Now it’s Brian Kemp’s turn.
Mounds of legislation approved by the Georgia General Assembly during its 40-day session, which adjourned Friday, now rest on the desk of the state’s governor and top Republican.
Kemp already has signed into law some of the measures, notably the “religious freedom” bill. He has 40 days to consider the rest. Besides signing a bill into law, he can either veto it or do nothing, in which case it automatically becomes law.
No doubt Kemp will approve what he championed as his main legislative priority this year: limiting lawsuits. How he opts to handle the other bills stacked on his desk may signal how he plans to position himself politically for a possible run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Jon Ossoff next year or the GOP presidential nomination in 2028.
‘America first’
Looming over Kemp’s task, just as he did in this legislative session, is President Donald Trump.
In the final days of this year’s legislative session, the legislature’s Republican majority used its clout to muscle through legislation pleasing to Trump’s supporters in the state, if not the president himself, and targeting his enemies.
Under a bill co-sponsored by Republican state Sen. Mike Hodges and approved Friday, Trump and other Republican officials would be entitled to collect attorney’s fees they incurred during the unsuccessful prosecution by Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis on racketeering, conspiracy and other charges related to the 2020 presidential election.
A measure approved by both Houses last week would give subpoena powers to a special committee investigating alleged illicit fundraising practices by former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, founder of the voting rights group, New Georgia Project.
A Senate bill co-sponsored by Hodges and Ben Watson (R-Savannah) and bound for the governor’s desk would allow the state to issue an “America First” license plate.
Rep. Martin Momtaham, a northwest Georgia Republican, rejected suggestions by Democrats that the slogan “America First” was sectarian and evoked the racist, antisemitic, and xenophobic “America First” movement of the 1920s.
“I see this bill is about putting America first, but not in a partisan way, not in a divisive way, but in a way that should unite us all under the great red, white and blue,” Momtahan (R-Dallas) as he introduced the bill in the House last week.
A notable exception to successful passage of this raft of pro-Trump legislation was a bill that would have withdrawn the state from a voter registration accuracy organization and banned absentee ballot drop-off the weekend before Election Day.
The president has never stopped insisting that he was cheated out of reelection in 2020, not least because of what he claims is vote rigging and a flawed ballot count in Georgia.
Instead, the House created a study committee to review Georgia’s touchscreen voting equipment, a possible switch to hand-marked paper ballots and voter registration accuracy.
Another noteworthy exception was a bill pushed by Rep. Jesse Petrea (R-Savannah) to ensure cooperation of local authorities with efforts to deport illegal immigrants by agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Service, or ICE.
The Senate passed the legislation in mid-February, but a House committee never passed it to the floor for a vote.
A measure’s failure to win the General Assembly’s approval and reach the governor’s desk doesn’t mean it’s dead. The legislature and its 236 members — 56 senators and 180 representatives — sits for two years, which means any measure introduced this year can resume where it left off in the legislative process without starting from scratch when the legislature convenes again in January.
School marketplace expansion
As for issues of concern to Coastal Georgians, the waning days of this year’s meeting of the General Assembly produced mixed results.
Having already failed to do anything of consequence in the area of environmental protection before Crossover Day — in particular, banning mining adjacent to the Okefenokee Swamp or creating a regional agency in Coastal Georgia’s southern counties to address unprecedented growth — a Senate committee tabled a bill authored by Savannah’s Petrea that would have required restaurants to label menus with the origin of shrimp they serve.
As for education and childcare, needing only the governor’s signature is a bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Billy Hickman (R-Statesboro), that would require school officials to provide teachers with training on how to cultivate “phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and text comprehension” in young students.
Another would expand Georgia’s childcare tax credit to allow parents to claim 50% of their expenses for childcare and a $250 rebate for each child under six years old.
Meanwhile, the statewide expansion of the school “marketplace” accelerated, even as a bill introduced in January and co-sponsored by Hickman and Sen. Derek Mallow (D-Savannah) that would make kindergarten mandatory for all children prior to entering 1st grade, went nowhere.
On Friday, lawmakers approved legislation that incentivizes the creation of charter schools and a budget that calls for spending $141 million on a new voucher program for private schools and home schooling.
At $6,500 per voucher, the amount would provide enough for more than 21,000 vouchers, though how high the demand will be in the program’s first year isn’t clear. House lawmakers had proposed spending $46 million, which would have provided only about 7,000 slots.
‘Protecting our children’
Two road vehicle-related bills didn’t clear the necessary hurdles in time to reach the governor’s desk.
Following mounting complaints over speed detection cameras in school zones, one bill was introduced that would ban the cameras indefinitely. It was co-sponsored by Republican state Rep. Ron Stephens of Savannah. Another bill called for limiting their use to specific time periods around school hours, mandating clearer warning signs, and revising fine schedules. Last-minute amendments on Friday stalled votes on both measures.
During debate Friday on the House floor, Democrats Edna Jackson and Anne Allen Westbrook of Savannah railed against a measure, promoted by north Georgia Republican Sen. Colton Moore, that targets a city ordinance penalizing gun owners who leave their firearms unattended in unlocked vehicles.
Moore’s bill would allow people to sue local governments if they have been “aggrieved” by a rule that conflicts with gun rights granted by state law and seek compensation for some damages.
Jackson described the ordinance as a common-sense measure that helps “to protect our children, our senior citizens and all of the people that come to our community.”
Westbrook said, “I’ve got a bad feeling that when we adjourn tonight, the only legislation the General Assembly will have passed to address the number one killer of Georgia’s children and teens is one that makes it easier for people to sue cities that try to pass safe storage.”
She was partly right. The bill was passed by the Republican-led House but didn’t get the final approval of the Senate. It will have to wait until next year to be taken up again.
Fireworks, sugar cane, stew
The waning days of this year’s legislative gathering produced some less contentious moments.
Household pets aren’t the only animals aggrieved on the Fourth of July. A bill passed by lawmakers would allow city and county governments to adopt a ban on fireworks being ignited within 200 yards of commercial horse stables.
As for Rep. Rick Townsend, a Brunswick Republican, evidently didn’t suffice for the state Senate simply to follow his lead and honor a local delicacy, Brunswick stew.
The chamber loaded up Townsend’s bill, co-sponsored by Republicans Steven Sainz and Buddy DeLoach and shepherded in the Senate by Mike Hodges.
By the time senators were done, the measure called for declaring the day after Thanksgiving “National Sugarcane Syrup Day” in Georgia, designating cornbread the official bread of Georgia, and prohibiting any ‘Foreign country of concern’ from seeking state contracts.
With that, Brunswick stew is well on its way to becoming the state’s official stew.
Over to you, governor.
