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Senate Fight Still Causing Problems

By Associated Press

The blow that ended the last session of the Alabama Senate is still causing disagreements as lawmakers prepare to start another session in two months. Senate Fight Still Causing Problems

Published: Thu, December 06, 2007 - 9:25 pm

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - The blow that ended the last session of
the Alabama Senate is still causing disagreements as lawmakers
prepare to start another session in two months.
At a meeting of the Legislature's Contract Review Committee
today, state Senator Tom Butler held up a contract for the Senate
Ethics Committee to hire an attorney. The committee wants to hire
an attorney to help the committee with its review of a formal
complaint filed against Republican Senator Charles Bishop after he
hit Democratic Senator Lowell Barron in June.
Butler is a Democrat who usually sides with the Senate's
Republican minority. He called the contract "a waste of money."
And he said the two senators should shake hands and let bygones be
bygones.
The chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, Zeb Little, says
Butler's suggestion might work in a utopia, but this is not a
utopia. He says the committee needs an attorney to help it write
rules and to represent it in case it is sued over its decision.
Little says the committee had hoped to wrap up its work before
the next session starts in February, but Butler's action will delay
its work.
The rules of the Legislature's Contract Review Committee allow
one member to hold up a contract for 45 days, but the member can't
stop a contract from eventually being signed.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)