Both Houses of the Alabama Legislature will be in session on Tuesday for Day 2 of the 2023 Alabama Regular Legislative Session.
The regular session started on March 7, but Alabama Governor Kay Ivey called for a special session during her state of the state address for Legislators to appropriate the second tranche of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds as well as to appropriate funds to repay the remaining balance of a debt owed to the Alabama Trust Fund. Both bills were passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor. Gov. Ivey declared the special session a success.
The Legislature declared an end to the 2023 First Special Session on Thursday, allowing the legislators to return to the business of the regular session.
The full Alabama House of Representatives will go into session at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The Alabama Senate will follow with its session at 3:30 p.m. Both sessions can be viewed on the live stream at the Legislature’s website.
174 bills have already been pre-filed by legislators ahead of the 2023 regular session. Many of those bills will be in committee on Tuesday and Wednesday. Alabama Today has already previewed 30 of those pre-filed bills. It takes five legislative days to pass a bill on to the governor, and this is only the second legislative day, so no bills will be ready to go to the governor this week. More bills will be introduced this week.
The Legislature also will be holding committee meetings on Tuesday.
The Senate County and Municipal Government Standing Committee meeting will meet Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. in Room 325 of the Statehouse.
The Senate Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry Standing Committee meeting will also be held at 1:30 p.m.
The Select Joint Committee on Reapportionment will meet in Room 317 at 2:00 p.m.
The Senate Education Policy Committee will meet at 2:00 p.m. on the eighth floor of the Statehouse.
The Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee will meet on the eighth floor of the Statehouse at 2:30 p.m.
An early priority of the Legislature will be renewing and extending the Alabama Jobs Act and the Growing Alabama Incentives Act, which are set to expire without legislative action. Gov. Ivey urged the Legislature to make extending the states incentives and high priority during her state of the state speech.
Another high priority of the Governor will be passing State Rep. Matt Simpson’s House Bill 1. HB1 will increase the penalties for people convicted of trafficking in fentanyl. The state, like the rest of the country, is being flooded with fentanyl resulting in skyrocketing drug overdose deaths.
The regular session is limited by law to no more than thirty legislative days. The primary purpose of the regular session is to prepare the state’s budgets. Due to conservative budgeting and a stronger-than-expected post-pandemic economic recovery, the state has billions of surplus dollars over and above one of the largest budgets in state history. The Legislature normally meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Wednesdays are reserved for committee days though some Wednesdays, the Legislature will go into session following their committee work.
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