HB8 Alabama 2010 1st Special Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Richard J. Laird

Independent

Session

First Special Session 2010

Title

Firefighters Annuity and Benefit Fund, contributions, income tax refund check-off established, Act 2010-726, 2010 Reg. Sess. am'd.; Sec. 36-21-186 am'd.

Summary

HB8 would require the Clerk of the Alabama House to create and publish a formal legislative record of proceedings and related materials.

What This Bill Does

The Clerk must establish procedures to implement and maintain a legislative record related to the legislative process. The record would include verbatim discussions from committees, committee reports, committee votes, floor debates, public hearing discussions, and inserted statements by members about their votes or actions, plus other materials at a member's request. It may be published as part of the journal, as a separate publication, or in digital form; the Clerk would publish within a reasonable time after adjournment and may charge a fee to cover publication costs. The bill also requires considering factors like cost-effectiveness, accessibility, usefulness, accuracy, and historical preservation.

Who It Affects

• Members of the Alabama House of Representatives: their discussions, votes, and statements could be recorded and made public.
• The general public and researchers: will have access to a detailed, publicly accessible record of legislative proceedings.
• The Clerk of the House: gains new duties to establish, index, publish, and potentially charge fees to fund the legislative record.

Key Provisions

• The Clerk shall establish procedures to implement and maintain a legislative record.
• The record shall include verbatim committee discussions, committee reports, committee votes, floor debates, public hearing discussions, insertion of member statements about votes or actions, and other materials upon a member's request.
• The legislative record may be included in the journal, published separately, or provided in a separate digital or computer form, and shall consider cost-effectiveness, accessibility, usefulness, accuracy, and historical preservation.
• The Clerk shall compile, index, and publish the legislative record within a reasonable time after adjournment sine die, and may publish at shorter intervals.
• The Clerk may charge a reasonable fee for the legislative record, with proceeds used to defray publication costs.
• The act becomes effective on the first day of the third month after its passage and approval by the Governor.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 24, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.

Subjects

Firefighters Annuity and Benefit Fund