MONTGOMERY — On the final day of the 2025 legislative session, State Rep. Ron Bolton (R-Northport) earned the House of Representatives' so-called Shroud Award, given annually to the House member carrying the bill without a realistic chance of passing.
The award is presented annually to the lawmakers who introduce the bill deemed to have the worst shot at passing. The entire proceeding is typically held on the session's final day and is always a source of raucous laughter and joshing in the House chamber. Not counting a brief hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, the award has been handed out for over 40 years.
This year, lawmakers considered several bills for the austere award, including a bill from State Rep. Jeremy Grey (D-Opelika) allowing name, image, and likeness (NIL) payments for high school athletes, a bill by State Rep. Ernie Yarbrough (R-Trinity) creating a tax holiday for guns and ammunition, and the proposed gambling legislation by State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-rRnge) that was killed so fast that it never even received a bill number.
However, in the final analysis, Bolton's House Bill 18 (HB18) received the ultimate honor, earning a House resolution bestowing the award on Bolton.
The bill sought to revise the weight and age ranges for determining the appropriate child restraint system and would increase the penalties associated with violations.
"Bolton's bill would have revised the weight and age ranges for determining the appropriate child passenger restraint system parents would be required to use in their vehicles; as with the other two House bills, there's no question of Representative Bolton's good intentions, but to say this bill was complicated is being kind; while Representatives Gray and Yarbrough's bills were fairly straightforward, Representative Bolton's bill read like chapters from a pediatrician's anatomy book or an instruction manual on how to operate a nuclear reactor; opposition to the bill came from both sides of the aisle," the resolution read.
Bolton accepted the award with a smile, scribing his name to the back in keeping with tradition. However, he did not give an acceptance speech.
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