Senate Sketches #1085 - Capital City Free Press

Volume 7, Issue 3, March 2008

Senate Sketches #1085

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Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders
Special to the Free Press

The Senate of Alabama is halfway through the 2008 regular legislative session. We are halfway through nothing. Halfway to nowhere. Half of nothing is nothing. All the more reasons why I was looking forward to getting away for the SEC Basketball Tournament in Atlanta.

We have passed one significant piece of legislation and it rests in a conference committee. We were tied up over it for days without good reason. It was a mess.

Then we went from that to gambling. We were tied with that until sunset legislation kicked in. That’s where we have been ever since. Halfway through nothing. Halfway to nowhere.

An Alabama regular legislative session consists of 30 meeting days. On the tenth legislative day, we are forced by law to take up legislation that will expire (sunset) if not renewed. We cannot consider anything else until sunset is disposed of. It has become an inviting trap waiting to spring.

Last year the Republican-led opposition used sunset to tie up most of the session. They committed not to employ such tactics this year. They have not used the same tactics, but the results are the same. We have achieved half of nothing. We are halfway to nowhere.

The Senate was designed to be a deliberative body. That means one senator can gum up Senate operations, grinding the process to a virtual halt. Two or three can virtually shut it down. That’s what’s happening.

One senator, with some help from several others, is gumming up the Senate process at the moment. We had thirty sunset bills when we began deliberation on the tenth legislative day. We still have twenty or so left after four legislative days on sunset. At this rate, it will take until the 20th legislative day to dispose of these remaining sunset bills. By that time we will be two-thirds of the way to nowhere.

For your information, sunset bills pertain to various regulatory boards. If they are not extended, the boards go out of existence. From the creation of this process in the 1970s to now, only one board has been “sunset.” And they asked to be sunset!

Sunset is another example of a good idea gone bad. To make sure that a few legislators would not kill certain sunset bills through dilatory tactics, the statute made sunset legislation a priority over all other legislation until it is disposed of. This includes such critical legislation as budgets.

In the last three years, the process has been used not to insure passage of sunset legislation as intended but to prevent the passage of anything else. It is a perversion directly opposite of the intent. This perversion began when some senators, under the direction of a powerful lobbyist, utilized sunset to force more money for higher education in the budget. It continued when Republicans used it the last two years in an unsuccessful effort to change Senate rules.

Along with several others, I helped resolve the impasse with the PAC-to-PAC transfer bill. I was glad, but my joy did not last long. The very next bill was a gambling bill. The bill was being filibustered by some Republicans. I also had some concerns with one of the gambling bills. With the help of Senator Vivian Davis Figures (D-Mobile), I worked out my differences. Then some of the parties went back on the agreement we had reached. We were back to nothing.

The senator says he is stopping the process because one of his local bills is being held up in the Local Legislative Committee. He says that he will continue holding up sunset and other legislation until his bill passes the Senate. I tried to help resolve the matter, but the compromise was not embraced. If it’s not one thing, it is another. That’s why we are in the middle of nothing and halfway to nowhere.

Still, I am not dismayed. I know that when we really have to get something done, we will break through this nothingness. It happened two years ago. It happened last year. It will happen this year. It is a matter of time. The problem is so many other good things get lost in the shuffle.

After five challenging weeks in the Alabama Legislature, I was looking forward to getting away for a few days. The wheels began to come off when I unexpectedly had to take some legal depositions. Still I pushed on. I drove the 75 miles to Tuscaloosa, took the depositions, returned to Selma and drove the 220 miles to Atlanta.

Then a tornado attacked the Georgia Dome while I and thousands of others sat stunned. The last game on Friday night was cancelled and the games were moved from the 35,000-seat dome to the 9,000-seat Georgia Tech Arena. I was unable to attend other basketball games. And our hotel was also struck while we were in the dome. All I can say is that sometimes when it rains, it pours. I can also say the sun comes up the next day.

EPILOGUE – Sometimes we get so hung up in the process we don’t realize that life goes on in spite of the process. We should always ask, “What happened in the end?” We must always remember that it’s not what we are going through, but what we are going to.