From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy.

Welcome to the first of our nightly Capitol Journal broadcasts of the 2026 legislative session.

The session officially begins tomorrow at 12 noon, when the House and Senate will gavel in for the last regular session of this term.

Under the Alabama Constitution, election year sessions start a little early o the second Tuesday of January.

But like all sessions, there are limits to how long the legislature can meet.

The session can last a tota of 30 legislative days, or days when lawmakers actually mee in the chambers to pass bills, and that can take place ove the course of 105 calendar days.

That means the last possible day the legislature can be in session is April 28th, but we expect them to b finished a lot sooner than that.

Lawmakers tend to move fast in election years.

In fact, legislative leadership tells us that they intend to start the session with three meeting days per week, rather than the typical two days, with Wednesday's set aside for committee meetings only.

So expect a pretty fast pace this session.

And that also means Capitol Journal will go to nightly programing beginning tonight.

We'll broadcast Monday through Thursday from here at our state House studio at 10:30 p.m.

or after your local news with all you need to know from that day in the Alabama Legislature.

And of course, our Weekend Review episodes will air, as always, on Fridays at 730 and Sundays at noon.

I also encourage viewer to follow along via our podcast and YouTube channel, so that you never miss a beat and we hope you'll join us for the state of the State address tomorrow night to kick off the session.

This will be governor K IV's ninth and final state of the State address.

Our live broadcast will begin at 530 with some pre-game commentary.

The speech itself live at 6:00, and then will stay on air live until 730, with some post-game reaction, including the official Democratic response.

Again, that's the state of the state address live starting at 530 Tuesday night here on apt.

And if you're not b a television, will also be live streaming via our YouTube channel.

Just go to YouTube and search Capitol Journal and smash that.

Subscribe button while you'r there so you never miss a show.

Alabama has a commission studying post-traumatic stress disorder among first responders.

At a recent meeting here at the state House.

The panel said better communication may be the key to closing gaps in mental health care across the state.

The Interim Study Commission on PTSD and First Responders was tasked with examining why police officers, firefighters and sheriff's deputies often struggle to access help even when services are already existing.

Lawmakers say the issue is not funding, but awareness and coordination across agencies.

State Representative Allen Treadaway, who chairs the commission, says the group worked with stakeholders statewide to make sure that first responders get help when they need it.

I think we fixed the problem.

We've reached out to all the stakeholder from the sheriff's department, the fire department, the police department, the county and the League of Municipalities on how to get the services to the individuals when they need them.

And I think we've accomplished that.

So I think that for now, they're going to be able to get those services.

PTSD doesn' mean it's permanent disability.

If you get the services, the right services, you can overcome that and be back at work.

And so those who have more severe symptoms will get them the professional treatment that they need.

So, I'm really please with the work of this commission and, especially thankful the Alabam Department of Mental Health for corralling all these services, putting them together, getting them out there.

And, so I think that, that's going to be very beneficial, public safety in the state of Alabama.

It's qualifying time for Alabama's upcoming elections.

Republicans and Democrats, up and down the ticket are submitting their forms to run for office.

Of course, recen elections has solidified Alabama as a solid Republican state.

And in the last two cycles, Democrats have lagged behind in finding competitive candidates, especially in state wide and congressional races.

The is trying to change that trend this year.

Organizers held a press conference showing a new slate of candidates aiming to be competitive this fall.

These are, just some of not all of our candidates for federal office.

The Alabama Democratic Party has not had candidates running in every single one of our congressional districts.

That has not happened since 2018.

And we have more candidates running this year than we had in 2018, and we are thrilled about it.

So I want to, take a minute to thank our candidates for coming down here to do this, and to celebrate this important moment.

I began to see and realize that the third Congressional District was not being appropriately represented in the U.S.

House of Representatives.

We're a rural district, so we faced all the problems other rural counties face.

We have health care that deserts.

Seven of our counties do not have trauma centers.

Five of our counties do not have a pediatrician.

All 11 counties have critical shortages of mental health.

Coverage.

And we'll be right back with tonight's guests.

Stay with us.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

aptv.. org.

Click on the online video tab on the main page.

You can also connect with Capital Journal and link to past episodes on Capital Journal's Facebook page.

Fort Toulouse site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

The day known as the Fort Toulouse Jackson State Park, during the colonial period, Fort Toulouse acted as a commercial, religious and diplomatic frontier outpost for the French from 1717 until 1763.

It was one of a series of fort built by the French to protect their holdings and French colonial Louisiana from British and French during the 18th century.

Fort Jackso played a major role in the Great War of 18 1314, when General Andrew Jackson and the U.S.

Army used Fort Jackson, buil on the old side of Fort Toulouse on August 9th, 1814, after their defea in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the Upper Creeks surrendered to the United States and the Treaty of Fort Jackson, effectively ending the Great War.

19 million acres of cree lands were open for settlement, resulting in Alabama becoming a state only five years later.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is John Treadwell, clerk of the Alabama House of Representatives.

Mr.

clerk thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you, Todd, for having me.

You've had a busy day.

It has been a busy day.

You would never know.

That session starts tomorrow.

That's right.

Noon, I guess the gavel.

Yeah.

We'll gavel in at noo tomorrow.

Okay.

How about that?

I mean, these these early sessions, right?

An election year, it starts early.

And so, you know, you barely get through Christmas, New Year's and everything.

And goodness, here we are.

Yeah.

You know, at a at a session.

So I wanted to talk about the I know that's what the Constitution requires.

Does that put extra pressure on y'all to, to be ready?

I mean, I guess preparation must start months in advance.

Exactly.

Yeah, it's, it's pretty much business as usual for staff.

It is a little bit of a quick turnaround when you're dealing with all of the holiday activities and then, you know, bam, we're here the fourth year of the quadrennial.

We're startin the first Tuesday in in January.

But like you said, we're preparing year round.

You know, as soon as we gavel out sunny day, we catch our breath and then we hit the ground running starting to get things together and and moving forward toward the next session.

So it's pretty much business as usual for, for legislative staff.

I think legislative leadership talks about a pretty quick session.

Yeah.

Meaning, you know, we call them three day weeks where it's, you know, in in chamber, Tuesday in chamber, Wednesday in chamber Thursday.

Usually that Wednesday da is set aside as just committee.

That is tough for us as media to cover.

We talk about that process and how you all are preparing for a pretty quick schedule in terms of the session.

Yeah, we we've been working through some mock sessions and with staff that are in the chamber, so that we're prepared and ready to go and that we can keep things rolling while we're in the chamber.

We're also behind the scenes working with our committee clerk and some of our production folks that are doing things behind the scenes and and preparing and getting ready to go.

And so all of them working together.

You know, kind of being ready to go for a fast, fast start and that three day, three day week and just staying on top of things being, you know, very careful attention, attention to detail and communicating with one another, communicating with members.

And, we pretty much can keep things, keep things rolling.

But it is a little bit of process and just a little extra care and attention.

And usually we're pretty good to go.

Well, I've been, you know, the last couple of weeks, just in the state House, been seeing all the staff, you know, running around, getting prepared.

You know, and now it's it's go time.

And y'all hav we've talked about this before.

Y'all do so much with less staff as compared to other states.

You talk about the staff and how important that is.

I'm thinking about committee clerks.

I'm thinking about your staff there in the clerk's office.

In terms of making sure everything is done correctly, the attention to detail, a lot is on their shoulders.

But talk about the importance of their role, a role that sometimes goes unrecognized.

Yeah.

There are a lot of things going on behind the scenes of a lot of things happening to keep everythin rolling while we're in session.

And then also, like you said, many months leading up leading up to session.

And, we have so many departments from our general department to our in rolling and engrossing department, our, our clerk's office, our committee clerks, our security team, that are working and preparing and getting ready to go for session.

And it takes all of them sort of working together.

And, we take take advantag of opportunities to do training while we're while we're outside of session.

If, workin through our new computer system that we're still, you know we've kind of settled in with it now and it's our legislative computer system is doing doing really well.

But if we've had som opportunities to tweak something and make something a little more streamlined so that it will enhance the proces as we're moving through session, you know while we're in that interim part before session starts, that's when we really dive into that and try to make sur those things are taking place.

And those tweaks, enhancements are happening.

But staff or, you know, they're they're just great.

I can't thank them enough for what they do.

They have a great attitude.

They work hard.

And I think truly, most really do feel honored to do what they do to serve legislators and work with legislators.

But then knowing that their work impacts Alabamians.

In so many different ways through the through the legislative process.

And I think most of them see that as, you know, as an honor and take that very, very seriously.

So I can't I can't thank them enough for what they for what they do.

I'm so glad you said that.

The other so many unsung heroes when it comes to the letters.

And you're right, there's a a commitment to public service getting it right.

No, no, not bringing your biases or, you know, all that kind of stuff.

It is such a professional environment of staff.

I wish folks could see what we see sometimes in the hallways and in those committee rooms and everything.

It strikes me, you know, this is, Speaker Ledbetter, you know, I guess fourth session as speaker.

But y'all kind of came in together a little bit there.

So think about your term, if you will, as clerk and how how that has come.

And now you're at your fourth term, fourth year.

And that's great.

And you know, if you remember, as we were coming in to, to this quadrennial, you know, new clerk of the House, new speaker, new rules chair, we're, implementing a new computer system.

You know, there were a lot of opportunities, for things to, to get mixed up there just a little bit.

But I think things have gone very, very smoothly, and I can't tell you how much I enjoy working with, Speaker Ledbetter and his staff.

It's just an honor to get to work with him.

He is on top of things.

He is, very attentive to procedure and how things operate in the chamber.

And, he's just made my job so much easie and in so many different ways.

And I really, really do appreciate that.

Sometimes I look through it like the press room or the or the lobby or something, and I'm like, I just couldn't do that.

Sit up there.

And I mean, you got to be patient.

You've got to listen to a lot of different people talk and and everything.

And it's, it's it's a unique job.

Okay Well, it's a little bittersweet.

This is the last session in thi building, in this state House.

I guess the it's it's 40 years, right?

86 to 20, 26.

So talk about that.

I mean, you had been here the whole time.

Few people have.

But, you know, everybody's looking forward to the new building.

But a little bittersweet in this, you know, in here, it actually is.

And, we our staff Christmas party, I was I was talking to staff, and, I was getting a little bit sentimental about about this building.

I find myself doing tha more and more as we're preparing to move to the to the new building.

You know, we are we're so ready and so excited about what's waiting for us across the street.

And you know, how much more accessibility and how great that building is going to be for the legislators and, and the public generally.

But a lot has happened in my tenure in working in this building, in this in this state House.

And, you know, a lot of memories, a lot of great things have hav gone on here in this building.

So you're thinking through all of those things as you're getting ready to let go of this building and then move to our great building that we're going to have, across the street.

So I think a lot of memorie might be shared over the next, four months about this building.

And, it's really.

Well, speaking of the new place, I mean, we just see it coming up.

I mean, it just looks every week.

There's something different there, like.

Oh, wow.

It's really coming along.

Everything according to schedule.

Everything is still still on track.

We're looking at being ready to go and and gabbling in fo an organizational session in 27.

And then, of course, we'll hit the ground runnin in the new building in our 2027 regular session.

And, you know, we're hoping our goal is to have our orientation for new members in our in our new state House after the election.

So and we'r we're still on track with that.

So we're really excited about that opportunity.

And a lot is happening over there interior wise.

They're they're really moving t a lot of the interior details.

And once you get that roo on, it's a little easier, right?

The progress is just astounding.

It just blows my mind.

What they're what they're accomplishing over there.

And then again, the the outside is looking great just watching the columns go up on the front.

It just it's really starting to look like a state house.

And that's really, really exciting to see.

It really is.

And we'll be talking to more about that all session.

Mr.

Clark, get some sleep.

Well you can't say thank you I appreciate it.

Thanks for coming in to explain some of this and hope we'll hope to have you back.

Yeah.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

Montgomery native Katherine C Thornton is a physicist and former NASA astronaut.

A veteran of four spaceflights, Thornton has logged over 975 hours in space, including more than 21 hours of extravehicular activity.

During her time with NASA.

She served on the crew of 649, the maiden flight of Space Shuttle Endeavor, and helped prepare the Hubble Space Telescope and conducted microgravity experiments in Space Lab.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Ken Boswell, ADECA director for the state of Alabama.

Mr.

director thanks for coming on the show.

Happy to be here.

We should explain what ADECA is.

Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.

Everybody knows it as a Deca here in the Capitol complex, but it's good to explain that.

And speaking of that, I was hoping that befor we get started into the issues, you could remind our audience about the role of Deca, because y'all deal with a lot of grants and things like that, almost like a conduit between the feds and the state and communities, right?

That's correct.

Todd we deal with the incoming from, VOCAL related items which is violence against women.

Domestic violence and things of that nature.

We help with turn lanes going into businesses that are being created.

We help with the infrastructure that actually, new business is coming and existin business is actually expanding.

So I would say is, like I told the governor the other day, I mean, we are her arm that gives away the federal dollars.

And since 2017, we've given away approximately 1.9 billion.

Wow.

Would be.

Yeah.

And, would tell you that, it's been a very rewarding job.

And, we've I would think we've helped a lot of people.

And the governor has really made an impact on rural Alabama.

When obviously you were mayor of enterprise for a number of years.

So, you know what those those federal dollars mean.

And, and having that good relationship with the state.

Because if you don't and I'm sure there would be some holes in budgets around the state.

No doubt it's a force multiplier if it's used properly.

Those areas that you would not otherwise be able to fix or repair or make people's lives a lot better.

It just wouldn't happen without these federal dollars coming into the municipalities and counties.

Well, speaking of federal dollars in quite a bit of federal and state dollars dedicated to expanding broadband, specifically, not just in rural areas because there's a lot of urban development.

Absolutely.

But a lot of rural.

So you mentioned 2017 when y'all came into office.

That's ten years.

It is.

So I'm thinking go back to 2017.

Obviously there's been a huge push for rural broadband expansion or just broadband expansion in general.

Take us from the to where we are now in terms of getting those those resources out into the communities.

Well, we'll tell you that broadband was one of Governor Ivey's priorities.

She knew that it was.

The new infrastructure is just as important as a bridge or road or anything else.

And it was magnified during the coronavirus era, but would tell you that we have done a lot since 2017.

We felt like that it was very important to have a plan going in.

So we worked very hard with making that happen.

The legislature did a good job working with Governor Ivey in appropriating dollars so that we could hire consultants and get ahead of the game so that we could maximize our return from the federal government.

Right now, some where around $576 million has been allocated toward, the broadband effort.

77 million of that, 576 was allocate through the state legislature.

Okay.

So they also knew the importance of what broadband would mean, not only to the state overall, but good.

Have the game from the state.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And it's it's been it from 17.

We actually developed the plan.

Then we knew that we needed to we took the 77 million, put it toward the last mile.

And then we took the other dollars, the Arpa money.

And some capital projects, fund dollars.

And we used that to actually go out into the last mile.

We also created the middle mile, which is the most important segment of my mind.

Right.

Kind of explained it as a highway system or the interstate versus the connector roads.

Can you kind of talk about that?

Sure, sure.

The middle mile is basicall like the interstate, if you will excuse me.

Dark fiber is like the interstate, okay.

Where you've got lanes going both ways, north and south, east and west.

And that is what the middle mile plugs into.

And it's like highway state highway system in that that system literally helps magnify those internet service providers that we're working with on a daily basis to keep the cost.

Well.

Now, we've ran about 7000 miles of middle mile since 2000, 18.

That timeline, would have worked with Alabama Fiber Network to get that accomplished.

And they have been great partner we go from the middle mile into the last mile, which, we're we're awaiting a bid award.

Right.

I want to ask you about that bid stands for Broadband Equity Access and developed.

Yes.

And this is another way we're working with our federa partners on.

Correct?

Correct.

And we're waiting on that award just any day.

But if you would say that we have not made any strides to toward getting broadband April minute, just to give you an example, since 2021, we have 50% more fiber on the ground today.

And since 2021, we have 40% more people that are subscribing to the internet right now.

So we have made great leaps and bounds, due to Governor Ivey's leadership and her vision.

I do think we're going t look back at broadband because it doesn't happen overnight And we talked about ten years.

And really, you could go back further than that when some of that started, you could but, you know, there was a time when I think it was under Bi Jim Folsom getting roads done, telephone poles.

I mean, that was the that was the infrastructure problems of those days.

I think we'll look back and see the same thing and look at broadband is just a basic community necessity, especially for things like hospitals and schools where it' some of these rural communities.

If you don't have broadban access, then how does your how how are you going to keep a hospital or a hospital open or schools, things like that?

Well, look at what's happening in the medical field now.

Telehealth.

I mean, to be able to sit a home, engage with your physician or that medical profession to help improve the quality of life that you have.

Not only that, but education, economic development, and what it will do for the whole state.

We've just completed the middle mile.

We were over in Wilcox County, and the black belt has all been a challenge, but it's like governo says Rome wasn't built no day.

And this is not a short term race.

It's a long term race.

But we finished up the middle mile.

Now, and, we were working with our internet service providers as we speak.

We have some.

This will be a little slow with the capital projects funds but we are, meeting with those, all of our internet service providers, if you will.

I want a 60 day basis right now so we know how important it is to finish these projects.

I feel pretty good about the Arpa dollars and what I was going to ask you, because I'm pretty sure when you were on here last time, you talked about 20, 26, I guess the end of 2026 being the deadline for it is are we going to meet that deadline?

I think we'll be fine on the Arpa dollars.

We we're keeping a route tat line and close down that.

We do have some internet providers that are lagging in the capital project fund side of it, which is allocated to nothing but the last mile.

We're working with them.

We're keeping the pressure on them.

And, so I feel pretty good about our money.

There may be some leftover capital project funds that has to go back to the governor government, but there's nothing that yo can do with that money anyway.

It is allocated and dedicated to nothing more than the last mile, so get on it for sure.

It's gonna.

Yeah.

That's right.

No doubt.

We'll look.

We're out of time.

Thank you for coming on and explaining, this and giving us an update.

I hope you'll come back over the course of the next year, because this is really important.

And again, this is Governor Ivey's last year in office.

This is one of her priorities, and I know she wants to see it through.

She says, finish strong That's what we're going to do.

Sounds good.

Thanks again.

Thank you.

As always.

We'll be right back.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

App tv.org.

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That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

Or for listening via our podcast.

Remember, tomorrow is governo IV's state of the state address.

Our coverage will begin live at 530 here on apt.

We'll also be broadcasting live via our YouTube channel.

Our coverage will consis of the, you know, some pre-game commentary beginning at 530, the speech itself at 6:00, and then the post-game commentary, including the Democrati response all the way until 730 here on empty.

So please join us for that for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.