Under the Gold Dome: Feb. 3, 2025

What just happened? 

Transphobia is On the Fast Track 

SB1, the “Fair and Safe Athletic Opportunities Act,” appears to be hurtling through the legislative process. Last week, the House Committee on Education and Youth held its first meeting to consider the bill that would “protect” women and girls from junior high school through college from having to play school sports with transgender women. The meeting included video testimony from four women who support the bill. The committee received public comments, most of which opposed the legislation. It passed out of committee with yes votes from all the Republicans and one Democrat, Sen. Freddie Sims. The video of this meeting can be found here. 

Kemp’s Top Priority: Tort Reform 

The south atrium of the Capitol was jam-packed with a wide variety of Georgia special interest lobbyists and advocates on Thursday to show their enthusiastic support for Gov. Brian Kemp’s high-priority legislation to reduce the compensation citizens can receive for wrongful acts by individuals and corporations. Frequently called tort reform, businesses and insurance companies have long maintained that substantial jury awards in wrongful injury cases lead to increased insurance rates and, thus, higher costs of doing business. Kemp’s proposal, spelled out in recently introduced House Bills 68 and 69, calls for changing the rules to limit jury awards for plaintiffs in personal injury cases like car wrecks or medical malpractice. These changes are designed to reduce the monetary damages to be paid by negligent individuals and corporations to injured citizens. There is no guarantee of reduced insurance premiums for businesses and individuals who pay for liability insurance. 

Democrats in the legislature and plaintiffs’ attorneys argue that high insurance rates contribute to record insurance company profits and high executive salaries, and there is no guarantee that restricting civil lawsuits will result in lower insurance premiums. Rep. Tanya Miller told the Georgia Recorder, “There are very real issues that Georgians face when it comes to insurance. We hear about them all the time: Denied claims, canceled policies, rising premiums. We can and should do something about all these issues.” 

The tort reform bills have not been assigned to a committee, but we expect them to be hotly debated in the next few weeks. 

Data Center Battles

Both the House and the House have suddenly taken notice of the massive growth in data centers around the state. The Speaker of the House, Jon Burns, created a “Special Committee on Resource Management,” chaired by Rep. Brad Thomas and tasked with developing a state resource plan to manage the impact of data centers. This committee held its organizational meeting this Thursday. Then, on the House side, Sen. Chuck Hufstetler dropped SB 34 with a number of co-sponsors, including Democrats, that would require the Public Service Commission to ensure that costs incurred by an electric utility due to providing electricity to data centers are not passed on in the form of rate hikes to consumers. SB 34 has been assigned to the House Committee on Regulated Industries and Utilities. 

The Disappearing Budget Week

As reported last week, the scheduled Budget Week of January 20 was substantially snowed out. In a press release, Kemp provided the speech he would have given to the Joint Appropriations Committee. Last week, the House held some appropriations subcommittee hearings, which are available on video. Other House appropriations subcommittees are expected to be scheduled in the coming weeks; however, the critical presentations from commissioners and the state economist have not been rescheduled. 

Sen. Sally Harrell told the Atlanta Community Press Collective that rather than being rescheduled, the Joint Appropriations Committee hearings were replaced with private meetings in Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Blake Tillery’s office. “Those were brief, closed-door, private meetings that were somewhat helpful, but the joint appropriations hearings we’ve done for decades are extensive and available to the public. It’s the opportunity for the agency heads to really go into detail about what’s going on in their department, their challenges, and why they need appropriations.” Harrell also wrote in her email newsletter, “In the era of virtual technology, this seems unconscionable. The elimination of state public budget hearings is yet another chunk axed from the heart of our democracy.”

What is coming up next?

Committees Galore

House and House committees will continue their organizational meetings this week. Several have scheduled substantive discussions on critical bills, including: 

• The House Committee on Public Safety meets at 1 pm. Monday to hear testimony on SB 7, which would allow the Fulton County Sherrif’s Office to continue using the Atlanta Detention Center. Also SB 21 — targeting cities that have immigration sanctuary policies — will be discussed. 
• The House Judiciary Committee meets on Monday at 3:00 p.m. to discuss SB 12, which would exclude records or documents from private individuals doing business with a state agency from open records requests.

A number of committee meetings are scheduled, and more will be posted. Some committees later in the week do not have agendas announced yet, and agendas are always subject to change. Always check the latest schedule for up-to-date information. 

Advocacy Days

The best way to learn about the legislative process and to advocate for particular issues is to come to the Capitol for an advocacy day. 

Tuesday is Asian American Advocacy Day. Wednesday is Latino Day at the Capitol, sponsored by GALEO and the Latino Community Fund. Thursday, the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club will host a Lobby Training, and Georgia Equality will host the AIDS Watch Georgia Lobby Day.

Navigating the Gold Dome

With heightened security over the past decade, access to the state Capitol has gotten harder. A tall iron fence now surrounds the Capitol building. The only public entrance is on the south side of the Capitol, facing Trinity St., which is blocked off from car traffic. 

Inside, visitors are screened by a metal detector, have bags scanned, and must present a valid state-issued photo ID. Most organizations sponsoring advocacy days provide some food and drinks, but visitors may want to bring a water bottle and a few snacks. There is one small snack bar with vending machines on the ground floor. A cafeteria is located in the building just south of the Capitol, and another is in the Sloppy Floyd building on the north side.