Senate passes SB54 after amendments narrowing scope of new critical-infrastructure offenses

The Alabama Senate passed Senate Bill 54, a crimes-and-offenses measure, after adopting committee and later floor amendments that narrowed which facilities qualify as “critical infrastructure” and clarified required intent for criminal liability.

Senator Roberts, sponsor of SB54, said the committee amendment alters liability language to exclude acts committed “within the scope of his or her employment.” Roberts explained the change as intended to protect county workers performing routine work on rights-of-way: “It starts on, replace line 56. Dealing shall not apply to any acts any act committed by a person within the scope of his or her employment. We work with counties on this … trying to make sure that if you have someone out there working on right away in a county, that if something happens not intentionally or maliciously, then there’s no problem with that situation.”

The bill had attracted pushback from at least one senator who said he had signed on expecting the measure to cover broadband only and expressed concern that the list of covered facilities had expanded during negotiations to include items such as pulp-and-paper plants and defense contractors. That senator said he did not want the bill to “go a little bit further than where I really wanted to go” and asked for additional clarity on how facilities are designated as critical.

Senator Singleton, who worked with Roberts in negotiations, described the language that secured his support: “These critical infrastructure pieces … the terminology that is used in terms of knowingly, recklessly, going on on someone’s property and and basically maliciously doing some damage to that particular project. … And then plus those facilities have to be signed and say that they are critical, facilities and … letting you know what the critical infrastructure is over there.” Singleton said the clarified language and signage requirement gave him “some solace” to move forward with the bill.

Senators adopted the committee amendment and a subsequent floor amendment before voting for final passage. The committee amendments were adopted (recorded as 30 ayes, 0 nays) and the Senate later approved the bill as amended by a recorded vote of 31 ayes, 0 nays.

The debate on SB54 focused on two themes: the technical scope of protected facilities (broadband, certain manufacturers, defense contractors were discussed) and the criminal intent standard required to trigger liability. Sponsors emphasized they sought to protect specified infrastructure from malicious acts while not criminalizing routine work by employees or unintended conduct.

Senator Roberts moved the final passage with the amendments; Senator Singleton spoke in support after the managers’ changes were accepted. No senator recorded a nay vote on final passage.

The bill now moves forward according to the legislative calendar and the Senate’s procedures for enrollment and transmission to the other chamber.