Week 11 (Mar 31 - Apr 2)
Only THREE days remain in the legislative session, and the pace has picked up. This week, we saw important bills advancing, as well as some controversial bills crossing the finish line. Final battles are taking shape. With just a few days left, now is the time to stay informed and engaged. Don’t miss what happened this week and what’s still at stake.
Bills That Crossed The Finish Line This Week
SB248 (Sen. Shelnutt) Religious Release Time. Bill allows school districts to adopt policies permitting students to attend off-campus religious instruction during school hours with parental consent, with safety oversight and required background checks for participating organizations.
HB2 (Rep. Standridge) Gulf of America. Bill renames the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
HB95 (Rep Lovvorn) Election Audit bill. This bill would require the judge of probate of each county to conduct a post-election audit after every county and statewide general election to determine the accuracy of the originally reported results of the election.
HB475 (Rep. Butler) Public Service Commission (PSC) bill. The bill was substituted in the Senate and among other things, the bill establishes SEVEN public service commissioners rather than the current three and adds an appointed Secretary of Energy, a cabinet level position.
Bills That Passed The First Chamber
SB99 (Sen. Kelley) 10 Commandments. Requires schools to post an 11″x14″ poster that shows the Ten Commandments along with quotes from the Mayflower Compact of 1620, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. It passed the Senate and is headed to the House. There is still time to get this across the finish line! Please pray.
SB298 (Sen. Barfoot) Law enforcement staffing. Requires Class 3 municipalities to maintain minimum law enforcement staffing levels (based on population). Provides a grace period to comply and allows state oversight or intervention if cities fail to meet the requirements. Bill passed the Senate and was heard in the House Public Safety Committee and is ready to be debated on the floor.
HB584 (Rep. Ross) Guidelines to limit screen time K-5th grade. This bill is an extension of HB78 that is now law, that requires guidelines to limit screentime for children in preschool-kindergarten. HB584 requires screentime guidelines to be set through 5th grade. It passed House and is headed to the Senate.
More Bills Moving...
SB209 (Sen. Shelnutt) Sex Education Curriculum. Sexual Risk Avoidance established as sex ed curriculum, policies of local boards of education related to sex ed, parent or guardian notice of sex ed curriculum required. It already passed full Senate and is scheduled to be debated on the House floor on Tuesday, April 7th.
HB541 (Rep. Yarbrough) Closed Primaries. This bill would require an elector to be registered with a political party in order to vote that party’s ballot in a primary election or primary runoff election. A public hearing is scheduled for 11:00am on Tuesday in Senate State Governmental Affairs Committee on the 8th floor.
HB644 (Rep. Chestnut) Ban female genital mutilation. This bill passed out of House Judiciary Committee and is ready to be debated on the House floor.
HB545 (Rep. Crow) Rounding of coins for cash transactions. This bill would authorize the rounding of the total amount of any in-person cash transaction to the nearest five cents. It has passed the full House and the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee and is ready to be debated on the Senate floor.
HB666 (Rep. Yarbrough) Union Dues. This bill was introduced this week and prohibits schools from deducting union dues directly from employee paychecks. Also allows all state employees to revoke union or association membership at any time and immediately stop dues payments. This bill was introduced but has not been heard in House State Government Committee yet.
