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Alabama Governor Kay Ivey spoke before the Huntsville Madison County Chamber of Commerce Monday, highlighting the achievements of the state’s legislative session which is set to end May 8.
Ivey opened her speech in the Von Braun Center’s Saturn Ballroom by discussing U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech at a University of Alabama commencement event last Thursday, May 1.
“Certainly, having the sitting U.S. President join for graduation festivities is something these graduates and their families will never forget,” she said.
Ivey announced she was to discuss with Trump moving the U.S. Space Command’s headquarters from Colorado Springs to Huntsville before the president took the stage for his speech.
“Before the speech, I had the opportunity to have a little time with the president, and I assured him Huntsville, Ala. is the rightful home for the U.S. Space Command headquarters,” Ivey said.
Space Command has operated out of Colorado since its establishment in 2019.
The Air Force announced Huntsville as their preferred location for permanent headquarters in January 2021, during the final days of Trump’s first term. However, the Biden administration decided to keep the department’s headquarters in Colorado in 2023.
Shifting to legislative updates, Ivey told the crowd she had signed the state’s budget and education trust fund bills, including the SB305, or the RAISE Act, in the morning prior to her speech.
“These historic investments in core functions of government and our students’ education are possible through our track record of conservative budgeting and strong leadership,” she said, commending sponsor of the RAISE Act and Education Budget chair, state Sen. Arthur Orr, R- Decatur, alongside General Fund chair, state Rep. Rex Reynolds, R- Huntsville.
“Our students’ education remains my top priority,” Ivey said. “The budgets we made official this morning will continue investing in programs like the Literacy and Numeracy Acts. It will support our Turnaround Schools Initiative to target some of our lowest performing schools. It will continue allowing the successful education reform policies to take shape while taking an active approach and doing everything we can to support students, teachers and parents.”
Ivey also highlighted the budgetary funding allotted to the CHOOSE Act and The Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering, a STEM-focused residential charter school in Huntsville.
She said one of her priorities for the remainder of the legislative session is the passage of HB166, or the Freeing our Classrooms of Unnecessary Screens for Safety Act.
The FOCUS Act would ban public K-12 students from using cellphones during the school day, as well as requiring students to receive instruction prior to the eighth grade on the “risks and benefits” of social media and requiring local school boards to adopt an internet safety policy for district-owned devices.
“The FOCUS Act should be a widely, widely supported bipartisan measure,” Ivey said. “When your legislators return to Montgomery tomorrow, I’m hoping we can get a floor vote and get this bill to my desk so I can sign it into law.”
Ivey emphasized the importance of public safety related bills to her recent legislative priorities, pointing to SB116, a bill passed into law in March which bans Glock “switch” conversion devices that allow handguns to fire fully-automatically.
She also highlighted SB115, or the Officer Impersonation Act, which expands the definition of impersonating a law officer to include an individual accepting a job as an officer when ineligible because of state law or because of a revoked or suspended certification from the Alabama Peace Officer’s Standards and Training Commission. Impersonating an officer is a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
“While we still have work ahead of us in these three remaining days, we can certainly be proud of what we’ve accomplished already this session,” Ivey said. “We are protecting Alabama values, we’re supporting our veterans, we’re finally providing long overdue paid parental leave for our state workers and teachers.”
The governor reported that since she took office, Alabama has seen $55 billion in investments leading to the creation of roughly 93,000 jobs.
“Alabama is experiencing great momentum, from here in Huntsville all the way down to the Gulf of America, and all of you play a big part in our success,” Ivey said.
Ivey said the Alabama Department of Workforce is ensuring potential investors in the state have access to a strong workforce.
“The Department will plan and implement critical elements of Alabama’s workforce development efforts to answer the number one question for the future of Alabama’s economy,” Ivey said, “and that question is if I’m an investor looking to invest and grow my business in Alabama, how can I be guaranteed a ready and well-trained workforce for the next five, ten or even 25 years.”
She thanked Greg Reed, who has been the secretary of the newly established department since it replaced the Alabama Department of Labor earlier this year.
