Alabama State Senate Pro Tem Garlan Gudger (R-Cullman) said he’s considering some possible rule changes for next session.
Many lawmakers grew frustrated that some of the local bills got held up in the Senate and were unable to make it through before time ran out on the last day of the session.
“You know, obviously we didn’t get all the local legislation passed, and that was a priority for me,” Gudger told reporters this week. “So I think if there’s any way that we need to change rules, it would be, how do we handle local legislation to be fair so that one person can’t hold up the whole legislature, right? In the Senate, you’re able to do that, but I think there needs to be more of a group that needs to say this is something we don’t want as a delegation before you hold up everyone’s local bills. I think local bills are a priority, and we need to make sure they stay that way.”
Gudger said he wants to discuss the issue with the leadership team in the near future.
“So first of all, I’m gonna let the dust settle and relax for about three or four days and go play some golf. Then from that, we’re gonna start having leadership meetings immediately, figuring out if there’s gonna be any rule changes, seeing how we can make this particular body function better on both sides of the aisle, so that when we do come back, we’re able to make sure that everybody is being treated as fairly as possible,” Gudger explained.
“You heard some people tonight saying they didn’t treat them fairly tonight — but if you look back into how many minutes they’ve had at the mic, I think they’ve had more minutes than anybody else on the floor. So you’ve got to be able to balance that, and so you can’t look at just one night like tonight. You’ve got to look at the whole session. And that’s what we’re going to be doing, is looking at the data from the whole
Despite some of the tough issues Gudger faced in his first term as the leader of the Senate, he said he’s happy with what they were able to get done this year.
“I’ve been excited about this whole session,” he said, “and what we have accomplished, I think that I had a very short runway when I got here. The first day of session is when I was able to actually officially become the Pro Tem. And so immediately had to jump in and do a cannonball off the top to get going…I’m proud of the session, think we’ve done a good job on both sides of the aisle, and as the Senate body as a whole. So, I’m very proud.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
