March 7, 2022 Group Watch: Legislature Day-by-Day, Play-by-Play

• The House Local Legislation Committee approved two bills of local application only, affecting the City of Jackson in Clarke County and the Choctaw County Commission.
• The House passed several bills, including bills to require local boards of education to provide feminine hygiene products in women’s restrooms of certain schools at no cost to students and to authorize local tax collecting officials to conduct on-line public auctions for collection of delinquent property taxes.
• The Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee approved bills to establish the Alabama Numeracy Act and to prohibit the use of the Common Core State Standards in public K-12 schools and to amend the Alabama Literacy Act to further provide for the membership and duties of the Literacy Task Force, the duties and functioning of the Alabama Committee on Grade Level Reading, and good cause exemptions from retention.
• The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee approved bills to phase out any municipal occupational license tax based on an annual reduction in the tax until the tax would be repealed and to require certain emergency rules, orders or directives issued by the state health officer be approved by the governor and filed with the secretary of state before taking effect.
• The Senate passed bills to establish a venue before a three-judge panel to hear legal challenges against statewide redistricting plans and to exempt from rental, sales and use taxes the gross proceeds from the sale or lease of detection dogs.

• The House Education Policy Committee approved several bills, including a Senate-passed bill to delay for two years the implementation of the third-grade retention requirement under the Alabama Literacy Act.
• The House Judiciary Committee approved several bills, including bills to prohibit the performance of a medical procedure or prescription of medication to a minor child that is intended to alter the minor child’s gender or delay puberty and a proposed constitutional amendment to require the governor to provide notice to interested parties prior to granting a reprieve or commutation.
• The House Ways and Means General Fund Committee approved a bill designed to eliminate the business privilege tax by December 31, 2023.
• The House Ways and Means Education Committee approved several budget-related bills including the education budget, a one-time bonus for retired educators and a 4-percent raise for active education personnel.
• The House approved several bills of local application only and a number of non-controversial bills, including a measure to allow the delivery of garnishment orders by regular or certified mail.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee approved several bills, including a House-passed bill to restrict the requirement for permits for the open carry of pistols (with two amendments) and to create the Criminal Justice Policy Development Council as well as its membership and duties.
• The Senate passed four bills from a 10-bill special order calendar: They passed bills to establish the Alabama Numeracy Act aimed at improving the math proficiency of students from kindergarten to fifth grade; to extend the privilege self-assessment for hospitals and nursing homes through FY25; and to impose an assessment for emergency medical transport providers.

• The House passed several bills of local application only and general bills to: increase the minimum service threshold for broadband connectivity; prohibit the issue of scrip in bearer form; and to permit textbook publishers to provide standards correlation evidence to the state Department of Education and the State Superintendent of Education for use in the evaluation process.
• The Senate passed a House-passed bill to repeal the requirement for a permit for concealed carry of a firearm.

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