Presented by the

Business Council of Alabama

Good morning and Happy Friday!

Here’s your Daily News for December 4.

 

1. Reed stresses public access

• A priority for the newly nominated Senate Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, for the 2021 legislative session is to ensure the public has access to the State House.
• “We’re going to have to have the House open and people are going to have to have access and be able to understand what we’re doing in an open and transparent way,” Reed said on Thursday during the Association of County Commissions of Alabama’s legislative priorities meeting.
• During part of the 2020 regular legislative session, the State House was closed to the general public because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
• Opening the State House for the session that begins Feb. 2 will be an ongoing challenge as conditions surrounding the coronavirus change weekly, Reed said, but safety protocols will be put in place to hopefully reduce the spread of the virus.
• Some of Reed’s other legislative priorities for the upcoming session include extending incentive packages like the Growing Alabama Credit and the Alabama Jobs Act; enacting liability protection against frivolous COVID-19 related lawsuits; improving high-speed internet access across the state; eliminating state taxes on stimulus resources or programs; and addressing the state’s crowded prison system.
• Read the full story from ADN’s Caroline Beck HERE.

 

2. Jobs report: US employers add 245,000 jobs as virus intensifies

• America’s employers scaled back their hiring last month as the viral pandemic accelerated across the country, adding 245,000 jobs, the fewest since April and the fifth straight monthly slowdown.
• November’s job gain was down from 610,000 in October.
• At the same time, the national unemployment rate fell to 6.7%, from 6.9% in October, the Labor Department said. Alabama’s unemployment rate sits at 5.8%.
• Before the pandemic, last month’s gains would have been considered healthy. But the U.S. economy is still roughly 10 million jobs below its pre-pandemic level, with a rising proportion of the unemployed describing their jobs as gone for good. Faster hiring is needed to ensure that people who were laid off during the pandemic recession can quickly get back to work.
• Two enhanced federal unemployment benefits programs are set to expire at the end of December — just as viral cases are surging and colder weather is shutting down outdoor dining and many public events. Unless Congress enacts another rescue aid package, more than 9 million unemployed people will be left without any jobless aid, state or federal, beginning after Christmas.
• Full story HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A message from

the Business Council of Alabama

• The Business Council of Alabama has launched Keep Alabama Open, working to unite hardworking Alabamians in the earnest pursuit of protecting jobs and safeguarding self governance.

• Businesses, while following state health orders to keep customers and themselves safe, should be able to continue to earn a living and support their families.

• To join the initiative, visit keepalabamaopen.com and sign on.

 

 

 

 

3. Optimism growing for COVID relief bill

• Optimism about delivering long-sought COVID-19 relief is building on Capitol Hill after additional rank-and-file lawmakers voiced support for a bipartisan, middle-of-the-road plan taking shape in the Senate and as top congressional leaders connected on the topic for the first time in months.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — frequent rivals but proven dealmakers — spoke on the phone Thursday, a conversation that came the day after Pelosi signaled a willingness to make major concessions in search of a COVID rescue package in the $1 trillion range.
• “We had a good conversation. I think we’re both interested in getting an outcome, both on the omnibus and on a coronavirus package,” McConnell said.
• Some conservatives, including Republicans from COVID hotspots like North Dakota and Iowa, said they were comfortable with an aid package carrying the almost $1 trillion price tag. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said the bipartisan plan is “the right balance of compromise and it’s a number that’s doable.”
• The path forward is cluttered with obstacles, however, including a tight time window and hard feelings from months of futile talks and a poisonous election. But the $908 billion cost is what many Republicans, McConnell included, signaled they were willing to accept this summer.
• Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he is negotiating with fellow Judiciary Committee member Dick Durbin, D-Ill., over a provision much sought by Republicans and McConnell in particular that would give a liability shield to businesses, universities and other organizations against COVID-related lawsuits.
• Full story from Andrew Taylor HERE.

 

 

4. Lawmakers dropping topical bills ahead of session

 

• Sen. Tom Whatley, R-Auburn, is bringing back his bill that would limit state emergency orders to 14 days and require legislative approval for extensions. Currently, state law says the governor can issue a state of emergency for up to 60 days. A series of public health orders from the state health officer and emergency orders from the governor began in March in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The current order, which requires everyone to wear a face mask in public spaces expires on Dec. 11. Whatley’s proposed bill says that if the Legislature is not in session, an extension can be approved by a joint proclamation by the Senate President Pro Tem and the Speaker of the House. Read more from Caroline Beck HERE.

• Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, is drafting legislation to make clear in state law that Alabama citizens can’t be forced by the state to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. While state law doesn’t currently explicitly give health officials the power to require mass vaccines, state code does say the state health officer is to “keep himself informed in regard to all diseases which may be in danger of invading the state and, as far as authorized by law, take prompt measures to prevent such invasions and keep the Governor and the Legislature informed as to the health conditions prevailing in the state…” Orr told ADN he wants “to have this conversation and debate about vaccinations and placing limits on how far governmental powers can go in requiring them for ordinary citizens.”
• Read more from Mary Sell HERE.

• And Rep. Jamie Kiel, R-Russellville, has filed a bill to close what he says is a loophole in state law that allows groups to be paid for turning out voters. Kiel’s HB70 specifies that individuals and groups can’t make payments “on a per voter basis” to other individuals or groups, including churches. In October, the “New South Souls to the Polls Initiative” was paying churches a $6 contribution “for each documented early vote” to cover the expenses for outreach and transportation to help people vote early by absentee ballot. Secretary of State John Merrill said that the $6 payments were legal as long as they weren’t tied to voting for particular candidates. Merrill this week said that his office supports legislation that strengthens the electoral process and increases credibility. Read more from Mary Sell HERE.

 

 

 

5. Lawmakers to get a pay raise

• That’s a headline that makes a lot of politicians cringe.
• But, if you know the full story, it’s not nefarious.
• Back in 2007, at the very beginning of the new quadrennium, the Democratic-led Legislature enacted a 62% pay raise for itself, overriding the veto of then-Gov. Bob Riley.
• It may have been necessary, but it was unseemly, and many a lawmaker paid a price for it at the ballot box a few years later. Those ads were easy to write (I know because I wrote some of them).
• When Republicans took control of the State House, they (somewhat begrudgingly) made good on their promise to repeal that pay raise and replace it with a pay scale that is tied to the state’s median household income. The idea being if the state prospers, they get paid more; if it doesn’t, they don’t.
• The 2012 voter-approved amendment was initially a pay cut for many lawmakers, putting their salaries at $42,849 in 2015. Since then, they’ve had five raises and one slight pay decrease.
• Next year’s 3.76% pay bump to $51,734 reflects the 2019 median household income, according to the Alabama Department of Personnel. That means any COVID-19-caused decrease in household income this year could show up in lawmakers’ pay in 2022.
• Read more from Mary Sell HERE.

 

Bonus: Watch this smoke stack demolition

• I watched this video six or seven times yesterday.
• Crews used explosives to topple a 1,000-foot-tall smoke stack at an old Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in Bridgeport.
• Workers set off charges at the site of the Widows Creek Fossil Plant along the Tennessee River. Video showed the massive structure leaning over and crashing down with a thud after an explosion at the base.
• Located about 65 miles northeast of Huntsville, the plant closed five years ago, and workers previously imploded two smaller stacks. The federal utility is cleaning up the plant site in a $66 million project, and it’s supposed to be ready for sale and redevelopment next year.
• Concrete from the old stack will be cleaned and used to fill in the basement of the old powerhouse, the utility said in a statement, and steel from the structure will be recycled.
• Watch HERE.

 

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