September 2025 | Vol. 28, No. 3

The Arise Report - September 2025

This is an electronic version of the September newsletter that will be mailed to Alabama Arise members.

Join or renew your Arise membership today to ensure you get the next print edition in your mailbox!

Click here to check out the full online version.

After a successful 2025 session, Alabama Arise looks toward the future

Building a better Alabama for all is not the work of a single year or decade or even lifetime. It’s work that spans generations. Each of us should do our best to build upon the foundation laid by those who came before us, and to equip those who will come after us to reach even greater heights.

As we continue on the path to a brighter future, it’s important to celebrate milestone achievements along the way. Three bill signing ceremonies with Gov. Kay Ivey this summer were opportunities for Alabama Arise to rejoice over several hard-won legislative victories in 2025. These included new laws to reduce the state grocery tax and to remove the state sales tax from baby formula, diapers and other essential items for infants and parents.

Annual Meeting to chart Arise’s course for 2026 

Grassroots democracy will be on display when Alabama Arise members help shape our 2026 legislative priorities at our Annual Meeting on Saturday, Sept. 27. There will be options to meet both in person and online via Zoom. 

We will ask members to adopt seven broad issue categories for the next four years (2026-29). Then we will ask members to rank the categories in order of importance and give them the option to rank the priority legislation under each category.

See the Annual Meeting's event page to learn more and register today!

Proposed 2026-29 legislative priorities

The newsletter provides detailed updates on the seven proposed legislative priorities that we will ask members to adopt for 2026-29.

• Adequate state budgets
• Health equity
• Hunger relief
• Inclusive democracy
• Justice reform
• Tax reform
• Worker power

The newsletter also includes an overview of a provisional issue submitted by the Environmental Defense Alliance. Arise staff will research this issue over the next year and report back to members about challenges and opportunities if Arise were to adopt the issue in the future.

What the new federal budget law means for SNAP, health care in Alabama

While many Alabamians were celebrating July 4, Congress passed a sweeping budget reconciliation law that will hurt families across the country. To extend more than $1 trillion of tax cuts for the richest Americans, Congress slashed health care, food assistance and other vital services for ordinary people.

“It’s wrong to hurt people who are struggling to help people who are already far ahead,” Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said after the bill’s passage. “But Congress just passed legislation that will do exactly that. This budget bill is not only a moral failure. It’s bad policy, and it is a really bad deal for Alabama and our entire country.”

2025 has been a roller coaster of a year for Alabama Arise

Our wins at the State House show that solidarity works. Multi-issue advocacy works. Long-term investment in power-building and community organizing, focused on engaging everyday people, is effective.

But even as we celebrate these victories, we see that our idea of an inclusive democracy is under threat. Bills attacking immigrants and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have been passed and implemented. These measures use a time-tested “divide and conquer” approach to try to make working-class people turn against each other instead of uniting around their common interests.

Diverse membership is our power

We just wrapped up our summer Membership Drive, where some of our members – “Arise Ambassadors” – helped grow our membership by inviting friends and neighbors to join Alabama Arise. People join Arise to build a more equitable Alabama. And our members are our power: You choose our legislative priorities and advocate with us at the State House. Please ask the people in your life to become Arise members!

Arise celebrates wins from 2025 legislative session

Alabama Arise staff gathered this summer at the State Capitol in Montgomery to celebrate two new laws that will help families across the state. 

Arise legislative director David Stout (left), hunger policy advocate LaTrell Clifford Wood (second from right) and communications director Chris Sanders (right) pose with Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, and Gov. Kay Ivey at a July 31 signing ceremony for the grocery tax reduction law (HB 386), which took effect Sept. 1.

Arise executive director Robyn Hyden and senior policy analyst Carol Gundlach (second and third from left) pose with Ivey, Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham (second from right), Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur (third from right) and other advocates at a June 12 ceremony for the “pink tax” law (HB 152), which also took effect Sept. 1. The law removes the state sales tax from baby formula, diapers and other essential items for infants and parents.

Congrats to our new 'seniors'!

Congratulations are in order for three Alabama Arise staff members who received promotions this summer. Formeeca Tripp (left) is now a senior organizer. Matt Okarmus (middle) is now a senior communications associate. And McKenzie Burton (right) is now a senior development associate. We’re excited to honor and expand their ongoing work to build a better Alabama for all!

Alabama Arise

P.O. Box 1188, Montgomery, Alabama 36101

(334) 832-9060  ·  [email protected]

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