Steps towards freedom
To give you an overview of where we are with our legislative efforts, I am pleased to present you with a combined report from the Founder, the Political Liaison and the President of Free the Hops.
Report from the Founder, Danner Kline
I sure hope the old adage holds true for us: The third time's the charm. Those of you who have been watching our progress for a few years now know that we first introduced the Gourmet Beer Bill to the Alabama legislature in 2006. That year we never even made it out of committee in the House. A laundry list of factors was working against us that year, not the least of which was that it was an election year. We also had only a fraction of the grassroots infrastructure that we have now.
So we worked hard all through 2006 building support and raising money, bringing the Gourmet Beer Bill again in 2007 backed by a much larger base of citizen activists. But as Stuart recently explained, our efforts last year were sandbagged by a few local wholesalers of a large domestic brewery. Even in spite of their efforts to oppose us, we only narrowly missed the 3/5 supermajority resolution required to bring the bill up for a vote on the floor. The Senate held out hope for a second chance last year, but their internal power struggle that resulted in deadlock hurt us even more than the opposition from the beer wholesalers. They passed almost no bills last year, so our second chance died with their inaction (capped by The Punch seen round the world).
As you've all heard by now, this year we have finally passed the House. We got that 3/5 supermajority to bring the bill up for a vote and then passed the floor. This was a tremendous accomplishment. The House was always understood to be our biggest obstacle, as that body has a larger number of staunchly anti-alcohol members. Pro-alcohol bills simply have an easier time making it through the Senate. Of course, that only holds true if they are actually working and passing any bills at all. Unfortunately, the bad blood that stalled the 2007 session of the Alabama Senate has carried over to this year and they are once again deadlocked. We cannot know when to expect the Gourmet Beer Bill to come up for a vote in the Senate because we don't know when or even if they will settle their differences and actually get to work this year.
In a nutshell, we are doing everything right and have every reason to believe we can pass the Senate this year and see the Gourmet Beer Bill signed into law... if the Senate will only do the work we are paying them for.
Report from the Political Liaison, Dan Roberts
If you listened to the highlights from the floor debate in the Alabama House of Representatives, I hope you noticed that most of the speakers who spoke in favor of our bill mentioned the phone calls and emails from their constituents. Patricia Todd of Birmingham, for example, said she received between 50 to 75 phone calls and emails in support of our bill. Our members' efforts to speak to their elected officials do make a difference.
The fate of the Gourmet Beer Bill now rests with the Alabama Senate. This is good news. The Senate has always looked much friendlier than the House. The only concern is that politics in the Senate currently has that body moving at a slow, slow pace.
Now that it has passed the House, the Gourmet Beer Bill is seen as viable legislation that the Senate need to address before the session ends. Unfortunately, that is no guarantee that they will vote on it. Politics in the Alabama Senate can be very complicated, but basically the big drama this year rests with Senator Phil Poole. Last year, the governor vetoed a highway appropriation of $1 million that Poole had inserted into the budget. Poole attempted to have the veto overridden, but failed to garner the 2/3 majority in the House to do so.
On the last day of the session in 2007, Poole retaliated by filibustering every House bill that was sponsored by those who had sided with the governor's veto. He continued that trend early this year, causing uproar in the already tense relations in the Senate. A few weeks ago, something of a temporary truce was declared and the Senate began passing a few noncontroversial bills that didn't come from the House. Even still, the Senate has done little more than pass certain "sunset" bills that they are required to pass every year. The drama over Poole's open-ended filibuster of 47 legislators' bills is not making for a friendly work environment in Montgomery.
Still, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. I've been watching Alabama politics very closely since the 2004 session. Since at least then, the Alabama Senate has waited until April or May to pass most of their bills. The reason is simple enough - politics. This year it's Phil Poole, but it's always something. Last year it was the operating rules approved by the majority party. Things tend to get very tense and move slowly until the final hour when they start passing around 100 bills a day. Since the Gourmet Beer Bill has been passed by the House, there is strong reason to believe that it will be considered by the full Senate before the session ends.
Right now Free the Hops is attempting to gauge our current support in the Senate so that we know which senators our members and supporters most need to contact and what specific concerns any particular senators may have with the Gourmet Beer Bill. When the time is right, we'll update everyone.
Many are aware that the sponsor of our Homebrew Bill was recently subpoenaed in the federal investigation of the two-year college scandal. It is important to point out that Senator Rodger Smitherman has not been indicted, and early speculation by my friends in Montgomery is that he may not even be a target of the investigation. As a member of the committee that funds the two-year system and a powerful political player in the Senate, investigators may simply be seeking the senator's cooperation. It is common for federal investigators to "cast a wide net" to gather information. If Smitherman is unavailable for any reason, someone else can present the bill.
Report from the President, Stuart Carter
As Danner and Dan have commented above, we have all had to work together to reach the point we are at now, with our bills poised on the verge of success.
When the House Bill passed, most of us in Montgomery were exultant and bouncing with joy. I, however, was also seeing the flip side of what happened. We still have work to do to educate the senators as to why we want the Gourmet Beer Bill and the Homebrew Bill to pass. Not having a date for the appearance of Gourmet Beer or Homebrew in committee is frustrating for everyone, but going by Dan's report we can afford to relax for a couple of weeks and quietly work on what we want to say to our senators to ensure both of our bills pass the Senate.
What are the next steps?
1. The House Gourmet Beer Bill needs to appear in the Senate Committee. This same committee has already passed Senate Bill 116, which is the sister legislation to House Bill 196, so we are looking good there.
2. The Senate Homebrew Bill needs to appear in the same committee. We have no reason to believe that it will not pass out of committee, but nothing is guaranteed.
3. The Gourmet Beer Bill may need to pass the same type of supermajority as it did in the House, depending on whether or not the House and Senate have passed the budget by the time it appears for a vote.
4. The Homebrew Bill likewise may need to pass the supermajority vote, then it needs to pass in the House.
5. The Governor needs to sign them into law.
Once I have the dates for the steps above I will send out the same kind of newsletter as I did in advance of the House Bill debate.
Working together we have already proven what a potent force we are, and that we are a force to be reckoned with. And that makes me proud to be a part of Free the Hops!
If you would like to contact any of the authors of this article to discuss anything here, you may contact any of us by email:
danner@freethehops.org
dan.roberts@freethehops.org
stuart@freethehops.org
This And That
Along with about ten other FTH supporters, I watched from the gallery as the House debated The Gourmet Beer Bill yesterday. It was a wild ride.
Some thanks are due to some well-informed Representatives who spoke on our behalf. Of course the first was our sponsor, Thomas Jackson. Also in that list are Mac Gipson, Ken Guin, Johnny Mack Morrow, Oliver Robinson, Patricia Todd, and Demetrius Newton. They presented clear, factual reasoning for why HB196 is good for Alabama and poses no risk to teens or anyone else.
Not surprisingly, two men made infamous on the internet last year in this YouTube video, Richard Laird and DuWayne Bridges, once again stood up to preach against our bill. Rather than relying on facts or logic, these men simply argued that alcohol is bad, and so we need a Nanny State where the government protects us from ourselves by preventing us from being able to choose what to eat or drink. Thankfully, their arguments fell flat this year and HB196 passed the House of Representatives.
Once again, I have reason to complain about the media coverage. The subject of my ire this time is AP writer Bob Johnson, who published a very biased article on yesterday's FTH success. The print version is even worse, featuring a subtitle of "Foes fear teens will have easier access to get high" and highlighting a bogus argument from opponent Richard Laird in a larger font than the rest of the story.
Since when is it acceptable to call the act of drinking alcohol "getting high"? That phrase is universally associated with smoking marijuana, an illegal substance, and it's obvious that Johnson's use was intended to lend a negative connotation to our efforts. He then proceeds to quote many of the spurious arguments made against us without mentioning any of the facts that refute those arguments. It's fine to point out that the neo-Prohibitionists claim teens' will find a way to get the higher alcohol beer. But mention of that argument ought to be balanced by a mention that 47 other states already have these beers for sale, and rates of underage drinking are no higher in those 47 other states. It would also be helpful to mention that if teens want to sneak alcohol from their parents' fridge or liquor cabinet, there's already plenty of legal alcohol sold in Alabama, much of it with significantly higher alcohol contents than the beers we want to see enter this state. If teens want to drink, they can do it right now and the addition of new kinds of beer isn't going to change any of that.
I just wish people would get informed and not publish grossly biased articles that heavily favor our opponents while ignoring the facts. Is that so much to ask?
As an aside, those who listened to the debate online yesterday should note that Free The Hops was not started by young Germans who came to Alabama to work at the Mercedes plant. Out of 800+ paid members, I only personally know one German in the group (who is a great guy, by the way). The vast majority of our members are native born American citizens, many of them native Alabamians, and we're not solely interested in imported beers. Most of us prefer American-brewed craft beers, like Double IPAs and Barleywines from world class breweries such as Dogfish Head in Delaware and Oskar Blues in Colorado. By the way, the founder and brewmaster of Oskar Blues, Dale Katechis, is an Alabama native and he can't wait to bring his many hand crafted ales into his home state. They are all over 6% ABV.
We passed the house!
House Bill 196, the Gourmet Beer Bill, passed the house!
Next: the Senate! SB116 is the sister bill to HB196. Watch this space for more to come...
Have you called your house Representative?
Our Gourmet Beer Bill, HB196, is on the floor of the House for a full vote on this Tuesday, 4 March.
If you have not yet had a chance to do so, please visit
http://www.legislature.state.al.us/
and enter your ZIP+4 in the box in the blue sidebar on the page. As the legislature is out of session until Tuesday, you will have a better effect by calling the Representative's home or office number.
Please keep it short, polite, and respectful. If you don't know what to say, here is a suggestion:
"Representative (name), my name is (name) and I live in your district. I wanted to let you know that I am in favour of House Bill 196, the Gourmet Beer Bill, and would like you to vote yes on this bill. Thank you for your time, have a pleasant day."
You don't need to say a great deal more than that, unless they ask you questions, in which case I hope you have read the Beer Education pages of freethehops.org!
We are very close to getting Gourmet Beer in Alabama... and you, the person reading this blog post, can make the difference.
Free the Hops!