April 5, 2021 Group Watch: Consideration of Changes to ADPH, State Health Officer Pushed to 2022
In February, State Senator Jim McClendon introduced legislation that would reconstitute the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) and remake the agency’s leadership. McClendon, the chair of the Senate Health Committee, proposed abolishing the State Board of Health and the State Health Officer. The bill would create a Secretary of the Alabama Department of Public Health, appointed by the governor. House Health Committee Chair Rep. Paul Lee is also considering options to deal with the agency and the role of the State Health Officer. Lee does not think a fair assessment of the agency can be made under the current circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lee prefers to wait until the 2022 legislative session to consider changes to the state government executive branch’s role in public health.
April Weaver, a former state representative and ex-Trump administration official, handily won the special election Republican primary for a central Alabama Senate seat over two other contenders. Weaver, who left the legislature in May 2020 to become Regional Director for region IV of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration, won the special election with 82 percent of the vote. Weaver defeated Republicans Donna Strong, who received 11 percent of the vote, and Joseph Barlow, who received 7 percent of the vote.
A divided legislative committee advanced a bill to repeal Alabama’s habitual offender law that mandates longer sentences for repeat offenders. The House Judiciary Committee approved the bill on a 9-5 vote. The bill would do away with the sentencing mandates for new cases and allow some prisoners to have their sentences reviewed. The bill’s sponsor said the mandatory sentences in habitual offender laws have resulted in arbitrarily long sentences.
Governor Kay Ivey and the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education announced that 34 new classrooms will be funded through the Pre-K through 3rd Grade Integrated Approach to Early Learning (P-3). This will bring the number of classrooms impacted by P-3 to 208, covering 21 counties. The new program sites are located in Cullman, Montgomery, St. Clair, Dallas, Tuscaloosa, Walker and Winston counties. Currently 3,022 children are impacted by the P-3 program. With the addition of 34 new classrooms, more than 3,600 students will be participating in the program in the upcoming 2021-2022 school year.