MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The bill that would change the Alabama Public Service Commission from an elected body to an appointed one was suddenly pulled from the Alabama House of Representatives’ agenda Thursday morning.
House Bill 392 was originally positioned at the top of a proposed special order calendar, the agenda prepared by the House Rules Committee ahead of a session day to chart the chamber’s business. But the final calendar adopted by the House did not include that bill, nor the other two bills included in the Alabama Affordability Protection Plan legislative package targeting data centers and utilities.
After the House adjourned for the week, Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, confirmed that the bill was pulled from the calendar because of doubts about it passing in the Senate.
“It just came down to the fact that we didn’t have for sure in the Senate that we could get it out,” Ledbetter told reporters off the House floor.
Ledbetter said House members “were willing to step up and make a hard vote,” but he and other leadership decided to remove the bill to not hold up other bills since there was a chance it wouldn’t get through the Senate.
Bill sponsor Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollinger’s Island, said he’s hopeful but not certain it will return to a floor agenda this session.
“I hope so because I think it’s a desperate need that we need to reform the Public Service Commission,” Brown said.
He reiterated that the purpose of this bill was to make changes to help everyday Alabamians see lower power bills and said he was “very open” to amendments, including legislatively forcing the PSC to take a rate case. Brown said he was “looking at all things.”
While originally introduced with bi-partisan consensus, lawmakers have increasingly expressed concerns as the bill has moved through the legislative process.
Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, was initially a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, but after hearing pushback from her constituents about the bill, she said on social media that she would vote no.
Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, also said he’d begun to hear from his constituents opposing the bill. Orr said he and his colleagues in the Senate have real concerns with it and called the bill “a big maybe.”
“Up here, support is definitely not gelling around it,” Orr said about the bill.
The package has so far moved through the legislative process quickly. The three bills were filed last Thursday and passed out of House committee on Tuesday.