Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: It takes an act of Congress

  Last week we talked about how difficult it is to win passage of a piece of legislation in the Alabama Legislature. It does not matter if the proposed bill is for apple pie and motherhood. If for nothing else, the bill has to go before both House and Senate committees, win approval, and not get an amendment put on it. If it gets an amendment placed on it, it has to basically start all over again. It then has to get placed on the special order calendar set by the Rules Committee, and there are hundreds of bills waiting to get on this calendar. Only a few bills ever get on the calendar each day, and there are only 30 legislative days in the session. If it gets on the calendar, it then has to pass both chambers and hopefully the governor is also for apple pie and motherhood, because if he vetoes it, it has to start all over again.