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Alabama State Legislature

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Alabama State Legislature

Seal of Alabama.png
General Information
Type:   State legislature
Term limits:   None
2013 session start:   February 5, 2013
Website:   Official Legislature Page
Leadership
Senate President:   Del Marsh (R)
House Speaker:  Mike Hubbard (R)
Majority Leader:   J. T. Waggoner (R) (Senate),
Micky Hammon (R) (House)
Minority leader:   Roger Bedford (D) (Senate),
Craig Ford (D) (House)
Structure
Members:  35 (Senate), 105 (House)
Length of term:   4 years (Senate), 4 years (House)
Authority:   Art IV, Alabama Constitution
Salary:   $10/day + $4,308/month
Elections
Last Election:  November 2, 2010
35 seats (Senate)
105 seats (House)
Next election:  November 4, 2014
35 seats (Senate)
105 seats (House)
Redistricting:  Alabama Legislature has control
Meeting place:
AlabamaStateCapitolBuilding.JPG

Contents

The Alabama State Legislature is the state legislature of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the Alabama House of Representatives, with 105 members, and the Alabama State Senate, with 35 members. In the 2010 elections, Republicans gained control of both chambers for the first time since 1874.

The Legislature meets in the Alabama State House (officially designated as such by Amendment 427 to the Alabama Constitution) in Montgomery. The original capitol building located nearby has not been used by the Legislature since 1985, when it closed for renovations. It now serves as a museum.

As of May 2013, Alabama is one of 24 Republican state government trifectas.

Legislative process

Sessions

Section 48 of Article IV of the Alabama Constitution initially set the rules for the timing and length of the Legislature's sessions. However, these rules have been changed by state statute.

The Alabama Legislature convenes in regular annual sessions on the first Tuesday in February, except during the first year of the four-year term, when the session begins on the first Tuesday in March. In the last year of a four-year term, the legislative session begins on the second Tuesday in January. The length of the regular session is limited to 30 meeting days within a period of 105 calendar days. There are usually two meeting or "legislative" days per week, with other days devoted to committee meetings.

The Governor of Alabama can call, by proclamation, special sessions of the Alabama legislature. The governor must list the subjects on which legislation will be debated upon. These sessions are limited to 12 legislative days within a 30 calendar day span. In a regular session, bills may be enacted on any subject. In a special session, legislation must be enacted only on those subjects which the governor announces on their proclamation or "call." Anything not in the "call" requires a two-thirds vote of each house to be enacted.[1]

Bills can be prefiled before sessions, starting at the end of the previous session and ending at the beginning of the session for which they are being filed. The exception to this is for sessions beginning in March every 4 years. [2]

The Alabama Legislature has a constitutional session length limit of 105 calendar days.

2013

See also: Dates of 2013 state legislative sessions

In 2013, the Legislature will be in session from February 5 through May 20.

Major issues

Heading into the 2013 session, a major issue will be the general fund, which is estimated to be $200 million short of requests. Other main issues include maintaining Medicaid, raises for teachers, giving schools more flexibility over state policies, and gun laws.[3]

2012

See also: Dates of 2012 state legislative sessions

In 2012, the Legislature was in regular session from February 7 to May 16. It held a special session from May 17-24 to address redistricting.[4]

2011

See also: Dates of 2011 state legislative sessions

In 2011, the Legislature was in session from March 1-June 9.[5]

2010

See also: Dates of 2010 state legislative sessions

In 2010, the Legislature was in session from January 12th to April 12th.

Gubernatorial vetoes

Unlike other state legislatures, where gubernatorial vetos require a two-thirds or even a three-fifths majority vote to be overridden, the Alabama legislature has the power to override a veto with a simple majority vote in both houses. The legislature also has the constitutional power to override line item vetos by a simple majority. This has led to contention in recent years between the governor's Office and the legislature.

Role in state budget

See also: Alabama state budget

By February 5th of each year, the Legislature of Alabama receives an annual budget proposal from the Governor. The annual budget proposal is for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1st. The Legislature then revises this budget over the course of the next couple of months. Sometime between February and May, the Legislature votes on a budget. For a budget to pass, a majority of legislators must vote in support of it.[6]

The Legislature has had difficulty passing a balanced budget. In fiscal year 2010, Alabama faced a projected $1.2 billion budget gap.[7]

Legislators

Salaries

See also: Comparison of state legislative salaries

As of 2013, members of the Alabama legislature are paid $10/day plus $4,308/month plus $50/day for three days during each week that the legislature actually meets during any session.[8]

Pension

Alabama does not provide pensions for legislators.[9]

When sworn in

See also: When state legislators assume office after a general election

Alabama's state legislators assume office on midnight of the day that they are elected.

Chambers

State Senate

The Alabama State Senate is the upper house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alabama. The body is composed of 35 members representing an equal amount of districts across the state. Each member represents an average of 136,564 residents, as of the 2010 Census.[10] After the 2000 Census, each member represented 127,060.[11] The Senate serves both without term limits and with a four-year term.

Like other upper houses of state and territorial legislatures and the U.S. Senate, the Senate can confirm or reject gubernatorial appointments to the state cabinet, commissions and boards.

Leadership

The Lieutenant Governor of Alabama serves as the President of the Senate, but only casts a vote if required to break a tie. In his or her absence, the President Pro Tempore presides over the Senate. The President Pro Tempore is elected by the majority party caucus followed by confirmation of the entire Senate through a Senate Resolution. The President Pro Tempore is the chief leadership position in the Senate. The other Senate Majority and Minority leaders are elected by their respective party caucuses.

Partisan composition

See also: Partisan composition of state senates
Party As of May 2013
     Democratic Party 11
     Republican Party 23
     Independent 1
Total 35


House of Representatives

The Alabama House of Representatives is the lower house of the Alabama Legislature. The House is composed of 105 members representing an equal amount of districts. Each member represents an average of 45,521 residents, as of the 2010 Census.[12] After the 2000 Census, each member represented 42,353.[13] There are no term limits in the House. The House is also one of the five lower houses of state legislatures in the United States that is elected every four years. Virtually all other lower houses, including the U.S. House of Representatives, are elected for a two-year term.

Leadership

The Speaker of the House presides over the House of Representatives. The Speaker is elected by the majority party caucus followed by confirmation of the full House through the passage of a House Resolution. In addition to presiding over the body, the Speaker is also the chief leadership position, and controls the flow of legislation and committee assignments. Other House leaders, such as the majority and minority leaders, are elected by their respective party caucuses relative to their party's strength in the chamber.

Partisan composition

See also: Partisan composition of state houses
Party As of May 2013
     Democratic Party 37
     Republican Party 66
     Independent 1
     Vacancy 1
Total 105


Joint Legislative Committees

The Alabama State Legislature has a category of committees that it defines as "Joint Interim Legislative Committees." Of these, some are identified as "permanent." The list below is a list of the interim committees that are defined as permanent:

Role in Alabama Constitution

See also: Amending state constitutions

Alabama has had a total of six different state constitutions, coming in 1819, 1861, 1865, 1868, 1875, and 1901. The current constitution is the longest written constitution in the United States.

The Alabama legislature under the constitution (Article XVIII, Alabama Constitution), can act to begin two different processes of amending the state's constitution:

  • If both houses of the Alabama State Legislature by a three-fifths (60%) vote agree, then a proposed constitutional amendment shall go on a statewide election ballot. If that amendment is approved by a simple majority of those voting in that election, it becomes part of the constitution.
  • Amendments can initiate in either the Alabama State Senate or the Alabama House of Representatives.
  • Amendments can be voted on either at the next general election, or at a special election date determined by the state legislature. Any such special elections must take place "not less than" three months after the final adjournment of the session of the legislature during which the amendment(s) was proposed.
  • Notice of the fact that an election on a proposed amendment is going to take place must be published in each county of the state for at least eight successive weeks prior to the election.
  • If both chambers of the state legislature agree by a simple majority vote, then a ballot question about whether to have a statewide constitutional convention can be placed on the ballot; if that question is approved by a majority of those voting in that election, then a constitutional convention will be called.

History

Creation and Civil War

The Alabama Legislature was created in 1818 as a territorial legislature for the Alabama Territory. Following the federal Alabama Enabling Act of 1819 and the successful passage of the first Alabama Constitution in the same year, the Alabama General Assembly became a fully-fledged state legislature upon its accession to statehood.

The General Assembly was one of the 11 state legislatures of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Following the state's secession from the Union in January 1861, delegates from across the South met at the state capital of Montgomery to create the Confederate government. Between February and May 1861, Montgomery served as the Confederacy's capital, where Alabama state officials let members of the new Southern federal government make use of its offices. The Provisional Confederate Congress met for three months inside the General Assembly's chambers at the Alabama State Capitol, while Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the Confederacy's first (and only) president on the steps of the capitol.

However, following complaints from Southern bureaucrats over Montgomery's uncomfortable conditions and Virginia's entry into the Confederacy, the Confederate government moved to Richmond in May 1861.

Reconstruction

Following the Confederacy's defeat in 1865, the state government underwent a transformation. Upon the state's re-admission into the United States in 1868, Radical Republicans, including white Northerners known as "carpetbaggers", "scalawag" Southern Republicans, and "freedmen" African-Americans dominated both the state governorship and General Assembly. For the first time, blacks could vote and were elected to the legislature, a feat that would not be repeated for another 100 years. The resulting 1868 Constitution reflected the radicals period in the state government.

Yet as in other states during Reconstruction, former Confederate and reactionary conservative forces from the Democratic Party gradually overturned the radicals. By the 1874 state general elections, the General Assembly was once again a body dominated by Bourbon Democrats. Both the resulting 1875 and 1901 Constitutions disenfranchised blacks and dismembered the Radical Republicans, creating and enforcing Jim Crow laws. It was also in the 1901 Constitution that the General Assembly changed its name to the Alabama Legislature.

The Civil Rights era

The American Civil Rights Movement began only miles away from the Alabama Legislature's chambers with Rosa Parks' refusal to change seats on a Montgomery bus in December 1955. The subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott and the rise of both Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. to national and international prominence began a decade and a half of tumultuous political and social changes.

Throughout the late 1950s and into the 1960s, the Alabama Legislature and a series of succeeding segregationist governors massively resisted Civil Rights protestors. During this period, the Legislature created the Alabama State Sovereignty Commission. Mirroring Mississippi's own similarly named authority, the commission acted as a state intelligence agency to spy on Alabama citizens suspected of sympathizing with the Civil Rights movement.

However by the 1970s, with federal legislation enforcing bans on poll taxes, literacy tests and other blatant bureaucratic tools of discrimination, African-Americans entered the Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction.

In May 2007, the Alabama Legislature officially apologized for slavery, making it the fourth Deep South state to do so.

Partisan balance 1992-2013

Who Runs the States Project
Partisan breakdown of the Alabama legislature from 1992-2013
See also: Ballotpedia:Who Runs the States and Ballotpedia:Who Runs the States, Alabama

Alabama Senate: From 1992-2013, the Democratic Party was the majority in the Alabama State Senate for 19 years while the Republicans were the majority for three years. The Alabama State Senate is one of 16 state senates that was Democratic for more than 80 percent of the years between 1992-2013. However, starting with the Alabama State Senate elections in 2010, both legislative chambers took a turn toward the Republican side. Since Alabamans have elected Republican governors since November 2002, the state as of the November 2010 and 2012 elections has had a Republican trifecta.

Across the country, there were 544 Democratic and 517 Republican State Senates from 1992-2013.

Alabama House of Representatives: From 1992-2013, the Democratic Party was the majority in the Alabama State House of Representatives for 19 years while the Republicans were the majority for three years. The Alabama State House is one of 18 state Houses that was Democratic for more than 80 percent of the years between 1992-2013. Since Alabamans have elected Republican governors since November 2002, the state as of the November 2010 and 2012 elections has had a Republican trifecta.

Across the country, there were 579 Democratic and 482 Republican State Houses of Representatives from 1992-2013.

Over the course of the 22-year study, state governments became increasingly more partisan. At the outset of the study period (1992), 18 of the 49 states with partisan legislatures had single-party trifectas and 31 states had divided governments. In 2013, only 13 states have divided governments, while single-party trifectas held sway in 36 states, the most in the 22 years studied.

The chart below shows the partisan composition of the Office of the Governor of Alabama, the Alabama State Senate and the Alabama House of Representatives from 1992-2013. Partisan composition of Alabama state government(1992-2013).PNG

External links

References

  1. ↑ Alabama Legislature web page
  2. ↑ Senate Rule 36
  3. ↑ AL.com, "Alabama Legislature 2013: 10 hot issues to watch in the upcoming session," February 2, 2013
  4. ↑ WAAY, "Alabama Legislature passes redistricting plans," May 24, 2012
  5. ↑ South Carolina Policy Council "50 State Legislative Session Interactive Map," February 2011
  6. ↑ National Association of State Budget Offices, 2008 Budget Processes in the States
  7. ↑ Center on Budget & Policy Priorities, “New Fiscal Year Brings No Relief From Unprecedented State Budget Problems,” September 3, 2009
  8. ↑ NCSL.org, "2012 State Legislator Compensation and Per Diem Table," accessed March 18, 2013
  9. ↑ USA Today, "State-by-state: Benefits available to state legislators," September 23, 2011
  10. ↑ Population in 2010 of the American states
  11. ↑ Population in 2000 of the American states
  12. ↑ Population in 2010 of the American states
  13. ↑ Population in 2000 of the American states
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