Teachers’ injury compensation bill goes to Ivey
Alabama educators will soon have a dedicated compensation program for job-related injuries, after lawmakers gave final approval to Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville.
The bill creates a Public Education Employee Injury Compensation Board to oversee claims and manage a fund for injured K-12 and community college employees, including teachers, bus drivers, and support staff.
Currently, school employees injured on the job must pay medical and related expenses out of pocket and seek reimbursement through the state Board of Adjustment, a process that can take weeks or months. Supporters say the new system will provide faster, more reliable assistance.
The bill now heads to Gov. Kay Ivey for her signature.
“This is an important step forward for our teachers,” Givhan said. “I look forward to hopefully seeing the governor sign this really soon.”
Education advocates have long pushed for a dedicated system, arguing that teachers deserve the same on-the-job protections as other public workers.
Bill authorizing health care providers to refuse blood draw requests from law enforcement carried over after heated exchange
A bill that would clarify a health care provider’s right to refuse a law enforcement officer’s request to draw a patient’s blood was carried over in the Alabama House Tuesday by the request of the sponsor after a heated exchange.
Under current law, a health care provider such as a nurse or paramedic is permitted, at their discretion, to oblige a law enforcement officer’s request to draw the blood of a person suspected of having driven under the influence. However, the vague language of existing law has led to instances where health care providers have been arrested for refusing to do so, such as in the case of s Utah nurse who was later awarded a $500,000 settlement for the incident.
Sponsored by Rep. Phillip Rigsby, R-Huntsville, House Bill 391 would clarify the right of public health care providers to refuse such a request, and are typically only compelled to do so with either the patient’s consent, a warrant, or when the patient is under arrest. The bill was brought to Rigsby by the Alabama Ambulance Association.
“What we’re attempting to do here is to clean up that language so that the health care providers can refuse to draw that blood if they choose to,” Rigsby explained when introducing his bill on the House floor.
Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, who had a 35-year career in law enforcement, immediately took issue with the proposal.
“Never had a problem with this before, but if you don’t catch these folks when you need to catch them, I promise you they will kill again, I promise you,” Treadaway said about alleged drunken drivers. “There’s been no issue with this, so I don’t understand (why) the ambulance industry, for them to be the only ones that want this bill.”
Rigsby explained that it wasn’t only the Alabama Ambulance Association that had backed the proposal, and that its supporters also included the Alabama District Attorneys Association, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the Alabama Department of Forensic Science.
Still, Treadaway continued to speak out strongly against the bill, calling it “an attack on law enforcement.”
Rigsby ultimately asked that his bill be carried over, a request that was met with approval by his House colleagues.
House approves bill prohibiting foreign national driver’s licenses as voting ID
The Alabama House passed a bill Tuesday prohibiting the use of a foreign national driver’s license from being used for photo identification when voting, one of the many bills introduced this session to curb the impact of illegal immigration.
“We’ve been issuing those and my understanding is there’s been some confusion at the polling places where, in my understanding, what I’ve been told, they’ve been used,” said Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, the sponsor of the bill. “If they have or haven’t been used, this bill simply says they cannot be used unless they get their U.S. citizenship.”
Treadaway did not provide examples of foreign national driver’s licenses being used to vote in Alabama, something House Democrats noted when speaking on the bill. Only 20 cases of voter fraud that resulted in a criminal conviction or judicial finding have been documented in Alabama since the year 2000, according to the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.
After 20 minutes of Democratic House members questioning the necessity for such a bill, the measure ultimately passed with a vote of 76-5, now sending it to the Senate.
Senate approves bill limiting ATV use on waterways
The Alabama Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill to prohibit people from operating all terrain vehicles and other recreational vehicles in creeks and riverbeds unless they own the adjoining property.
Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, sponsor of Senate Bill 171, previously said current law considers navigable water to be public thoroughfares, similar to roadways. But that law was written before the invention of ATVs and side-by-sides, Chambliss has said, describing their damage to people’s personal property and disruption of environments.
The proposed law would not apply to watercraft.
Violating the law would be a Class C misdemeanor. The legislation now moves to the House.