Brian Lyman|Montgomery Advertiser
If this is the last week of the 2022 regular session of the Alabama Legislature —and that’s what leaders expect —it could be a long and contentious one.
Legislators have moved some larger issues out of the way. Work on the state’s budgets is almost complete. The lottery and gambling issue, which flared up weeks ago, appears to be dead for the session. But several notable bills could pass, along with less notable local and general bills that are still important to the members of the Legislature.
“We’re going to be focused on House bills,” said Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, on Thursday. “We’ve got several bills that are part of packages from the House that are very important to us that we’ve worked on.”
Reed said the Legislature will try a four-day week, running through Friday.
Criminalizing transgender youth treatments
The House has two bills pending that could put doctors in prison for up to 10 years for prescribing medically accepted treatments for transgender youth. SB 184, sponsored by Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, and HB 266, sponsored by Rep. Wes Allen, R-Troy, would prohibit doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone treatments to children under the age of 19.
The bills would also ban surgery on minors that “artificially construct tissue with the appearance of genitalia,” even though those surgeries are not performed in Alabama.
Prescribing the drugs would be a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
From March:Alabama bill criminalizing transgender health treatments moves closer to passage
Opinion: We'll move before we let Alabama lawmakers harm our transgender daughter
Transgender youth and advocates say the bill is profoundly misleading about the process of transition, which involves intense counseling and consultation with parents and families. Passage of the bill wouldlikelylead to legal action against the state.
“State laws and policies that prevent parents or guardians from following the advice of a healthcare professional regarding what may be medically necessary or otherwise appropriate care for transgender minors may infringe on rights protected by both the Equal Protection and the Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Kristen Clarke, an assistant U.S. attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, wrote in a March 31 letter to the attorneys general of various states.
Opinion: Let Alabama’s trans youth be trans and young
A similar Shelnutt-sponsored bill was on the calendar the final night of the 2021 regular session. The House adjourned without voting on the measure.
The House on March 8 passed a bill from Rep. Scott Stadthagen, R-Hartselle, that would require transgender students to use the bathroom of the sex of their birth. Thatbill is in a Senate committee.
From February: Alabama House approves bill restricting bathroom access to birth sex
Alabama Literacy Act delay
The House on Tuesday is expected to consider SB 200 from Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham. The bill would delay a 2019 Literacy Act provision requiringthird-graders who fail to meet literacy standards to be held back a year. The law as written would implement the provision this year. Smitherman’s bill, which passed the Senate on Feb. 22, would delay the implementation to the 2023-24 school year.
Supporters of the legislation say disruptions to learning created by the COVID epidemic mean that students have not had enough time to prepare for the requirements of the Literacy Act. To go to fourth grade, students under the law would have to score above a cut score, earn an “acceptable score” on a supplemental test, or demonstrate mastery of minimum standards.
From February: Changes to Literacy Act approved by Alabama House
The House approved a similar bill from Smitherman last year, but Gov. Kay Ivey vetoed it.
Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, who sponsored the 2019 Literacy Act,has a separate bill that clarifies the implementation of the law and added "good cause" exemptions to the retention requirements, including English language learners with less than three years of instruction, andstudents who have intensive reading plans and continue to show deficiencies, or students who had already been held back in school before third grade. The bill is in position for a Senate vote.
More: Alabama House approves legislation to provide resources for math education
More: Alabama Senate approves $8.2 billion education budget with major raises for experienced teachers
Redefinition of riot
HB 2, sponsored by Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Birmingham, would create a new crime of assault on a first responder, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. It would also change the definition of rioting. The current statute defines the crime as a person engaging in “tumultuous and violent conduct and thereby intentionally or recklessly causes or creates a grave risk of public terror or alarm” with five other people. Treadaway’s bill would change it to “the assemblage of five or more persons engaging in conduct which creates an immediate danger of damage to property or injury to persons.”
Under the bill, anyone convicted of rioting would spend at least 30 days in jail.
From February: Alabama House approves bill changing riot definition; critics say it gives police too much power
The legislation is pending in a Senate committee. Treadaway said the bill would protect police and peaceful protestors. Critics said during a House debate in February that the bill would give police the power to decide what constituted a riot and said it could create a chilling effect on peaceful protest.
Feminine hygiene products
HB 50, sponsored by Rep. Rolanda Hollis, D-Birmingham, would create a grant program to make feminine hygiene products available for free for students in grades five through 12 in Title I schools, or schools where 40% or more of the population is in poverty. The measure passed the House on a 102-to-0 vote on March 1. The legislation is in position for a Senate vote.
From March: Alabama House approves grants for feminine hygiene products in Title I schools
Studies have shown one in four teenagers report missing classes because of a lack of access to feminine hygiene products. The 2022-23 Education Trust Fund budget, awaiting final legislative approval, includes a $200,000 grant to fund the program.
'Divisive concepts'
HB 312, sponsored by Rep. Ed Oliver, R-Dadeville, would ban K-12 teachers from teaching from a list of “divisive concepts,” including “that this state or the United States is inherently racist or sexist;” “that an individual, solely by virtue of his or her race, sex, or religion, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, sex, or religion,” and “that any individual should be asked to accept, acknowledge, affirm, or assent to a sense of guilt, complicity, or a need to work harder solely on the basis of his or her race or sex.”
Oliver acknowledged during a House debate on March 17 that the bill could ban critical race theory, an academic framework used to understand the persistence of racism in American society which is not taught in Alabama's K-12 schools. Teachers found to violate the law could be subject to discipline from a school board, up to and including termination.
House Democrats managed to amend the bill to include language saying the legislation would not prohibit “the teaching of topics of historical events in a historically accurate context.” But they condemned the legislation, saying it would hinder the teaching of history. House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, called the bill a “racist piece of legislation.”
From March: Alabama House approves bill banning 'divisive concepts' in K-12 history education
Oliver’s bill is awaiting committee action in the Senate. A Senate committee approved a Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, last month. Barfoot's bill has not come to a floor vote and is unlikely to pass. As of Tuesday, Senate bills that pass that chamber need unanimous consent to go to the House, something Democrats are unlikely to give on Barfoot’s legislation.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or blyman@gannett.com.
