Alabama House is underway. Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, says the controversial calendar is from "h-e-double two sticks" and "a stab at our heart." House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia: "It's not about stabbing anybody in the heart." #alpolitics
Rogers: "Don't put us in a predicament where we have to fight for our lives. Let me remind you: when you fight us, you fight ourselves." #alpolitics
Expect a lot of debates on these bills, which include measures to ban transgender youth from public school sports, a "born-alive" abortion bill, a bill to broaden the definition of rioting and a bill to ban curbside voting. #alpolitics
Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, requests the reading of the journal. Definite sign House Democrats want to talk on these bills. #alpolitics
McCutcheon is submitting the motion to have the journal read to the larger body. Unlikely Republicans will vote to uphold this. #alpolitics
Hall is now arguing there is an opportunity to speak on the motion. Legislators go to their rule books. #alpolitics
McCutcheon citing rules saying dispensing of the motion to dispense with reading of the journal is not subject to debate. #alpolitics
Hall now making a motion to table the motion to dispense with the reading of the journal. McCutcheon says that can be accepted. So effectively a motion on whether to read the journal from Tuesday (which was a verrrrrry long day). #alpolitics
Effort to have the journal read fails. All this parliamentary procedure can be boiled down to efforts by minority Democrats to slow or atop these bills under consideration. #alpolitics
House is on resolutions. Rep. Rogers moves to have every resolution read at length. So yeah: long day ahead. #alpolitics
For those who may be following: My plan is to do separate threads for each of the four most controversial bills on the calendar. Consider this thread a prelude. #alpolitics
Amid all this, the Alabama Senate is taking up the education budget this morning. Fortunately, @KristaJ1993 is following that for us. #alpolitics
We now have the special order calendar (the day's agenda) on the floor. Democrats are getting up to speaking on this. #alpolitics
Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville: The bills are "examples of solutions in search of a problem. I see them as being overreaching and detrimental. In many cases, they will very likely be struck down in court." #alpolitics
Hall criticizing the transgender and abortion bills: "Here we are again, as legislators, playing doctor. Making medical decisions that override those people that are in the profession, the experts that are in different fields." #alpolitics
Debate on the special order calendar can go for an hour. If Democrats use up all the time, expect a vote on today's House agenda sometime around 11:50 a.m. #alpolitics
Hall says she would like to see a calendar dealing with Medicaid expansion. That's something I wrote about this week: bit.ly/3lkRkUi #alpolitics
There's a lot of talking in the Alabama House right now, aimed at giving the arrow of time as smooth a flight as possible. Barring some unexpected shock (like a body-snatcher invasion) this calendar will pass at the end of the debate. #alpolitics
Rep. A.J. McCampbell, D-Linden, is offering an amendment to the special order to take the transgender, protest and curbside voting bills off the calendar. House Rules Chairman Mike Jones, R-Andalusia, votes to table the amendment. #alpolitics
The motion is tabled 72 to 25. #alpolitics
House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, says the transgender bill would undo AHSAA policy. Jones says he thinks the language is "not an aggressive-type language that other states have." #alpolitics
As of this writing, we're roughly 20 minutes from a vote on the calendar. #alpolitics
Time has run out on the special order calendar debate. The House adopts the agenda on a voice vote. New thread starting on the bills. #alpolitics
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