Most Americans are in awe of the whirlwind efforts by President Trump to reform the federal bureaucracy and right the ship of state. Most Americans especially conservatives and common-sense folks are thrilled with his myriad policy initiatives; Washington is definitely going MAGA (Make America Great Again). Not so much in Alabama. Despite being a supposedly deep red state, there are no bold policy initiatives or no big cuts in government or spending. Alabama’s ruling elite are quite comfortable with our mediocre status quo, so Montgomery stays KACA (Keep Alabama Corrupt Always).

Trump is working overtime to make the federal government more accountable to the American people while Governor Ivey is pushing hard to make the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs (ADVA) less accountable to Alabama Veterans. Ivey is bullying the legislature to ram through legislation that dramatically changes the ADVA, but worst of all, it abolishes the State Board of Veterans Affairs (SBVA) which has given Veterans a real voice for 80 years.

After seeing how WWI Veterans were treated, returning WWII Veterans created the current structure of the ADVA and SBVA to be focused and responsive to Veterans unique needs; and they specifically insulated them from being politicized. SBVA members are nominated by their respective Veterans Service Organizations which has resulted in organic diversity. Furthermore, SBVA has real oversight authority on budgets, operations, and policies, but all that will be stripped away if Ivey’s legislation passes. Why is she so desperate to politicize the ADVA?

Governor Ivey is the Chairman of the current SBVA, so if she cares so much, why has she only attended one SBVA meeting in the last about four years? If Veterans are such a high priority to her, why did she flatly reject an effort to make the ADVA Commissioner a cabinet level position about three years ago? She doesn’t need the legislature to elevate the Commissioner, so why has she not already done it?

One cannot help but believe these draconian proposals must have something to do with her unceremonious and perhaps illegal firing of the previous ADVA Commissioner, RADM Kent Davis, last year. She claimed it was not retribution, but after Davis was legally compelled by several members of the SBVA to file an ethics complaint against Alabama Department of Mental Health (ADMH) Commissioner, Kim Boswell, she started trying to fire Davis shortly thereafter. Oddly, an extremely ethically challenged Ethics Commission dismissed the complaint without any real examination.

Last year, ADVA was getting $7 million of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds for Veteran initiatives particularly mental healthcare for PTSD, so they hired ADMH to handle the application and administer the funds. Without notice or reason, the ADMH unilaterally withdrew from the agreement, so ADVA NEVER received the $7 million of ARPA funds.

Why did ADMH cancel their agreement? Did it have anything to do with other legislation that would send some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in opioid settlement funds to the ADVA? That bill was gutted and the ADVA received exactly NONE. After Veterans were cut out again, why did ADMH allot a few million dollars to form a new committee to study Veterans issues? Why didn’t they continue their relationship with ADVA which already has solutions identified and in place? Why start over with another study? Is the ADMH just protecting their $1.3 billion annual rice bowl? The Attorney General should revisit that ethics complaint.

After the ADVA wandered too close to the ADMH funding stream, Governor Ivey accused Davis of mishandling ARPA funds that ADMH had applied for on their behalf and approved the recipients through third party selection process. So, if there was a problem with those ARPA funds, why didn’t Ivey accuse Boswell of mishandling it? Her agency put it together. And here is the crazy part, ADVA NEVER received the ARPA funds, so how could they have mishandled it?

With all these unanswered questions, having an independent SBVA that can request accountability seems to have become inconvenient for Ivey. The SBVA disagreed with her accusations and declined to fire Davis. She found a new “supreme executive authority” to fire Davis, so now she is back to silence the remaining disobedient Veterans.

The Governor and her henchmen tried to ram her awful bill through in the first couple weeks before Veterans could have any input, but the backlash from Veterans statewide slowed their rush to purge the SBVA. The initial legislation sponsored by Senator Andrew Jones and Representative Ed Oliver was an abomination for Veterans because it abolished the SBVA, a functioning board with real oversight authority, and replaced it with a toothless Advisory Committee of political appointees.

Veterans statewide flooded legislators with calls, emails, and texts to oppose these bills to silence Veterans. The main point is Alabama Veterans want to preserve the current SBVA and particularly its very real power over ADVA. Jones and Oliver tried to distract various groups with superficial tinkering about who gets on the new advisory committee, but the Veteran community was not fooled. Veterans demanded the SBVA be preserved and growing numbers of legislators started understanding and agreeing, or so we thought.

The Senate had carried the bill over and the House left their bill in committee after all nine Veteran groups at their public hearing testified against their bill. Now in the third week, Veterans were hearing from various Senators that they would pass a substitute bill that only elevated the Commissioner to cabinet level, but level the SBVA intact with all its authority.

That’s NOT what happened! In some legislative slight of hand, Jones submitted a substitute bill that was not really a substitute, it was basically Ivey’s original bill with some window dressing saying the current Veterans Service Organizations could keep a seat on the useless advisory committee, but it still took all authority and power away from the SBVA!

Jones would not yield the floor, so there were no amendments and worse he would not allow motions to carry over the new bill. Senators only had the new bill 6 minutes when Jones called the vote, so no one actually read it. Nine diligent Senators voted NO, but 21 voted yes and some of those later said they thought they were voting for the substitute that preserved the SBVA and its authority. So, did Jones deceive the other Senators? Or did the other Senators join Jones in deceiving Veterans?

The Senate failed Alabama Veterans today. Now this travesty goes back to the House where prospects for this betrayal of Alabama Veterans to be consummated are high. If all these changes are so good for Veterans, what is the rush? Why the bait and switch?

The Alabama legislature looks complicit and weak, and Veterans are furious with them, but the focus should be on Governor Ivey. Why is this her top issue after years of essentially ignoring the ADVA? Is she just protecting her pal, Boswell? Is she trying to preserve the status quo at ADMH and keep anyone from asking what are we getting for $1.3 billion in annual mental healthcare spending? Or is Ivey simply determined to change the law to cover her lack of “supreme executive authority” in possible future litigation, so she is tearing down a venerable eight-decade agency to cover her backside?

Alabama Veterans were deceived and will soon be silenced. Governor Ivey is hiding something and sadly the legislature is willing to help her or stand aside. This is not just an injustice for Veterans but for every Alabama citizen. We will only watch Trump Make America Great Again (MAGA), because back home everyone in Montgomery seems content to Keep Alabama Corrupt Always – we only get KACA.

“They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption” (2 Peter 2:19).

Pete Riehm is a Navy Veteran, conservative activist, and columnist in south Alabama. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.