Alabama Regular Legislative Session begins on Tuesday

February 3, 2025 – MONTGOMERY, AL – The Alabama Legislature returns on Tuesday for the 2025 Alabama regular legislative session.

This will be the third year of the quadrennium meaning that this is the last legislative session before election year. It is hard to get major pieces of legislation done in a session where everybody is running for the political lives.

This means that this is the last best chance for this legislature to move major pieces of legislation – outside of a special session. Gambling advocates are pressing to attempt to bring back their controversial gambling constitutional amendment after last year's epic fail at the finish line by just two votes in the Alabama Senate.

The Alabama Legislature is limited to a maximum of thirty meeting days in a regular session, so once they gavel in on Tuesday, they only have 29 days after that to get all of their business done this year.

The most important constitutional responsibility of the Legislature is to pass both budgets. The good news is that the economy has been very strong so both the education budget and the general fund budget. It is highly possible that the Legislature will have record amounts of money to spend in the 2026 budget year which begins on October 1. The record for both budgets was set in the 2025 budget year we are presently in, breaking the previous record in 2024. This Legislature – unlike most in the history of the state – has not had to deal with flat or negative revenue growth thus all the reserve funds are at maximum levels meaning that supplemental appropriations are very likely. Governor Kay Ivey (R) will release her budget requests for both the education trust fund and state general fund budgets on Tuesday.

The Legislature also has to renew all state agencies facing a sunset provision. This normally is very routine and mundane; but a faction of state Senators last year objected to renewing a number of self-funded occupational licensing boards because they questioned whether or not the boards were serving their members interests. Senator Chris Elliott (R-Daphne) had a bill that would have eliminated two dozen occupational licensing boards and placed those powers under one state agency. That bill was dead on arrival in 2024 but could be reconsidered by legislators this year. The automatic sunset reviews could be very controversial as a result.

Lawlessness, particularly the murder rates in the state's big cities, is an issue that is of concern to state legislators. Birmingham set a new record for homicides last year of 159 murders – surpassing the recent high of 153 set in 1933 and the old official high of 148 set in 1933 – when Birmingham was a much larger city. 5 of those killed were hit by stray bullets. There will likely be a number of bills addressing crime. What the Legislature can do unfortunately is limited by a chronic shortage of prison space. The state needs more prison capacity; but building new prisons is costing far more than anyone could have anticipated. The state is building a $1.4 billion megaprison in Elmore County, with plans to add a second in Escambia County. It could be years before those two facilities are up and running.

The Senate has new leadership. Former Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Reed (R-Jasper) has left the Senate to be the Secretary of Workforce for Gov. Ivey. This will be Senator Garlan Gudger's (R-Cullman) first session as the leader of the Senate. Sen. Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro) returns as the Senate majority leader; while Sen. Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) is the Senate Minority Leader. Reed's departure also means that there is one less Senate Republican due to the vacancy. The Senate will be divided 26 Republicans and 8 Democrats with one vacancy (Reed's).

The House has 105 members, with Republicans holding a 76 to 29 supermajority.

Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) is the Speaker of the House. Rep. Scott Stadthagen (R-Hartselle) is the House Majority Leader; while Rep. Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) is the House Minority Leader.

The Alabama Legislature has already prefiled 141 bills ahead of the session. Many more will be introduced in the next three days.

Governor Kay Ivey's annual State of the State address is scheduled for Tuesday night. She will address a joint session of the Alabama Legislature at the historic 1859 House chambers.

The governor will be joined by Miss America Abbie Stockard, an Alabama native, to join as one of her guests for the address. This year, Governor Ivey has also invited Huntsville resident and Army veteran Jae Barclay as a special guest. Students of the McGill-Toolen Catholic High School Choir from Mobile will perform various musical selections as legislators and others make their way into the Chamber. 4th grade students from Danville-Neel Elementary School to be in attendance so that she may highlight their significant math gains.

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