Week 5

April 4 - April 8

Representative Kurt Wallace just stepped out of my office. He is one of our newest members of the Shelby County Delegation and has the smallest portion of Shelby County. However, I’ll tell you what’s not small, and that is Representative Wallace’s heart. Kurt was just on the radio with the Matt Murphy Show on 100 WAPI to discuss HB 316 on shared parenting. Representative Wallace cares very deeply about the work he is doing down in Montgomery and is doing a great job so far representing Shelby and Chilton Counties.

Tuesday was the 10th Legislative Day of the 2011 Regular Session. On that day the House of Representatives completed the list of bills the Republicans deemed their “Handshake with Alabama” by passing HB 56 on illegal immigration. This is a similar bill to the one previously passed in Arizona that received so much media attention. The bill will move on to the Senate. The House also passed HB 60 on Tuesday that is known as the federal healthcare (Obamacare) opt-out bill. This is a proposed Constitutional Amendment that would prohibit anyone from being compelled to participate in a healthcare system.

On the same day, the Senate passed a number of bills. One of note was SB 192 known as the Brewery Modernization Act. This bill allows for a ‘brewpub’ to produce and sell beer to a licensed wholesaler for resale to a licensed retailer.

When committee day came around on Wednesday, the legislature addressed its first priority, the budgets. The General Fund Budget was assigned to the Senate and was passed out of committee. Subsequently, the Education Trust Fund was assigned to the House of Representatives and also passed out of committee.

Thursday was the 12th Legislative Day of the 2011 Regular Session. This was the day that the Senate officially passed the General Fund Budget. This task required the majority of the day and when it was complete the Senate adjourned until next Tuesday. The budget will now go to the House for final passage.

The House spent the majority of its day on HB 18. The bill was debated when it was moved to the front of the calendar and then again when it came up for a vote. Eventually the bill overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives. HB 18 is a ban on later term abortions, changing the legal age from 26 weeks down to 20 weeks. The bill will now move to the Senate.

Before I go, I would like to welcome the newest member to our extended family. Joel Hunter was born on Thursday and is a big, healthy little boy. I hope that all the work we do in and around the Alabama State House will create a better Alabama and a better United States for children like little Joel to grow up in.