The elections of November 6 are over, and now, in Washington and in Montgomery legislators again take up the task of governing. As the leader of Alabama’s 27 Republican state senators, my focus is on working with other lawmakers and Governor Kay Ivey to make state government more efficient and to keep job growth strong. Reforming the state’s […]

Alabamians use municipal infrastructure throughout the state to access jobs, schools, grocery stores, hospitals, parks, entertainment venues and church services – making infrastructure a significant and urgent quality of life issue. The state’s infrastructure needs are at a critical point, especially relative to their impact on our cities.

Our nation came together last week as we mourned the loss of a truly great American. No matter our race, religion, creed or political party, we were drawn toward the light that was President George H.W. Bush. His life spanned nearly 100 years of American history and was dedicated to serving the United States. History […]

The #metoo movement has brought renewed focus on gender equity questions. Economics examines the pay gap between men and women, and a recent analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis links this gap to marriage, creating a puzzle for economics. The gender pay gap is large: among workers with at least a high […]

As Americans, one of our most important, solemn duties is to honor our great heroes and patriots as we lay them to rest. On November 30, 2018, President George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President of the United States, passed on from this life surrounded by some of the people he loved most in this […]

Boards representing three of the state’s largest public school systems – Mobile, Baldwin and Montgomery counties – recently passed resolutions calling for a repeal of Alabama’s landmark tax credit scholarships for low-income families. They claim that the small yet popular program created in 2013 by the Alabama Accountability Act has “caused harm to the financial wellbeing” of their cash-strapped […]

Yes, he was 94. Still, I am sad about the passing of President George H.W. Bush. What a great and honorable life he lived. And what a smile — in success and failure, despite the death of a child, and living an increasingly public life even after his presidency — this mostly because of two other children […]

Today, beer lovers across the country are celebrating the 85th anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment, which made alcohol legal again. It’s a historic day for our state and nation, marking the end of the 13-year alcohol drought known as Prohibition. Now, that’s something to toast. It’s tough to imagine Alabama without our thriving beer […]

Some of the greatest sporting events in history have come down to the wire. Those bottom of the ninth, fourth and inches, double-overtime plays are what stand out in our memories as the greatest successes or the worst defeats in sports history. Similarly, we here in Washington are entering our own home stretch of the […]

Economic freedom means the ability of individuals and businesses to contract freely with each other. The Fraser Institute recently released its 2018 Economic Freedom of North America, which rates freedom in the states. Alabama’s economic freedom score remained virtually unchanged from 2017, ranking us 25th among the states. The state freedom rankings have three equally […]

As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, one of my jobs is to work alongside my colleagues to see that the government is funded on time each year. It’s no secret that the process is far from perfect and Congress often falls short of executing this important responsibility in the way our founding fathers […]

Every year during the Christmas season, I like to highlight just a few of the things folks across East Alabama are doing for each other. Below is a small sample of ways our fellow Alabamians have cared for each other over the past year. In Talladega County, The Care House in Sylacauga helps provide food […]

There are no two ways about it: illegal immigration is illegal. The images of a caravan of illegal immigrants trying to push across our southern border are deeply troubling. We have laws in the United States for a reason. Everyone is bound by the rule of law, and we must all abide by the law […]

Settlers in Massachusetts held the first Thanksgiving celebration in the New World in 1621. George Washington issued a proclamation creating the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government in 1789. On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father” to be celebrated on the […]

Thanksgiving is a uniquely special holiday because it provides us an entire day each year to pause as a country and give thanks to God for the countless ways He has blessed us. The stress and craziness of everyday life often make it easy to lose sight of just how much we have to be […]

On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln issued a Proclamation on Thanksgiving establishing the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday, encouraging every American – at home and abroad – to give pause and give thanks. Thanksgiving had existed before in America. There was the First Thanksgiving celebrated by the Pilgrims and Native Americans in […]

With the conclusion of the 2018 midterm elections, I have one question, specifically for the faith-based community: Where is your theology? If you conduct a quick Google search you will find out the word “theology” means “the study of the nature of God and religious belief.” If theology is the study of God, then how does an […]

One hundred years ago, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the world’s largest, deadliest and costliest war to that date drew to an end. The guns that boomed over field and forest in Europe fell silent. World War I was over. Over 116,000 Americans had lost their […]

Did you know that there are an estimated 4.9 million 16 to 24-year-old individuals in this country who are not in school and are also unemployed? This is an unfortunate but true statistic, and roughly 3 million of these young people are living in poverty. During the recent district work period, I had the opportunity […]

Most Americans have to work for a living. We must trade for the goods and services we want to consume, and for most of us, we trade our labor. Conflict over two legal work classifications, employees and independent contractors, illustrate how government’s rules can imperil economic prosperity. People must work for a living, but people […]

The fanfare that accompanied last week’s ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open The Lodge at Gulf State Park, a Hilton Hotel, was unprecedented, a fact affirmed by a pair of experts in the field of lodging and hospitality. With Governor Kay Ivey headlining a long list of dignitaries at the grand opening of the long-awaited facility, […]

The members of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles aren’t doing their jobs. In July, Jimmy O’Neal Spencer was charged with the brutal killings of Martha Dell Reliford, 65, Marie Kitchens Martin, 74, and Martin’s seven-year-old great-grandson, Colton Ryan Lee, in Guntersville. Spencer, a man with a violent rap sheet going back to the early 1980s, had […]

Alabama’s manufacturing industry has always been at the heart of our state’s economy. Even today as Alabama’s economy is growing, the manufacturing sector is projected to have above-average growth according to a recent study from the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Business. As we look to […]

As women, mothers and as the supporters of many other young mothers and their children, we have watched with outraged disbelief the absurd attacks that Planned Parenthood is hurling at Amendment Two, Alabama’s pro-life amendment on Tuesday’s ballot. Planned Parenthood and its allies have spent nearly $1.5 million dollars in out-of-state, dark money to protect […]