At present is the fifteenth legislative day of the 2025 common session, which marks the midway level allowed by the Alabama Structure, and whereas a lot work nonetheless awaits us, the Senate has already accredited a number of important measures designed to make an already nice state even higher.
It’s my first session as Senate president professional tem, a publish that grew to become vacant when my predecessor, Sen. Greg Reed, R – Jasper, resigned his seat in an effort to be part of Gov. Kay Ivey’s cupboard, and I’m grateful that lawmakers from each side of the aisle unanimously elected me to steer the chamber.
On my first day as Professional Tem, I famous that somebody as soon as referred to politics as “a circus hitched to a twister,” and now, nearly two months into the job, I can guarantee you that the twister is spinning even quicker, and the circus has added a 3rd ring.
A quirk in our physique’s guidelines prohibits payments from being pre-filed within the Senate if the professional tem’s workplace is vacant, so my election instantly opened a floodgate of laws. For that purpose, it will have been comprehensible if we had sluggish rolled the beginning of the session, however we went in the other way and got here out of the gate scorching.
The Senate management made a acutely aware determination to focus our early efforts on supplementing and paralleling the insurance policies being enacted by President Trump within the White Home and the Republicans within the U.S. Congress, and the reasoning behind that selection is straightforward.
When conservative insurance policies are enacted on the federal degree, nice issues can occur, and when conservative insurance policies are enacted on the state degree, nice issues may occur, however when conservative insurance policies are enacted on each the federal and state ranges concurrently, nice issues can occur twice as quick.
It’s the purpose why the very first invoice handed by the State Senate this session was the “What’s a Lady Act,” a measure that injects a powerful dose of readability right into a foolish debate that has dominated the nationwide dialog for a lot too lengthy.
Sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, R – Brierfield, it enacts easy-to-understand, biology-based definitions for phrases like man and girl, female and male, boy and woman, and mom and father into state legislation.
Whereas some woke extremists declare that there are as many as 74 completely different genders, most Alabamians perceive an everlasting fact that has remained in place since Adam first laid eyes on Eve — males are born women and men are born girls.
Precedence passage of the laws, which Gov. Kay Ivey has already signed into legislation, demonstrates that the Alabama Senate is guided by frequent sense and conventional values, not by fashionable social fads and woke nonsense.
We’ve got additionally labored by means of a package deal of payments addressing unlawful immigration, which resulted after a number of state senators toured Joe Biden’s open Mexican border in Texas final yr.
Unlawful immigrants thumb theirs noses at our legal guidelines the second they arrive, and so they use our companies and drain our sources with out contributing a dime in state earnings tax in return, so one invoice by Sen. Chris Elliott, R – Josephine, invalidates out-of-state drivers licenses issued to those that didn’t first show their authorized standing, one other by Sen. Wes Kitchens, R – Arab, establishes the crime of human smuggling for knowingly transporting an unlawful immigrant, and a 3rd by Sen. Lance Bell, R – Pell Metropolis, permits state and native legislation enforcement to gather fingerprints and DNA from unlawful immigrants who’re in custody.
All three measures have handed the Senate with extra payments associated to unlawful immigration anticipated to affix them quickly.
Too many Alabamians at the moment really feel unsafe within the communities that they name residence, too many criminals really feel empowered to disregard the legal guidelines that preserve us protected, and too many legislation enforcement officers really feel that they lack assist from elected officers who’re imagined to have their backs.
In response, the Senate has already handed a number of items of a public security package deal designed to reverse these developments and fight the shortage of respect for legislation and order that took agency root in some areas of Alabama lately.
One other fascinating and much-needed invoice sponsored by Sen. Merika Coleman, D – Nice Grove, seeks to require males to simply accept their tasks by permitting judges to order little one assist starting at conception if paternity is legally established inside one yr of a kid’s start.
In presenting her invoice, Sen. Coleman famous that the prices of getting a baby start effectively earlier than start as nurseries are ready and garments, diapers, and different provides are bought. She argued that every one of these prices, too, needs to be shared.
The laws acquired unanimous approval with members from each side of the aisle talking in its assist as a result of all of us perceive that males who father kids shouldn’t be allowed to financially shirk the results of their actions.
Different essential payments too quite a few to say right here have additionally secured approval because the session’s begin, however the Senate should preserve its eyes firmly centered on the work that awaits us within the second half.
Passage of the Schooling Belief Fund and Basic Fund budgets — the Legislature’s predominant constitutional responsibility — stays earlier than us together with consideration of a number of tax reduce proposals, training reforms, and extra measures designed to make Alabama a good higher place to stay, work, worship, and lift households.
In order spectacular because the accomplishments detailed above might seem, sit again and wait since you ain’t seen nothin’ but.
