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Public policy should make life better for everyone, not just a select few. Throughout the year, Arise tracks a range of state and federal policy proposals and assesses what they would mean for Alabamians who are struggling to make ends meet. Our blog provides quick updates on these proposals and offers tips on what you can do to help build an Alabama where all people have an opportunity to reach their full potential.
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Arise legislative update: Week of April 28, 2025
With just five meeting days in Alabama Legislature's 2025 regular session, Arise's Robyn Hyden highlights one major issue left on the to-do list: further reducing the state sales tax on groceries. HB 386 has passed the House and needs to move to the Senate floor. We need your help to get this crucial legislation across [...]
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Arise legislative update: Week of April 21, 2025
Arise's Whitney Washington breaks down why HB 477, a bill to allow junk health plans, is not a solution for Alabama's health coverage gap. HB 477 would authorize non-insurance health plans that aren't regulated by the Alabama Department of Insurance and that could cap benefits and discriminate against people with preexisting conditions. This bill is [...]
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Arise legislative update: Week of April 14, 2025
Arise's David Stout breaks down the dangers of legislative proposals to expand the CHOOSE Act. This 2024 law will divert hundreds of millions of public dollars away from Alabama's public schools and toward private schools and homeschooling in the coming years. David highlights why further increasing that amount would be bad for Alabama's public school [...]
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Arise legislative update: Week of April 7, 2025
Arise's Carol Gundlach highlights a significant win from the 2025 legislative session: the enactment of paid parental leave for teachers and state employees, a top priority for Alabama Arise. This legislation represents a major advancement for parental and infant health. Arise also continued to oppose harmful proposals last week, including junk health plans and bills [...]
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VIDEO: Alabama Arise Action Legislative Day 2025
Arise held its 2025 Legislative Day on Thursday, March 20. More than 200 supporters from across Alabama joined us in Montgomery to urge their lawmakers to continue to untax groceries and to support a plan to allow every public school in our state to provide no-cost school breakfast to all students. Our supporters also were [...]
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Arise legislative update: Week of March 31, 2025
With a little less than half of the Alabama Legislature's 2025 regular session remaining, Arise's David Stout breaks down what to expect in the weeks ahead. The General Fund and Education Trust Fund budgets both will begin moving soon. Arise is working to ensure the education budget includes funding to allow every public school to [...]
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Federal workers are vital to Alabama’s economy
Federal workers help keep our food, workplaces and environment safe. Thousands carry out critical missions like weather forecasting, disaster relief and medical care. Federal employees and their families are our neighbors who live, work and send their children to schools across Alabama. But waves of firings in recent weeks have targeted federal employees who serve [...]
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Arise legislative update: Week of March 24, 2025
Arise's Dev Wakeley provides updates from the first half of the Alabama Legislature's 2025 regular session as lawmakers are on spring break this week. In good news, lawmakers passed a paid parental leave bill on Thursday! SB 199 will introduce paid leave for new parents who work as teachers or state employees. The bill now [...]
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Arise legislative update: Week of March 17, 2025
Arise's LaTrell Clifford Wood provides an exciting update about our progress on untaxing groceries in Alabama. LaTrell highlights HB 386 by Rep. Danny Garrett, which would reduce Alabama's state sales tax on groceries from 3% to 2%, saving families an estimated $122 million annually. Thanks to the efforts of Garrett and the Joint Study Commission [...]
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Maternal health, paid leave are early highlights in Alabama’s 2025 legislative session
Alabama Arise is advocating successfully to advance several good bills early in the Legislature’s 2025 regular session. Our members are speaking out and getting results on maternal health care access, paid parental leave and other issues. The session began Feb. 4 and likely will end in mid-May. Here is an overview of Arise’s advocacy at [...]