During an interview that aired on Huntsville radio’s WVNN on Wednesday, State Sen. Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro) explained why he and some of his colleagues in the Alabama Senate were pursuing ethics reform legislation.
The ethics reform issue had been a hot-button in recent days as prominent voices, including some in the media and Attorney General Steve Marshall, had come out against the proposal put forth by Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Range).
According to the Jackson County Republican, the current law includes ambiguities that needed to be addressed. However, Livingston also acknowledged it was best the legislature paused given the speed with which it was proceeding on the Albritton’s legislation.
“There’s a lot of unanswered questions, and there’s a lot of I would say loose ends on our current ethics bill that could be interpreted different ways,” Livingston said. “Those things need to be tied up. We had the Economic Developers Site Selector Bill came out of committee yesterday, and there was some concern about our members down here that there would be an attempt to substitute the full Albritton bill for the simple site selector’s bill in committee and move it forward.”
“We’ve actually been moving at a pretty quick pace down here, and there’s a lot of concern in our caucus yesterday about how quick we were moving and what the public perception of that substitution would be to ethics. We’re moving way too fast. We haven’t had time to examine the bill and determine what the actual consequences are. I think it is a good thing we probably slowed down a little bit.”
Livington explained that given the impact on a such a large number of people in the state, of which he argued was the intent, it was his view action was warranted regarding the current law.
“I know in caucus yesterday this thing has a broad impact on over a million Alabamians,” he added. “I don’t think that was the intent of the legislation when they passed it. But we’ve got to do something, yes.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV and host of “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN in Huntsville.
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