In Alabama...


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Special Session of the AL Legislature passes ethics and campaign reform legislation

Governor Bob Riley called for a Special Session of the Alabama Legislature to convene on December 8, 2010 to consider ethics and campaign reform legislation. By the close of the Special Session on December 16, the legislature had passed seven reform bills. As reported by the Associated Press, the bills included "measures to ban the transfer of money between political action committees, limit how much lobbyists can spend on entertaining public officials, give subpoena power to the State Ethics Commission and ban legislators from having a second state job after November 2014." Read this story in The Birmingham News and more news about the Special Session on al.com.
LWVAL strongly supports effective ethics reform and open government.
The League of Women Voters of Alabama has long supported the need for strong ethics legislation and open government. This is a top-level advocacy priority for the LWVAL. See the complete list of 2011 LWVAL legislative priorities.
LWVAL took action to bring about ethics and campaign finance reform.
The League of Women Voters of Alabama advocated during the Special Legislative Session urging our legislators to support strong ethics reform and open government. Co-Presidents Dr. Kathryn Byrd and Dr. Charlotte Ward wrote this letter to the 140 state legislators to urge their active support for reform. At the opening of the Special Session called to address this issue, Nancy Ekberg, representing the co-presidents, presented the points of the letter directly to the legislators in public testimony at the Old State House Chambers. The League also sent this letter-to-the-editor supporting reform to several major newspapers in the state. The League urged all citizens who believe that Alabama should have stronger, more effective ethics laws and open government to contact their state senator and representative and make their voice heard.
Next Legislative Sessions
According to the official website of the Alabama Legislature, "The Alabama Legislature will meet in Organizational Session at Noon, Tuesday, January 11, 2011, for the purpose of organizing each house through election of Officers, adoption of Rules of each house as well as Joint Rules of the two houses, establishing standing committees in each house and naming the membership of each, and the election of Members to certain Joint Committees of the two houses. Legislation may not be passed in the Organizational Session, and this Session may not meet longer than 10 calendar days." The 2011 Regular Session of the Alabama Legislature will begin at Noon, on Tuesday, March 1.

Follow the Legislature
Citizens can follow actions of the Alabama legislature on the Alabama Legislative Information System Online (ALISON).

The League invites Alabama citizens to also follow the LWVAL 2011 Legislative Report, updated weekly, to keep informed about the legislature's activities during the 2011 Regular Session. In this report, LWVAL follows state legislation on which the League has a position and on which it has taken or may take action. See the archived 2010 LWVAL Legislative Report as an example. For each bill, the report includes bill sponsors, bill summary, complete bill text, current status of the legislation, LWVAL's position on the legislation, and LWVAL's action. See the 2011 LWVAL Legislative Priorities list for the issues on which the LWVAL Action Team will be focused in the coming 2011 session.

Other Alabama Action...


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