MONTGOMERY — Alabama Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia) on Tuesday expressed frustration with his Senate colleagues and said that his chamber will only consider local bills and state budgets during the remainder of the pandemic-inhibited legislative session.
McCutcheon says the conditions agreed upon during the resumption of the legislative session by himself, Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh (R-Anniston) and Governor Kay Ivey were to only address local legislation and budgets.
The speaker believes his colleagues in the Alabama Senate are or will be taking up initiatives outside of those agreed-upon parameters.
McCutcheon, who took a point of personal privilege to address the lower chamber, told his members, “Don’t be concerned about the rumors or the rhetoric you may be hearing from ‘the senate is doing this’ or ‘the senate is doing that.’”
McCutcheon said that earlier on Tuesday there had been “comments made on the floor” of the Alabama Senate that he “was disappointed in.”
Two senators, at that time the speaker was making his remarks, had placed contests on all House local bills in the Senate. State Sen. Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham) on the Senate floor had made it clear he wanted the House to agree to move a certain Senate bill before House local bills could continue to advance in the upper chamber.
“We are only going to do what I agreed upon,” affirmed McCutcheon.
The Senate in recent days has indicated that it may act on respective bills that would limit the power of the State Health Officer; redirect gas tax money to a small business stimulus fund; and provide businesses with immunity from claims that an individual contracted the coronavirus on their premises.
McCutcheon has previously indicated support for the idea of immunity for businesses but reiterated multiple times on Tuesday that he thinks it would be improper to stray from the very narrow focus on the coronavirus-affected session.
“We’re going to do our job, and we’re going to do our job based upon the commitments we made and agreed upon,” commented the speaker.
“The fact we don’t have public access into this building has been something that is a concern of mine,” said the speaker as an explanation for his fervent commitment to not taking up extra legislation.
“We call this the people’s house,” continued McCutcheon, saying the lack of public access is a big reason “that we limited the bills we would address.”
He admitted about the two houses of the Alabama legislature, “It seems like every session we have there is always a difference of opinion.”
All activity on the Senate and House floors is being live-streamed, as are meetings of both chambers’ budget committees.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: henry@new-yhn.local or on Twitter @HenryThornton95
