Alright folks, lock and load. All hands on deck. Get on your mark. And any other overused phrase that comes to mind.
The Senate Rules committee has informed us they intend to get a vote on The Gourmet Beer Bill this week. The exact timing is still a little up in the air because the general fund budget passed by the House last week didn’t get transmitted to the Senate on Thursday as it was supposed to have been. That has caused a bit of a procedural headache and thrown the previous plan the Senate leadership had for this week for a loop. So they’re still fine tuning what bills they are going to bring up and in what order.
But barring disaster, they are determined to give us our shot this week. “Disaster” could be something like a surprise filibuster, such as the one we saw a few weeks ago when a few Senators filibustered in protest of how the special order calendars are handled. There are never any guarantees in politics.
But we are as sure as one can be that this is the week. So 1) Call your Senator again, even if you already have, and urge him or her to vote yes on HB373. It will definitely be our House bill coming for a vote, which means this is the last step before we go to the Governor’s desk. And 2) Hope and/or pray that everything goes as the Rules Committee plans, i.e. that no Senator has been seething with anger the past few days waiting to spring another surprise filibuster over some personal grievance.
FYI, if all goes well this week, then expect to see beer over 6% ABV at the Magic City Brewfest.
