[Above from left to right: Speaker’s Commission members Cliff Sims, Rep. Kurt Wallace, Rep. Ed Henry, Lynn Robinson & Rep. Micky Hammon listen as grassroots activists give their input.]

We had our first public meeting last night for the Speaker’s Commission on Alabama Values & States’ Rights. Representative Ed Henry organized the event in Decatur with about 20 grassroots conservative activists and it was pretty impressive to hear the thoughts and ideas that folks brought to the table.

The Commission is planning to hold a few more meetings around the state, compile the input, and present some recommendations to Speaker Hubbard and the House Republican Caucus as they formulate their legislative agenda for the 2013 session. I believe the agenda will ultimately be made stronger by the feedback the Commission is getting directly from the people. This is exactly how a representative Republic should operate and I’m excited to be a part of it.

Here’s a rundown of some of the issues the activists wanted to discuss:

The Fair Tax
Common Core Standards
Pushing back against the overreaching U.S. Department of Education
Budget reform
Capping Medicaid spending
The Healthcare Compact and a similar structure for education reform
Ending the “Forever Wild” program
Expanding the Castle Doctrine
Making Alabama a “shall issue” state

…and more.

We spent about Two hours interacting and bouncing ideas around the room and I’m expecting several of the issues listed above to make it into our final recommendations to the Caucus. I’m also looking forward to getting more good ideas from fellow conservatives as we gather feedback from around the state.

If you have an idea you’d like to submit, the Commission has just launched a website that allows you to send your ideas directly to us online so you can participate even if the Commission doesn’t make it to your city: ALValuesAndRights.com.