It has been just three weeks since the Alabama Legislature adjourned sine die. However, recent developments in the state’s years-long effort to finalize a new prison construction plan have some lawmakers still at it headed into summer.
Among those are State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore), the chairman of the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee, who told Mobile radio’s FM Talk 106.5 if the legislature does tackle a prison plan that includes financing, it will likely have to originate in the House of Representatives.
The Escambia County lawmaker reminded listeners of the failed gaming bill, which originated in the Senate but was deemed a non-starter by House Republicans.
“[I] suspect whatever begins will have to begin in the House, to see what the House thinks they can pass,” he explained. “And then when it comes to the Senate, we’ll have to address whatever changes we need to make there. But yes, the politics of passing bills between the houses has become an issue. You go back to the gaming bill and everything else. It’s just problematic. That’s the nature of our system.”
Albritton explained one of the reasons for the struggle to get cooperation between the House and Senate was finding consensus in the House.
“Yes, I have working relationships and good friend relationships with many people in the House,” Albritton said. “But there’s 105 folks with about 210 opinions, and it is difficult to find a consensus and a unity to pass significant legislation.”
He explained that should the process originate in the House, it may give lawmakers in the lower chamber more flexibility.
“I have confidence,” he said. “Maybe the Senate was being too obnoxious, OK? Maybe we were trying too hard to do things and was trying to push inappropriately push the other house in a way they just couldn’t seem to get to. I think if they are allowed the freedom, if you will, the white paper, to work with, let them work, do the work and research and then determine what votes they can get. Let them have that freedom to figure it out. Maybe it will come about better, and I believe it will.”
Albritton said he anticipates more details to come out of a meeting he and other members of legislative leadership have with Gov. Kay Ivey in the coming week.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.
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