House committee carries over National Guard scholarship bill after higher-education agency raises operational concerns

At a meeting of the House Ways and Means: Education Committee, lawmakers carried over House Bill 233, an overhaul of the Alabama National Guard scholarship program, after state higher-education officials said the measure raised several operational problems.

Representative Oliver, the bill sponsor, told the committee the bill would allow scholarship payments to be made within 90 days of the start of the academic period "to allow students to plan and count on funding" and said the measure named the Adjutant General as the final authority for fund administration.

Jim Purcell, director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE), told the committee: "We are not in favor of the bill as written." Purcell said the agency receives state scholarship funding in quarterly allotments and that paying students up front at the beginning of a semester would be administratively difficult because state receipts typically arrive later in the fall. He also said the bill would eliminate a targeted "last-dollar" design that the current program uses and would expand allowable expenses beyond "tuition and mandatory fees," which could push the program toward its appropriation cap and require prorating awards.

Purcell added that the bill would shift statutory administration authority away from ACHE to the National Guard adjutant general and argued that higher-education officials are better positioned to assess postsecondary credential quality and to administer scholarships across the state's 34 public institutions. He said ACHE had proposed operational revisions and asked for more time to work with the sponsor and the Senate side.

Committee members including Representative Faulkner said they supported the bill's goals but agreed the operational concerns were significant enough to delay the vote. Faulkner moved to withdraw a favorable-report motion and carry the bill over for one week "to give the bill a fair report" and allow further work with ACHE. Representative Oliver acknowledged the concern and noted that he would not have sponsored the bill if the adjutant general had opposed it; nonetheless, the chair announced the bill would be carried over and returned to the committee next week.

The committee did not vote on final passage. Committee members and the sponsor were instructed to meet with ACHE and the National Guard to reconcile administration, funding timing, and program-design issues before the bill returns.