The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
The Alabama Senate Chambers
February 12, 2025 – MONTGOMERY, AL – The Alabama Senate heavily amended and then carried over a controversial bill that is designed to strengthen Governor Kay Ivey's (R) control over the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs.
Senate Bill 67 (SB67) is being carried by Senator Andrew Jones (R-Centre).
"There are at least a dozen board across state government that have a similar structure," Jones said on the floor of the Senate. "What we are doing is in line with other entities in state government."
Jones stressed the importance of the Governor getting control of the Veterans Affairs Board: "The buck stops with the governor."
The original bill reduced the size of the Department of Veterans Affairs from 17 members to just 9; but once the bill was on the floor, Senators kept bringing amendments to the legislation that increased the size of the board to where it is much closer in size to the original board.
Currently the state's veterans service organizations (the Veterans of Foreign Wars – VFW, American Legion, etc.) select three names to present to the governor for her to appoint.
The Governor's original bill, which Jones is carrying for the Governor's office, would have replaced the original board with seven members appointed by the Governor, one board member picked by the Speaker of the House, and one board member picked by the Pro Tem. of the Senate.
Senator Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) spoke in favor of the legislation.
"One thing that this bill does is take this almost unknown entity and takes it to cabinet position," said Sen. Albritton. This give the Department, "Daily contact with the governor's office thus they will be engaged, they will be involved."
"We have outgrown where we are," said Albritton. "This organization has become too insular. Too many veterans across the state are unaware of what this agency does. There are way we need to make improvement."
"This bill is a means to improve and build upon where we are," Albritton said. "I have a couple of amendments."
The governor's office had a representative on the floor of the Senate who, along with Jones, agreed to amendments to the bill.
The first Albritton amendment required that two of the Board members be members of the Alabama National Guard. One would be an officer and one would be enlisted. The Adjutant General of the Alabama National Guard would make selections for this role and Governor will pick from the names submitted by the Adjutant General.
The second Albritton amendment to the bill would require that at least five members of the Board of Veterans Affairs actually be veterans – that was not required in the governor's original bill. The governor's office acquiesced to both of the Albritton amendments and they were adopted by the full Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) brought an amendment that would give the Senate Minority Leader and the House Minority Leader each a member of the board that they select. The governor's staff member and Jones agreed to Singleton's demands and the Senate adopted those amendments as well.
Senator Merika Coleman (D-Birmingham) said, "I want to make sure that I go on the record saying that I support our veterans 100%."
Coleman said that she was not aware of any opposition to the bill until she held an event in her district and members of veterans groups spoke with her about this legislation.
"I want to make sure that our veterans are comfortable with who is at the helm," said Sen. Coleman.
Senator Josh Carnley (R-Andalusia) brought an amendment that would require that the veteran services organizations get 30 days-notice before any vacancy on the Board is filled.
Senator Linda Coleman Madison (D-Birmingham) said, "This bill comes from the governor's office."
"Women are in every field in every armed service," said Sen. Coleman-Madison. "They serve bravely They served honorably,"......."We don't want to forget the women who served. They don't just push papers they are on the battlefield as well."
Sen. Coleman-Madison brought an amendment that of the five veterans on the board, "One of whom must be a female amendment."
The bill would make the Commissioner of the Department of Veterans Affairs a gubernatorial appointee.
"Many of us have gotten calls about this," said Coleman-Madison. "A lot of this is about trust."
Senator David Sessions (R-Grand Bay)
"We all want to see this as a cabinet position," said Sessions. "I feel pretty confident that we will get there at some point."
Sen. Randy Price (R-Opelika) brought an amendment to give the veterans service organization some influence on the Veterans Affairs Board.
The Price amendment would allow the veterans service organization with the most members to submit three names to the Speaker of the House for him to select a member of the board from. The Speaker does not have to select one of the three but can instead ask for another three. The veterans service organization with the second most members in the state would also get a selection made by the Pro Tem.
Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth (R) came out against the Governor's bill in a statement released on Monday.
Ainsworth wrote that the Board was not broken so legislation to fix it was not necessary.
Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Josephine) brought an amendment to the bill.
"What this amendment does is add the Lieutenant Governor to be a part of this," said Sen. Elliott. "One from the 3rd largest veterans group and one chosen at large."
Sen. Coleman brought an amendment that at least one of the five veteran members of the Board must be a wartime veteran.
Jones said, "I think my talk about a smaller, consolidated board of 9 went out the window and I think we might be back to 17 but at least we did not get any bigger."
Jones complained that the current board does not reflect the geographical diversity of the state because there is no member from Madison or Lee County and there is only one member from Jefferson County.
Sessions suggested that each congressional district get two members of the board.
The current 17-member board has five vacancies. The governor could have addressed this when she made new appointments; but the Governor has not filled the positions because of her ongoing feud with the current board.
The power struggle between Governor Kay Ivey and the state's veterans began when she tried to fire the Commissioner of the Department of Veterans Affairs – retired Admiral Kent Davis after Davis filed an ethics complaint against Mental Health Commissioner Kim Boswell. The Governor is a member of the Board; but Gov. Ivey never actually attends any meetings. The Board, not the Governor, picks the Commissioner and the Commissioner approved of the ethics complaint against Boswell so the Board rejected Gov. Ivey's demands that they fire Admiral Davis.
Veterans in Alabama have a far higher suicide rate than the general population and the Veterans Board believe that the mental health services and funding they have been getting from Boswell and her Department of Mental Health have been unsatisfactory and that Boswell has not acted in good faith in her dealings with the veterans particularly in the allocation of one-time American Rescue Act funding. Ivey was incensed by Davis and the Board and accused Davis of "not being a team player."
Carnley said, "We were elected to listen to our constituents."
Jones slammed the news media for their coverage of this legislation.
"There is a lot of information and a lot of misinformation about this bill," said Jones.
"We have heard a lot from our veterans organizations on this," Jones continued.
So that all parties can digest all the changes that have been made or are in the works Senator Jones asked that the bill be carried over.
The Senate can bring the bill back for consideration at any time.
State Representative Ed Oliver (R-Dadeville) is carrying the same legislation in the House of Representatives as House Bill 154. HB154 has been referred to the House Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs which Oliver chairs.
This was Day 4 of the 2025 Alabama Regular Legislative Session.
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