Alabama Senate Republicans blocked Democrat debate Thursday on several conservative bills, deploying the seldom-used cloture petition to speed up the voting process.
The five bills that passed the Senate and now move to the House include legislation to require minors’ phones and other devices to arrive with filters installed to block pornography and change how members of the Alabama Department of Archives and History are selected.
But the filibuster started early Thursday by Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, didn’t have anything to do with the bills approved Thursday. His target was the freshly filed Senate Bill 330 to reorganize the Birmingham Water Works board. It’s from Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook.
The BWWB has been criticized in recent years for management issues and rate increases. Smitherman most recently fought a 2023 bill to reorganize the board.
“… For every action, there is going to be a reaction,” he said on the Senate floor. He threatened to slow Senate action for the Legislature’s remaining seven days.
Bills that advanced
Cloture petitions in hand, the GOP-led Senate passed the following bills Thursday.
Senate Bill 186 by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, requires starting in 2027 that Internet-enabled devices such as smartphones and tablets sold to minors have an activated filter to block sexually explicit material.
Senate Bill 187 by Chambliss requires app store providers to verify the age of users. It also requires minors’ accounts be affiliated with their parents’ accounts, so minors would have to obtain parental consent to download apps.
Senate Bill 5 by Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, lets the governor and legislative leadership appoint members of the Alabama Department of Archives and History Board and expands its membership.
Senate Bill 13 by Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, puts before voters a proposed constitutional amendment requiring public schools to broadcast or perform the first stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at least once per week during school hours.
Senate Bill 142 by Sen. Wes Kitchens, R-Arab, changes how voter registration information is verified and removes the Electronic Registration Information Center as a voter registration database that can be used to identify voters whose addresses may have changed.
Senate Bill 158 by Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, prohibits the use of foreign driver licenses as proof of identity when voting.
“The Alabama Senate focused its attention (Thursday) on issues and legislation that reflect the basic morals, beliefs, and values of the average citizen of our state,” Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, said in a written statement.
“Protecting children from access to pornography in a society that seems more consumed by it each day, shielding the ballot box from fraud and foreign influence, promoting patriotism, and demanding a higher level of accountability and transparency from public boards are issues that almost every Alabamian can embrace.
“With seven legislative days remaining, much work remains before us, and long hours and intense debate will be the rule rather than the exception, but that’s what real leadership looks like.”
The bills now move to the House.
Worked up over water works
Smitherman didn’t mention the water board or the bill specifically when he spoke Thursday, but criticized the Jefferson County delegation, at one point singling out the “senator from District 15,” Roberts. He said within the delegation, there is usually respect for issues specific to individual municipalities. No one interferes with legislation about Vestavia Hills, he said.
“But somehow, when we have stuff in Birmingham, we have folks who don’t even represent Birmingham that got their hands and tentacles all up and down our mm-mm-mm,” he said on the Senate floor.
“… If that’s going to be the new order of the day for our delegation, then (it’s OK) to put your hands in everybody’s stuff no matter where, what area you represent in Jefferson County.”
Birmingham Water Works serves about 770,000 people in Jefferson, Shelby, Blount, St. Clair and Walker counties and has more than 4,000 miles of pipes in its distribution network, making it one of the largest providers in the nation, according to its website.
According to the bill, “failures in the management of water systems lead to unreasonably high rates that oppress residents and are a barrier to economic development that is vital to improving job opportunities.”
Smitherman in 2023 opposed a bill that would have changed the appointments of the board, giving the mayor of Birmingham four appointments and the governor would have three, al.com reported.
Smitherman then said that proposal contradicted reforms by the Legislature a decade ago, which included an expansion from five members to the current nine, the outlet reported.
Those nine members are appointed by the mayor of Birmingham, the Birmingham City Council, the Jefferson County Mayors Association, the Shelby County Commission and the Blount County Commission.
Roberts’ bill terminates existing board members’ terms and creates a five-member regional board that includes an appointment by the lieutenant governor. It also requires financial backgrounds for some members. Roberts said a smaller board is “more nimble and responsive.”
Asked why he filed a bill he knows will be a political fight with seven legislative days to go in the session, Roberts said the entire state should care about the stability of Birmingham’s water system.
The Birmingham metro area’s gross domestic product is about twice the size of the second-largest metro statistical area in the state, he said.
“The rest of the state benefits from the taxes collected from the Birmingham-Hoover MSA and will suffer if the (area) suffers,” Roberts told Alabama Daily News. “Alabama and every serving legislator have a vital interest in reforming the Birmingham Water Works.”
Senate Bill 330 doesn’t mention Birmingham Water Works specifically, but would apply to municipal water boards that “serve customers or have assets in four or more counties other than the county where the authorizing municipality is located.”
The 19-page bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, and Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville.
Smitherman later told reporters Thursday evening he was blindsided by the legislation.
“I just don’t see the necessity of it,” he said.
The bill will be in the County and Municipal Government Committee Tuesday morning with a public hearing.