Alabama
After Ivey fired Alabama Veterans Affairs commissioner lawmakers may give her control of department
State lawmakers are considering a bill to put the governor in charge of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs, taking that authority from an appointed state board made up of members of veterans’ organizations.
Under current law, the State Board of Veterans Affairs oversees the ADVA and hires the commissioner to run the agency.
A bill pending in the House and Senate would reduce the board to an advisory role and would make the commissioner an appointee of the governor and member of the governor’s cabinet, serving at the pleasure of the governor.
The bill comes a few months after Gov. Kay Ivey overruled the State Board of Veterans Affairs and fired ADVA Commissioner Kent Davis in a dispute that played out publicly over a couple of months.
Ivey supports the bill and mentioned it during her State of the State address Tuesday night.
“The goal is to have a Board that is a team player within the executive branch and can fiercely and effectively advocate for the unique needs of veterans of every generation – and their families,” Ivey said.
Davis said the bill is in retaliation for the dispute with the governor and the State Board’s refusal to fire him at her request. Davis said veterans’ organizations have not had a say on the bill and said it would be an abrupt change to how the ADVA has operated since 1945.
“I think it’s a terrible idea,” said Davis, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral who lead the ADVA from 2019 until he was removed by the governor in October.
“That’s a pretty darn drastic change from an 80-year tradition, all of a sudden. And the timing is really interesting.”
Read more: Why did Kay Ivey fire Kent Davis? $7 million grant dispute, leaked ethics complaint led to executive order
Rep. Ed Oliver, R-Dadeville, who is the sponsor of the legislation in the House, said the bill is not retaliatory but is intended to improve the ADVA and services for veterans.
“Everybody has made this about personalities and a fight with the governor,” said Oliver, who was a helicopter pilot in the Army and served from 1979 to 2010.
“And that’s just so unfortunate. Because the people that are involved with this project are all trying to do their very best to create a first-rate, Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs that is more responsive and offers better and more services for veterans.”
Oliver said he is a member of the American Legion and two other veterans organizations, but said less than 20% of the 400,000 veterans in Alabama belong to veterans organizations.
Oliver said the changes in the bill would make the agency more streamlined and more accountable to taxpayers.
The State Board of Veterans Affairs currently has 12 members. The governor serves as chair by virtue of office. The other 11 members are nominated by veterans service organizations and appointed by the governor.
Under Oliver’s bill, the board would have nine members, with seven appointed by the governor, one by the House speaker, and one by the president pro tem of the Senate.
The bill says board appointees will include veterans from various branches of the armed forces, members and non-members of veterans organizations, and representatives of other entities that serve veterans and their families.
Oliver’s bill will be discussed in a public hearing Wednesday in the House Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.
Davis said he has heard from veterans organizations who oppose the bill.
Robert “Frank” Burrow, an Army veteran who is president of the South Alabama Veterans Council, posted a letter on the council’s website saying that putting the SDVA under the governor’s control would be a mistake.
“The independence of the Commissioner and the board allows for continuity in policies and programs, preventing the disruption of services that can occur when leadership changes due to political appointments,” Barrow wrote.
“If the board is heavily influenced by political interests, there is a risk that veterans’ needs may become secondary to partisan agendas and/or budgetary considerations. Decisions should be based on expertise, data, and the lived experiences of veterans rather than shifting political priorities.”
Oliver said the ADVA, as a taxpayer funded agency, cannot be independent of politics and oversight by elected officials.
As for changing the longstanding governance structure of the ADVA, Oliver said the agency is now much larger than it was decades ago, with responsibility for five state veterans homes and veterans service offices across the state.
“It’s a big job,” Oliver said. “It deserves to be elevated to a cabinet-level position. Frankly I don’t understand why people distrust the people that are outside the veteran community so much.”
Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, is sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, which has won committee approval.
Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, said there is a good chance the Senate will consider the bill next week.
On Thursday, the Senate passed another bill by Jones that would create the Alabama Veterans Resource Center to help veterans and their families with accessing federal and state benefits, career counseling and job placement, mental health and wellness programs, and education and training opportunities.
The center would be a public corporation that could work with the private sector to provide the services.
Oliver, who is also sponsoring that bill in the House, said the idea is to create a one-stop shop to direct veterans where they can get help.
The Senate passed the Alabama Veterans Resource Center bill by a vote of 31-0 on Thursday. Republican and Democratic senators are co-sponsors.
A special guest of Ivey during her State of the State address was Jae Barclay of Huntsville, who was badly burned from a land mine explosion while serving with the Army in Afghanistan.
The injuries came on Barclay’s first wedding anniversary and seven days before the birth of his daughter. The governor said Barclay had overcome unimaginable obstacles.
“It is because of brave veterans like Jae that we can all live the American dream,” Ivey said during the speech.
On Friday, Gina Maiola, communications director for Ivey, declined to respond to Davis’ comments about the bill that makes the commissioner an appointee of the governor.
Maiola said the governor’s office has heard from many veterans supporting the change.
“Governor Ivey believes that we must continue working to do all we can for our veterans, and elevating the agency to the Governor’s Cabinet is certainly a positive step forward,“ Maiola said. “The Board – with this legislation – would also better represent Alabama’s veterans of all eras, generations and branches.”
Does that animal have rabies? Here are signs and symptoms to look for
Rabies is an infectious disease that affects the central nervous system in mammals. Here’s what to look for in pets.
The Republic
State health officials are urging people to keep their pets vaccinated for rabies after a fox in Elmore County and a raccoon in Lee County tested positive for the virus.
On May 1, the raccoon was spotted acting strangely near Auburn, and the fox emerged from a wooded area and attacked a person in Tallassee, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. The person has sought medical treatment.
“Rabies is not seasonal, and we continue to see cases year-round, but late spring is a time when activity peaks, particularly in wildlife,” said Dr. Dee Jones, state veterinarian for the ADPH, “The primary risk of rabies from wildlife is our pets, and keeping them up to date on rabies vaccine is critical.”
Alabama state law requires that dogs, cats and ferrets 12 weeks of age and older be current with rabies vaccination. In addition to vaccination, area residents are advised to take the following precautions to avoid possible exposure to rabies:
- Do not leave uneaten pet food or scraps near your residence.
- Do not allow pets to run loose; confine them within a fenced-in area or with a leash.
- Do not illegally feed or keep wildlife as pets.
- Do not go near wildlife or domestic animals that are acting in a strange or unusual manner.
- Caution children not to go near any stray or wild animal, regardless of its behavior.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com. To support his work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) says Alabama is on the cusp of delivering a sixth Republican congressional seat, and with it, potentially the U.S. House majority itself.
“Getting one seat in November, this November, we don’t have to wait two years, could decide the majority for the Republicans,” Aderholt said today on “The Rightside” in partnership with Yellowhammer News, hosted by Allison Sinclair and Amie Beth Shaver.
“So that’s very appealing,” he added.
Aderholt predicted a return to the congressional map drawn and approved by the Alabama Legislature in 2023, before the federal courts stepped in and forced a redraw.
If the U.S. Supreme Court lifts the injunction barring Alabama from altering its congressional map before 2030, the state would go back to the one approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor that year.
The 2023 map essentially creates six Republican districts and one Democratic district.
The Alabama Legislature passed both chambers’ redistricting bills Wednesday as the special session continues in Montgomery.
Aderholt referenced the “Livingston map,” the Legislature’s 2023-approved plan in namesake of State Sen. Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro), arguing it was consistent with the Supreme Court’s recent direction that race cannot be the predominant factor in drawing district lines.
“It would not put a second minority district, per se, but it would give opportunities for everybody in the state of Alabama to have equal opportunity to be elected to Congress, whether they’re black or whether white,” Aderholt said.
Some have called for state lawmakers to a map that would make all seven districts Republican-leaning, but Aderholt explained the issues with going down that route.
“There are some proposals out there to try to do a what is called a true 7-0 map where there’s no chance that a Democrat could be elected in any of the congressional districts…and there is some down there that are afraid that if you do away with that one, in addition to doing away with the new district that was drawn where Shomari Figures is that, that would be an overreach, and the court would put everything on hold, and we couldn’t do we couldn’t even get the additional seat until the court order, a different court order came through, and who knows when that would be.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
As the Alabama Legislature convened Monday for another special session, it marks the tenth time in the past decade that a governor has called lawmakers back to Montgomery outside the regular calendar.
Here’s a look at what brought them back each time.
2015: General Fund budget crisis
Governor Robert Bentley called lawmakers back after vetoing a cut-heavy General Fund budget that would have slashed roughly $200 million from state agencies. The rainy day borrowing from the Alabama Trust Fund that had propped up state government since 2012 had finally run dry. Bentley proposed a $310 million tax increase package. Legislative leaders recessed for three weeks and then resurrected the same budget he had already vetoed. Nothing passed.
2015: Budget, take two
With the fiscal year starting October 1 and still no budget, Bentley called a second session. Lawmakers hammered out a patchwork compromise that averted a government shutdown but fell well short of the structural revenue fix Bentley had pushed for.
2016 — Medicaid funding and the lottery
Medicaid faced an $85 million shortfall. Bentley called lawmakers back and pushed a lottery bill that would have sent $100 million annually to Medicaid. The Senate passed it 21-12, but the House couldn’t get there. The fallback was a $640 million bond issue backed by Alabama’s BP Deepwater Horizon settlement, which kept Medicaid funded for two more fiscal years. The lottery died again.
2019 — Rebuild Alabama gas tax
Ivey called a special session the day after her State of the State address to pass a 10-cent gas tax increase, the state’s first in 27 years. The three-bill package passed quickly.
2021 — First Special Session: Prison construction
Facing a federal DOJ lawsuit over unconstitutional prison conditions, Ivey called lawmakers back to authorize a $1.3 billion prison construction plan funded by state bonds, General Fund dollars, and $400 million in federal COVID relief money.
2021 — Second Special Session: Post-census redistricting
Delayed census data pushed redistricting into a special session. Lawmakers drew new congressional, state legislative, and school board maps in five days. The congressional map was immediately challenged as a Voting Rights Act violation, launching the Allen v. Milligan litigation that continues today.
2022 — ARPA funds, first tranche
Ivey called lawmakers back to appropriate $772 million in remaining federal relief funds. The session produced over $276 million for broadband expansion, plus major investments in water and sewer infrastructure.
2023 — First Special Session: ARPA funds, second tranche
Another $1.06 billion in federal funds needed appropriation. Ivey used the same tactic as 2019: State of the State one day, special session the next. The money went to healthcare, broadband, infrastructure, and repaying the final $60 million owed to the Alabama Trust Fund from the Bentley-era borrowing.
2023 — Second Special Session: Court-ordered redistricting
After the Supreme Court ruled in Allen v. Milligan that Alabama’s map likely violated the Voting Rights Act, the Legislature drew new maps that a federal court rejected as non-compliant. A court-appointed special master drew the maps used in the 2024 elections instead.
2026 — Redistricting, again
Monday’s session follows the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais. The Legislature will prepare contingency maps and special primary election procedures in case the court lifts the injunction blocking Alabama from redrawing its districts before 2030.
The pattern
Three distinct forces have driven Alabama’s special sessions over the past decade. The Bentley-era sessions were born from a structural budget collapse the Legislature couldn’t or wouldn’t fix through new revenue.
The Ivey-era spending sessions used tightly controlled special sessions to move high-dollar legislation quickly with minimal floor debate.
And the redistricting sessions have been driven by court deadlines and Supreme Court decisions, with the Legislature’s maps rejected or overridden in two or three attempts.
Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected].
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