MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A bill that would significantly reform the state’s ethics laws was debated Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee and is scheduled to be voted on this morning in the same committee.
House Bill 227 would reorganize the scope of who the state’s ethics laws apply to, particularly by excluding the more than 300,000 state employees and their families. Additionally, the bill would increase penalties for bribing public servants, and limit the Alabama Ethics Commission to handling civil matters.
According to its sponsor, Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, the bill was crafted in response to a 2019 report from the Code of Ethics Clarification and Reform Commission, a report that found that the state’s existing ethics laws lacked clarity, and in some cases, were “unduly broad” and “confusing.”
A substitute to the bill was introduced in the committee by Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville, and included changes that came out of discussions with Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and Tom Albritton, executive director of the Ethics Commission, both of whom have regularly voiced their opposition to the original bill.
“It came out of the House everything’s a Class B felony; where we landed on it was up to $10,000 would be a Class C felony, and above that would be a Class B felony,” Givhan said, explaining the differences in his proposed substitute to the bill.
“Another issue was the possibility of the Ethics Commission being able to refer things that they determine were corrupt intent; that’s something the Attorney General’s office pushed back on, so we took that out.”
While the substitute was adopted unanimously, Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, immediately voiced “serious concerns” with the bill, even as substituted.
“That committee did have some good recommendations, but this bill seems to go far beyond those recommendations,” Orr said.
As the committee permitted a public hearing component for the bill, several stakeholders had signed up to speak; Katherine Robertson, chief counsel for Marshall’s office, Albritton of the Ethics Commission, and Matt Hart, a defense attorney from Birmingham.
“I think if we’re going for clarity, I’m not sure we have achieved that,” Robertson said.
“This obviously separates some crimes from some civil offenses, but with a big overlap of when one may become the other, and that’s what I think is going to be the biggest problem as far as seeking clarity here.”
Hart, who said his career had been focused on corruption and ethics-related issues, echoed Orr’s comments in saying that the bill did not accurately represent the findings of the 2019 report from the Code of Ethics Clarification and Reform Commission.
“Sure, they critiqued the ethics law – legitimately I think in some ways, maybe not in others – but that process had all the stakeholders involved,” Hart said. “It is totally disregarded in what we have here, and this bill violates in my view the first rule: do no harm.”
Following the public hearing portion, Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, the chair of the committee, thanked Simpson for his time spent on the bill, but called for it to be carried over and voted on this morning.
If approved in committee today, it will need a Senate and House vote on Thursday, the last expected remaining day in this session.