Posts tagged: government

During the 2024 Regular Legislative Session, a total of 844 bills were introduced by the Alabama Legislature. After the session, API conducted data analysis that looked at factors such as how many bills were approved by committees in the respective houses, how many were passed by each house, and how many became law. Similar analysis was conducted for bills directly relating to API’s BluePrint for Alabama. Findings of that analysis include:

House of Representatives

Total Bills Introduced: 495

BluePrint Bills Introduced: 34

Bills Approved by Committee in House of Origin: 337

BluePrint Bills Approved by Committee in House of Origin: 15

Bills Passed by House of Origin: 290

BluePrint Bills Passed by House of Origin:12

Bills Approved by Committee in Second House: 266

BluePrint Bills Approved by Committee in Second House: 11

Bills Passed by Second House: 174

Blueprint Bills Passed by Second House: 6

Number of Bills Passed by House of Origin Unanimously: 166

In the House, Rep. Danny Garrett had the most bills enacted at 10, with Chip Brown and David Faulkner next with 5 bills enacted each.

Senate

Total Bills Introduced: 349

BluePrint Bills Introduced: 21

Bills Approved by Committee in House of Origin: 228

BluePrint Bills Approved by Committee in House of Origin: 14

Bills Passed by House of Origin: 194

BluePrint Bills Passed by House of Origin: 11

Bills Approved by Committee in Second House: 184

BluePrint Bills Approved by Committee in Second House: 11

Bills Passed by Second House: 147

Blueprint Bills Passed by Second House: 9

Number of Bills Passed by House of Origin Unanimously: 134

In the Senate, Arthur Orr had the most bills enacted at 13, with Sam Givhan next at 11 bills.

BluePrint Bills & Totals

Total Bills Introduced: 844

BluePrint Bills Introduced: 55

Bills Approved by Committee in House of Origin: 564

BluePrint Bills Approved by Committee in House of Origin: 29

Bills Passed by House of Origin: 488

BluePrint Bills Passed by House of Origin: 23

Bills Approved by Committee in Second House: 450

BluePrint Bills Approved by Committee in Second House: 22

Bills Passed by Second House: 321

Blueprint Bills Passed by Second House: 15

Number of Bills Passed Unanimously: 300 (Note: in total, nearly 36% of all bills introduced in 2024 passed one or both houses unanimously).

55 bills related directly to API’s BluePrint were introduced during the 2024 Regular Session. Of those bills, 29 were approved by a committee in the house of origin, 22 were approved by a committee in both Houses, and 15 received final passage by the Legislature. Two BluePrint issues were framed as a resistance (gambling and Medicaid expansion), therefore 17 of the 30 BluePrint Issues were successful in 2024.

The long-term costs of Medicaid expansion outweigh any perceived short-term benefits to the state. API supports Governor Ivey’s hesitation to tie our state to the federal albatross and would encourage her to continue to reject external pressure to expand Medicaid. Alabama should instead pursue common sense healthcare policy reforms to increase healthcare access and affordability. 

https://yellowhammernews.com/alabama-policy-institute-governor-ivey-should-reject-renewed-calls-to-expand-medicaid/

The 2024 Regular Session was a decisive victory for conservative policy. 25 of our 30 BluePrint Issues were considered and 17 of our issues were successful. Stephanie Smith & Greg Davis discuss the legislation session here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/priority-talk/id1619643355?i=1000655487281

CONSERVATIVE VICTORIES

The 2024 Regular Session was a decisive victory for conservative policy. 25 of our 30 BluePrint Issues were considered and 17 of our issues were successful.

The 2024 Regular Session was a decisive victory for conservative policy. 25 of our 30 BluePrint Issues were considered and 17 of our issues were successful. Stephanie Smith and Phil Williams of Rightside Radio downloaded the good and the bad of the session here: 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/5-10-24-stephanie-smith-pres-of-api/id1575575839?i=1000655223752

Alabama State Senator Arthur Orr is shepherding a bill through the legislature that asserts parental rights regarding the vaccination of their children: 
https://www.al.com/educationlab/2024/04/alabama-legislature-may-ease-religious-exemption-for-school-vaccines.html. This isn’t a API BluePrint issue, per se, but we certainly support his effort to put parents back in the drivers seat with decision-making for their own children regarding medical and educational issues. That bill passed the Senate this week and is set for House action.

The budgets are on the move and are the yet again the largest budgets in state history. The general fund has an overall increase of nearly 12% plus over $215M in supplemental spending, most of which is allocated for prison construction. The ETF that passed the House grew by 6.3% to 9.3 BILLION, also the highest budget in Alabama state history. As a point of reference, Alabama State budgets have grown by 24.5% in the last five years and 46.9% in the past decade. In addition, lawmakers have added another $1.65 billion in supplemental funding to the current year budget with the bulk going towards technology and capital projects at K-12 schools, colleges and universities.

We all want fairness and integrity without coercion in the union certification process. This law would ensure employees are given ample opportunity for their independent decisions to be recognized and respected while signaling to employers and employees that Alabama honors and respects their interests. 

https://1819news.com/news/item/vincent-vernuccio-and-stephanie-holden-smith-how-alabama-can-protect-its-workers-privacy

I also got to talk to Phil Williams on his show this week about the movement on the gambling legislation. You can listen in here:

https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-mdysv-15dbc1b