From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

We are in the home stretch of the Alabama Legislature's 2026 regular session, with just six possible legislative days remaining.

Over the next two weeks, the House and the Senate will reconvene tomorrow after having taken a spring break last week.

The watchword for the week is spicy, as the House and Senate are preparing for multiple controversial bills to be considered.

It might be especially spicy in the Senate, where we are expecting Republicans to push through legislation over the objections and th filibuster efforts of Democrats.

At the top of that list is Senate Bill 298 from State Senator Wil Barfoot of Pike Road.

It would essentially force the city of Montgomery to increase the number of police officers or risk being taken over by the state.

Barfoot says his intention i to make the capital city safer, and he says the city has not been transparent and sharing just wha the officer ranks actually are.

But today, Montgomer Mayor Stephen Reid joined State Senator Kirk Hatche to push back against the bill, saying it is an unfounded mandate from the state.

Senate Bill 298 is poised to hit the floor tomorrow, and we want to be abl to come this afternoon to share initially our disagreement with this bill and what it represents and why we feel that is it is signaling out I'm ready for punitive measures.

So we want to be sure that individuals behind me are hear who are part of the community.

The individuals represent different congregations within the community and they, like me and the mayor, are an absolute opposition.

So Senate Bill 298, Senate Bill 298, in my opinion, opens the door for state control of our local police force.

Now, we have duly elected individuals and I'm and that's the polities throughout this state who are charge with, among many other things, the responsibility for protecting its citizens.

Montgomery has done a yeoman's task in terms of trying his level best to staff its police office, office.

The the police force.

And just like other municipalities throughout this country, people are having challenges with recruiting individuals for law enforcement to go into law enforcement.

This is a challenge.

This is a national crisis, not a local failure.

Again that bill is expected to be on the Senate floor tomorrow.

Let's take a look a what else to expect this week.

The Senate will gavel in at 10:00 tomorrow and the House at 1:00.

The fact that the Senate is coming in that early on a Tuesday might tell you all you need to know about what all is on their plate an how late we could all be here.

First, there are the budgets.

The Education Trust Fund budget is expected to be in Senate committee this week and possibly on the floor.

Same thing in the House.

The general fund will be in House committee tomorrow and will be in position fo floor consideration this week.

So it is possible the budgets could be sent to the governor by the end of the week.

Still lots to work out on that front though.

Energy affordability and reforming the Public Service Commission remain a top issue.

Two different proposals on tha will be considered in committee this week, and lawmakers are talking about finding a compromis with a blend of the two bills.

The House floor agenda tomorrow will include some priority bills, including Senate Bill 248 from State Senator Shea shell nut revising the law on school release time for religious instruction.

House Bill 548 or 584, rathe from State Representative Jeana Ross that would limit screen time for young students.

House Bill 527 from State Representative James Lomax, which would establish an individual income tax deduction of up to $1,000 for overtime pay.

And Senate Bill 269 from state Senator Bobby Singleton, which would require health care providers to reimburse ambulance services at a greater rate.

All of that will make for an interesting week here at the state House.

Another milestone today for the Saban Center going up in Tuscaloosa.

Today, the center celebrated its topping out ceremony as it continues to take shape in Tuscaloosa River district.

The marble clad palm complex is designed by Steinberg Hart with Birmingham based Davis Architect in close collaboration with Nick Saban, themselves set to open next year.

The project will bring education, creativity and community together under one roof.

Advanced the Saban's visio for a destination that expands educational and economic opportunity to students in Alabama and beyond.

You may remember we caught up with the Saban's as they were visiting the state, the state House, to share their vision here with state leaders.

We just wanted to promote, you know, the young people's opportunity to for career development.

We also have our Stem hub for statewide teachers, so they, they can develop better teaching skills to take back to the students so students have a better chance to be successful.

And it was always my goal as a coach to help, you know, players be more successful in life because they were involved in the program.

And this is going to be our legacy that lives on beyond us.

To be able to do this with young people.

And, we want state support for the teacher Stem hub, from an operational standpoint not from a building standpoint.

And, we've been looking forward to the opportunity to come here and meet with our, you know, legislators and senators and the state so that they understand exactly what our, goal is.

And, you know, doctor McKee, who's been very, very instrumental in helping us, develop the standard that we need in our state to be able to continue to improve the quality of education for our young people.

We have spent the last four years developing this plan for Saban Center, which is an educational center, focuses on all Stem subjects.

We traveled all over the United States saying what's the best way to do this?

And we've talked to peopl who have built similar projects.

We've raised $100 millio to build this fabulous building, but the heart and soul is going to come from the programing.

We need teachers to teach, we need programing, and we need the state to help us with that.

The whole thing is going to be based on the state of Alabama educational objectives.

And then we have teacher on our board as well who says, who say, you know, I can teach this, but I need help with this.

I need you to take it a step further so that our students can have hands on experiences and whatever kind of class it might be.

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

Since 1997, Alabam Public Television has provided programs, services, and resources to childcare professionals, teachers and parents.

Visit AP tv.org/education to learn more.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

As we said at the top, we are looking forward to a busy end to this legislative session.

And a spicy couple of days here in the state House.

Joining me next to talk about that or my Capito Journal colleagues, Randy Scott who covers the House, and Jef Sanders, who covers the Senate.

Gentlemen, spring break is over.

Time to get down to business, right?

Time to get down to business.

As we really round out these very well, I think will be a very, very busy last couple of weeks in the state House.

Yeah, absolutely.

As the saying goes, you ain't seen nothing yet.

That's right.

We're going to be pretty busy even starting tomorrow.

Budget in House committee already a pretty early in the morning since coming in early.

I noted that Jeff at the top, just maybe as a all you need to know about the long da they're going to have upstairs.

We mentioned a spicy calendar and all the things like that.

They're already reacting to it, just based on the press conference that was out here today.

They were reacting to the the police, the Montgomery police bill.

So they're already you know, there's already some controversy in the Senate, controversy with that police bill that would, kind of put some restrictions on Montgomery, allow for some possible state takeover.

You know, according to, the senator, you're the pro tem.

They're going to come in probably for a few hours.

They'll probably recess for a while.

They do want to do caucus, h said, and they'll come back in.

You know, the Senate's a little different from the House.

They don't release their calendars early, and sometimes we have to wait kind of the last minute to see what the calendar is.

But, there's a lot to be packed in.

That didn't happen last week.

Because I guess there was some senators that had to leave the floor.

There were trying to cloture.

The Democrats maybe didn't have enough votes for that.

I think they will be ver prepared for cloture this week.

Okay.

Well, you mentioned that police bill, that you're right.

It would essentially, force Montgomery to hire more officers to meet a certain threshold within five years, lest the state basically come in and take them over.

It's should it pass the Senate this week?

It would go down to the House.

But, Randy, I know that the House has already not considered this issue, but, Leader Daniels had spoken out about it because at the time it would have impacted Huntsville.

Do you think it would be, you know, a pretty controversial issue in the House, too?

Pretty much, because there are a lot of people like Speaker Daniels who says, basically we don't need it.

And at the time, well, he took to the floor a couple of weeks ago to talk about this measure.

He wasn't exactly happy about it at all.

He said, as a matter of fact, this is something that Montgomery officials were trying to get for Montgomery, but now they're trying to change rules that could grandfather Huntsville into this discussion.

He quite frankly, point blank said, listen, if you try to do tha and drag Huntsville into this, I will basically get in, oppose of shutting things down because we didn't ask for this.

This is not what we want.

If this is something you want from Montgomery, then fine.

Y'all handle it.

Now to that point at the pres conference that you referred to, put on by Senator Kirk Hatcher and Mayor Reed of Montgomery was there as well to ask him point blank.

Is this something that you all ask for?

Is this something that you all need?

Needless to say, they both said no.

So it's going to get interesting, especially when it comes to more talk in the House about wha this measure is, what it does.

Do they need it?

I want to piggyback on that quickly.

You know, Todd, and following Randy's point here, there's, Senator Bradford, as mentioned, he may bring an amendment to the floor that would kind of change the numbers for Huntsville.

So this is clearly aimed at Montgomery.

I don't think there's any secret about that.

And the way to kind of get around it, being a local legislation i by making it a statewide bill.

But you write it in such a way that it really becomes a local bill.

And, and, there's going to be, there will be a figh on the floor over this for sure.

It just depends to how fa the Democrats want to take it.

It's a good point.

And just for our audience, whoever might not be aware, if you just wanted to do Montgomery and you put and you put it as a local bill, which normally, if it was non-controversial, you would.

But the reason why it has to b non-controversial is the entire delegation has to sign off in something like this.

Clearly, Kirk Archer wouldn't sign off on the plenty of the other members of Montgomery would not have signed off on this.

So yeah, you're right, they make it a statewide application.

But to class three, I mean, that's just three municipalities, of which Huntsvill and Montgomery are the only two.

So they try to finagle okay, let's let's kind of write out Huntsville to pacify, Leader Daniels and some others.

But I still think you're going to have a floor fight.

And I think you're right that, it will require cloture.

I was I was, interested in Senator Elliott's comments about, well, if you got cloture wants, you might as well cloture 6 or 7 times.

And Barry Cells article.

So let me ask you, you mentioned that the they're ready to cloture because you're right.

Last week or before we left kind of everybody was surprised we left.

Everyone was going to a late night.

Suddenly it wasn't because they didn't have the numbers.

I'm guessing if they're putting all these bills on the calendar, this, you know, tomorrow and this week, they're ready to have a long night and ready to shut down the Democrats because that comes with other political consequences.

All right.

Well it does and and we've we've seen the Democrat, the Republican.

Excuse me, Chris Elliott talke about this over the last week.

And you talked about thi at the beginning of the session.

They're going to see that those possible rules changes and a what can how long does the filibuster last if you filibuster?

What are the rules around that?

But we've heard more than on senator talk about the fact that if the Democrats really want to push this, do you make rules changes now ahead of the next, you know, the sessio when we have new lawmakers and, I think is to to be determined and, Senator Singleton, the minority leader had said that he had not had any real discussions with Republicans about much.

So, sometimes I always put a grain of salt with those, with those comments.

And really, what's happening behind the scenes?

A lot of times when you get into the weeds of Montgomery, arrangements can be made that we're going to give you so much time to kind of filibuster these bills in exchange of knowing that at a certain time, we're going to move forward.

So it's whether or not I think some of thos conversations have taken place and whether or not some of the Democrats are willing to go along with their party leaders to move forward on that.

Randy, I'm looking at the House calendar for tomorrow and you get some pretty big stuff.

You got religious instruction.

That's a Senate bill.

But the House has dealt with this before screen time.

I wouldn't call that Partizan.

But it's a very important bill for screentime for children over time.

Again, I don't see people really opposing that, but I think the Democrat are going to get in their digs, especially considering it was Daniels, you know, Bill last time.

So lots to do.

But you do have some red meat that may require, you know, some cloture.

I mean, I know they've done that a couple of times in the House, so far this year, but it's not something they really love to do.

They would rather just kind of debate it out.

How do you see this big calendar of bills going tomorrow considering all they have to do?

I can see it going busy because they know that they have a calendar that's full of things that's going to take people to the edge in terms of how they feel about them, what they think about them.

Is this something that's really needed or is this a power grab?

So I believ they're going to have a calendar that is going to get talked about a lot, I believe is going to be a counter that is going to stoke the emotions.

And you might actually see a cloture.

You just might see one because at this stage in the game, time is of the essence.

We'l get it down to the nitty gritty and I'm using all the colloquialisms so I can't get down to the good foot as they say, but they want to get to the work.

And first and foremost, you know, they have the obligations which we're going to get to the budgets.

But those other bills, the, the, the screentime bill, the religious, religious bill that the want there, that's on their kind to get to, that's going to that's going to earn a lot of talking, that's going to get a lot of feedback from both sides of the aisle, whether or not it ends up being a cloture.

We'll see.

But I can say this to this point, the session has been one that they worked on.

A lot of things quick, fast, in a hurry hasn't been one that they've been dragging their feet, but cloture has been used before, so there's no reason to think that someone may do something or say somethin that may earn it again tomorrow.

What the wait and see.

Yeah it will be interesting to watch.

You mentioned budgets.

That's, as you said, the primary responsibility of the Alabama legislature.

So we've got general fund started in the Senate.

Now it's in the House.

A matter of fact, it's going to be in committee tomorrow.

What are you hearing?

I mean, technically it could be in committee through committee on the floor passed this week.

I guess to your point that's what I've been hearing.

Lawmakers have done a masterful job in this session in session before because of some rules changes.

As you mentioned before, Jeff, especially in the House of getting two bills and trying to cut back on all that floor talk that we were just talking about.

So a lot of people have been asking questions of both the chairman of the General Fund and Education Trust Fund about what they need to know about these bills.

So by the time we see them discuss it on the floor of the House, they have a pretty good reasoning of what they know, what they want to know and what they need and what they don't need, an they're ready to talk about it.

Now, will this invoke clotur if they have discussion on it?

And it's going to take a long period of time, one can only tell.

We'll see.

They surprised to see it on the budgets.

You know they they tend to kind of talk through and and you're right on both general fund and ETF.

The chairman like to get he let's let's do all our talking behind the scenes and in committee.

Let's not leave you up to doubt on the floor because that can get messy.

Well all right Jeff, y'all got ETF in the Senate.

Are they all right?

I mean, we don't know because right now the the, agenda doesn't say it yet, but they could take it up.

And so that, I mean, these budgets coul go to Governor Ivey this week.

They could.

Yes.

I still thin and this is kind of what I hear.

And this is this is just Jeff's opinion here that they they're probably going to ge a lot of these red meat items.

Just get them done.

Let's, let's, let's get through these long days.

Maybe that's tomorrow.

Maybe that's Wednesday.

And then we'll kind of go from there.

But because, you know, you have the Golf of America bill that that still is out there.

You know, the primary election bill is still out there.

There's still a lot of things that I think that may bogged down, I don't know, or maybe they don't put those on the calendar.

Maybe they do a little bit tomorrow.

They kind of get the budgets out of the way and then go back to those the last few days.

I don't like making a lot of predictions, but, as far as the budgets itself is concerned, I kind of agree with Randy.

The work is done behind the scenes.

I and I kind of what you said, I don't see once they're on the floor, I don't see a whole lot of delays when it comes to those.

And you could tell that there's been a lot of work done on them.

But I don't know about you, but I can tell from my vantage point of House both chairman of the education budget and the general fund budget, they have been on the move constantly.

So that means they've been going upstairs talking to their counterparts in the Senate.

And they've also been walking around talking to various members of the House chamber, asking questions, making sur they can explain things to them.

If you have any questions, come to my office.

You hear them more than once to members of the House.

If they have questions, come to the chair and the same thing you know, chairman, you're up in the Senate.

He he early on in the session, especially when the time the budget was beginning to come up, it's like you need to talk to me now, let's get this done this week, because when it's time for us to move on, is it's too late.

Don't come to me then.

Don't wait until don't wait.

Is it because I'm I'm not going to listen to you and we're going to move on?

Well, that's smart and that's smart in general.

Like we're all we're about to go throug these last six days of session wher we're going to be talking about, okay, what Bill failed what Bill didn't, and all that.

And the trick is we say this every year, start early.

Start early.

Because I, like you mentioned the party, registration bill.

I think the biggest I mean, it's got hurdles.

No, no doubt, but time is not on its side and anything either, you know, not been through a chamber this late in the session is is pretty close to dead.

So you're right.

Timing has to do.

I think there's not a lot of, how would I say there's a lot of enthusiasm to really get that on the calendar super quick up in the Senate.

I agree, and it's all about triage, right?

Like, okay, you know that in the Senate, given their roles, you're only going to get the but you know what, 4 or 5 bites of the appl in terms of real red meat stuff.

That's obviously a pretty big one.

You would need buy in, serious buy in from the entire Republican caucus.

I don't think you would have that, especially after the debate we saw, down in the House so we could talk for 15 more minutes.

But, let's, let's, let's go get our rest and prepare for, man, it's going to be a heck of a week.

Who knows how late they'll go.

But I appreciate y'all's diligent coverage of the chambers, and I guess we'll catch up tomorrow.

Absolutely.

Rest what?

Rest afte the rest of the for signing day.

Right.

Again.

Rest what?

Rest?

All right.

We'll be right back.

Mary Evie Birch was a leading force behind the founding of the Alabama Conservancy, the state's first independent environmental organization.

She served as its first president, its first executive director, and the chair of its wilderness Committee, overseeing the group's successful campaign for the creation of the Gypsy Wilderness Area, now known as the Alabama Environmental Council.

The organization still exists today.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Each year, dozens of students come to the state House during the legislative session to participate, and the legislative page program.

Joining me next is one of thos students, Christopher Gardner, who is a freshman at Booker T Washington Magnet School here in Montgomery.

Christopher thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me.

Well, look, I've seen you around the building.

You've become like this fixture in, in the legislative session this year.

So we had to have you on to, I don't know, be a representative, if you will, for the page program.

Well, I thank you, I thank you.

That means so much.

That means very much to me.

Well, what got you involved in the page program?

What I but first of all who are you paging for your own, representatives here in town?

So one I page in Senate, an then I also page in the House.

So first, when I page in the Senate, I page for Senator Robert Stewart at Selma and then also, pag for representative Penny Mckamey right here in Montgomery County.

Okay.

So what's it been like?

What are some of your favorite things that have happened while you've been paging?

Well, you know, one, I want to be a senator or representative one day, so just be here.

Yeah, I've I've enjoyed it.

But, you know, getting to see the debates, you know, the arguments, th the yelling, the little chaos.

You know, it's just very fun and intriguing to me.

Well, do you like yelling and debates and chaos?

Wait for this week.

This week's going to be spicy as they say.

What are some of the duties of the page program?

There might be folks out there, themselves or their, their kids may want t participate in the page program.

What could they look forward to if they got involved?

Well, you know, I view i as serving the state of Alabama.

So we go get bills for senators.

We system and all their needs may run to their office and just check or may pass out, some proposals.

They may have done it before this session.

And so just just assisting them in all their needs and, and helping serve the great state of Alabama.

Absolutely.

I always see pages running around the floor, passing notes between representatives, passing bills around and all kinds of things like that.

That' got to give you quite a thrill because you're right there.

You know, we can't go on the floor.

Media can't go on the floor.

So y'all are right there in the middle of the action.

Yes, we are.

And I mean, I we get a lot of exercise.

I would say that.

Well, I know that you're you say you want to be a representative or a senator on one day.

It's not hard to picture that.

Right.

I think where I'll see you is, absolutely having that potential.

What gave you that drive?

What gave you that push?

You don't see a whole lot of young folks your age already thinking the want to be involved in politics.

In fact, some say, I don't know about all that.

Yeah.

What gives you the interest in politics that you have?

Well, you know, something my father says.

If you don't like how something is, who's going to do it for you besides yourself?

Who's going to change it?

And so, I didn't like the way the world was going.

And so why not jump in politics and help change?

Our legislature and help better our country?

Absolutely.

Do you plan to stay involved in student government and things like that?

Not just in high school, but through college?

Oh, of course.

I'm currently running a campaign.

I'm running for sophomore class president of Booker T Washington Manga High School's sophomore class SGA.

Wow.

I didn't know that.

You gotta have some equal time here.

We gotta have your opponents on here.

This is not fair at all.

Look at.

You were telling me before we, recorded that you would actually set up a foundation and kind of along the lines of civic engagement.

Yeah.

So I started the Christopher R Gardener Foundation.

My foundation is dedicated for civic engagement.

It's also dedicated to raising money, to give out scholarships and grants to high school students and kids in college.

Because, you know, one thing I, feel very much is college should not be, you know, a place where you just go to because that's the place your finances can fit.

You know, I believe that you should be able to g get the education that you want.

You should g to the college of your choice.

And so if financial problems are a problem for you, you know, reach out my foundation.

We would love to give you a scholarship.

Wow.

That's really something.

Look, you got a bright future ahead of yourself, and, it's been fu watching you, around the halls here in the state.

It's going to be a fun one this week, but, Chris, thank you for what you're doing.

Good luck in the future.

And you know, don't forget about us.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right.

We'll be right back.

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 o Capital Journal's Facebook page.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow night at the same time, with more coverage of th Alabama Legislature here on app for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.