Take it away and beat me with
it.
And
I
looked
up
when
I,
that's why
I
sent
him
over
with
one on the.
He did go
here by
his arm.
He's your,
he's yours.
My paddle was actually made by one of my students. She carved it out of solid oak.
No.
Hey madam chairman.
How are
you?
So
I
have
trouble like,
ok,
that
I say,
yes,
I
mind.
Um,
the
best.
Do you
like
anything else?
I
know
that.
Right. I think.
Yeah,
time
is
pretty
thin also
because
uh
I,
yes,
how
are
you?
No lady man I
dealt.
Yeah.
Well, just explain that as you start. We don't have to adopt,
we can explain it then.
It's just what we do with the bill.
Go
a
different
place.
Oh,
yeah.
Make
sure
that
I
here,
here is your, that is r
right?
Ok.
So
much
A&E
for
love.
Oh,
yes.
Yeah,
I,
yeah,
I
believe
so.
Good
going.
I'm
curious,
the weight of that big old
is
strap
down
because
I
was
still
you.
Yeah,
I
know
that.
I don't know. I
know,
but
I will,
I'll be more
this.
Yeah.
Fine.
OK.
Thank you for all being at education policy today.
Before we get started, gonna ask Representative Dubose to open us and prayer.
Uh Please blow your heads.
Thank you Lord Jesus for giving us the opportunity to
come here together today to serve the people of Alabama.
Please guide us in our decisions that we make, that your will be done.
Keep us safe as we travel home tonight to visit our families,
keep us safe as we continue to make decisions.
And may we follow you and all that we do in Jesus name? We pray I'm in.
Thank you very
much. I ask you to silence your cell phones.
I appreciate you all being here and I'll ask our
clerk,
Representative Collins,
Representative Baker,
Representative Drummond,
Representative Daniels, Representative Dubose, Representative Estes,
Representative Fincher, Representative Gidley, representative Gray,
Representative
H Jones, Representative Morris, Representative Paramore,
Representative Pascal
Representative Smith,
Representative Woods
A
is present.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
We're gonna, we have a busy schedule today, but I think we can do it.
I have confidence in all of you.
Um So we're gonna call up our first Bill. House Bill 251. Representative Robertson.
You have the floor.
Thank you, chairwoman. Thank you committee
um, House Bill 251.
This bill would prohibit public,
um K through 12 schools from taking certain actions in
regard to a dependent child of an active duty military
parents
with an active duty, military parent
this bill would also prohibit, um,
public K through 12 schools from membership in an athletic association.
That takes the same actions.
Basically, if a kid is moving in
and his parent has, has orders to a certain area,
they're not
under the, the, like they can play sports immediately
basically is what this
and that's not happening. Now, we're not,
um,
um, apparently it's, it's not in some areas
and, and I think the bigger areas hunt
and I think it's a,
the, the radius of the school system
that they could when they get orders to a place. I think that kind of comes into play
because there's two or three schools they could
pick from.
Ok. Those were some of my questions I did see it was for full time military only.
Ok. And um, is this is just about, this is not about private schools at all
and the athletic association.
So that would include both the independent and the um,
Alabama High School Athletic Association. Yes,
ma'am.
And I believe they've worked out an amendment.
That might be what I see in my packet. Ok.
Um First of all, um, anything else? And I apologize if I interrupted.
Ok. Representative Baker,
thank you madam chair. I, I was just a little curious in, in regards to that.
So the athletic association, I mean, what, what uh has been your
collaboration with them on this?
Well,
and I
think um
Mr Pascal has an amendment to it, it, it's gonna
keep it,
it takes out the prohibition of the
membership from the schools with those associations.
So,
ok.
So, uh, currently, as I understand, I mean,
normally under the Alabama High School Athletic Association, I,
I'm not familiar with the A Isa Alabama Independent School
Association in regards to what their eligibility requirements are.
But,
uh,
the Alabama High School Athletic Association requirements typically are
once there's a bona fide move then by,
in which in this case, military move, that's a bona fide move,
then they would be a middle
eligible.
So that's why I was a little perplexed as to why I mean, this might would be needed this
and I think this cogn
everything.
Um we're trying to make Alabama, this is part of a package of plans,
uh a more military friendly state.
And um when you're looking at that and you have kids, you're moving towards Alabama.
So what's so it's sort of reasserting what's already in place?
Ok. Thank you.
Thank you, Representative Pascoe.
Maybe since we're talking about this, this would be a good time.
Uh Yes, thank you, madam President.
Um As I mentioned, I do have a friendly, well, hopefully it's a friendly amendment
um
online.
Uh This amendment will replace lines 29
through 30 on page two,
starting with paragraph B one,
no public K 12 school may deny a dependent child of a
and then on, on the same page two, replace lines 37 and 38
with the following school within the school attendance zone
of the bona fide move.
And as discussed previously, this, um we had a discussion with the
Ath Athletic Association
and then this is just to uh
make sure we are uniformity throughout the entire state. Um This is already,
uh you can already
implement, this is actually is required by federal law,
but this just to clarify that and make sure we are
uh making sure we take care of our men and women,
their families and make sure Alabama is not just number one in football also,
but number one when it comes to our men and women.
So, uh uh
madam chair, I will actually um offer this amendment.
We have a motion for the amendment. Do I hear 2nd
2nd by Representative Fincher.
Is there any other questions or discussion on the amendment?
Seeing that we have a motion in a second all in favor, say I
any opposed
and the bill is amended?
Thank you.
Are there any other questions?
Do I hear a motion
motion by Representative Woods
second by Representative Dubose.
All in favor. Say
I any opposed
House Bill 251 is given a favor report. Thank you. Thank
you members.
Next, we're gonna call up with our military packet. Um Rep House Bill 292.
Um Are you doing that one for us? Representative Pascal,
uh
madam chairman, committee members.
Um as I mentioned, this is a our continuation
that make Alabama one of the,
well, the more military friendly, veteran, veteran friendly state in the nation.
We're currently ranked number two, but the goal is uh to be number one.
And so with that, um
our Military Stability Commission,
they outlined 13 bills with the goal of getting
the entire 13 bills through our legislative session.
And so, um
the bill you have before you is just to
um clarify some language, making sure that
um
well, this will be we provide for the remote enrollment of special needs, kids
of active duty, military personnel
and make sure that
it will provide for the transfer of their certain records
and would uh provide for comparable services.
But so basically, if you have a military family
moving from Oklahoma to get orders here for the State of Alabama, well,
last year we pass, we passed legislation to
where they can enroll online
and then once they come get on site,
they can show proof of residence. And this is just saying you have special needs
uh child that
uh they will transfer
and we just wanna make sure that um
any uh re evaluation of their,
of special needs that you get the parents, the parents consent, you know,
just trying to make the transition
easy as possible.
And uh this bill passed the Senate uh yesterday uh on the floor,
but the goal is to get our house bill passed
and uh so they can pass it and uh we can just continue
to make Alabama number one when it comes to our men and women
and there are families when uh
that serve as a great nation.
Thank you for caring Representative mccamley
Spell. I appreciate that. Is this been a problem around here now? Is that why
are we just, is it policy that the other state has?
Well, no uh no problem.
But once again, it just, we're looking at how can we once again in Alabama?
Uh We have, uh as I mentioned yesterday, Military
Appreciation Day,
uh particularly in Montgomery. Uh We,
we have something that many states do have. Uh 70 70% of our officers in the Air Force.
They come here to be trained in Montgomery
and we have made a major change over the last five or six years.
But before then, we had senior officers in our armed forces that would decline.
Uh but they would be very hesitant about coming to Alabama because
it places so much pressure on their families
and
particularly with education.
Um
We might, some people may have questions about our education system.
We don't make sure it's clear our military families,
we have a special needs, child or not.
You know, we wanna make sure we put it in writing that.
You are welcome here in Alabama.
Ok. Thank you, Representative Smith
Four.
We have a motion for a favorable report second by Representative Morris.
Any discussion
just just one question, Representative Drummond, thank you madam chair.
Just want wanting to know I'm not against the bill but wanting to know
if there is a child that is special needs and the system needs to
evaluate whatever physical
so that they can be prepared to educate them when they came.
Do they have to do? I
wanna know what the process would be?
Ok.
Well,
see we, we welcome that child. But
uh ii I understand that. But I, if, if,
if, if they, if the,
if and if our school system needs some sort of evaluation of the needs of that child,
what is the process in place that they will
get whatever that is so that they'll be prepared
for the child when they reach the shores of Alabama. We certainly welcome that.
Well, I would think we have some uh experts in, in the audience, but
part of that is the families, they would submit uh
the
trunk,
they would submit everything online.
So they have, they would have exactly know exactly what
the child's needs are.
And then if there need to be a uh any additional information,
um
they can still do evaluation. You're
saying you have to make sure the bill says, you know,
uh the re evaluation would be done 30 days after they get here.
But I was talking about getting prepared for them to come.
So that,
that you'll know that is the system that child
would best serve the special needs of that child.
Ok. Well, part of doing it online,
that's the communicate you, you're initiating your communication
from just say the family that's in Oklahoma.
Uh Once you initiate that request, that enrollment online,
you initiated that communication there. So I would think if
the school saw that they maybe didn't have the means
it would, you could have that, that would cause initiate that conversation to meet,
make sure you are prepared and if you're not prepared,
I would think that you would have that conversation where, well,
we're not ready here in Montgomery in this school.
But however, here is our neighborhood school. But
um
but to elaborate a little bit more,
I can get more detailed information with the experts
here before we put the bill on the floor.
Yes,
any other discussion or questions?
We have a motion and a second.
Um we have um
the superintendent of education here.
And so now that he's hearing about these things, if we've got questions,
I'm sure we can follow him up before we pass this bill.
But all in favor of passing this, giving this bill a favorable report, please say I
and he opposed
the bill is given a favorable report.
Thank you, madam.
I see our rules chairman here and while we welcome him to education policy,
I, I believe he is here for Senate Bill 59.
And so we are gonna go out of order with everyone's permission.
Um
Not Senator or but rep
Chairman Lane.
Well, thank you madam chair. I appreciate the courtesy and
honored to be with you here in Ed Policy today.
Uh SP 59 would take our current existing health
classes and add a requirement in those classes to
include some level of CPR
and um
automatic defibrillator training.
Uh as a person personally who trained people on these skills for years.
When you train someone that
can have a life saving skill, it changes their perspective.
And uh and there's health classes that are existing,
they're learning about how to take care of themselves and to add
a skill where they could take that and start helping others.
Uh I know just walking through buildings like this because I'm trained.
I I automatically see where the A E Ds are in the building.
I see things that uh gives a little bit of different perspective.
So I think this bill is a great opportunity to encourage
the a life skill that could really help our students and
without entertaining questions.
Thank you. I had a couple. Is this just for students that take health?
It's my understanding. There's in that existing health class.
Is it required for teachers?
I don't think so. Some of that may could answer that.
Is it required,
the health class is required
is required of the students, but I'm not sure that teachers are required to take it.
Ok.
So it's it it would be by certified instruction.
And that would come in or they could have people that they get certified to training
and all students would have the hands
on.
Yes, it would be, it would be the hands on training
and the people that come in can bring the
demonstrators that would help with that
uh hands on skills similar that we did to the class. Um here in Statehouse recently
questions
Representative Drummond
to give
a
report at the.
Ok.
We have a motion to give the bill or favor
favorable report by Representative Drummond second
by Representative PMO Representative Fincher.
I had one
question
at
what grade levels is the health class taught?
What,
what
age groups would be taking
the
class?
I know it says on here the 612, but I'm not sure exactly which
grade it's in.
I believe we have someone here that knows that answer.
Ok.
Thank you
all in favor. Say I
any opposed
Senate Bill 59 is given a favor report. Thank you very much.
Thank you madam, chair members of the committee.
Ok.
Um We are um a little bit out of order because I would like to do my bill last for um,
vice chair Baker
to handle the gavel. So I'm gonna call up next House Bill 330 Representative Woods.
The
problem.
Thank you madam, chair members of the committee. Uh HP 330.
This bill would require public institutions of higher education
in
this state that are required by federal law
to annually report funding received from certain foreign sources
to the National Science Foundation or the United States Department of Education
to report those same reports and information to the Governor
and the chairs of the Education Policy Committee in the House and Senate.
Regarding funding received from foreign countries of concern
and certain entities and individuals associated with those countries.
This bill provides additional transparency regarding funds
that make their way from countries of concern
to our public institutions of higher education,
whether that be directly from the country itself,
an entity with ties to that government
or an official or individual who resides in a foreign country of concern.
This has been a federal requirement under title 117 of
the Higher Education Act that went into effect in 1998
and more recently in 2022 the Chips and Science Act
which requires reporting of contributions over
$50,000 from a foreign country of concern
to the National Science Foundation.
I've worked with several of our colleges in drafting this bill uh to
make sure that we are not creating a burden in reporting this information.
Uh I've had contact with Higher ed and I appreciate their input uh this
past week to uh to tighten the bill up and we will have a,
a sub to present in just a few minutes uh at the appropriate time.
Uh We want to make sure that we are aligning the
reporting dates with what's currently being required on a federal level.
And of course, I'll be asking that we adopt that, uh, when appropriate,
this bill is not punitive in nature.
Uh, the foreign uh funding of universities in Alabama can be a very positive thing.
But if a country of concern is identified by the US,
state Department is willing to make significant investments
in our public colleges, we need to know why
and for what purpose.
Uh This bill does not restrict the college from receiving uh
and accepting funding or entering the contracts with these countries.
It excludes tuition and student housing and fees from being reported.
Uh In summary,
this thing new from our colleges other than
to send the same reports that they're already formulating
to the three individuals that I mentioned earlier.
And with that madam chair, I'd be glad to try to answer questions.
Are there any questions
Representative Daniels
Science Foundation at the Federal level already?
This is, this is already happening at the federal level
now, with this, uh and I maybe I didn't hear you uh clearly
uh would this be applicable to only the public universities?
Yes or would it be all universities, just the public universities or I,
I really can't answer the requirement on a private university.
The bill is written for public.
Um However, the federal requirements,
um I think that it would apply to our public universities would trigger the
requirement to report this to the state as I've just
mentioned to you if they don't receive the funding,
they wouldn't have to file a report with us.
So I think that for me, the, the only con the concern that I have is that
uh here again, we're focusing on one on just public institutions in general.
And if this is something uh as it relates to whether its safety
or some other concern that we have, or some may say indoctrination or what have you,
that
uh I think that uh
we have to get to the point to where
uh if we wanna solve, want to solve a truly solve a problem
that it has to be much broader than picking on,
you know, public institutions
there. Des I,
I appreciate your comment and I, I agree with you. I do not want to pick on anybody.
This is certainly not to cast stones at any
of our institutions.
And I would welcome an amendment perhaps on the floor even to include everybody.
I don't think anybody should have to hide from this if they're required federally,
that's what triggers this requirement.
And it may be that that's the case now for some of our public
because um every time that there's something
that's targeting one institution and we,
at the end of the day, the outcome is us for us to,
to try to have a legitimate understanding
of a legitimate concern that may be
uh as a matter of national security,
then we should not limit who because then if
they don't do it through the public institution,
then they'll do it through the private institutions
and then we've prohibited on one arm and then we are
allowing them to use the other one to do it to,
to beat us.
And so I just wanna make certain that we are very clear on where we're trying to go.
If it's safety, let's do if there are no un
uh there's no hidden motive by whoever is pushing this.
I just wanna make certain that we're fair to everyone.
I have no problem with that.
Representative Baker.
Thank you madam chair.
Um I was, you mentioned about the sub and you may have mentioned just reporting date.
What, what's uh it may be very minor.
What, what's the diff or what are the changes from the original bill to the sub?
And it may just be reporting dates?
I I didn't, it does a couple of things, the substitute. Um
uh the original intent of the bill remains the same. The mechanics are the same.
We remove language that referenced the governing body or the
board of trustees as being required to produce this report.
So we took that out entirely, just leave it up to the institution.
Um
The sub also makes it more clear that if a school is subject to reporting
uh foreign funding under title 117
or the Chips Act,
those reports would also be sent to the governor and the policy chairs.
Um We also include a language that would exclude
uh student housing and meals and fees from
being calculated in the report because a lot
of foreign countries do send students here and
pay for their tuition fees and housing.
Um Beyond that, that's pretty much it, it was technical in nature of the rest of it at
the appropriate time.
I know there may be other comments but I moved to adopt these sub. I
mean,
do I have second to adopt the sum second by Representative Smith.
Any other questions about the sub?
All in favor of adopting the sub? Say I
any opposed
the sub is adopted. Are there any other questions about the
House? Substitute for House Bill 330.
Do you hear a motion
madam chair? I do, I want to add an amendment here in the committee I
passed on to
where
it
actually
goes
into
the.
Ok.
So that way when LS a process of it, we can actually get it in the system.
All right. Well, we'll take the time to look at it.
So the the purpose of this amendment uh madam chair is to bring
when we look at public institutions where say on
line 24 on page one
uh body of each public institution of Higher Education
Representative Daniels.
I'm seeing that language throughout the bill.
Would you be comfortable if we move the bill forward?
And we got the amendment ready for the house floor.
Well, as long as this committee is going to be in agreement with that imm chair,
I, I see lots of heads shaking
madam chair and,
and the sponsor of the bill said he would accept that as a friendly amendment.
I will not fight that.
You will accept it as a friendly amendment.
Yeah, we want to be clear.
We may have to put the brakes on your friend. I really do.
Your car says, and I'm gonna put some brakes on this car.
We're always gonna be friends. Um
Well,
actually I'm looking through the sub here because the lines
are a little bit different where you were starting at.
And so, um,
if you would, uh if you not can get together and work on this prior to, to the floor,
we'll, we'll get, and we hear an agreement,
we will have an agreement once we hash it out prior to the floor.
Ok? Or we'll be hashing out a long time on the house floor.
And I wanna say thank you for,
I'd rather us get it right than try to guess at it right now.
So, thank you. Ok, I appreciate it. Representative Smith.
Just a question. Uh If we do that wording
with non public institutions,
what authority do we have to require them to provide this information?
That's a question I would ask for the personnel from
the amendment because I'm not sure the answer to that.
Well, if it's, if, is the intent is dealing with national security then, which,
why couldn't we, I mean, it's, I'm all for it.
I just,
I don't know what authority we would have. We're lawmakers.
So, whatever we make is it has to be followed by
the citizens that are private school or public school
or public or private, it doesn't matter.
Laws are laws.
I don't think they
just,
yeah, maybe, uh, Representative Daniels. I'm with you on that.
If you could have done the amendment here, I'd have been happy to second it.
But, uh, I,
I think maybe we do the wording with Ake Alabama
Commission on higher Education that oversees all of them,
that they would have to get these reports from the private institutions
and then they could forward them to the governor and the,
and the budget chairs.
So I think that could be the teeth behind. I
wanna make sure that it does get to the chairs of the,
of the education policy committees and the governor's office as well.
If we can work all that out. I'm good.
I told you I'll support your bill but I just wanna make sure.
Ok,
I think we've got a plan. Any other discussion?
We have a motion in a second to give the,
oh,
we don't. Do I hear a, we started talking about the amendment. That's correct.
I forgot. Um, do I hear a motion to give the bill the substitute a favorable report.
Move by Representative Baker second by Representative Daniels. All in favor. Say I
any opposed
House House Bill subbed 330 is given a favorable report
to continue working on it,
which I love continued working on bills.
I'm next,
you got that right.
Um Next, we're gonna call up House Bill 351. Uh Representative Rey
chair committee. Thank you. Uh What this bill does is allow
for the University of Alabama Systems Higher Ed to
uh enter in agreements with local law enforcement
uh memorandum of understanding uh
so that they can use uh campus police officers off the campus.
And an example would be in Birmingham at the stadium where U A BS
would, would have UAB police officers there.
So there seems to have been an issue in the past with the board there.
This clears it up allows them to enter in it. It is permissive
and that's basically what the bill does.
So the key is not only owned or leased but licensed,
is that the deal you have when you're working with the?
Ok.
Ok. Do I hear any questions?
We have a motion by Representative Paramore to give the bill a favorable report.
A second by Representative Woods. Are there any questions
Representative Smith,
which entity would uh
would accept a liability for these officers?
You know, that's a question
for port Banister if the chair wouldn't be so willing to allow him to answer it.
I believe they're covered with the,
the,
ok,
the hours by,
I know in some of our public schools
we've had a little,
I guess, a little bit of a rub
when you would have
a deputy in a school who's, who's liable for that deputy's actions.
Is it the school board or is it the, is it the sheriff's department? And,
you know, I, I think this is a great thing.
We need to use those people that are equipped, trained and,
and properly understand the law.
You know, the answer your question on these mutual agreements.
It's always the employee, the department that's employing the officer,
it's in the mutual agreement.
It's his actions
all under his employer. Great. Thank you.
And I would think some of that is actually
gonna be spelled out in that lease agreement.
But
if you'll verify that and let us know that would be great. Thank you.
Any other questions
all in favor of giving House Bill 351 a favor report. Say I
any opposed
the House Bill 351 is given a favorable report
next. Um, we will call up House Bill 373.
Let's
go
in here.
Oh, I didn't see you behind there.
Thank you, Representative Lawrence.
Thank you madam chair for the recognition.
Um
HP 373 was a bill that was derived from
a report that was giving, um,
from the Lieutenant Governor's workforce um
commission on 21st century workforce.
Um,
and this bill establishes the Alabama Workforce Pathways Act
and this Pathways Act.
What this legislation would do. It will require the State Board of Education
based on approved through the um
the school board to establish new pathways for
um
new pathway diploma for um students who choose not to attend
any post-secondary or four year college.
This bill also
um will require
the State Department of Education to develop curriculum for this
program within 120 days of approval by the school board,
state school board.
Um
Some of the other provisions in this bill,
um
it would allow
in lieu of
having four math critics and four science credits. It would allow
those students that are on this career path to only have two
math credits and two science credits and those other credits will be
um
in career technical education in their course of of study. Um
And I think this, this bill is, is, is a bill that
I think will help it.
It would help a lot of students in terms of
everybody don't have the desire to go to uh post-secondary or four year colleges.
And I think this would
uh create a pathway for those students to enter
into the workforce um immediately after after high school.
And so right now in this market that we in, we have a lot of jobs that, you know,
you can with the right training within a year or two,
you can go right into the workforce making, you know,
wages.
Probably some of these kids, parents hadn't made all their life and that,
so I think that this is a,
it's a great opportunity to not only
uh give students, uh um
another avenue,
but it also
will help with, um,
trying to lower our labor participation rate here in the state of Alabama.
So with that, um madam chair, I would answer any questions.
I know there are some and I know there are,
I have questions as well.
I actually, we have a couple of people here that wanted to maybe speak to the bill.
It was moved so quickly.
There was not a chance for a public hearing and I've said that they could,
if y'all will let a couple of people speak and then we'll do some questions.
Is that right?
Um
Gordon, would you like to go first?
Please tell who you were with? And um just briefly share
-- your concerns. -- Thank you, Chair, Lady Collins.
Uh I am uh Gordon Stone with the higher Education partnership.
We represent all 14 public universities and we're excited about
the opportunity to host y'all at a reception tonight.
So I hope you'll come.
But we are um I'm here today really just uh to bring attention to something we're,
we're not against
the efforts of the lieutenant governor.
A matter of fact, we applaud the efforts that they're involved in
to help us all with creating opportunities moving forward.
But one of the things we are concerned about
is with this particular narrative that students who get
involved in this pathway early in their pursuit through
high school may at some point change their mind.
And if they change their mind, have they gone so far that they can't
qualify for the credits necessary
to be eligible for entry into our four year institutions.
So we uh I mentioned this briefly to the sponsor and,
and I've also mentioned it to the sponsor in the Senate.
Um, and everybody's been agreeable to sit down and, and at least look at this,
we've got uh our different institutions looking into it also.
So, uh without going into great detail, that is our concern.
We, we want to try to make sure that if you get a diploma,
that diploma gives you the opportunities to make choices later,
not that not limiting.
And that's what
-- it's, it's uh simple for what we're concerned -- about.
And I appreciate that. Um
I know that the sponsor worked with the Superintendent of Education and
I asked Doctor Mackay to be with us as well today.
So we may have some questions in just a minute. Thank you for sure.
Thank
you, Doctor Mackay. Would you mind sharing some of your thought process on this?
Like to
uh thank you uh
madam chair and thank you, Representative Lawrence for ringing the bill.
So we did work with the sponsors on the bill in its initial um
development I'd like to say now, you know, it moved pretty fast.
So I didn't see the final version
until it was filed and there are a couple of things in it that,
that I think are, are not completely clear.
They're certainly not Representative Lawrence's fault or, or, um,
Senator Justine, everything was just moving so fast.
So, one of the things is we want to make very clear what, um,
my good colleague and friend and neighbor Gordon Stone just said,
uh one of the things that's very important to us, if you read it, it says that
there'd be two pathways to one diploma. So there would still be one
Alabama high school diploma.
And by law,
public colleges and universities in Alabama
must accept an Alabama high school diploma
for admission.
That doesn't mean everybody that gets a diploma gets admitted
because they also have to look at ac T score.
Some of our institutions have
additional criteria. So they, they want you,
they look at your high school transcript.
So you may have a high school diploma.
But they also say, well, you,
your transcript has to show this to get in our institute,
especially our two flagship institutions.
So that's the job of a high school counselor
to make sure that students are choosing properly for
the both the school they want to go to
and what major they might wanna be in.
Um
Le let me clarify too. A little bit of where I think some of this came from,
in speaking again with the Lieutenant governor as he was moving us
through and hearing from business and industry when the commission was meeting.
And that is one of the problems that we have with students who are trying to
go to career tech centers,
um especially our centers that are off site off campus.
So many of, you know, in your county, you have one career tech center.
Students have to take a bus to
and taking that school bus to and from the center often cost them one period a day.
When,
when Alabama in the mid nineties adopted the
what we call the four by four curriculum.
We did something that's pretty unique.
In fact, I don't know another state that does it,
we require
four credits in math, science, social studies and English,
but we also require require that they must take a credit each year.
So if I want to get ahead as we allow Children to do, we,
we allow students as early as seventh grade to start earning high school credits.
Um But if I'm saying in eighth grade and take
algebra one and so I get my algebra credit,
then you would think.
Well, I complete my four math courses by my junior year.
So I don't have to have a math my senior year.
But under Alabama law, you must have a math, you must be enrolled in a math every year
with the only state as far as I know, I can't find another state that does that.
And so what has happened is
it's made it very difficult for our students
to take all the courses we require
and have that travel time.
And, and some of you say, you start doing your math and you say, well,
I can make that work out,
but here's the next end and be involved in things like sports and band.
So if they want to take an athletic pe or
they take a band course or something like that,
that they're interested in
and then they have their travel hour,
which again can take one period a day and
then they're trying to get all their courses in,
it's very difficult to do.
And so I think what the commission is after is we
wanna make sure that all students have lots of choices.
I mean, that's obvious this legislature is about choice.
How, how do we create more choices and more pathways for students?
And this is a way to create more choices within a traditional public school. Um
One of the things I would, I would remind you though and,
and I actually talked to the chair lady right before this is a,
a line that I would like deleted
because it says that it's
for students who don't intend to attend post-secondary.
And, and I would say that's not, they may not intend to,
but going back again to what uh Mr stone just said,
we don't want it to limit them from
post-secondary because post-secondary remember
also includes technical college,
uh two year colleges and four year colleges. So
we want a student to be able,
they may say, hey, I want to be a welder and I don't want to go to college
and I just want to be a welder. But again, if they're 17 and they say, you know what
I think I wanna be, I wanna welder for a while,
but I want a chance to move into supervision
and, and my teacher says that what I need to do is go to college.
We don't want that person. Then at 17 to find out they can't go to college.
So we wanna make sure
that, uh, the credits are right, they can go to college.
That's why it has to be one diploma, not two diplomas. There are some states
you may have noticed in the news lately.
Uh, Indiana, I think, I think has six diplomas, six different diplomas
and they are now trying to get to one diploma.
Um, earlier in my career, Alabama had three diplomas. One of those three diplomas.
You could not get into a college,
you could not get into a junior college if you earned that diploma.
And, and we don't want to go back to that.
We want to make sure that people earn an Alabama high school diploma.
It's a valuable diploma
that means you're ready to go wherever you want to go after school.
But we also have to fix this issue that we have students,
we're pushing into higher maths and sciences
that
they don't need those higher maths and sciences.
They don't need four years of science.
Um There, there, there are very few states that require
16
core credits like we do.
Um but the ones that do, most of them require 14 or 13.
Um but the ones that do require 16 don't require
one every year like we do.
So it's kind of, and some of those things, let me tell you too.
And I know I'm probably going too long.
Some of those are in law legislative, some of those are in state board policy.
So there's lots that would have to be worked out and if I could,
uh I wind down with this,
so you notice that there are two steps after the legislature passes what you pass.
So one, the state board
would have to adopt rules on what the new pathway looked like
and then with 100 and 20 days after that. So that process,
I can tell you will take a half a year
because of the way the state rule making process works.
And then after that, within 100 and 20 days have it laid out for the district.
So we're not talking about an immediate change.
But
um, we, but in those rules, like we would not ever say, well,
you can just go take four career tech courses.
And one of them is in ag science and,
you know, one's in fishing and one's in this and one is in that not,
it's not fishing technically, you know,
but we do have a course on uh fish raising fish,
aqua
culture, aqua,
my,
my apologies, my folks back, they're listening to me, they're like fishing.
We don't give credit for fishing.
Um
but we, you can't, they have to be in a sequence.
Now, we require students who are going to get a completer status.
They have to take an introductory course and at least two mid-level courses.
Um and preferably what we call a Capstone course, which could be
um an internship, an apprenticeship. You know, I was in uh f fa in high school.
That's your state project
that you have to do a lot of record keeping for.
You have to earn a certain amount of money and show that you, you,
you earned a profit or if you didn't earn a profit, why you didn't earn a profit.
So it's more than just taking four courses,
but that would be a part of our rulemaking process that would go after that.
So I hope we didn't go over too much time,
but I'm glad to answer any questions too and we
may still have some because several people had some before.
Thank you so much for sharing.
He and I spoke about some of this last year I spoke with the sponsor earlier today too,
that we do have some questions
and I want us to have those questions because I think that's how we improve the bill.
So I think we all understand the, the momentum and the the
the need for doing something.
I really hoped what we did last year with our passing the career and college
credential requirement
within
after this year, two years, that was gonna be good.
But I think that we can work through this if we keep working together.
So thank you all for both speaking. Uh Representative Daniels,
thank you madam chair. Um
Sorry,
caught me to
you. Uh
didn't realize it.
So, um
I, I heard my friend Gordon, uh Meer Stone and I've
also heard the, the superintendent who I have a lot of respect for both of them.
I think in life, sometimes you, an individual is gonna have to make choices
and sometimes those choices cost some more than others.
And if we're trying to chart a path for a lot of our of Alabamians
that are not necessarily meeting the academic goals to move on to higher education,
but chooses
another option, another pathway
to go to get into the workforce.
If a person gets into the workforce and whether they're going into
um
construction or,
or any other feel,
and
we know that oftentimes the four by four curriculum is not
necessarily a contributing factor to them doing those type of jobs.
And so if you're talking about two years of math,
uh it is equivalent to actually being an elementary school teacher
because the level of math that you take at a four year institution
is equi equivalent to a junior or senior level math in high school.
And so therefore when you are having to make these choices in higher education,
they send you through a track of remedial course work anyway.
And so, and when it's making a choice,
it may cost you a little bit more to go into higher education,
but you still have the option to go into higher
education and may not be in the traditional path of taking
the four years that's placed on whatever your advisor gives you.
And so I'm one that's very supportive of pathways
and creating pathways, not for just those that are going to four institutions.
And I think we should have pathways for them too.
Math like we have in our specialty school, whether it's uh
the engineering school or whether it's the math and science school,
uh whether it's the art
uh
and the new school that are coming on on the health science school,
having those options in high school is important,
but also having other options of those that may not be able to.
If they're struggling
in high school,
in middle school
on through high school,
they're looking for a way to make a decent living
and what this legislation that I see does for those young people
is giving them a shot at life and being able to provide for
their families early on because they're not going to a four year institution.
And when they're likely making money,
they may not make,
they will make that choice probably 10 to 20 years
from the day that they started on that job.
Because when they see that money coming, they're gonna choose a different option.
I'm a big proponent of higher education,
but I do not think that we should be u we have to modernize our thought process
as legislators and as lawmakers,
our job is to create opportunities for every Alabamian
and create a path for them.
And I see this legislation as an opportunity to, to address some of our prison issues
because we know that
the, the curriculum and, and, and, and the grades and test scores
are dictated, we're dictating how
large or how many prisons we build in the future.
But there's only one option,
there's no workforce development option in our schools right now.
So why would we be opposed to a bill
that provides opportunities for those individuals that
may not go to four year institution?
If they choose to do it, then they can take the remedial courses to get in.
And so it's not, it's, I don't see how we can oppose something
that is so sincere and, and, and creating an opportunity for those that are without
and so shame on us for opposing something like this.
And so I support this legislation and support the effort.
It may need a new, uh a little work,
but I support this 100% because it's creating an option for other families.
And that's what we've been doing as a legislature creating options.
Thank you.
Thank you, Representative Daniels.
I don't believe anybody is deciding not to support the bill. I think we have
questions
about that
application of it because I think there are some pieces in here that are
just need a little work and Representative Lawrence was willing to work with us. So
I don't think I've ever had any bills that we've not had to work on.
So I appreciate that willingness to work.
Uh, Representative Smith, did I see your hand?
Representative Morris, did I see your hand
the sponsor? But
is it ok if I
ask,
you can
ask?
Yes,
Doctor
Mackey.
Yes.
Yes,
ma'am.
I may defer to the sponsor. But uh, yes, ma'am. Ok. So, um
I heard you were talking about the um requirements and
taking away the two maths and the two sciences may not let them get into
um college, right? And Representative Daniels really touched on remedial
um courses with, with that portion. But what are the requirements
to get into college
to post secondary? Yes, ma'am. Good question.
So they, they change um So some of our institutions in the state
have a minimum ac T score, some of them do not,
some of them do not even require the AC t anymore.
That's not just Alabama. That's, that's across the country.
Um But most of them do require an AC T score.
Some of our institutions and II,
I fear we've got a lot of higher ed folks here in the room they might, could say.
But I think, I
think that like Auburn requires three maths
because they take people remember, not just from Alabama but from other places.
So you had to have a high school diploma.
But I think they specifically say you have to come into
the university with three math credits if I understand it correctly
and some of the others may have something like that. So you, so in that, in that case,
we would definitely have to work with higher ed because they might say, yeah,
you've got your Alabama high school diploma check that we count that
you've got your required, whatever your required ac T score is.
But you're gonna have to, you're also gonna have to have a third credit.
Now, students need to know that obviously by their senior year
because we deal with the same problem going into out of state colleges.
Some colleges require
you to have a world language
to get into the college
and not all of our students graduate with
world language because we don't require it.
So if they want to apply for one of those institutions,
then they've got enough that's where they
have to work with their school counselor and
make sure they're following the right pathway for the school they want to apply to.
So that, that's what I was trying to get you to right there.
They have to
start setting a course of where they want,
they start setting that path and they let them know
that if you
change your mind a little later
and you decide that you want to go to post secondary,
that you might have to take some remedial classes.
That's the only thing I was just trying to get you to.
It could be and they wouldn't necessarily be
remedial because remedial classes are non credit.
So they may just put them in a,
uh may require them to take a different level or to
go to one of our community colleges to take a credit.
But the community colleges do not have those minimum requirements of how
many math or science or social studies you have to have.
Ok. But there's still a way for them to
get to post secondary even take away
the, the math and the sciences.
Yes, ma'am. Uh my, my friends in higher ed are definitely looking for students.
I promise you they're trying to help them get in
and I do to, to your point,
the students can follow multiple pathways. I will give my,
my son who'd be embarrassed if he were listening, but he's not.
Um he's a student now at University of Alabama. He finished high school.
He had, he earned
five of our career CRE our career or college credentials.
So he had a qualifying AC T score.
He had an A P credit, but he was also a career tech completer.
He also scored silver on work. He used to brag about him. But
so, but I say that to say he was a career tech completer
and he also
what, you know, had a good AC T score and he wanted to go to a four year school.
Um I was a career tech completer by myself, by the way, myself,
um had four years of career tech and very proud of it.
So students can go to career tech centers and go to college.
A lot of our career tech students do go to college. I just don't want us to think that,
that,
that we're trying to create only a college and a non college pathway because that's,
that's not
not my intention.
I know for sure it's not his intention or, or the senator's intention.
Yeah, that's, that's just what I was trying to get you to start
because I went to
um career
tech school also before I went and got my bachelor's degree.
So I know that you could still
actually go with, with taking away the two math and the two sciences. Thank you
while you're still there. May I ask one more question? Also, Doctor Mackey,
um
are there in the career tech um education
curriculum.
Are there quality ones that would be potential replacements for a math or a science?
Yes, ma'am. Good question.
So there are so we already offer what we call articulated credit.
That's a great word.
You know, way educators have to create complicated words for simple things.
You have a whole different language
and, but that's where a person could take. And here's a good one. Food sciences.
We have students who take culinary,
they can get a, a um chemistry credit
because they study science, chemistry of food processes
um in culinary arts. And so they can actually get a chemistry credit.
It's obviously not traditional lab chemistry,
but it counts as a science credit for them.
So we do have a number of courses that can count as math courses or science courses.
And as you know,
um this committee dealt with this several years ago,
computer science can count for either as either a
math or science course and you can count that.
And we're also trying to greatly expand computer science.
So there are some of those um in talking with doctor
Hall who's our assistant state superintendent for career tech and workforce.
Um, he and I realized that if this bill moves through,
we're gonna have to probably create more of those courses or take some of our
current courses and um revise them to make
sure that students doing those courses would get
that. They're gonna get a good science and math basis in other fields. Another one
that just popped up to me a couple of years ago,
I was up in Representative Gibney's area
and it's, um,
uh,
car repair, engine repair.
And any of you who've had a car worked on race recently,
know that they have computers in them and you have to know a lot of computer science
to, to work on a car now.
And so that was actually one of the things the instructor said is these
students have got to have more computer background to work on cars now.
So,
so those are courses we want to remind people those are their practical,
applied sciences and maths, but they do count.
That sounds good. Thank you for that. And
representative,
er,
yes,
sir.
I had
a couple of
questions.
This, how does this affect the English literature and the social sciences?
Uh What are the requirements there? And I guess they stay as they are.
Yeah. Yes, sir.
The way the bills written, um,
social studies and English would stay the way they are.
So it's actually a legislative act, not a state board rule.
I'm not saying the state board doesn't support it because it's, it's,
it's in the code,
but there's actually legislation that requires that Alabama
students take four years of social sciences,
um,
which is not again, most states are at three,
but we also do something else that y'all may know.
But the general public a lot of folks don't know unless they have kids in school.
We require two years of us history.
Again, I don't know another state that requires two years of us history.
We did not do that when I was in high school, but because we have,
we require two years of United States history.
And as you know, all our seniors had to take uh uh economics and US government,
which I would, I would be,
I,
I'd be really scared if we took away that
one course in economics in the US government.
So we, we still would require four years of, or four credits in social studies
and four credits in um
English language, arts.
And my other question, I guess is
in the discussion we've had
uh would consumer site uh Consumer Math be looked on as
in a college as having the same uh quality of mathematics,
say as geometry or algebra two
uh or, or at, at some point, if we decide to go this route,
they're gonna be courses offered.
Are they gonna be looked on as an equivalent course? Uh having the same content?
Yes, sir. That, that's a good question. It's hard for me to answer. Exactly.
So we do offer for a um a,
a practical uh math.
We don't call it consumer math anymore, but it's,
it's very similar to the old consumer math course.
That's a practical everyday math.
You need to get through life course you can get a math
credit for that and we do have students that do that,
but a lot of our colleges do not count that because again,
when you look at the college check sheet,
they may say you have to have
generally,
they require algebra geometry and a higher math,
which could be algebra two trigonometry,
calculus or something like that or precalculus.
Yes, sir.
Are there any other questions?
I still have several more and I spoke with the sponsor this morning.
I'm not trying to slow the bill.
I'm just simply wanting to get it right before we move it out of committee,
which is one of the things that we are asked to do before we do that.
And so I am gonna ask us to vote on this next week and work with this chairman
on several issues in this. And if that's good with you, Mr sponsor, I will
move this on to next week.
Um madam chair, um
I would like to move it out today, but you know, I would yield to the,
to the will of the caucus. I mean, the will of the,
I've still got about seven more things.
And so I would love an opportunity to speak
with you and to work with you and Superintendent Mackey
and Representative Daniels and whoever else would like to and then we
very willing to keep the bill moving. I understand the intent.
Representative Daniels, madam
chair.
I respect
your
opinion,
but I also
saw a piece
of legislation move here that we're willing to work
on in the house on the house floor.
And I
just
think that
the
same
opportunity
to
ensure
that all parties that are involved
are working hard to get to a resolution before we get to the house floor.
And in all fairness to him, we've done that with, uh,
other pieces of legislation that we've come before us today that I,
I had issues and questions about,
uh, that Mr Woods Carey.
And so I just think is, if we're gonna be fair,
we're going to be consistent across the board.
And if it was just one issue, I would agree with you completely, but it's not,
it's several things that I think we need to work on.
So, at this point,
I'm gonna carry it over to next week and we
will have a vote then and we'll have it ready.
It'll be first up and I'll look forward to working with you this week.
Thank you, madam chair. Thank
you. Thank you.
Um, next, I'm gonna turn the gavel over to, um, vice chair Baker
and let you call up the last bill.
Thank you, madam chair. Uh, this time we will call up HB
308.
Thank you very much.
This committee knows we've worked the last couple of years to try to, um,
work on our teacher shortage with, um,
we have teachers and emergency waivers and
substitute teachers and out of subjects,
teachers.
And um what we've tried to do is open up the alternative teacher pathway
while still making sure that we have provide quality.
And um
this bill was designed to do that.
Um We require the Cape certification but not
all of the alternative programs use that.
And so in your bill that you had in front of you, which is um
house
308,
we clarified, well, actually corrected the name of Cape,
which was incorrect on here.
And then we also um added a higher education
accredit which um Counsel for higher education accreditation,
which specializes,
well, that group actually
accredits the accreditors.
And so therefore, it's not really the right thing.
And so you're gonna see an amendment
where I'm gonna go ahead and explain the amendment.
It's um
basically using the other highly respected accrediting group,
which is the association for advancing quality education
preparedness. So they call it a
quip and then Cape is the other.
And so um we continued to try to find ways to make sure that the high quality
alternate
teacher preparation methods are acceptable.
So I'm happy to answer any questions, Mr Chair,
the sponsors explain the bill, any questions,
Dubose,
I just want to make a comment and thank you for this. We've been working on this.
It seems like for at least a
couple of years trying to um get some
options to expand our teacher opportunities in Alabama.
You all know, we have a shortage of teachers.
Uh, we're pulling teachers out to be coaches,
which is, can be a good thing, but we need more teachers to fill in those spots.
Universities are, um,
graduating fewer and fewer teachers from the four year programs.
They're down about 25% in the last five years.
And, um, I learned from Doctor Mackey, um, recently
that actually the state of Texas uses this program widely and more
than half of their teachers come from this professional certification program.
So we're missing some opportunities in Alabama
to have qualified teachers available in our school system.
And we need to get this. We need to get this moving.
We need to get some of these really good
quality vendors available in the State of Alabama.
And um
I wanna thank you for working to continue to
working on this Chairman Collins so that we can
we can get better teachers, get our kids better educated.
Thanks for your comments, Representative Fincher.
Uh My understanding of this is that uh this will expand competition
and will also expand the pool that we can select from.
And I think you're commended for working on that. Thank you,
Representative Morris.
Oh,
I see.
Thank you for
um working with this. And
uh representative Dubos brought up
a
really great point about um the teacher shortage and being able to get
more qualified teachers. And I, I just think that if we
pay them properly we'll have them. That's all.
Thank you. Any other discussion?
I believe the sponsor does have a couple of amendments.
Ok. 11 amendment. Ok.
This
amendment at this time
sponsor if you'll look at the sheet in front of you on page
uh replace line 84 on page three with not withstanding any law.
To the contrary, an alternate teacher education preparation
and then replace line 88 through 92 on page four with if approved,
approved, if the organization is certified by Council for Accreditation
of Educator prepa
preparation or the Association for advancing quality
in education preparation.
Uh The
mem
the amendment uh has been explained or offered.
Uh Is there any discussion?
Is there a motion a
motion to adopt? Second.
Uh OK.
Second Gidley. OK.
All right.
Any discussion,
all those in favor say aye
and opposed
without then the amendment has been passed
with that. Then is there any further discussion?
Is there a motion?
OK. Motion by Representative Smith second by Representative Dubose.
Any discussion,
all those in favor of giving the bill? Uh This is HB 308
as uh amended, a favorable report. Say I any opposed
for that then HB 308 as
amended has been given a favorable report
with that madam chair. I'll return the gal to you.
Thank you. I appreciate it. I do think we have some guests
here. Um
Hold on one second. Um
Leadership Ottawa County.
We wanna thank you for being with us. Um Thank you so much for being with us.
Hey, this is Christy Robinson, the chair of our chamber of Wall County.
Good to have you, Christie. Good to have you here.
Um, and at that, we are adjourned.
All right.
Ok. Let's, uh, let's come to order and get our meeting started, please.
But
yeah.
Ok. Uh, first off, I'd like to welcome New Representative Land. Thank you.
Uh, welcome,
welcome to committee, the state government committee.
Now clerk, please call the roll
representative, sales representative beds.
So
doctor Boyd, representative butler, representative Chestnut,
representative Keel representative Kirkland, representative Lands,
Representative Lawrence, Representative Paramore, representative Shaw,
representative
Stohn
representative Wood Representative Yarra.
We have a quorum. Ok. Thank you. Uh First up is HB 11 by
speaker Pro Tim Pringle,
Mr Pringle.
Mhm.
Thank you. Uh Thank you, Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen in the committee.
Welcome back to this committee. Yeah. Well, thanks.
It's been a while since I sat in that chair.
You're doing a great job.
This bill HP 11. It, it came out of
my service on contract review.
Uh
several years ago, there was a dispute over at the uh
medical licensure board
and um
there was a lawsuit and the medical licensing board just spent millions and
millions and millions of taxpayers' money to defend themselves in the suit.
And part of the outgrowth of that suit is they were using their taxpayers' money
to pay their employees to sign non disclosure agreements,
not discuss
what was going on with the medical license board.
All right,
they were using taxpayers' money to buy people silence to not discuss
the things that were going on that were very questionable at best.
And then the, the, the state bar association
ran into the same problem.
The cover got blown off the state bar breaking a bunch of
laws and doing a bunch of stuff they weren't supposed to do
and they were using taxpayers' money to force their employees to sign
non disclosure agreements and paying them off using other people's money.
All right.
That was the genesis of the bill. That's what I was going after.
So I introduced the bill and I've got two amendments today that I'm going to offer.
But apparently
unbeknownst to me,
taxpayers' money is being used all over the state
with, with agencies and commissions and universities
are paying people off to keep their mouth shut about what's going on.
So I've opened Pandora's box that I did not know existed.
So, what I'd like to ask the committee to do
is let's go ahead and adopt these two amendments.
We can carry the bill over and let's let some people look at it and see
if we can come up with a way to solve these problems. I had no clue how widespread,
uh taxpayers money was being used to cover, to cover things up. So,
with that Mr Speaker, I have, I have an amendment.
I think you have it.
And this one is
so, tell us real quick what your bill was.
The, it was designed to stop these licensure boards from using taxpayers' money
to cover up their malfeasance.
What, when they're doing things wrong? Because
it's, it's an ongoing battle we have and, and for the, the newer members,
licensers boards are created by us, we give them the power to tax,
they tax the citizens of this state and it's billions of dollars a year in taxes,
they levy on people for their professional licenses.
And I bet you every one of y'all pay the state some license fee.
They consider that their money
that they don't have to answer for it. They don't have to account for it.
They don't have to answer to anybody on how they spend that money.
And my argument is that's a tax,
is other people's money and you have a fiduciary responsibility to
be accountable for every penny of other people's money you spent.
And that's the ongoing battle.
And when I saw where they were using other people's money
to cover up their malfeasance in office, I thought we should stop it.
I did not realize how widespread it was until I dropped this bill.
So with that, I'd like to offer this first amendment
and it's replaced line 33 on page two of the following.
Um
Y'all should have this amendment. It's,
it's K three NDAAU hyphen one
Yes,
it's a two page amendment
and that was brought by
Aaliyah
Leah
has asked me to, to adopt this amendment
and is there any questions?
Uh, and like I said, I just like to adopt these amendments.
Put them on the bill, carry the bill over
and let people look at
it. You know, I mean, I like to kick a bill around for a while. Let people look at them.
Ok.
Well,
we're gonna put these amendments on and we have to look at before the next meeting.
Oh, it's all in favor of the first amendment. Say I
any opposed.
Ok.
And, and the second amendment was, you know,
replace line 18 through 19 on page one with the following
disclosing information relating to potential criminal activity committed
and replace Line 45. They're taking out the criminal activity and it's,
it was offered by
some of the institutions of higher learning.
So,
ok, we have a motion on the second amendment. We have a 2nd
2nd all in favor say,
ok, so your bills.
Yeah, just, just,
just carry it over and let them
call the chair or whatever you get ready to let me know.
Let's let it lay around for a week or two. Yes, sir. Just let me know. Thank you.
I think that's the easiest thing to do.
Ok. Next up,
Miss Pringle, where are you going?
Your time?
Well, that, that's it. You're right here. Back up again.
HB 293.
This is probably the most exciting bill that's been introduced in the legislature.
This session
is codification of everything we did last session. It,
it, this is the bill that the, the,
the pro tim carries every year to codify what we did last year.
There is an amendment to it.
Uh, and it's all the amendment is,
they found a misspelled word
in, in, in the bill. So we're, we're amending, the
amending, had to fix the misspelled word.
So we have a motion on the amendment.
I'll listen somewhere.
Ok. Uh
Wood in
Yarborough.
Oh,
say
I
post. Ok. Yes. So remembers passed.
Add it on.
Go ahead.
No, I just said it's the codification.
OK.
So
I, I got to hear
this. Ok. We have a motion. We have a second.
Ok.
All of ever say I
any opposed. OK. Thank you. Thank you all.
Ok. We'll move on from pro Tim Pringle. Now we to uh
chairman Baker HB 327.
That was my seat mate. Welcome to my committee.
Thank you so much, Mr chairman, members of the committee.
I have before you a bill. I, I'm quite excited about and that uh this uh
could uh potentially have a lot of economic
value to Alabama going forward with a new industry
uh for us
and uh for the committee members. Uh
I don't know how familiar you are with the term poor space.
A lot of you sort of looking at me sort of like you're waiting on me to give some type of
answer on that because like, I'm not sure exactly what poor space is.
Well, that's a lot of what this bill centers around and all,
but it's so this will be a blossoming new industry for us in Alabama.
So this is where there is the carbon sequestration and the capturing of carbon
and then this would be injected into these poor spaces
that have been just areas where the minerals have
even been taken out or whether they're already,
then sort of obsolete, sort of uh I guess.
Uh uh Brian, is that appropriate word then to
the
right, the salt water and such.
So anyway, let me get, get into the bill itself with this.
Uh The synopsis is one of the more long synopsis that I've seen with a bill,
but it's captured in a little small paragraph.
So there's many parts to that.
So I'm gonna just sort of briefly summarize each one of these little parts to the,
to,
to this bill uh and then such and then I'll be glad I do have
uh several uh of the entities that are involved as part of the bill,
the Alabama Oil and Gas Board,
then uh representation is here as well as AD
M representative of Alabama Department of Environmental Management.
I also have the uh Alabama Department Conservation Natural Resources,
which also is a part of the bill as well.
So if there are questions then on this,
then I'd be glad then to have any of them
to speak more knowledgeably on any of these things,
particularly the geological then aspect of it.
Then with the oil and gas board, but let me get in the,
in the part of this bill as we move forward,
existing law
under existing law,
subsurface minerals may be conveyed and the transfer of property
one to another from the overlying land and the waters.
The bill would provide possessory right to poor space below the real property
and which is vested in the surface owners and may be separately conveyed.
That's much like minerals today and such, but this is poor space.
So it's much just like mineral can be
separated from the actual surface owner property.
And so this is the poor space.
It's just saying that this also would be very
similar that that could be conveyed separately as well,
could be one and the same or it could be separate.
Also under existing law,
the state Oil and Gas Board regulates the
underground storage of carbon oxides including carbon dioxide.
The bill further provides the circumstances under which
a proposed carbon dioxide storage facility may receive.
The board's approval to operate.
The bill would provide that the board may
uh amalgamate storage rights for a carbon
dioxide storage facility under certain circumstances.
Now, that's one of those words that threw me a curve uh that is amalgamate.
And so just to explain on that.
Uh that means to merge into a single body.
So the bill would provide that the board may amal mag
storage rights for a carbon dioxide
storage facility under certain circumstances.
The bill would create the underground carbon dioxide storage
facility administrative fund to be used by the board.
We're talking about the oil and gas board
in monitoring and regulating active storage facilities.
The bill would create the underground carbon dioxide storage facility trust fund
to be used by the board.
The Oil and gas Board in long term
monitoring and management of closed storage facilities.
The bill would provide for the issuance of a certificate of project closure and
completion by the board to a carbon
dioxide storage facility operator and the certificates implications
also under existing law,
the commissioner of Conservation and natural Resources may lease
certain state lands for various oil and gas uses.
So this would allow them for that poor space to be utilized as well.
The bill would authorize the commissioner uh to lease poor space
of certain state lands for underground storage of the carbon dioxide.
Uh So, uh with that,
that's uh really sort of encapsulates in the various parts of the bill.
Very comprehensive bill. This once again it's a new budding industry
provides a great economic opportunity for Alabama.
Uh Geologically, it's not as if our entire state then
uh has the poor space
that would be
uh capable of maybe being a part of what's within this bill.
Uh I'd be glad to allow, then, uh Mr Nick to you, if you would like, then being a judge
of the oil and gas board at your
discretion, then
could we go ahead and, uh, hear about your amendment?
Uh,
ok.
Sure. We, we'll go ahead with the amendment.
Uh, to my understanding, I believe this amendment arose, I think from, uh,
those involved in, within the coal industry.
That, that is my understanding on this.
Uh this you have the amendment before you.
Then this replacing lines 123 through 131 on page five with the following
item G in considering approving a storage facility to be
used for the storage and sequestration of carbon dioxide.
Pursuant to this division,
the board shall consider any competing rights of all separately
owned estates and lands potentially affected by the storage facility,
giving due consideration of competing rights as to existing or future
uses by poor space surface and mineral owners that may be affected
h other than as may regard a claim to an owner interest in poor space.
Nothing in this division shall, shall be construed to change,
alter diminish or in any way affect the statutory common law as of October
1 2024 as relates to the rights belonging to the surface and mineral estates.
Ok. We have a motion to adopt the amendment to have a second.
Ok. All in favor say ah
ok, your amendment passes uh if you'd
like to bring up Mr Two, that'd be great if anyone has any questions.
Thank
you.
Yes, sir. Good to see you.
And I
have a question. Uh
Does any other states currently do this?
Uh North Dakota is doing it currently under state jurisdiction?
Wyoming has just start uh approved their first three projects. I believe
Louisiana now has the ability to do it and they'll be moving ahead forthwith.
So North Dakota is the leader though.
They're the first ones out of the chute.
Uh and they got what we call primacy from the Environmental Protection Agency
to actually permit the wells and the facilities.
Can this be trucked to a location or just mainly just piped? Uh It, it would be piped.
Ok, piped to the location, uh trucking. It would be too expensive.
I can't carry enough to, to really make a difference.
Ok. Does any committee members have any questions?
Ok. Well, thank you for that.
Mhm.
Uh
Well,
with that, I, I would just offer this to the committee. Uh
ok. Could you tell us? So it's,
it's a, it's about the carbon emissions. Could you tell us that part of it, please?
Uh Currently we have um a number of industries across
the state that um have um carbon being emitted.
And so, so whether it be, I mean, steel plants could be cement industry,
just a number of different industries out out there.
And so they are under requirements going forward to reduce these carbon emissions
and such and to, to capture this and, and,
and such, even, even like the uh power plants and such.
So you've got the coal fired and you steel, which are,
are becoming a little bit more obsolete and then
you've got your natural gas fired as well.
Um But uh anyway,
each of these then are under constraints going forward then to reduce, then the,
the carbon, they, so that carbon and being captured then uh this would now be,
allow them the opportunity to,
to have this then uh to meet their requirements to stay in business.
So this, we're basically doing this to meet federal requirement requirements.
Is that right? Correct.
Correct. And allow our industries to continue to operate then,
but within the federal requirements, but not only that, but I would also add to this,
the, the advantage I see it would be particularly for the landowners who now have,
I mean, such as poor space and, and, and such that uh
that's not being utilized and, and such,
this is something now that's an extra benefit to them.
Ok. Any questions?
Yes
sir,
Mr Chairman who regulates this,
who oversees it and make sure it's safe for the environment.
Uh Well,
ad M
ultimately has, I mean, a role in this as well.
Oil and gas board then is they're the one
oil and gas board really is the principal driver
uh in terms of geologically determining such as what areas might, would qualify.
That is
several, I mean, 1000 ft beneath the earth,
then there has to be capstone or other types of or protective layers that,
so that this would not be any type of,
of mixing with drinking water and that type of thing.
So there's so oil and gas more geologically,
they're the ones that they and I'll allow Mr Ch if you want him to explain.
I'm no, I'm no geologist.
But uh my, my just sort of fundamental understanding on this,
that they would be the entry to do this because they know
the different stratas and such uh that are underneath the earth.
Yeah, I think it's just hard for us to actually download what you're saying,
um, and comprehend what you're saying, to be honest.
And I think it'd make me feel a little bit safer
in letting this go forward to,
to know who is regulating it and overseeing it after
it does take place in the state of Alabama.
Well, it does within the bill. You talking,
so you've got what would be an active facility
and then you got, so that's when it's still, I mean,
there's still vacant space for the carbon
to be, I mean, pumped or down into it, that, that space
and then uh once it becomes a closed facility,
then there would still be 10 years thereafter, then I,
I think that this would continue then to be monitored
before it become a part of the state and acquisition
and then also the Feds as well. Have I think responsibility as well over that?
Thank you.
Ok. Do we have a motion?
Sure. Sure.
So
the state
Oil and Gas Board uh sir is now involved in a rulemaking process to,
to oversee and regulate this entire industry.
Uh We have our rules out for comment right now. We're rece
actively receiving comments back on the rules
uh that the board will eventually adopt.
But that's a 53 page set of rules, so very comprehensive,
very stringent rules to regulate this industry.
This is more or less the enabling stuff that allows us,
we have the already have the ability to write the rules,
but this enables some other things that we need to do as part of the process.
Thank you. Thank you.
Ok. Do we have a motion?
Ok. We have a motion by Representative Wood and the second by
Representative paramour
all in favor. Say I
any opposed?
Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr Chairman, members of the committee
has a minute. That's right.
Well, there's the 10 times
you
have to get
busy,
ok. Next up is HP 345 by
Representative Simpson.
Thank you, Mr chairman, members of the committee. Thank you.
We think this is the best bill we got today.
You're a mouth of God's ears. How about that? You've got a good one.
Um
You know, when I was practicing attorney.
Sometimes they tell me, uh, don't talk too long. You, you won the case.
So I would move for a favorable, well, I would ask to record for,
well, I'm, I'm forgiving you one.
I'll make the motion
all in favor. Say. Ah,
ok. Yes, sir, you'll pass. Is that good enough?
Just
ok. Just to let you all know what that bill does is that, uh,
allows,
uh,
uh, the health Department of Creations with drones flying over, dropping off uh
contraband into prisons is what that's about
and we're all all for that.
Murray is gonna carry his over.
Ok.
Ok. Next up is HB 357 by Representative Oliver
to
come
on,
Mr chairman and the committee. Uh should we try to, for
what I've got is a volunteer rescue squad tuition reimbursement uh program.
We wanna make an adjustment.
Uh
You know, we,
we pay tuition on behalf of students who are
studying to qualify for emergency medical service licenses.
Uh Currently, we have some uh the Alabama community college system,
the Alabama Fire College, the University of South Alabama
already have these programs.
What we're gonna do is through AD Ph Alabama Department
of Public Health through their local office region losses.
Uh We're gonna let them do the same service.
Uh
If there are any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.
Any questions about the body
members.
OK. Any motions.
OK. Motion by represents Kirkland second by
Representative Lance. Ok. All in favor, say,
ah,
in your post. Yes, so your bill passes. Thank you very much.
Ok. Next up is HP 374 by Representative Wharton.
Thank you, Mr Chairman. Thank you committee.
Uh, I, I do ask for the bri
I get that.
Well, you don't have to have that here.
That's a good suggestion.
All right. This is, uh, this,
yeah, there you go. This is distinctive, uh, tag for the firefighters.
Ok.
Uh, a few years ago, uh, we, uh,
increased their, their fee from a, uh, from 50 cents to a dollar,
uh, 50 cent, uh, 25 going to,
um, you know,
the fire college and 25 going to the memorial and
then we raise it to a dollar this time.
They won't raise the fee to $10. Ok.
Um,
so with that, if there are no questions, you wanna tell us real quick about which,
with the breakdown?
Sure. I will
let me get my glasses out where I can see here.
Um,
all a dollar 50 is gonna go to the memorial.
Ok.
And then another dollar 50 is gonna go to the fire college.
Uh, 350 is gonna go to the, uh, firefighters Annuity Fund
and then another 350 is gonna go to the firefighters Emergency relief fund.
Ok. Thank you for that. Do I have a motion?
Ok.
No, I just had the motion. Yeah.
Ok. All in favor. Say I
in the post.
Ok, sir, sir. Thank you for coming to state government and your bill is passed.
Thank you. Thank you chairman. Thank you committee.
Ok. Uh HP 382 has been carried over.
So next up is uh HB
four by Representative
Gravan.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr Chairman members.
What you should have before you by now is a sub
to
three.
Your bill was 3 73 67 367.
We let me just start off with this, first of all again.
Thank you, Mr Chairman, the chairman and I have been trying to work on a solution
with regards to
at some point finally bringing
um
June
as a state holiday here in the state of Alabama.
What has been at issue um is been the issue
of the number eight of holidays that we have.
I think we currently have roughly about 14
days that are designated.
So my bill HB four initially was to just as it as it has been for the last few years,
as well as others to make June 10th
a sta
a holiday uh for which state offices of course will be closed as designated
uh by other holidays um that have already been approved by the legislature.
The
compromise.
However,
because I knew and was basically told HB four probably
did not have an opportunity or a chance to get out
as a stand alone bill would be to work along with the chairman
and I wanna thank him for his efforts
um to a at least this year get Juneteenth on the books as a
holiday because there is no guarantee that the governor each year will continue to
offer or extend a proclamation
for which she has been doing over the past several years.
Uh that will close state offices.
So this bill in reaching this compromise that we would work together,
that we've worked together on, I would sub, he's gonna sub his bill or vice versa.
We're subbing each other's bills
for that purpose. That a will name officially here in the state of Alabama.
June 10th as a holiday. We
will not pick up another closed holiday.
However, but what will happen is between the two holidays of June 10th
and um
Jefferson Davis.
Uh
uh
yes, Jefferson Davis,
we will have um
employees will have to choose between those two holidays.
Um And they will be able to select which one of those two days they will take
uh as a holiday. So they have an option between June 10th and Jefferson Davis Day
in lieu of closing.
And or adding another paid holiday is my understanding
from the Republican Party that many of you
all's constituents have take issue with that.
That's not the same for my constituents,
but in an effort to try to reach a compromise.
This is where we are today.
So there will still be
an added holiday
but no
added day where the state will be closed and you will
no added paid holiday. A paid holiday would be,
uh,
a, a
choice for one or the other.
So if you, whichever one you want to take, you can get paid that holiday.
So if you are still getting the holiday, it's just,
you will have to choose between those two holidays.
Ok.
Any questions
about
the
tax? That's correct. It's gonna save some money.
Ok. Any, any other questions?
I have a
not question but just a comment. Yes, sir.
Um
Thank you, Representative
Van um for actually bringing this bill in
with your efforts to can
kind of succeed a little bit. I know you've been working hard on this bill and um
thank you Mr Chairman for actually allowing the bill to move forward. Um,
although it's not
what I would like to see um happen, I think, but I guess in this building we all have to
compromise at some point. Um,
but I would say even though um,
we're moving in this direction, I still would say
that um, we do a lot of things in this house that cost the taxpayers a lot of money. So
I wouldn't see how giving state employees another
paid holiday would really hurt. Um But in the spirit of
compromise and togetherness, I think we can
move forward with this piece of legislation.
So at the proper time, Mr Chairman, I would like to give the
motion to give the bill of favor report.
Ok. We, we have to adopt the sub first,
I just said at the proper time. Ok. We have a motion to adopt a sub.
So move.
Ok. 2nd,
2nd member of
Wood, all in favor. Say I
any opposed?
Ok. The sub has been adopted now we're ready for the motion by represent Lawrence
second,
Representative Wood Hall of favor. Say I
any opposed?
Ok. Thank you, ma'am. Bill passes.
Thank you.
Ok.
As substituted.
Ok. And HP 367 will be carried over.
Ok. Next up, HB 385 by Representative Mooney.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Good to see you. My colleagues.
This bill amends the Alabama anti obscenity Enforcement Act that was passed in 1989
to include sexual or gender oriented performances
in places where minors are present.
It also amends the code
to include a right to enjoin
material activities harmful to minors
as a public nuisance. There are a variety of stylistic legal changes that LS A has
included that are a part of many of our bills these days.
Under existing law,
the Alabama Obscenity Enforcement Act prohibits
the distribution of certain obscene material.
Also under existing law, libraries
and library employees or agents are exempt from
criminal uh provisions of the anti
absent
enforcement act.
This bill would repeal the criminal exemption for libraries
and library employees or agents from the anti
obscenity enforcement act.
This bill would prohibit the state
or any library from supplying any minor
with material containing sexual content unless the minor's parent or guardian
consents.
This bill would
excuse me,
Pauline is getting to me.
This bill would prohibit any entity.
I'm sorry, this bill would prohibit a library from purchasing or accepting
donated materials containing sexual content. This bill would prohibit
any entity that receives state funds or any library
from affiliating with the American Library Association.
This bill would authorize the Attorney General or District attorney
to initiate a civil action for violation of this act.
This bill would also authorize the parent or guardian of a minor
who has provided sexual content
in violation of this act to bring a cause of action against the offending entity.
I think it's important to look at what this bill does not do.
This bill does not affect the rights of any adult to
engage in sexual or gender related speech or activities in any place
where minors are not present
and which would otherwise be defined as obscenity.
Adult, men and women are free to dress
as they choose and act as they choose.
So long as it is not in a place where minors are expected
or known to be present without parental consent.
I know there's a public hearing, Mr Chairman
for the sake of uh the time that we're in today,
there are four organizations who are here present to support their names with you.
They're not going to speak
to save uh time. I think most of you would know
their positions in relation to this uh Bill or other things of this nature.
Um Becky Garrison is here from Eagle Forum,
Greg Davis from uh Al
CAPP,
Eric Johnston from the Southeast Law Institute and
Stephanie Smith with the Alabama Policy Institute.
Thank you
colleagues.
I'd be happy to answer any questions, but I believe you have a public hearing, sir.
We'll move to the public hearing.
Ok. We have uh six people signed up.
Um
I guess I let all six speak since we only have one side speaking, uh please uh
act orderly. Your uh time will be on this clock, please.
Uh Just your speaking as necessary when your time is up, you're through. Ok.
Ok. Please call the first speaker,
Matthew
Lane.
We have,
hey y'all. I appreciate you letting me speak today.
I'm Matthew Lane, the president of the Alabama Library Association.
And I'm a public librarian at the o'neill Library in Mountain Brook, Alabama.
I've worked in public libraries for nearly 20 years. Now,
I stand reluctantly before you today, I should be at my job
serving the needs of our community.
Public librarians teach resume writing skills, workforce readiness skills,
computer skills, literacy skills.
And some of us even teach engineering and C AD skills.
Public library.
Summer reading programs are essential tools for
increasing the literacy rates of our Children.
Job skill training is essential to creating
a robust and educated workforce in Alabama
year round community programs build literacy fellowship and
academic success in our state's public libraries.
But instead of doing my job as a public librarian,
I'm in Montgomery
dealing with the wrong headed legislation of HB 385.
What in the world are you thinking with this bill?
There are so many things you could and should be doing
for Alabamians rather than harassing the librarians of our great state
librarians are our mothers, fathers, grandparents, sisters,
brothers and neighbors.
And you want to compare them to pornographers
and jail them for having books on the
shelf that challenge someone's overly tender sensibilities.
The U A Literacy center estimates that
14.8% of Alabama's population or 73,000 people
are illiterate.
The Literacy Council of West Alabama estimates
that 25% of Alabamians are functionally illiterate.
That's awful y'all.
We need to do better.
But rather than focusing on ways our great states public
libraries and public school libraries can help increase literacy rates
rather than giving them the funding.
They desperately need to assist the good people of Alabama
and learning vital workforce skills.
We're taking up legislation
to jail
librarians.
How many of you have visited a public library in your town recently
and witnessed all the great work that libraries do in our communities.
I challenge each of you
to visit your community library and talk with the librarians there.
After hearing about all of the programs and
resources they make available to your community.
Get back to me and let me know if professional librarians
are really the people we want to incar incarcerate in Alabama.
I was born in Birmingham, raised in Dothan
and I graduated from college right here in Alabama.
I've lived in our beautifully diverse state my entire life and I love it here.
When I told my 80 year old mother about hb 385 she thought I was making it up.
She taught school here her entire adult life
and she didn't think a bill like this could be possible.
I am fiercely proud of Alabama and I thank you. Ok. Thank you for your comments.
Jessica Hayes.
Good morning.
My name is Jessica Hayes and I'm from district 88.
I'm a wife mother and I've been a librarian for 15 years.
But today I speak in opposition of the HB um 385
but mainly for in behalf on behalf of
your district's public librarians who cannot be here today
because of how quickly
and secretively
this bill came forward.
These individuals, again,
your constituents could not get away on such short notice to speak with you.
So I'm here today.
They are busy keeping your district's library
doors open to make sure their fellow constituents
can have access to free access to wi fi computers, job placement training,
story time for the next generation of your voters.
These constituents
have spent the last year
being called pedophile
groomer.
Marxist
indoctrinated
by both private citizens
empowered groups
and political, powerful political leaders,
some of whom are in this room,
they already do not
allow sexual content without parental consent.
They have shouldered this in silence because they're waiting on you,
their representatives
to have their back
because many of you in this room have cultivated relationships
with your public librarians.
You know what they do
and what they don't do.
You know that the lies are just that they are lies
and that this is a political stunt
pulled to win points.
Now,
it might be that this is not the intention of the bill to criminalize librarians.
It might be that,
um, it is just to be about sexual content.
I've read the bill the way it is written.
If it is goes forward,
libraries will not be able to hold any books on puberty,
sex education, including abstinence, only education
and
classics like the Bluest eye
or Lady Chatterley's lover
and depending on who interprets it.
The sacred text of the Bible,
if this is not the intention,
make it clear today
or better yet stop this bill. Now,
your district's librarians,
your constituents are scared and they're watching you now,
you are not attacking some unknown boogeyman.
We are scared
and we are hoping
we are praying
that you stop it now.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Christina Garner.
Good afternoon. My name is Christina Garner. I am from house district 88
and I am speaking today on my birthday and
dragging my four year old along with me because happy
birthday. Thank you. This is such an important issue to me.
So I'm speaking in opposition to hb 385
I'm a taxpaying citizen, a constituent. And as I said, the mother of a young child
though, I am just one voice.
I represent the 92% of Americans who support limited government
and oppose attempts to ban or censor
reading materials in public and school libraries.
I'm one of the vast majority of voters who believe that individuals,
parents should be left alone to choose what reading
material is appropriate for themselves and their Children.
I'm also a resident of Prattville and I've witnessed firsthand the harassment of
dedicated library staff and long serving library
board members who support the rights of
all citizens to access reading materials
without undue interference from the government or
from extremist groups who seek to impose their ideology on the entire community.
I've watched what happens when would be censors hijack a local
library board stacking it with individuals who sympathize with their book
banning cause because their misinformation
campaigns have convinced enough people that
Children are being exposed to obscenity in our public libraries.
I've watched members of these extremist
groups hurl hateful and defamatory accusations
at the library workers calling them and me groomers and pedophiles.
And now in my community in the last two weeks,
11 of our 17 library professionals have been fired or pressured to resign
and those that remain are forced to work
alongside volunteers from the very groups who have called
and pedophiles and predators. For the last year,
our library hours in Prattville have been cut.
A number of programs and events have been canceled
and controversy and bad press have
launched Prattville into the national spotlight,
even making news on CNN
all because a handful of people were angry about a book about a crayon,
a book which was an allegory for the author's struggles with dyslexia.
I'm a lifelong library lover
and my son and I go to our library regularly.
I've never once encountered obscenity in my local library.
There is nothing in Alabama's libraries that meet the
legal definition of obscene materials in the adult section
or sections intended for minors.
This bill is dangerously vague,
overreaching and overwhelmingly opposed by Alabama voters.
Your constituents,
not to mention the fact that similar legislation in
other states has already been blocked by the courts.
This bill is unsupported at best and unconstitutional at worst.
It does nothing to protect Children
instead, it protects extremists who are trying to take away our rights
and dismantle intellectual freedom,
which is essential to the success of our democracy.
I urge you vote no on HB 385 and stop pandering to extremists.
Thank you.
Thank
you,
Chris Hathcock.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Hi. My name is Chris Hathcock and I live in Opelika in the 83rd district.
Um, just a quick note.
Hb 385 is 10 pages long and it only covers
two things that the version that I have anyway,
the definition of obscenity and the liability.
I, I didn't see those other things in it but, um, I, I might have missed them.
Um, but, uh, going ahead here,
um, there's some serious issues with the vagueness of the language in this bill.
Um,
we see the phrase material harmful to minors
used in three places and that's not defined
um
material that is harmful to minors could include anything
and uh who gets to decide what that is?
Uh We have, I think the state has a definition for that.
In the, in the
code, the code has a definition
in obscenity
and in this, in
this legislation,
but the state has a definition for that.
Ok.
Well, I will look that up.
Um But uh moving on here.
Um
So, uh
uh line 217 indicates that we're talking
about any sexual or gender oriented material,
gender oriented material. I've not heard of that. That's not defined.
Um
And uh in uh
line 222 we see other public places where minors are
expected and are known to be present without parental consent,
sidewalks, roads, parks, beaches, does that include them all?
I, I mean, I don't really, I don't really know
but um I, I think that kind of clarity is lacking
um uh in, in this bill
Um And then, uh I think lastly is that um
various mechanisms for managing
uh the material in libraries and contents in,
in schools have already been suggested including in this uh you know,
legislative session.
Um But one of this thing,
things that this bill specifically does is remove
the liability of protection away from public libraries.
Um
And so what that does is um that opens them up to an entire new
class classification of liabilities that has to
be accounted for in their insurance premiums.
Um
I it could uh have effects on their budgets, it could have effects on local taxes. Um
You know, I,
I, I think, I think this,
this bill is kind of going about this,
going about what they're trying to do in the wrong way.
Um And uh I would recommend uh y'all vote no on it, please.
Thanks.
Thank you for your comment.
We have one more speaker,
Alex Kim Jon.
I can breathe
good afternoon.
Um My name is Alex
Kamon. I live in House District 20.
I am a public librarian and queer taxpayer and HB 35 would impact both
my profession as well as the just representation of my community in Alabama,
public libraries, schools and public spaces.
We've already established that this bill is
yet another attempt to classify stories,
depictions and information about the LGBT Q plus
community as inherently obscene and harmful to Children
that to do so is an offensive conflation rooted in transphobia and homophobia.
And that this bill would criminalize the dignity,
civil rights and rights to exist in public places
of transgender and non conforming people such as myself.
We have also established that this bill will throw further
fuel to the fire of the pro censorship actors in the
state that are already harassing librarians and library board members since
librarian have come under intense scrutiny in the past year.
But perhaps of greatest concern to busy legislators such as yourselves
is the economic impact this bill would have on libraries,
local governments and ultimately Alabama taxpayers
changing obscenity laws to include public and
school libraries and librarians will expose cities,
counties, libraries and schools to the threat of lawsuits,
creating new costs and stretching the already shoestring budgets.
The nonpartisan pro library organization,
every library has noted that if a state were to
remove professions or types of institutions from the obscenity exemption,
those institutions and organizations would need to acquire an
entirely new level and type of liability insurance.
They also note that sudden changes to obscenity laws would force these
insurance providers to re examine the scope and costs of their policies,
raising insurance premiums, impacting local government budgets
and ultimately raising the cost of these institutions for taxpayers.
The research has consistently shown that a vast
majority of voters oppose censorship and book banning.
It is clear that these pro censorship actors have
an outsized voice in the future of Alabama libraries
where they haven't been able to bend the will of library
leadership and library boards in the direction of their moral crusade.
They have gone over their heads to appeal to censorship,
sympathetic legislators who will now go as far as pushing
legislation that will potentially jail
professionals and arguably public servants
for doing our jobs
as one of these concerned taxpayers and an advocate for a
constitutionally protected right to free and equitable access to information.
I call on you to understand the difference
between safeguarding constitutionally protected personal belief systems
and allowing those personal belief systems to
violate the constitutional rights of others.
Vote. No on HB 385.
-- Thank -- you.
Thank you for your comment.
Representative Mooney,
thank you for taking time to hear everything today.
I did want to point out that the bill only prohibits materials and activities
to violate the Supreme Court standard, quote, harmful to minors unquote.
It has nothing to do with good,
great librarians who've been described here today who do really
good things and fantastic things for Children and for families.
If a librarian does nothing to violate the standards of the community,
there's nothing to be about which to be concerned in any way.
Um It does not take away parents' choices or discretion in any way.
I um
be happy to uh
answer questions or whatever. But do we have any questions?
I do
represent
Representative Mooney, I got a question um
as defined
as defined in the in this piece of legislation.
Could you give me
an example of
um,
something that would be um inappropriate or not allowed into this?
Based on this, if this bill is to pass
any sexual or gender oriented material that
knowingly exposes minors to persons who are
dressed in sexually revealing,
exaggerated or provocative clothing or costumes or, or stripping
or engaged in lewd lascivious uh dancing presentations
or activities in K 12 public schools,
public libraries and other public places where minors are expected
are known to be present without parental consent.
It does not affect college or university libraries. It only affects those where
minors would be present and that's those who are eight under 18 in our state.
Ok.
Ok. Uh
represent Lance.
OK. There's, there's a button on your, there you go.
Need this.
Um
have any of these types of activities
you're discussing occurred in Alabama libraries?
I certainly know of nothing like that in my libraries.
I'm glad that you don't have it in your library.
We've had, I have had a number of people contact me concerning
a
activities and materials that they felt were inappropriate for their Children,
even in my local area as well as around the state.
Some have described activities that occurred in
public places where minors are present that would be
under this uh description
of uh
sexual conduct that was
read.
Can you be more specific because I'm just trying to understand,
I have to go back and pull notes from the people who call but
at restaurants, at um
public uh locations where Children are involved in
sporting and recreational activities, things of that nature,
but the parks would have other things going on at the same time that
the parents felt were inappropriate in relation to their Children.
Any more questions
represent uh
D
ha
thank you, Mr Chairman.
First off, I'd like to commend the sponsor of this bill for bringing this bill.
Number one,
it's a concern of parents throughout the state. As uh legislators, we get
information and concerns sent to us from constituents yearly round.
And every time there's an incident like this, that
um it, it definitely as a parent
makes you extremely upset and,
and for the record, if no kids were involved in this situation,
we would not be in this situation.
If things were not being exposed to kids,
we wouldn't be here
if it was adults,
this would not be a problem.
If it's adults in their private sanctuary of their home. This would not be a problem
when you bring kids.
And yes, it is grooming them
when you bring kids and you are pushing something like this.
That is sexual intent with a man showing himself as an opposite gender
to a child. You are grooming them to be in acceptance of that.
It is unacceptable.
And at the perfect time, I'd like a motion to favor report.
Ok. Representative Yarborough,
I just wanted to say, um I support your bill and
um I've got
uh been in text spreads with several moms who have
got sexually explicit content that their Children were exposed to
and even the performing of sexual acts uh at books and libraries. And so,
um
uh I think it's appropriate that we protect our Children
and put this material where
it should be and it should not be exposing our minors to this content.
So I just thank you for bringing the bill.
OK. Any more questions or comments?
Do we have a motion by representative uh leader Stad Hagen? Have a second
Representative Yarborough all in favor. Say
I
any opposed.
OK.
Bill passes. So thank you.
Thank you uh committee members and Mr Chairman. I appreciate your time.
OK? We are joined. Thank you.
Good job.