The Alabama Senate on Tuesday delayed votes on several bills that originated in the House after one senator threatened to filibuster and said House leadership is “subverting the agreed upon process” and norms of the Legislature.
Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, said on the Senate floor he was willing to delay bills Tuesday and beyond unless issues are resolved. He didn’t mention specific bills.
“I’ll just say that this is an issue for leadership to work out because we have standard ways of doing things, and when we go outside of those norms, then it’s not good for anybody because we could start doing that here in the Senate,” Jones later told reporters. “We have to have the trust and respect of both chambers, at the end of the day this is a respect issue. They need to respect our processes and the way that we do business, and that’s all we’re asking.”
There are now eight remaining days in the session where the House and Senate can pass bills. It’s not uncommon at this point in the session for the two chambers to keep score on who is passing bills and the status of members’ legislation.
So far, 37 House bills and 49 Senate bills have gotten final passage.
“Have we used the word hogwash before?” House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter told reporters Tuesday in response to Jones’ actions. “Let me give you the numbers. There have been 891 bills filed; the House has passed 277 bills, the Senate has only passed 119.
“… On percentage, we’ve done a lot more work as far as passage of bills and gotten fewer to the governor’s desk, so the Senate actually has us outnumbered 37 to 49 to those that have been sent to the governor’s office, and again, we’ve passed 277 to their 119. So I’ll let you all make that decision.”
Jones has filed about a dozen bills this year, three that have made it to the governor already. That includes the high-profile legislation to reorganize the leadership structure at the Alabama Department Veterans Affairs.
He has five bills pending in various stages in the House, including a local Cherokee County bill to regulate ATV parks. That has been pending without action since early this month.
The three House-originated bills that were delayed Tuesday include proposals to change primary election dates in non-presidential election years and create a visiting judge program to temporarily put more judges in circuit courts.
Alabama Daily News’ Alexander Willis contributed to this report.