‘Fox in the henhouse’: Alabama House rewrites state code of ethics
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) —The Alabama House has passed a bill revising the state’s code of ethics. The changes would loosen existing restrictions and alter potential penalties for elected officials and state employees.
For the first time since 2010, members of the Alabama House have rewritten the Alabama Code of Ethics in HB227. The last measure significantly increased penalties, but this bill scales them back.
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Bill sponsor Rep. Matt Simpson said he wanted to increase the accountability of the state’s ethics commission, currently an independent body.
“Best to make sure that there’s somebody that doesn’t have a kingdom up, that somebody who has to answer to the people has oversight of that commission,” Simpson said while defending the bill on the House floor.
News 19 political analyst Jess Brown said a degree of separation between the ethics commission and state legislature exists for a reason. He said the proposed change, “puts a fox in the henhouse.”
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The bill would allow the attorney general and the legislative council, made up of leaders in the Alabama Legislature, to remove the director of the state’s ethics commission.
“The provision in the House-passed ethics bill that gives the legislative council a greater role is also an indirect way of giving the major interest groups and their lobbyists more influence,” Brown said.
The bill increases criminal penalties for offering bribes. It also allows elected officials and government employees to receive gifts of any amount from friends.
“It gives, in my view, a much wider definition to who is a friend of a legislator than it does under current law,” Brown said.
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The bill would also increase the amount of money donors and lobbyists can spend on gifts for officials, moving that figure from $33 to $100. The yearly amount would be capped at $500.
The bill now heads to the Alabama Senate.
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