Alabama House Bans Foreign Political Donations

0:00It's April 9th. This is Birmingham News Today, local news powered by AI. Alabama's House of Representatives just greenlit a bill that blocks online political donations from foreign billing addresses. Senate Bill 92, sponsored by Senator Arthur Orr, stops campaigns, PACs and political parties from taking credit card contributions unless the billing address is in the United States. The measure targets sketchy setups like give cards or third party processors that skip U.S. details. It cars out an exception for American citizens overseas as long as they use their voter registration address. House Republicans like Representative Mike Shaw pushed it as a way to tighten campaign finance rules and signal banks on better transaction checks. Democrats push back, worried it might snag real donations from folks abroad. This fits into a bigger push against foreign meddling in state elections. Just last month, they passed the law outright banning contributions from foreign nationals to campaigns and PACs.

1:00The House added a small technical tweak, so now the Senate has to sign off before it hits Governor K.I.V.'s desk, keeps the momentum rolling on cleaner elections.