Sine Die Nears: Transgender Care Vote, Election Bills, and Georgia’s Legislative Wrap-Up

Tomor­row is Sine Die, Georgia’s leg­isla­tive dead­line. Yes­ter­day, a vote to end tax­pay­er-fund­ed gen­der-affirm­ing care for inmates after most Democ­rats walked out. AG Chris Carr, now run­ning for gov­er­nor, is crit­i­cized for pre­vi­ous­ly allow­ing such care, spot­light­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues. Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Bri­an Strick­land filed for AG, pos­si­bly jump­ing ahead of Gov­er­nor Kemp’s plans. HB397 and SB214 (paper bal­lots) passed the Sen­ate; HB397 awaits House approval this ses­sion, while SB214’s House vote is like­ly delayed to 2026 unless rules are suspended—unlikely but pos­si­ble. Judge Toten­berg dis­missed Curl­ing vs. Raf­fensperg­er on stand­ing after sev­en years, coin­cid­ing with these elec­tion bills. The Sen­ate equal­ized teacher and police death ben­e­fits, avoid­ing deep­er men­tal health issues. Flat third-grade read­ing scores prompt­ed $30.5M for lit­er­a­cy ini­tia­tives, though COVID’s last­ing harm to kids remains unad­dressed.

• Tomor­row is Sine Die. Yes­ter­day there was a vote to stop tax­pay­er fund­ed trans­gen­der gen­der affirm­ing care for inmates. And the democ­rats walked out dur­ing the debate. Only 2 democ­rats stayed and vot­ed. There are two things to remem­ber here, Chris Carr the AG run­ning for gov­er­nor that allowed state employ­ees and pris­on­ers to get gen­der affirm­ing care. This could be a com­mer­cial. These are the val­ues of democ­rats. 
• Bri­an Strick­land Repub­li­can state sen­a­tor files for GA attor­ney gen­er­al run. The prop­er eti­quette would be to not do any­thing until Kemp makes his move. 
• Yes­ter­day HB397 and SB214 passed the Sen­ate. Unless SB214 is added to anoth­er bill that crossed over this ses­sion it won’t be vot­ed on by the House until the 2026 ses­sion. HB397 still needs con­fir­ma­tion by the House this ses­sion. All the house has to do is approve HB397 because the Sen­ate made some adjust­ments. It stands a chance of pass­ing. SB214, the paper bal­lot bill, is very nar­row. The noise has to be in the State house on SB214. They could sus­pend rules and could push a piece of leg­is­la­tion. It could hap­pen but is unlike­ly. 
•  Judge Toten­berg dis­missed the Curl­ing vs Raf­fensperg­er on stand­ing. Imme­di­ate­ly the case was to be deter­mined on stand­ing and dur­ing the case she rebuked all chal­lenges to stand­ing. But she holds a 7 year case and waits until there are two elec­tion bills on the floor at the end of a leg­isla­tive ses­sion. 
• State sen­ate vot­ed to pay teach­ers the same as police offi­cers if they are killed in the line of duty. But we nev­er address the issue and when we do we throw mon­ey at it and call it men­tal ill­ness. 
• IN GA third grade read­ing scores have been flat. $18.5M to hire 116 lit­er­a­cy coach­es, $2M to give all schools a uni­ver­sal read­ing screen­er, and $10M to imple­ment rec­om­men­da­tions from the GA coun­cil on lit­er­a­cy. What about nev­er harm­ing our chil­dren again like they were dur­ing COVID.