Rep. Nelson provides legislative update at Chambers County Republican club
BY JOHN BRICE
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
CHAMBERS COUNTY — Local officials and members of the Chambers County Republican Club gathered for the May meeting in the Chambers County Development Authority conference room at the Lanett Municipal Airport on Thursday, May 28. State Rep. for District 38 Kristin Nelson recently completed her first legislative session after winning the special election GOP primary and general election in Feburary of this year. Nelson took the opportunity to share her experiences as a new legislator in Montgomery with the club.
"We continued to work with our counties and municipalities to get legislation passed to make them stronger and better," she said. "We passed a ton more bills this legislative session than they did last legislative session. They passed a 'Back the Blue package.' We continued to pass tons of bills that were tough on crime that supported our law enforcement. One of the biggest things that we did was we made it [an option to pursue] the death penalty for child sex crimes. I think that was huge for us."
Nelson went on to share details of a special piece of legislation that she assisted State Sen. for District 13 Randy Price in getting passed.
"We continued to work with economic development," she said. "[And, we worked on] a ton of education bills. Sen. Price allowed me the opportunity to carry the bill in the house that he presented in the senate. That was to set aside a day for military recruiters to come in and give the ASVAB test. So, it requires a day. Most school systems had still been allowing them to come in but some had not. This just set aside that day for students to take that on a voluntary basis. I got to carry that on the house floor. It felt so wonderful. I was very excited to get to do that. Thank you Sen. Price for letting me carry that. It was a very good piece of legislation."
Nelson said she spent time advocating for EMS services being reimbursed fairly by insurance companies which was another legislative victory during her time as State Rep. for District 38.
"We passed another bill that was a little bit controversial there for a while," she said. "I think it is really great for our rural areas. It is what we call the EMS bill. That allows for our EMS to treat in place and for them to bill insurance for that. It is a really good bill that puts money back into our rural communities. We will see kind of what that money does over time, we hope it is substantial."
Healthcare and public safety legislation were the other two topics that Nelson shared the importance of. Nelson said bills passed worked to offer affordable healthcare for Alabama residents.
"We also passed two bills — one that is free breast cancer screening and then free prostate screening that your insurance is required to cover at no copay," she said. "It has been a lot real fast. The unique bill that I think that we passed was the Sarah Marsh bill. If you remember, it was in North Carolina that the flood happened, and all of those kids were killed at camp last year. One of the children in that camp was from Alabama. We got to present a bill with her family present, and they got to see it all the way through. We created some regulations for camps in Alabama. They have to list their flood elevation, if they are close to any body of water and their emergency plans. It was a very bittersweet opportunity, but I think that it was really good for the state of Alabama to ensure that we are protecting our kids no matter what."
