2020 Alabama Legislative Update | Friday, March 13, 2020
The Alabama Legislative Spring Break has begun and members of the Senate and House are not expected back until March 31. Manufacture Alabama will update you if anything changes.
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
The House and Senate passed a $5,000,000 supplemental budget allocation to help The Alabama Department of Public Health deal with contingencies surrounding the response to COVID-19.

While other legislatures and government bodies have shut down their sessions and limited their non-essential workforce manpower, no word yet on if Alabama will follow suit at the state level, or continue to allow cities, counties and schoolboards, etc. deal with this crisis as they see fit. 

Manufacture Alabama encourages all of its members to take steps to protect themselves and others. For more information on what you can do, visit the CDC website.
LEGISLATION
CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE LEGISLATION
After being carried over at the call of the chair at the end of last week, SB 45 by Sen. Cam Ward (R-Alabaster) passed the full Senate by a vote of 28-3. It now goes to the House of Representatives.
CLOUSE INTRODUCES LOTTERY 
F&T General Fund Committee Chairman Rep. Steve Clouse (R—Ozark) introduced a Constitutional Amendment to allow a Lottery this week which included 70 co-sponsors, including the Speaker of The House and both the Majority and Minority Leader. 
MEDICAL CANNABIS PASSES SENATE
SB 165 by Senator Tim Melson (R—Florence) passed the full Senate on Thursday by a vote of 22-10. We thank Senator Melson for working with Manufacture Alabama to ensure that our preferred employer protection language was included in SB 165.

The “Compassion Act” creates a nine-member Medical Cannabis Commission to oversee regulations and licensing for medical marijuana cultivators, processors and dispensaries and requires a statewide seed-to-sale tracking system for all cannabis in the state.
2020 Safety, Health & HR Conference Rescheduled
Each and every year Manufacture Alabama looks forward to meeting with our Safety, Human Resources and Health professionals from around the state. This year due to the growing concern of COVID-19, we have made the decision to postpone the Safety, Health and HR conference to October 28 and 29. Exhibitors will be required to set up October 27.

The Safety, Health and HR conference is an incredibly important event for Manufacture Alabama and it's one of our favorite ways to engage with the safety, HR and health professionals around the state—But we need to prioritize the health and safety of our members, attendees, employees and everyone who helps to put the conference on. 

If you have already made reservations at Perdido Beach Resort using the booking code, your reservation will automatically move to the new dates. If you need to cancel for any reason, please call Perdido Beach Resort directly and they will assist you. 

If you have already registered for the conference as an attendee, sponsor or exhibitor you will not need to register again. If for any reason you need to cancel your registration or sponsorship, contact Amanda Salazar by email.

We are continuing to monitor the situation and will inform you of other planned events COVID-19 could have an affect on.
2020 CENSUS ALABAMA COUNTS
2020 CENSUS
Each and every citizen of this great state needs to participate in the 2020 Census. Federal funding is directly tied to the number of citizens from each state. If citizens participate at the 2000 level, we will lose two Congressional seats. If the participation level is comparable to 2010, the State will lose one congressional seat.

Learn more about the Alabama Census here.
RESOURCES FOR YOU