Alabama House Democrats unveil 2025 agenda with focus on criminal justice, health care reform – Alabama Daily News

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama House Democratic Caucus unveiled during a press conference Tuesday the party’s 2025 legislative agenda, dubbed ‘Forward for Freedom,’ with a focus on reforming the state’s criminal justice system and expanding health care access.
“I believe I speak for the entire caucus when I say that preserving, protecting and expanding your freedom is our guiding principle,” said House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, standing alongside ten other Democratic House members.
 
While the caucus did not share details on specific pieces of legislation they intend to file, members of the minority party did outline key priorities that the party would push for during the upcoming legislative session. Expanding access to health care, explained Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, was among the party’s top priorities.
“We firmly believe that everyone should have access to affordable health care, that means we need to close the coverage gap, eliminate health care deserts, and stop hospital closures in Alabama,” Drummond said. “We support increasing preventive care, mental health and substance abuse services, (and) we must improve maternal and infant care.”
Drummond also said House Democrats will continue to advocate for the state to expand its Medicaid program, though House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter has already poured cold water on that prospect, telling Alabama Daily News this month that he saw it as unlikely this year.
Reforming the state’s criminal justice system, as well as improving public safety, will be another key priority for House Democrats this year. 
Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, said that Democrats would be pushing for reforms to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, which from 2019 to last year saw a significant decline in the amount of inmates they granted parole to, as well as reforms to how the state’s prisons are operated, which have been plagued with violence and drug use. He also said that the party would push for full decriminalization of marijuana.
“I believe that we all want a fair and humane justice system, one that works not just to punish those who break the law, but to meaningfully rehabilitate and successfully reintegrate them back into society when their sentences are complete,” Rafferty said.
Regarding public safety, Rafferty said that Democrats would work this year to repeal the state’s permitless carry law, which went into effect 2023.
 
Another priority for House Democrats included increasing voter turnout. Reps. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, and Adline Clarke, D-Mobile,  filed bills to establish early voting in the state.
Repealing the state’s near-total ban on abortion, making the state more business-friendly, and investing more into public education were also named as top priorities.
On investing further in public education, several Democrats spoke skeptically of the state’s new CHOOSE Act program, which allows for parents to utilize up to $7,000 of tax dollars for private or home schooling. Lawmakers allotted $100 million to the program for this year, and just two weeks after the application process opened earlier this month, applications for more than 13,000 students had been submitted.
“This CHOOSE Act is going to take money from the schools that need it the most and take it to a private entity in the state,” Jackson said. 
The program’s supporters have argued that the initial $100 million for the CHOOSE Act is less than 1% of the state’s Education Trust Fund budget of more than $9 billion. However, the enacting legislation lifts the program’s funding cap in subsequent years, raising concerns from Democrats that public schools could be left behind.
Democrats also voiced concerns over how much of the CHOOSE Act funding would go toward parents who already had children enrolled in private or home schooling.
“We suspect that those dollars are going to folks who already have their children in private schools, so how is that helping the average public school student out there?” Drummond said.
At least 28 states have adopted school choice laws, whether it be through education savings accounts like the CHOOSE Act or with school vouchers, and early data has shown that a majority of ESA or school voucher recipients are families with children already enrolled in public school alternatives like private school.
Daniels told Alabama Daily News that Democrats would introduce “a surprise” within a matter of weeks in regards to its efforts to address the CHOOSE Act.

1228 Magnolia Curve,
Montgomery AL, 36106
[email protected]
Copyright © 2025 Alabama Daily News
Web Development By Infomedia

source

Leave a Comment

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com