into the last legislative day, knowing exactly what’s in front of us,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, after the Senate adjourned, adding that cloturing the Democratic filibuster would “create a little bit of animosity towards each side of the aisle, and we don’t want that.”

The disputes left the fates of high-profile legislation and dozens of local bills for individual districts up in the air. The last day of the session is May 14.

“[Next week] looks slow because I’m settled in They’ve got 40 more House bills,” said Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, who filibustered a Senate calendar for most of the afternoon. “I’m willing to talk 40 more hours.”

Singleton wanted the House to pass a SB 90, a bill for Greene County that would update the distribution of local gambling revenue in the county and change the appointing authority for Greene County Racing Commission members from the governor to the legislative delegation.

Wednesday was the last day for lawmakers to get bills to the governor’s desk before Gov. Kay Ivey can wield a pocket veto over legislation. Singleton said Ivey’s staff said she wasn’t going to sign his bill, and that a Senate agenda of 10 bills taken up by the chamber on Wednesday “needed to get out” because “she’s not going to sign the bills.” 

“The governor has said to leadership that there were certain bills that she was not going to sign … That’s why you saw all those bills because they needed to get out today, so that therefore they could override the veto on the last day if she decided to veto them,” Singleton said.

Gina Maiola, a spokesperson for the governor, wrote in a text message Wednesday “that’s not necessarily true regarding issues with local bills,” saying that the governor met with leadership to discuss the final days of the session and agree to a final schedule.

Singleton filibustered the local calendar but allowed the first five local bills on it to pass.

The House did not put Singleton’s bill on a calendar on Wednesday, likely dooming it for the session. In the House, Rep. Curtis Travis, D-Tuscaloosa, requested to bring SB 90 to the floor out of order, a move that requires four-fifths of members present to approve. After an hour and 45 minutes of debate, Travis withdrew the motion.

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said after the House adjourned that all gaming bills must be brought to the floor on a special order calendar, regardless if they are local legislation or statewide bills.

“(Singleton) was really adamant about getting on the floor, and gave a chance for Rep. Travis to have a conversation about it,” Ledbetter said after the House adjourned. “And I think that’s what he wanted to do. And unfortunately, our rules and rules in the Senate aren’t the same. And anything that’s got to do with gaming in the House, it’s got to be general and going to the House floor.”

Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest, who co-sponsored a comprehensive gambling package last year, supported the motion saying Alabamians gamble anyway.

“I do feel that we failed our citizens last year by not voting on a comprehensive gaming package,” Whitt said. “This is a great demonstration of what happens when we let this patchwork gaming happen all across the state, and it will continue to happen. If you don’t think gambling and gaming is happening in your communities, you’re all wrong.”

Spat in the House

The House had its own internal drama Wednesday when Reps. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, and Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, had a heated discussion on the House floor over an amendment to SB 82, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur.

The bill requires municipal court magistrates and circuit court clerks to annually audit and recall outstanding warrants for Class B and Class C misdemeanors and violations that have not been served within 10 years.

Faulkner’s amendment allowed the presiding judge to decide if a warrant would be recalled. Simpson asked Faulkner to change his amendment to also alert the prosecuting attorney.

“We’re not amending the amendment,” Faulkner said. “You can amend the bill.”

Simpson argued Faulkner could not do that.

“I can have this debate with you right now because I’m asking to amend the amendment,” Simpson said. “Let’s let the body ask to amend the amendment.”

The pair got heated, then the bill was carried over to the call of the chair. The pair continued their debate away from the podiums on the House floor, then moved to a side room for about an hour.

They emerged, but the bill was not brought back up.

Final Day

Both chambers of the Legislature will return on Wednesday afternoon, but the battle between the chambers may not ease. Ledbetter said Singleton’s bill will not be on the calendar when the House returns.

But Singleton said after the Senate adjourned that he still wants his bill passed “like all other local bills.” The Senate minority leader noted the Senate still had to pass about 50 local bills and approve confirmations, and warned that he was willing to filibuster most if not all of them. 

“That’s where we will be. If that’s what game they want to play, I’m willing to play, and I think most of you know that I can play that game,” Singleton said. “We probably have another 25 confirmations out there. Somebody’s not going to get confirmed, and some local bills will die.”

The impasse could also threaten high-profile state bills, including a bill broadening police immunity that Ivey called for in her State of the State address in February. A bill to change the governance of the Alabama Department of Archives and History also stalled after Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, objected to the bill removing Senate confirmation of board members. The bill will go to a conference committee.

“As of right now, the local legislation is my main priority because all politics is local. We want to make sure that we try to take care of our members here and the members in the House,” Gudger said after the Senate adjourned Wednesday.