Georgia Legislative Focus Shifts: Key Bills and Political Stunts

State leg­is­la­tors are shift­ing their focus as key bills move through the cham­bers. SB39, which aims to pro­hib­it state fund­ing for gen­der-affirm­ing care, is gain­ing trac­tion with strong Sen­ate sup­port, but its lim­it­ed excep­tions war­rant close atten­tion as it moves for­ward. SB1 and SB35 have passed. Mean­while, HB180, co-spon­sored by Repub­li­can demo­c­rat Stan Gunter and Demo­c­rat Sta­cy Evans, is stir­ring con­cern due to the unusu­al bipar­ti­san col­lab­o­ra­tion and its poten­tial impli­ca­tions. The leg­isla­tive body is flood­ed with 379 house bills and 140 Sen­ate bills, rais­ing ques­tions about the neces­si­ty of so many laws. Addi­tion­al­ly, HB296, which intro­duces elec­tron­ic dig­i­tal driver’s licens­es, is being debat­ed in the sec­ond read­er. Amid these dis­cus­sions, con­cerns about back-end fund­ing and polit­i­cal moti­va­tions, includ­ing the recent $4B increase in the state bud­get, are high­light­ed, empha­siz­ing the lack of strong leg­isla­tive action.

• There were teams that spent hours read­ing leg­is­la­tion but now these peo­ple are focused else­where. 
• There are a cou­ple of bills that need to have atten­tion. 
  • SB39 has 29 of 33 sen­a­tors that have signed on. Look this bill up to see if there is a part­ner bill in the house. Remem­ber AG Carr set­tled a law­suit that allowed gen­der affirm­ing care with state funds. The Sen­ate wants to pro­hib­it any state fund for gen­der affirm­ing care. Pro­vid­ing lim­it­ed excep­tions is con­cern­ing, need to read the bill to find out what those lim­it­ed excep­tions are. This bill does not have votes cur­rent­ly. Pay atten­tion to this bill as it will go to the floor and move over to the House. 
  • SB1 has passed as the House pulled their stunt last week which we cov­ered. 
  • SB 35 has passed. 
  • The house won’t think about a sen­ate bill until crossover. 
• HB180 has Stan Gunter, a demo­c­rat that plays a repub­li­can and the chair of the judi­cia­ry and Sta­cy Evans a demo­c­rat as co-spon­sors. They are play­ing stunts. Why is Stan Gunter signed on with a demo­c­rat? So now it already has bipar­ti­san sup­port and it is in sec­ond read­er in the house. Need to read this bill because of the dan­ger of Stand Gunter and Susan Evans on the bill. 
• There are 379 house bills and 140 sen­ate bills. There is some­thing woven into every one of these bills; there is no need for this many laws. 
• Need to take a look at HB296 it is the sec­ond read­er for elec­tron­ic dig­i­tal dri­ver’s license. 
• There was a day when we were doing the right thing. There is not any­one that is fight­ing for leg­is­la­tion. There would be Times to Action to call your leg­is­la­tion. There is some back end fund­ing that is hap­pen­ing. The grifters and storm chasers have fall­en to the dol­lar. We should be dou­bling down on what Trump has done with DOGE in our state. We just passed a midyear bud­get in our state that had a $4B increase.