With this sales tax holiday apply to AR-15 seconds.

In this.

In this bill, we have not defined the firearm.

I'll just tell you that I don't believe body knows me well enough to know that we shouldn't infringe on the Second Amendment.

We shouldn't define specific firearms or.

Legislate.

You know, I.

Mean, I know.

You're somebody on the street that's going to.

Call.

Hartwell.

Or breaking the law, or you're in a gang.

Um, you shouldn't have a weapon already.

A new Senate bill, which would create a tax free holiday for purchasing guns and ammunition, brings up the age old debate over easy access to weapons.

Good evening, and welcome to day 16 of the Georgia legislative session.

I'm Donna Lowry in Atlanta.

The General Assembly continues to introduce public safety bills.

One would help the families of school workers killed or disabled on the job, get the same compensation as public safety officers.

Another bill would offer tuition grants to the spouses of law enforcement officers, firefighters and prison guards killed or disabled in the line of duty.

We'll also dive into efforts to overhaul Georgia's civil litigation system.

And last year, Georgia enacted an immigration bill that is playing out on the national level.

How did Georgia get ahead of national efforts?

We'll find out.

And if you want to know which country is providing the seafood you purchase, there's legislation that will require it be displayed in restaurants.

But first, let's get the latest from our Sarah Kallis at the Capitol.

Reporter hi Donna, it was a busy day in both chambers with lively debate over some controversial issues.

The Senate took on three pieces of legislation today, most notably, Senate Bill 47 would create an 11 day tax holiday each October on the sales of firearms, ammunition and related items.

Last year, a similar bill was passed out of the Senate but failed to make it out of the House.

This bill would run from the second Friday of October for 11 days.

Firearms, ammunition, gun safes and related accessories would be exempt from the sales tax use taxes during that period to promote hunting, conservation and tourism in Georgia.

Senate Bill 47 will also carve out a window of tax revenue to expand the base of hunters and increase tax revenue donated to conservation.

Democrats say there is no need for the tax break, but more importantly.

The optics of this really suck.

The optics of this are sending a message that I'm not sure you want to go home and explain.

I'm just not sure you want to do that about why why you rejected in committee the idea of one of our Democratic colleagues, the idea that why don't we reinstate the sales tax relief on school supplies?

No, no, no, we got this.

This is this is this is for people that.

And you know what?

Guns are going off this flying off the shelves like I don't know what why do we need to incent gun buying.

It's doing fine all on its own.

A Democrat proposed amendment that would have excluded AR-15 rifles from the exemption failed to be considered when the bill was engrossed, but the contentious issue was still passionately debated.

Let me tell you what an assault weapon is.

It was a Ford truck that was used to kill people in New Orleans.

That's what it was.

It's a a pressure cooker that was used to blow up people in a race and a marathon race in Boston.

That's what assault things are that people do.

And we get caught up in this stuff about guns.

What truly things, what things are.

Let me tell you something.

I own a lot of guns.

I'm a I like to collect them.

I like to shoot them.

I like to go hunting.

It has nothing to do with this right here.

I appreciate this bill because it allows safety in this bill that you can buy safety items, go along with guns.

I appreciate the Senator from the 30th, 31st for bringing this bill.

I just want you all to know AR does not stand for assault rifle or automatic rifle.

If we had the opportunity, we would have attempted to exclude those types of guns.

No matter what you call them, that was used in the shooting at Appalachia High School.

It's unfortunate that what we're doing today is extending from 5-11 days and giving an opportunity for folks to buy more guns like this.

As I ask in my question, the gun that was used was legally bought.

And so we are given an opportunity for people to purchase these guns, whereas we could be trying to do something to ensure that we are keeping kids safe.

The bill was passed as expected, along party lines 31-21 also passed SR 95.

The resolution would name a new legislative building being constructed next to the Capitol after former governor, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and current Chancellor of the Georgia University System, Sonny Perdue, in the House, five bills received near unanimous approval one bill, House Bill 199, would change the way judges could request for their personally identifiable information, like phone numbers and addresses, to be redacted.

The House passed a similar bill last year.

What we decided to do at that time was to ask our judges, through our administrative administrative office of the courts, to compile a database that they could then enter their information into, and then send that information out to the appropriate form of government to then be redacted.

Well, through the process of implementation this year, we've realized that asking all of our judges to submit this sensitive information to one central database may not be the most secure way to protect that information.

It's also going to be fairly costly.

Another bill, HB 216, would create a commission for education and production of semiconductor chips.

The commission would be named after the late House rules chairman Richard Smith.

So we need to bring that home, because over 90% of the chips right now that go in your phone, your appliances, your cars, all that's made in Taiwan, over 90% of it.

So we need to bring it back to Georgia.

So I would hope that you have had a chance to take a look at this.

It does create a commission.

We're going to work hard to see if we can't bring that industry here as high paying jobs.

And I think it'd be great for our citizens in Georgia.

Other bills passed would update credit union terminology, add another judge to the Alapaha Superior Court, and increase the cost cap on state contracts after passing legislation, lawmakers moved on to afternoon orders where several Democrats took the opportunity to rebuke President Donald Trump.

Representative Anne Allen Westbrook used the president's own inappropriate words from a 2005 interview to dispute the president's claim that he is a protector of girls and women.

Yesterday, from the well, the president was portrayed as a defender of women and girls.

I was wondering if this was the same president whose record on women and girls I had thought was well known, so I felt it necessary to remind folks of the fuller story.

I moved on her, actually, you know, she was down on Palm Beach.

I moved on her and I failed.

I'll admit it.

I did try and bleep her.

Tomorrow, senators are expected to take up a bill dealing with immigration enforcement and its new Americans Day at the Capitol, where newly sworn in citizens can celebrate with lawmakers.

That's my Capitol report, Donna.

Thanks, Sarah.

Several bills this session come out of the tragic shootings at Appalachia High School last fall.

We're going to talk with two of the governors floor leaders about that legislation.

Republican Representative Will Wade of Dawsonville.

He is vice chair of both Appropriations and Banks and banking.

And Republican Representative Lauren McDonald, the third of Cumming.

He's also on appropriations and is vice chair of transportation.

Welcome to Lawmakers.

We had to get that third in, because we're going to talk about your dad a little bit later, okay.

Um, representative Wade, let's talk about a bill that came out of the shooting deaths.

Um, it is HB 105, and it specifically deals with the school personnel, the teacher, the math teacher, and the coach who were killed.

That's right.

Georgia has a history of protecting and recognizing the risks that our public safety officers face.

And now, unfortunately, a lot of school teachers face, we've gone through this in our history over the last couple of decades.

But in Georgia last fall, the Appalachia event really just shook that community and shook this state.

And the two families that had their, you know, a husband and a wife, a mother and a father, they both were killed.

And those teachers are going to receive some funds out of our Georgia's indemnification fund.

And, uh, back in 2017, when we did the Back to Blue, we increased that limit to 150,000 for public safety officers.

But at the time, we failed to increase it for public school teachers.

And this legislation corrects that and updates it to make those on parity.

And, you know, Don, I know the governor, Lauren and I there's not $1 amount that you can put on the loss of life.

But this is a good gesture, I think, for that community and Holt Persinger representative, that this touched very deeply is also a co-sponsor on that bill, and I appreciate his efforts to help the governor and help us get this legislation.

It will be on the floor tomorrow.

Okay.

So they're definitely public servants.

You see teachers as public servants in the especially in the stuff that they face in the classroom these days.

Very much so.

Both our parents, my mom was a teacher for 32 years, and Will's mom was for 15.

So they both were committed to the youth of our state.

Yeah.

So let's your signer on that bill.

But let's talk about another one.

The as governors, the governor's floor leaders.

You guys are also on the tax rebate bill.

So talk about that.

More more tax rebates.

For yes.

For Georgians.

Donna, this is the one I'm carrying this year for the governor's HB 112.

And it's a tax rebate for those that have filed their tax returns in 2023 and 2024.

So you've had to have filed in both of those years.

So if you're a joint filer, you'll receive $500 back.

If you're the head of household, you'll get 375.

If you're if you're in an individual filer, you'll get 250.

Yeah.

So it has to be over the two those two years in particular.

That is correct.

And the total if you look at what Governor Kemp has done with, with also the the 24 basis points that he's reducing from 5.3 to 5.1 in our income tax that we pay.

Um, and over the two years, if you combine everything that under the governor's leadership, he's given back to hardworking Georgians, it's going to total about $7.6 billion.

Wow.

That's I know a lot of people are happy about that bill.

So we'll be following that for sure.

Thank you.

Let's let's switch gears again as floor leaders, you are you're the governor's big with the this tort reform legislation.

Tell us a little bit about it.

What is the primary goal?

You know, I think as a banker I'll put on my my regular job.

I've been doing that since 1998 for the last 18 months.

I get phone calls from every client in every business sector that has been facing increased insurance premiums.

And even what's more tragic, no insurance options to cover their home, their business, their farm, their property umbrella policies.

It has just gotten out of whack.

And the governor has been very clear.

This lawsuit reform is a priority.

It started in the Senate.

Senate Pro Tem John F Kennedy has carried it.

I think they're continuing to debate that bill.

And that will continue through the process.

And hopefully it'll come over to the House, you know, in the next week or so.

And then we'll see what the Senate sends back to the House.

And hopefully they'll honor the governor's efforts to balance this out.

This is listening to all sides.

I know my fellow friend here, Lauren, he listened to some of those things.

I'm sure in his business he's been facing that challenge.

And the governor recognizes it's time to address this for all Georgians.

It is impacting every corner of our state.

It doesn't deal well.

Let's put it this way.

The the the commissioner, the insurance commissioner, John King, said it doesn't necessarily reduce insurance rates.

And so I wonder what you say to people who think that might happen.

How do you reassure them about what they will get out of it?

Well, I think it's you know, I think you look at small business that's, you know, that's that's what we've got to reassure small business that they, they are protected and hopefully this, this type of legislation will, uh, kind of encourage people to go into business, that knowing that, that they as, as a small business owner myself, always worry when my when my team is going out on the road doing the job that we do, I, you know, I always want to make sure that everything that they're going to come back safely and nothing's going to happen.

So it's a it scares me.

But I'm glad the governor is stepping up with with this measure.

And what do you say to people who say this will limit, you know, there's no as you mentioned earlier, there's no there's no price you can put on somebody's life or those kind of things when they go for litigation.

Yeah.

The the governor's been very clear that, look, if you have been harmed and there is somebody that's at fault that the process should be fair and they should be made whole.

But insurance is not a lottery ticket.

And I think that the state we need to re stabilize the market.

And I'll say this as a, as a person who's got a background in banking and economics, I do think in the long run, when an insurance company back home told me that they used to have 17 carriers, that they could shop for all their clients, and they've lost half of those, and therefore prices have had upward pressure.

If we can do this and get this right, we'll start seeing these insurance companies come back, which will create more competition, flatten insurance premiums.

And I think even in the long run, as our state matches some of our competitive states, those prices in the long run will start coming down.

Okay.

So we'll see.

We'll see a couple of these bills.

You see the one bill tomorrow and others will see coming.

Yeah.

They're coming.

Yeah okay.

We'll be looking for them.

Well as I mentioned I wanted to talk a little bit to you before we wrap up.

Uh, representative McDonnell, I want to make the connection for people to the viewers.

About your dad, Lauren Bubba McDonald Jr..

He is a long serving member of the Georgia Public Service Commission.

Appointed to the commission in June 1998 by Governor Zell Miller.

He also served in the Georgia House for 20 years.

And there's a section of I-85 North with his name on it.

That's quite a legacy.

It is quite a legacy.

Yeah, everything kind of he's done in his life, I've kind of followed, whether it's now in the legislature.

I did it in fire service, being a fireman for 27 years, and he did it for 38.

And and I just had the honor that Speaker Burns is letting me sit in the seat this year.

My dad sat in for 18 years.

You got that this year?

Yes.

I did, yeah.

And it just it must feel good to, to be able to carry on that legacy.

He must be very proud of you.

I hope he is.

Yeah, yeah.

So are you.

Are you thinking about the future too?

No, ma'am.

I'm good.

Public service commission?

No, but you both come from families where service.

You know, if your mom was, if your mom's were a teacher's and that kind of thing.

It's.

It's kind of in your blood, isn't it?

It's in it.

My grandfather was an air force.

My mom and dad were both teachers.

My wife's an educator, so.

Okay.

It's in our blood.

All right, well, we're glad that you're here and you're working for Georgians.

Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Thank you.

And I know your dad came on quite a few times.

Not with me, but he's come on before.

Well, coming up, how Georgia's laws on immigration line up with new federal policy.

And we'll talk to two House members about legislation to help the spouses of first responders with education costs.

This is Lawmakers on GPB.

The organization dedicated to preserving Georgia agriculture, Farm Bureau, advocates for all Georgia farmers at the state Capitol during the session and year round.

Georgia Farm Bureau, the Voice of Georgia Farmers.

It's good to have everyone back together.

Good news indeed.

Put your feet up a minute.

It's beautiful.

How does that sound to you, man?

It's what I love doing.

Cup of tea.

I was.

Thinking more a double whiskey.

Harriet.

Freshly baked biscuits.

Always.

Well, this is all proving rather cozy, isn't it?

I got my head out the showroom.

Whoa whoa whoa la la la la la la la la la.

Understanding the past gives a sense of the future.

Heart like a lion.

This is the first time that anyone has seen this in 2000 years.

Oh oh oh oh.

Stop.

Big is happening.

So hurry up.

We're diving in.

This is amazing.

Well, I'm excited now.

Pompeii is a battle against time.

Eyes wide open.

Oh.

You think I'm joking?

But look at this.

It did really happen.

Don't let anybody tell you who you are.

Yeah, I love this life.

History teaches us to honor the past.

Witch in with our eyes wide open.

When you look back, you're like, wow, that was pretty special.

This is something that's actually altering the course of history.

You're charged with keeping these stories alive.

I know that you.

Welcome back to Lawmakers.

I'm Donna Lowry.

We're talking first responders, immigration and seafood for a few minutes.

With us are two South Georgians.

Republican Representative Jesse Petri of Savannah.

He's chairman of human relations, aging and Democratic Representative Dexter Sharper Valdosta.

His committees include Banks and banking and Urban Affairs.

Welcome to Lawmakers to both of you.

We're going to get through a lot of things, but I want to kick things off with immigration bill from last year.

11 0-5 that passed became a law and requires jailers to hold anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.

And it's a law that came out of the tragic death of Laken Riley, which actually happened during our legislative session last year.

So, Donna.

So first of all, that bill was dropped long before she was murdered.

Sadly and sadly, because it may well have altered the outcome had we had it earlier.

So that bill was dropped before the Laken Riley murder.

But what it does in the end is ensure that all local governments, jailers, sheriffs and local government are cooperating with Ice and they do not have sanctuary policies and endorse sanctuary policies.

And by the way, that's what they had in Clark County, where Laken Riley was murdered.

Yeah.

So and.

Because this was in place, it was once the federal law came in, or I should say executive order, you we were in place in Georgia to be able to carry this out.

We passed.

11 0-5 Perfectly.

To allow the new administration to come in and do the will of the people, which is to remove those in particular who are criminally, illegally in the country.

There are over 450,000 illegal immigrants in Georgia today.

And of course, most of those are not criminals, but those that are criminals and are in jails today must be reported to Ice, and they must honor Ice detainers because of.

11 0-5 And I'm real proud that we did that because Americans, the polling shows quite clearly Americans want those individuals removed.

Okay.

I want to get your thoughts on this, Reverend Sharpton.

Thank you so much for being on the show.

But I think, you know, if you're going to come into a country regardless, you know, where you're coming from, you need to come in legally.

I mean, I'm a big proponent of that, doing it the right way.

And we got to work with the feds, local state governments to make sure we're ensuring that the people that are illegal go back and do it the right way, because, like you said, a lot of the people that are here, um, everybody's not making trouble.

Okay.

A lot of them are working.

But at the same time, we can't go to other countries and just go there and say, hey, we're going to be a citizen here.

No, there's a proper way to go about everything.

We just can't go and just be there.

So I know we have more legislation to come this this session.

Okay.

Like I said, lots of things I want to talk about.

And let's start with you.

You are you still a first responder or you have been a first.

Responder for 35.

Years, right.

So an EMT paramedic.

Tell me what life has been for you as an EMT and then how it relates to some of the things down here.

I think the biggest thing, me being a paramedic for almost 35 years, is being on the health committees that I've served on for going on 13 years now, and it gives me a special insight on what's really happening.

You know, on the ground, at the hospitals, at people's homes.

And I'm able to give that information to the committee members.

And, you know, as a is a great thing to have people that have a lot of experience to be able to give the others insight.

That really helps them.

And I think my committee members and chairmen, they really respect that.

I've been, you know, in the industry that long and give them factual, realistic information.

And paramedics are out there with police officers and firefighters.

You're facing all the same things.

That they face.

Yeah.

Anytime.

Anybody need some help and call 911.

Even first responders like firefighters and, policemen, then they're going to call us and we got to help.

It's a it's a team effort.

It's like a family.

Well, I know, um, Chairman Petri, you have a bill, HB 56, that would kind of help public, uh, public safety personnel, law enforcement and all.

Thank you.

Yeah.

HB 56.

So it was dropped in the last biennial.

Biennial.

So we've had it a couple of years.

Almost got it passed last year.

But we're going to get it done this year.

And what it does, we have a scholarship.

A memorial scholarship for the children of either slain or permanently disabled law enforcement officers, firefighters, prison guards and paramedics that exists today for children.

What this measure does is add spouses of those individuals who are killed in the line of duty or permanently disabled in the line of duty to that benefit as well.

And so that is a tuition free in the university system of Georgia or the Technical College System of Georgia.

For those individuals.

We're doing that for anywhere 40-45 children.

Sadly, a year now.

Um, obviously we just saw a terrible murder this week in Roswell of an officer.

And so who has a spouse?

And if indeed that spouse can benefit from educating themselves, they may be a single parent at a point in time like this.

This measure, I think, will be a way that we can show them our thanks for the for that sacrifice.

Yeah, it gives them the chance to continue their education or start their education, because maybe they're going to be the primary provider providers in their family after tragedy.

Okay.

Well, let's let's change gears a little bit.

I want to talk about what you call the ice cream truck bill.

Right.

Right.

HB 3369, bipartisan legislation that focuses on food trucks.

So tell us about it.

Right.

And mainly the ice cream trucks, there was an incident that happened here in Atlanta area.

And what caught my eye is I was looking at Instagram and I saw a photo of a little child laying down in a funeral home, and the young lady was doing the child's hair, and I realized that it was the mother of the child because she does hair.

And I just saw the strength that she was able to carry that through, even though the pain that she was enduring from the incident that happened.

And, you know, like kids, they go back and forth.

They're excited when they see the ice cream truck.

And what happened is a driver was behind the ice cream truck, and he came around and the kid was getting ready to go back to his home, and he was killed.

And so I said, we need to do something as a paramedic, even, um, you don't want to go to a child in that situation.

I mean, we see a lot of patients, but when you go to a child, it really weighs on you and it stays on you.

And I want to get the ice cream trucks to be more safer.

And we're not going to completely stop the traffic a lot of times.

But even if a person does decide to go around, we want more lights.

We want the caution sign or proceed slowly.

Just more things that can help prevent things like this.

Because you have more ice cream trucks out, because now they're serving like little food items on the truck.

So they're in the neighborhoods even more so.

The food trucks.

Right?

So you've got food trucks overall, you know, when.

They're right, right.

Positions.

Right.

And mostly they have to park.

But with ice cream trucks it's a little bit different.

Right.

It's a little bit different.

And this bill is primarily for the ones that are in neighborhoods.

Now if you just have a food truck automatically and you're other places that doesn't pertain to them, but if you are in the neighborhoods on a regular basis with a regular route, then we're going to make sure those are safer.

Safer.

Okay, okay.

We'll follow that one.

Yes, ma'am.

Representative Petri, let's stick with food bills.

Yeah, you have one.

Advocating for restaurants and seafood vendors to display.

What country the seafood comes from.

And we're talking everything from shrimp to oysters.

All of that.

Right.

It's been changed today.

So it so we passed it out today.

And as we have you know as you know well and these things morph rapidly in session.

And so we got it out of committee today.

And we've limited it to shrimp.

And instead of country of origin they're going to have to prominently display on that menu that it is a foreign import.

And so the reason for this is this is all about consumer transparency.

So shrimp is far and away the most consumed seafood product in the country.

94% of American seafood consumed is foreign.

94%, 94%.

And we have one of the most pristine and best fisheries in the in the world.

And yet that's the case.

A lot of that is due to foreign dumping, but I don't have time to get into all of that.

But I will tell you this.

These foreign countries do not have the same health standards.

They're raising these shrimp generally in hand-dug shallow ponds.

They're pond raised.

Um, it's not the most sanitary environment.

We have had problems with shrimp from, particularly India, which is our largest importer, is India.

Vietnam with antibiotics and other chemicals in them.

And this this will shock you.

Only 0.7% of seafood is inspected by the FDA.

That's an FDA.

So we don't inspect that ourselves.

It's not a domestic product.

They're inspecting so little of this product, and we have a lot of issues with failures from shipments that have these contaminants in them.

So here's what I want.

I want consumers to simply know when you go into a restaurant, I want I want them to know whether they're eating domestic or imported shrimp.

Yeah.

And there's a lot of folks that are, uh, that kind of pretend folks are eating domestic shrimp, and they aren't.

And so I think I'm I'm hopeful this will be good for our domestic fishery as well.

Um, because we've got the shrimp, but it's difficult for them to compete with government subsidized foreign oftentimes using literally, if you look Thailand using literally trafficked human trafficked labor, it's hard for our fishermen, uh, to compete with that.

And so that's another issue.

But the least we can do is make sure the American people, when they go in a restaurant, know what they're eating.

Yeah.

And you have support for this, I noticed.

Yeah.

So very.

Much pretty good.

And Savannah, of course, is you guys have shrimp shrimpers there.

So this might.

Help the few.

So 10% of our fleet is remaining.

Our shrimping industry has almost been destroyed by free trade.

That is largely and again largely India, China, Vietnam and Thailand.

In Ecuador is where our shrimp are coming from.

Today.

If you're eating shrimp out in a restaurant, likely you're eating foreign shrimp.

And this would apply to places, other places that sell shrimp, like maybe, you.

Know, only only commercial food services.

So restaurants only not institutional settings.

Okay.

All right.

Well, we'll keep up with that bill, that's for sure.

And yours too.

Thank you so much for coming on.

The show.

Thank you for having us.

Well, that does it for Lawmakers today.

We'll be back on tomorrow for day 17.

And we'll talk about in vitro fertilization, the new bill a legislator will share his family's personal IVF story.

Have a good