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The Alabama House on Tuesday passed legislation that added requirements for unemployment compensation, imposed the death penalty on anyone convicted of raping a child under the age of 12 and that mandated that parents had to be consulted for school children to receive vaccinations.
The most controversial of those was Rep. Ed Oliver’s bill, which, among other things, requires that anyone seeking continued unemployment benefits make at least five contacts with potential employers. That’s an increase from two contacts, which is currently required.
A stream of Democrats spoke against the bill, pointing out the fact that the increase would only serve to harass job seekers who couldn’t possibly be satisfied with the $45-$225 per week that is currently available under Alabama’s unemployment compensation. At times, Oliver seemed to agree with the Democrats that the “problem” his bill addressed was miniscule, if it even exists at all.
In response to Rep. Kelvin Lawrence’s arguments that job seekers in rural areas likely couldn’t realistically make the five contacts, Oliver accepted an amendment that kept the current two contacts for counties with less than 20,000 people.
Oliver’s bill, after more than an hour of arguments, eventually passed the House and heads to the Senate.
Democrats also took issue with a bill from Rep. Matt Simpson, which would enforce the death penalty for convictions for child rape. Those issues, however, were less about the substance of the bill and more about the fact that the Supreme Court, in 2008, took up this exact issue and determined that the death penalty in such cases constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
Rep. Phillip Ensler argued that Simpson’s bill would do nothing but waste taxpayer money defending a law that has already been deemed unconstitutional. Simpson said his bill was part of a national effort to get the current Supreme Court to take up the issue again.
“The ruling was that because only six states had the death penalty for these crimes that it was unusual,” Simpson said. “We’re trying to change that. Other states – Florida passed a law, Tennessee passed one – and other states passed laws like this in the hopes that we could change that and it wouldn’t be unusual.”
Simpson’s bill ultimately passed and heads to the Senate.
Rep. Chip Brown returned his legislation requiring parental consent for a minor to receive a vaccine. It was without controversy, passing 103-0.
