The House
We've somewhat ignored the House of Representatives on this blog because all the drama has been in the Senate this year. But the House is still important! Our bill has to go through both the House and Senate in one session in order to become law.
We passed the House last year and have no reason to expect any different outcome this year. That said, as I say almost every post, there are no guarantees in the Alabama Legislature. Anything's possible.
And now we are faced with an upcoming vote in the House -- almost a year to the day after we passed the House last year. I have been informed that the House Rules Committee will put HB373 on a special order calendar this Tuesday, March 3rd. We passed the House last year on March 4th. Poetic.
So now is when you are needed most. Calls, emails, and faxes have the most impact when legislators know they are about to vote on a bill. As usual, neo-prohibitionists who think all alcohol is evil will be making calls trying to sway fence-sitters to vote against our bill. We need you to overwhelm those calls so that the Representatives about to vote on the Gourmet Beer Bill know that it has strong support from their constituents.
So... call! Use our Find Your Legislator page to look up who your Representative is and find out what his or her position on our bill is. Then, send an email and/or make a call thanking them if they already support us, or explaining why you, as their constituent, want to see HB373 signed into law.
Your voice is the most powerful tool we have. Make yourself heard. Now.
Cautious Optimism
Bingo bill filibuster is unlikely to tie up Senate, Barron saysBarron, chairman of the Rules Committee, the panel that controls the flow of legislation to the Senate floor, said politics in the Senate have changed since the 2008 session.
A year ago, Sen. Myron Penn, D-Union Springs, kept the Senate tied up in a filibuster for more than a month over a proposed constitutional amendment that would expand bingo in Macon County.
Barron said Thursday that kind of filibuster isn't likely to happen this session because Democrats and Republicans are working together.
"We are in a totally different posture than last year," he said.
In 2008, Republican senators, still angry over rules changes they believed were unfair, helped Penn in his stalling tactics.
"Last year I couldn't get the Republicans to carry (postpone) the gambling bill over, and they had enough Democrat votes over there so I couldn't get a majority to carry it over," Barron said. "But we've got a good bipartisan working relationship in this body, and I think it will continue."
We shall see. We shall see.
posted by Danner at 6:53 AM permanent link 0 comments
Good News, Bad News
The really good news is that the Senate functioned today. They made it through a relatively impressive special order calendar consisting of almost all the remaining sunset bills. In other words, they functioned normally, without interference from Phil Poole. And the word I'm hearing is that Poole is probably done with his obstructionism, although as I keep saying, we have no guarantees when it comes to the AL legislature. Anything's possible.
The bad news is that now the path is clear for bingo to once again shut down the Senate exactly as it did last year. This year, this horrible specter is SB135, relating to bingo in Greene County. If it does not pass quickly, the whole legislature could again be brought to a grinding halt over the debate.
If you care more about the fate of The Gourmet Beer bill than about gambling in Greene County, then pray that SB135 passes quickly so that it won't stand in the way of the Senate passing the many other bills waiting in line this year, including ours.
In Case You Were Wondering
And of course you were wondering, if you didn't tune in yesterday.
The Senate passed a few sunset bills and then we all got Pooled again. He's still at it, still preventing normal business in the legislature.
It's pretty sickening.
Today is committee day, then they'll reconvene for the last time this week tomorrow at 10am.
As The Senate Turns
Here we are again, at the start of a day when the Senate will convene (2pm), wondering what soap opera drama will unfold today.
Listening live to a session of our state Senate ought to be boring. It ought to be filled with lots of mundane business surrounding the passage of basic bills that address problems in the state, such as improperly secured steel coils on shipping trailers, or licensing requirements for certain trade professionals.
Instead, we are presented with the ongoing drama of whether one Senator or another will shut down the legislature either based on some personal vendetta or a desire to pass one bill being pushed by a key campaign contributor. If it didn't put Alabama in such a sad state of affairs, it would be highly entertaining.
So listen in and see what happens today.
On a lighter note, thanks to everyone who came out to our Birmingham Kick-Off Party Sunday at The J. Clyde. We had a great turnout and got everyone fired up to get this law changed. Thanks to the Clyde for stepping up with a couple of world class cask ales and donating the food.
If you missed the Birmingham party and you're anywhere within driving distance of Huntsville, head to Lowe Mill this Saturday the 28th for the Huntstville Blastoff party. Details at http://www.beerblastoff.com/.
We Got Pooled (Again)
The Senate conducted a little bit of business yesterday, receiving committee reports and even working one very brief special order calendar (4 bills all expanding state benefits for veterans) before Phil Poole stood up and began filibustering once again.
Apparently he had been about ready to let the Senate do some work until they passed a bill sponsored by Jabo Waggoner Tuesday -- a bill Poole has opposed for several years out of a personal vendetta against Waggoner. Since Waggoner finally got what he wanted, Poole decided to shut down the entire Senate, again. That's how we roll in Alabama. It's all about who hates who and who is getting what in the deals made in smoke-filled rooms.
As always, I suggest you keep up with Doc's Political Parlor for the inside scoop on what's happening.
For now, we sit and wait and see what happens when they reconvene Tuesday at 2pm.
HB373 Passes House Committee
Yesterday a group of us went to the Alabama legislature to make our case in the Travel & Tourism committee as to why our bill deserves to pass out of committee. As you may already be aware, the committee voted unanimously to allow our bill to head to the floor of the House (on a later date) to be voted on. This is a very important step, especially as we passed the house last year.
I have to make a special mention of Representative Craig Ford here. He stepped in to speak to our bill, as our sponsor was tied up in another committee meeting at the same time. Representative Ford brilliantly advocated our bill, and skilfully dealt with the comments made by our opponents. If you live in Representative Ford's Gadsden district, please let him know that we appreciate his support for our bill.
Senate Watch the Second
To follow up to Danner's previous post, the Senate on Tuesday worked in a routine fashion, debating and voting on a number of bills. This is great news, of course, because a functioning Senate is required for the Gourmet Beer Bill to pass.
Tomorrow, however, is a new day. The Senate didn't convene today as Wednesdays are typically set aside for committee work. Rumor has it that the "Phil Poole issue" still hasn't been fully resolved, so when they go into session tomorrow we may see a routine body deliberating on legislation or we may see more of the same drama we've seen over the last two years.
I have a feeling we'll be having a "Senate Watch" every time they go into session.
Senate Watch
The Alabama Senate will reconvene today at 2pm. If you enjoy watching sausage being made, you can listen live here: http://www.legislature.state.al.us/audio/senateaudio.html
Today's drama centers around whether the "Phil Poole Issue" has been resolved. The business the Senate conducted last Thursday was only possible because Poole agreed to pause his filibuster for one day to allow a few big ticket bills to pass. Meanwhile, efforts at resolving the underlying conflict have continued.
So the big question is whether a permanent resolution has been reached. If so, then some bills will pass today. If not, you'll hear Phil Poole talking for several hours and nothing will get done.
Danny at Political Parlor is doing a good job chronicling what's going on behind the scenes, including intense, widespread pressure being applied by some powerful people in Alabama to get the Senate moving.
Last week in the legislature
Last week was the second week of the 2009 Alabama legislative session, and that usually marks the first week of action in Montgomery.
So far the Alabama House of Representatives has gotten off to an early start, passing several of the required "sunset laws." These are noncontroversial bills that must be passed periodically to continue to existence of certain regulatory boards in the state. The House also passed their annual bill to ban PAC-to-PAC transfers in Alabama as well as several uncontested local bills and some other actions. In short, the House of Representatives is chugging along and passing some noncontroversial legislation early on.
The Alabama Senate, however, didn't make it through its second week without a filibuster. As Danner explained earlier, Senator Phil Poole from Tuscaloosa stalled the chamber on Tuesday because he said some senators planned to kill a local bill that he supports. The delay caused some heated arguments on the floor between Poole and Senator Larry Means of Atalla.
Fortunately, a truce seems to have been declared and the Senate functioned routinely on Thursday. No one's sure how long the peace will last.
The good news for Free the Hops this week is that our Senate bill, SB132, unanimously passed out of Senate committee on Wednesday. This was expected, but is good news nonetheless. SB132 was re-introduced to the Senate floor on Thursday which means we are ready for a Senate vote.
Our House companion bill, HB373 is scheduled for a public hearing in committee next week on Wednesday, although they might not vote on the measure until the week after. This is a procedural requirement, and we expect to pass out of the House committee with no problem.
One Small Step For Hops
We passed the Senate Tourism committee today on a unanimous vote. There was even a nice write-up by Phillip Rawls on the AP wire. While certainly welcome news, it was not at all unexpected; we passed the same committee last year. We never expected opposition in committee, and (cross your fingers while knocking on wood) we don't expect any serious obstructionism if our bill ever comes to the floor in the Senate.
We went into this session expecting our main difficulty to be the do-nothing posture of the Senate, and per my post below, that expectation was valid.
So everything's in place for us to come to a floor vote in the Senate... it all hinges on whether they do any real work this year. Hope for the best.
Hostage
Once again, the Senate is being held hostage by one Senator who is not getting his way. That sure didn't take long, did it? This is essentially what happened last year, only now it's a different Senator throwing a tantrum over a different bill.
You can hardly blame Phil Poole. He didn't design the system. He's just using it to his advantage, as many other Senators have used it to their advantage. As they say, don't hate the player, hate the game.
The sad reality is that the rules under which our Alabama Senate operates allow one Senator to hold the entire session hostage as long as he can speak. One Senator can filibuster ad infinitum until he gets his way on a pet issue. And if the Senators who stand on the other side of the issue are ornery enough, nothing gets done. Period. That's the story of the entire 2008 Session of the Alabama Senate. Pray that it's not the story of 2009.
That's your tax dollars at work. Those are your elected officials. Getting paid $50,000 of taxpayer money every year to stand in front of a microphone for a few hours, two days a week, only a few months a year, bickering over pet issues and holding up scores of necessary bills, many of which never see the light of day.
It's far too early to get despondent. It's entirely possible this could clear up in a few days and lots of bills will pass. But we certainly have no guarantees. The system itself is deeply flawed and needs reform, and voters need to punish some legislators at the polls next year for engaging in absurdly childish and wasteful antics.
Just keep watch to see if/when things get moving, or if we have another session-long filibuster...
The Gourmet Beer Bills 2009
We now have bills in front of the legislature.
The House Gourmet Beer Bill is HB373, sponsored by Representative Thomas Jackson, who has been our bill sponsor in the House on each occasion.
The Senate Gourmet Beer Bill is SB132, now sponsored by Senator Singleton as our former Senate sponsor, Senator Parker Griffith, was elected to the US Congress.
Senator Bobby Singleton was elected to the Alabama Senate, January 25, 2005, to fill the unexpired term of former Senator Charles Steele, who resigned. He was elected to his first full term, November 7, 2006. He serves as the Chair of Tourism and Marketing Committee, Deputy Chair of Finance and Taxation - General Fund Committee, Vice Chair of Banking and Insurance Committee, Chairman of The Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, and is the Economic Development Chairman of the West Alabama Rural Action Commission (WARAC) for Region 2.
Cross Your Fingers
As you're hopefully already aware, today begins the 2009 Session of the Alabama Legislature. We have a part-time legislature that only works a few months each year, so our window to get bills passed is fairly small.
As always, I am hopeful. We have made progress every year since we began working on the ABV law in this state, and the only step left is getting the Gourmet Beer Bill through the Senate. Our chances look good.
That said, we're likely in for another wild ride in the state legislature this year, as our deeply dysfunctional Senate rarely accomplishes much of substance. We certainly have reason to be cautious in our optimism as there is never any guarantee our Senate will pass more than a paltry handful of big ticket bills, leaving smaller issues of concern only to small constituencies on the table, untouched.
Watch the budget process, as the massive budget shortfall this year will be the source of a lot of drama. And one of the proposals for helping address the shortfall -- new taxes on gambling -- will surely make for a hot debate. Let's hope they don't get bogged down in that debate at the expense of all other issues in the state.
Though the effect wouldn't be especially large, we can take comfort in knowing that passage of the Gourmet Beer Bill will have a positive net impact on tax revenue, as all the expensive beers many of us currently buy out of state would get purchased right here in Alabama. I would hope state legislators would welcome any increase in tax revenue in times like these.
We fully expect to repeat last year's success in the House. And we believe we have the votes we need to pass in the Senate if they ever bring it to the floor. But don't get complacent. Nothing is certain in politics, so we're counting on all of our grassroots supporters to make phone calls and write letters when the time is right, to make sure our state legislators understand the importance of the Gourmet Beer Bill for many citizens in Alabama.
Free the Hops!