The Alabama Senate’s special order calendar included no legislation sponsored by Democratic lawmakers Thursday, sparking criticism from the minority caucus.
Prior to the adoption of Thursday’s calendar—the slate of bills constructed by the Senate Rules Committee which determines which legislation will be voted on each day—state Senator Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, took to the podium to question why no Democratic bills had been included for consideration.
“I wanted everybody to hear this, and you’ve heard it before, but unfortunately I think for us, we don’t have any bills on this calendar,” Smitherman said.
Smitherman said that he felt it was important to address the absence of any Democratic bills, as he did not want the Republican majority to think that such calendars would be acceptable moving forward. He added that his concern was purely with the lack of Democratic legislation, and that he had no personal issues with the Republican bills included on Thursday’s calendar.
Senate Rules Committee Chairman J.T. “Jabo” Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, responded to Smitherman’s concerns, claiming that party affiliation was not considered when constructing the special order calendar.
“That’s not what we look at when we prepare these special order calendars…but if [Smitherman] insists that that’s what’s important to him, that’s the way we’ll do it, okay? We’ll say ‘we got to find one of his [bills],'” Waggoner said.
Smitherman reiterated that he was not concerned about a lack of his own bills on the calendar, but by the absence of any Democratic legislation whatsoever.
“I didn’t say I personally wanted a bill on here, I said ‘from the minority side,'” Smitherman replied.
Smitherman—who has served in the Alabama Senate since 1994 and served as President Pro Tempore from 2009 to 2010—said that when Democrats held the legislative majority in the late 2000s, they worked to ensure that Republican legislation was included on the calendar. Now, Smitherman believes the Republican majority is violating that precedent.
“From that point, this body agreed that one third of the bills should be from the minority side,” he stated.
However, Smitherman went on to thank Waggoner for what he viewed as a pledge to work with Democrats moving forward to include more of their legislation on the calendar.
“I thank [Senator Waggoner] for saying that he would work with us so that we would have bills on there… From my perspective, I wanted to make sure [this was noted], and I am very appreciative and feel very positive about the response that I’ve heard,” Smitherman said.
Following Smitherman’s remarks, Senator Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, thanked the senator for “standing in the gap” and fighting on behalf of the minority party. She went on to echo Smitherman’s criticism and called on her Republican colleagues to “treat each other the way we want to be treated.”
“At any time, anyone can end up in the majority—we’ve seen that—and there are bills out here that want to place the Ten Commandments here and the Ten Commandments there,” Figures said. “I think if we really do believe in the Ten Commandments, we should treat each other the way we want to be treated, and that doesn’t take anything away from anybody. We should treat each other the way we want to be treated because you never know when you might be here, and you shouldn’t take advantage of it when you’re up here [in the majority].”
“I think we should all keep our humility at whatever point God has us at that particular time,” Figures continued. “So I’d just like to say thank you [Senator Smitherman] for always standing in the gap for fairness to the minority caucus.”
The Senate went on to approve Thursday’s special order calendar, voting on the bills therein before adjourning. The legislature is set to reconvene for its next legislative day on Tuesday, March 10.
