Alabama lawmakers hand out ‘deadest bill’ award

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama legislators honored a long-standing tradition on Wednesday with their annual award for the “deadest bill” of the session, bringing levity to an otherwise politically polarized Statehouse.

The winner was a bill that would require a booster seat for children who weigh less than 65 pounds, up from 40 pounds, introduced by Republican Rep. Ron Bolton.

“One size fits all, rarely, if ever, applies to children, much less House members,” the House of Representatives public information officer, Clay Redden, said on Wednesday. “This bill would have made it nearly impossible” for some legislators “to drive themselves to work,” Redden continued.

Legislators laughed and cheered at Redden’s remarks.

The award, known as the “Shroud,” has been given out since 1979 as a “high-profile public burial” for one piece of legislation. Winners are given an empty suit framed in a cardboard box.

Bolton’s bill read more like “chapters from a pediatrician’s anatomy book or an instruction manual and manual of how to operate a nuclear reactor,” Redden said.

Bolton smiled and posed on the House floor to accept his award.

The legislation won the award over a bill that would have created a sales tax exemption for firearms and ammunition on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, among other runners-up.

“The fiscal note on the bill suggested there would be little, if any, impact on state revenue, since most gun owners in Alabama already have enough weapons and ammunition to fight World Wars three, four and five,” Redden said.

Some previous winners of the “Shroud” award have been reintroduced in later years and passed into law.