A bill that takes steps toward building a new Alabama State House that lawmakers passed Thursday covers other topics, including a change that would allow the attorney general to redact the names of contractors it hires for professional services related to litigation.

SB222 is a 32-page bill that won final passage in the Senate by a vote of 34-0 with limited discussion. It goes to Gov. Kay Ivey, who could sign into law.

The bill would give the Legislature control of property under consideration for the site of a new State House, including land behind the current State House that is now a parking lot.

The Retirement Systems of Alabama has requested design proposals and cost estimates from architectural firms and will receive those until May 19. SB222 authorizes the Legislative Council, a panel of 20 lawmakers, to contract with the RSA or another entity to build a new building for the meeting chambers and offices of the Legislature. It would replace the building constructed in 1963 for the State Highway Department, a retrofitted, eight-story building that the Legislature has used since 1985.

Lawmakers said a decision on whether to proceed with a State House could come later this year. If the plan authorized in SB222 proceeds, the Legislature would lease the facility from the RSA, which has a long track record of constructing office buildings, resort hotels, and golf courses, including eight buildings in downtown Montgomery.

The provision about the attorney general’s professional services contracts would tweak the state law on the Legislature’s contract review committee. The committee meets monthly and goes through a list of contracts that state agencies use to hire for professional services and legal services. The meeting agenda, posted on the Legislature’s website, lists the names of the contractors, the cost of the contracts, a brief summary of the purpose, and other information. State agency officials attend the meetings to answer questions from the lawmakers on the committee. The committee cannot block a contract, but can temporarily delay them and draw public attention to them.

SB222 includes a paragraph that allows the attorney general to redact the names of people hired for professional services related to lawsuits. The redaction does not apply to lawyers hired by the AG: “Contracts for professional services executed by the Attorney General in preparation for or during litigation with any individual, other than an attorney in the litigation, may be redacted until the conclusion of the litigation if necessary to protect from disclosure information that may lead to harassment of the individual. This subsection does not protect any information from being disclosed, as appropriate during the course of litigation.”

Othni Lathram, director of the Legislative Services Agency, which drafts bills for the Legislature, among other duties, told a House committee last month the purpose of the redaction is to prevent the attorney general from having to disclose, via the contract review committee, the experts it hires for lawsuits months before both sides in litigation have to make those disclosures in court.

“During litigation there is always a scheduling order by the court,” Lathram said. “That order provides for when various forms of discovery occur, including the disclosure of experts and their testimony. When the AG must come through contract review months ahead of that litigation process to comply with the law, it gives the party on the other side of ligation a much longer lead time on the state’s experts and potentially its litigation strategy and process.”