GA Legislative Watch 2025 | Week Twelve

April 15, 2025
Friendly Amendment, GLW, In the News

GA Legislative Watch

By Molly Mcloughlin ● April 7, 2025
Smart Brevity™ count: 5.5 mins…1,485 words

👀 “Is it really over?” many asked, as the Senate abruptly adjourned Sine Die just after 9pm – well before the usual midnight deadline.

Speaker Jon Burns continued voting in the House but only until 10:30pm, leaving a laundry list of bills in limbo until next year.

✍ With a few bills already signed in to law, Gov. Brian Kemp has 40 days, or until May 14, to sign or veto bills. If he does neither, it still becomes law.

Why it matters: Gov. Kemp hasn’t shied away from exercising his veto power, rejecting 12 bills just last year.

1 big thing: What passed

⛪ Gov. Kemp kicked off day 40 by signing the contentious Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law. Debated for almost a decade after being vetoed by Gov. Nathan Deal in 2016, the latest version saw changes approved by the Gov.’s team, all but assuring its final passage.

Supporters say their faith-based beliefs will now be protected from government overreach.

The final version of the state’s $37.8B FY26 spending plan includes

maximum funding for the private school voucher program at $141M
and $15M in grants for school districts with high poverty.
Yes, but: With Gov. Kemp signing off on spending an extra $50M, appropriators ended up with a balanced budget and $12B in reserves.

Concerning the market’s reaction to President Trump’s tariff policies, the House Appropriations Chair noted, “Things have changed and are changing… I would think this budget could stand if there are huge swings.”

🍎 Safer classrooms. The House and Senate’s combined school safety plan, HB 268, is on its way to Gov. Kemp’s desk.

The final version nixed the proposed student database to track students and included a felony offense in adult court for kids accused of terroristic threats at school.

🏚 It’s a “first step forward” in addressing out-of-state ownership of single family homes, said the sponsor of HB 399, Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur).

The law requires property owners to have a representative in Georgia to manage local communications and complaints from tenants.

🎞 The film and TV tax credit for post production expenditures will be reinstated from its sunsetting in 2022.

HB 129 allows post-production companies to receive a 20% credit on qualified projects, with an additional 10% if the project was shot in the state and an extra 5% if completed in a rural county.
The credit is in addition to the uncapped film tax incentive and would sunset in 2031.

Child care tax relief. With the passage of HB 136, families will receive a $250 income tax credit for each child under age 6, and businesses will receive an expanded child care tax incentive.

No transgender inmates. Despite House Dems walking out of the chamber in protest as the debate to prohibit state prison spending on gender affirming treatment began, SB 185 passed 100-2 and is on its way to the Gov.’s desk.

It was largely a messaging bill for both parties – an attempt for R’s to show voters where D’s stand on a national issue that polls well, and an attempt for D’s to respond to R’s “political theater.”

🏀 Fairness in girls sports. Biological males will not be allowed to play in female sports in public schools and universities with SB 1 receiving final passage. Government transparency. After a last minute change and concerns from Gov. Kemp, the original version of SB 12 — making it so public records in the hands of private entities must be requested through public agencies —received final passage.

The House Rules Committee briefly turned the 3-page bill into a 34-page bill with extensive exemptions to the Open Records Act for lawmakers and police.
The 11th-hour switch didn’t hold, but could resurface next year.

2. What didn’t

By dinner time on Sine Die, Speaker Jon Burns indicated the House would not get to some of the remaining hot-button Senate priorities.

He confessed, “I’m not sure we’ll get to those bills this year or not, but they’re always out there.”

DEI debate. While the Senate passed the ban on DEI policies in public schools and universities on day 39, final passage of HB 127 wasn’t in the cards for the House.

Senate Dems used all the tools they had to push back as a minority party, including proposing a record 20 amendments over hours of debate.

🥊 Other “culture war” issues the House did not take up on Sine Die, but are still eligible for next year include

restricting puberty blockers for transgender minors;
banning use of the State Health Benefits Plan for gender-affirming care; and
opening up librarians to criminal liability for allowing certain materials.

🚸 School zone cameras are here to stay – at least another year. As the House debated the Senate-passed version of HB 651, sponsor Rep. Alan Powell (R-Hartwell) got word that the Senate adjourned.

Since the House further amended HB 651, the plan to severely restrict – not ban – speed cameras, it needed a final vote from the Senate, which was no longer an option.
The House still voted to pass their version of the bill with the sponsor noting, “when the press asks questions, it wasn’t us.”
HB 225 was amended by the Senate to push the ban to begin in 2028, but the House didn’t hold a vote to agree.
Go deeper.

“Regulatory red tape” remains. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones’ push to reign in regulatory burdens by giving lawmakers more oversight power, SB 28, failed to make it to the House floor for the second year in a row.

🗳 No elections overhaul… yet. HB 397, which sought to expand the State Election Board powers and remove the state from a voter accuracy database among other provisions, failed to receive a final vote in the House after passing the Senate on day 39.

The private school voucher program will not expand to provide special eligibility for biological and adopted kids of foster parents with SB 152 making it out of a House committee on day 39, but not to a floor vote.

Immigration crackdown stalled. SB 21, waiving legal immunity for local governments that don’t comply with immigration enforcement laws, passed a House committee but never got a final floor vote.

🎰 Bets are off on sports betting, for the 7th year in a row. Although a House proposal to legalize online sports betting made it out of committee, it was never taken up by the full House.

There’s always next year. 🤷

3. Study hall

If you can’t pass it, study it. Both chambers approved study committees to research issues for future policy proposals.

Despite receiving final passage, each study committee still has to be funded and staffed at the discretion of leadership.

The Senate will examine:

AI and Digital Currency, SR 391
Social media and AI’s impact on children and privacy, SR 431
Chronic absenteeism in schools, SR 217
Implementing a Fair Tax plan, SR 386

The House will examine:

Election rules and procedures, HR 885
Funding for Next Generation 911 technology, HR 429
Funding for public health, HR 847
Costs and effects of smoking, HR 304

4. Other political news

📊 Like the General Assembly, Congress also had a late night of marathon voting. U.S. Senate Republicans passed a budget resolution to fund President Trump’s priorities on border security, defense, energy, and taxes.

The resolution makes Trump’s tax cuts from his first term permanent, authorizes an additional $1.5T in tax cuts and raises the debt ceiling by nearly $5T.
What’s next: The U.S. House is set for a vote as early as this week.

GA’s Attorney General race officially kicked off with the first candidate throwing their hat in the ring, Sen. Brian Strickland (R-McDonough).

Newly appointed Labor Commissioner Barbara Rivera Holmes was sworn in by Gov. Kemp on Friday.

She affirmed, “It is my privilege to serve as Georgia’s Labor Commissioner and as our state’s first Latina constitutional officer.”

👨‍⚖ GA’s new Supreme Court Chief Justice Nels Peterson was also sworn in this week, giving a forceful speech emphasizing the importance of judicial independence and the rule of law.

Voter suppression case suppressed. The federal lawsuit against Georgia’s 2021 voting law was dropped by the DOJ due to what the Trump Administration called “false claims of suppression.”

• Go deeper.