From the Trussville Tribune Staff Reports
MONTGOMERY — The Alabama state legislature will begin its 2018 session on Tuesday, January 9, and BirminghamWatch has an overview of several significant pre-filed bills, including several that respond to last month’s special Senate election and the ongoing controversy over Confederate monuments.
Two Republican-sponsored bills, for instance, would give the governor appointing power over vacant U.S. Senate seats until the next general election. The bills are in response to Gov. Kay Ivey’s calling of a special election to fill the seat of former Senator Jeff Sessions, which resulted in a surprise win by Democrat Doug Jones.
Another set of bills, sponsored by Birmingham’s Rep. Juandalynn Givan, would seek to undermine and repeal last year’s Monument Preservation Act, which prohibited renaming and relocating monuments that had been in place for more than 20 years. Critics have argued that the bill takes away power from municipalities and is intended primarily to protect Confederate monuments.
Alabama Sen. Gerald Allen, who sponsored the original bill, has said he does not expect the Memorial Preservation Act to be overturned in the upcoming session.
Read the full report, which includes summaries of other prefiled bills, at BirminghamWatch.