An Update from the Alabama State House for the Week of February 16, 2026 - February 20, 2026
INCREASING SAFETY FOR CAMPERS IN ALABAMA
• The Alabama House awarded approval on Tuesday to legislation by State Rep. David
Faulkner (R - Mountain Brook) that establishes safety plans for summer camps located
across Alabama.
• The Sarah Marsh Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act is named after eight-year-old
Alabamians Sarah Marsh, who died during flash flood at a camp in Texas last
summer.
• Faulkner’s legislation would require camps to meet safety standards, including
obtaining an emergency preparedness license from the Alabama Emergency
Management Agency and establishing emergency and evacuation plans.
• It also would prohibit cabins from being located in flood plains. Camps would be
required to have weather radios and a notification system that does not rely on
cellular or internet service, which could fail in a natural disaster.
• Marsh’s mother, Jill, told the press that her daughter and the 26 other children killed by
flooding at the Christian camp would likely still be alive today if the provisions in
Faulkner’s bill had been enacted in Texas at the time.
• The legislation now goes to the Senate for consideration.
EXPANDING ACCESS TO BREAST CANCER SCREENING
• Legislation sponsored by State Rep. Francis Holk-Jones (R - Foley) and approved by
the House on Tuesday would expand access to breast cancer screening by eliminating
deductibles, copayments or coinsurance charges for mammograms or diagnostic
imaging of abnormalities.• Alabama state law requires insurers to cover mammograms for women aged 40
and over, but House Bill 300 specifies that copays or deductibles may not
accompany that required coverage.
• Holk-Jones, a breast cancer survivor who has been cancer-free since December, noted
that eliminating out-of-pocket costs for breast cancer screening allows all women to
access this potentially life-saving checkup.
• The bill now goes to the Senate, which has already passed similar legislation.
REQUIRING COMMONSENSE ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS
• Alabama state agencies would be barred from adopting environmental regulations that
are more stringent than federal regulations under a Senate bill that was awarded final
passage on Tuesday and carried by Rep. Troy Stubbs (R - Wetumpka).
• Stubbs noted that the bill will prevent Alabama from ever following the lead of
more liberal states like California, which bans the sale of gas lawn mowers.
• Senate Bill 71, known as the “Sound Science Act,” applies to regulations governing “a
chemical substance, mixture, contaminant, pollutant, hazardous substance, solid waste,
hazardous constituent, or hazardous waste that relates to drinking water, water pollution
control, hazardous substances, contaminated site remediation, air quality, solid waste
handling, or hazardous waste handling” within Alabama.
• State agencies would still be required to comply with federal environmental rules and
regulations but may not exceed those federal requirements.
• The bill now goes to Gov. Kay Ivey for signature.
INCREASING PENALTIES FOR TERRORIST THREATS
• The Senate Judiciary Committee awarded a favorable report on Wednesday to
legislation carried by State Rep. James Lomax (R - Huntsville) that increases penalties
for making terrorist threats, such as threatening school shootings, and requires
principals to immediately suspend students charged with such crimes for one year.
• The bill was sponsored last year and pre-filed in the House this year by then-Rep.
Matt Woods (R - Anniston), who has since been elected to the State Senate, so
Lomax agreed to continue the effort and carry the measure.
• Under current law, making a terrorist threat in the first degree is punishable by a Class
C felony, and a Class A misdemeanor in the second degree. The provisions of House
Bill 7 increase the penalty for first degree terrorist threats to a Class B felony,punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a $30,000 fine, and upcharges second
degree terrorist threats to a Class D felony if previous offenses have occurred.
• “Protecting our schools and giving students, educators, and administrators a safe
environment to teach and learn ranks among our highest responsibilities as
legislators,” Lomax said. “Parents, too, need to know that their children are
shielded and safe from harm and threats while at school, and this legislation
provides an added and necessary layer of security.”
• Woods said passing and enacting the bill is increasingly important in today’s
culture and the often turbulent times in which we live.
• “Incidents like the killing of Charlie Kirk, the attempt on President Trump,
and other events are becoming increasingly common, and students are
exposed to violent acts on a more frequent basis, so it is important that we
discourage them from even threatening copy cat actions,” Woods said. “The
safety of our children whether at school or elsewhere is paramount, and if
this legislation prevents or discourages even one violent act from taking
place, it will have done its job.”
• The bill also defines “credible threat” as “A knowing and willful statement or course of
conduct, which, based on the totality of the circumstances, would cause a reasonable
person to fear for his or her safety or the safety of another.”
• It now goes to the Senate floor for consideration
PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM INAPPROPRIATE APPS
• Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law on Wednesday a bill by State Rep. Chris Sells (R -
Greenville) that requires app stores to verify a user’s age and link accounts held by
minors to their parents.
• Sells, who previously passed a bill requiring cell phone porn filters to be activated
at the time of purchase, said the legislation will prevent children from
downloading apps without their parents’ knowledge.
• An earlier version of the legislation passed the House during the 2025 regular
session but was caught in a Senate logjam.
• Under the provisions of the bill, children would be placed in an age category when
setting up an app store account, and parents or guardians would create linked accounts
allowing them to approve apps before download.• The measure would also allow the attorney general to bring action when
violations by app stores occur, and parents would be enabled to bring civil actions
for failure to comply.
STRENGTHENING ALABAMA’S SEAFOOD LABELING LAW
• The House Health Committee awarded a favorable report on Wednesday to legislation
by State Rep. Chip Brown (R - Hollinger’s Island) that further strengthens Alabama’s
existing seafood labeling law and forces restaurant to comply with its provisions or face
severe penalties.
• “Our current labeling law is designed to inform consumers and encourage
restaurants to use seafood products harvested in Alabama, but too many owners
are exploiting loopholes or simply refusing to follow its requirements,” Brown
said. “This legislation adds sharp teeth to the statute and includes strong penalties
for restaurants that continue thumbing their noses at state law.”
• Restaurants located in Alabama are currently required to disclose whether seafood is
domestic or imported on the menu listing for dishes they sell or on conspicuous signage
plainly visible to diners and patrons. Additionally, the same methods must be used to
disclose if fish or shrimp products being used are farm-raised or caught in the wild.
• Despite the fact that civil penalties, including monetary fines, can be assessed by the
Alabama Department of Public Health for non-compliance, some restaurants across the
state are either ignoring the law altogether or exploiting perceived loopholes.
• In order to ensure full compliance and provide consumers with important information
about the seafood products they are served, House Bill 444 does the following:
• Automatically deducts five points from the publicly posted State Health
Department sanitation scores of any restaurant that is not in compliance with
seafood labeling requirements.
• Authorizes the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries to genetically
test the origin of restaurant seafood products to ensure they are in compliance.
• Removes signage as an option for disclosing the country of origin of seafood
products and requires restaurants to use country of origin labeling on their menus.
• Requires the Alabama Department of Public Health to “regularly inspect food
service establishments” to ensure they are in compliance with the seafood
labeling law.
• Requires the Alabama Department of Public Health to publish the names and
addresses of restaurants that are in violation of the seafood labeling law.• Alabama’s current seafood labeling law was passed in 2024 after a popular restaurant in
neighboring Mississippi pled guilty to selling its diners meals made from frozen, low-
grade fish imported from Africa, India, and Surinam that was marketed as premium,
fresh-caught Gulf fish that commanded notably higher prices.
• The bill now goes to the House for consideration.
PROTECTING CHURCHES FROM DISRUPTIONS
• Disruption of a worship service could soon be a crime in Alabama if legislation
sponsored by State Rep. Jeff Barnes (R - Jasper) and approved by the House Judiciary
Committee on Wednesday becomes law.
• The bill would create the crime of disrupting a worship service and a person
would be guilty of the crime if they knowingly go into a church with the intention
of disrupting a church service with unlawful protest, riot or disorderly conduct.
• The first violation would be a Class C felony, which carries a minimum of one year and
one day behind bars and a maximum of 10 years.
• The bill comes on the heels of rowdy anti-ICE protests in Minnesota that disrupted
church services in that area, and it is intended to prevent similar events from occurring
in Alabama
• The bill now goes to the full House for consideration.
REQUIRING ACCOUNTABILITY FROM APPOINTEES
• The Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee awarded a
favorable report on Wednesday to legislation sponsored by Speaker Pro Tem Chris
Pringle (R - Mobile) and Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter (R - Rainsville) that provides the
governor, the speaker of the House, and the president pro tempore of the Senate with
the authority to remove and replace board and commission members that they appoint.
• Pringle said the bill is necessary in case an appointed individual habitually fails to
show up to meetings or requires removal for other reasons.
• The legislation applies to “any board, authority, or commission comprised of individual
members, of which some or all members are appointed, as established under state law”
and notes that all appointees “serve at the pleasure” of their appointing authority.
• The bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration
