7 Things: Biden’s tax-and-spend infrastructure bill unveiled, bill to limit the ability to punish repeat offenders in Alabama moves forward, nursing homes and hospitals will require masks and more …

7. Alabama is suing Biden so we can still cut taxes

• Included in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan was a provision that prevents states from using funds given through the legislation to “offset a reduction in the net tax revenue.” Marshall has said that this language “bans states from cutting taxes for several years.”
• Due to this, Marshall has joined with attorneys general from West Virginia, Alaska, Florida, South Dakota, Utah, Iowa, Montana, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and New Hampshire in suing President Joe Biden’s administration.  

6. Bill requiring student athletes compete in sports according to birth certificate passes committee

• Legislation sponsored by State Representative Scott Stadthagen (R-Hartselle) that requires youth athletes to compete with the gender listed on their birth certificate has been approved 9-0 by the Senate Committee on Education Policy. 
• Stadthagen emphasized that the bill is about protecting women’s sports and is just meant to promote fairness. “Transgender” isn’t mentioned in the bill, since Stadthagen wanted the focus to just be on protecting women’s sports. 

5. Overturning an election is now OK, apparently

• In the 2020 general election, Iowa’s Second Congressional District elected Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican, over Democrat candidate Rita Hart. Miller-Meeks only won by six votes, but the results were certified by the state and recounted multiple times. Now, Hart is pushing to have the results changed. 
• Secretary of State John Merrill and U.S. Representatives Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville), Jerry Carl (R-Enterprise), Gary Palmer (R-Hoover), and Barry Moore (R-Mobile) have sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) saying, “[W]e believe that removing a sitting Congresswoman and replacing her through a purely political process would create a dangerous precedent with disastrous long-term results.”

4. Senate committee passes bill that bans voting multiple times

• The bill sponsored by State Representative Chris Blackshear (R-Phenix City) that would prohibit people from voting in Alabama while also voting in other states for the same election has passed the Senate Committee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development. 
• State Senator Vivian Figures (D-Mobile) was the only one to vote “nay” on the legislation, making the final committee vote 9-1. Blackshear said that in 2018 there were at least six people in Alabama who also voted in other states. 

3. Masks will still be required at hospitals and nursing homes

• The Alabama Nursing Home Association and Alabama Hospital Association have declared that they will still be requiring masks at facilities across the state after the statewide mask mandate ends on April 9.
• Alabama Hospital Association President Dr. Don Williamson explained that to continue having visitors and “prevent further spread of the virus, our facilities are required to take additional precautions and to limit visitation when certain conditions exist.”

2. Yoga and medical marijuana bills stall in Alabama; A bill to lessen criminal penalties for repeat offenders proceeds

• The media in Alabama love to talk about bills that focus on yoga and pet projects like medical marijuana, but while those bills seem imperiled, a bill proposed by State Rep. Christopher England (D-Tuscaloosa) that would stop the practice of increasing penalties for repeated felonious offenders has moved forward.
• The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill out of committee that would repeal Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender Act. State Rep. Matt Simpson (R-Daphne) says the bill would limit the ability of prosecutors and judges to punish criminals after multiple felonies.

1. Biden has big plans and big taxes to pay for them

• President Joe Biden went to Pittsburgh to unveil his latest big-government program, and it is a huge “infrastructure” spending program. Biden also announced how he was going to pay for this plan — a 33% increase in the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, which will clearly impact employment but the media and their Democrats are still referring to this as something that will create “good-paying jobs.”
• If Biden is looking for Republican support, he is not going to get it. Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says this plan isn’t even about infrastructure. He advised, “This plan is not about rebuilding America’s backbone. Less than 6% of this massive proposal goes to roads and bridges. It would spend more money just on electric cars than on America’s roads, bridges, ports, airports, and waterways combine.”