I know that African royalty often raises eyebrows in America thanks to certain infamous emails, so I can imagine the Google searches to verify that this Nigerian queen was legitimate.

Well, well, here I am and I bring you greetings from His Majesty Ogiame HUAC the third and the good people of the Warri Kingdom in Delta State, Nigeria.

It was a royal affair at the Capitol today.

As a Queen of Nigeria paid a visit to promote her cause Elevate Africa.

Good evening and welcome to Lawmakers.

I'm Donna Lowry in Atlanta.

More on the Queen later.

We've all seen those missing person alerts.

There's a new push to include people with autism in Mattie's call.

We'll chat with the lawmaker behind the legislation.

We'll also discuss bills aimed at shaking things up for landlords, tenants and property owners.

One of the most talked about bills this session would ban transgender athletes from participating in girls sports.

The sponsor of the bill in the House version is in the studio.

We also have a lawmaker who voted against it to tell us why.

First, let's hear from Sarah Kallis on what happened on this rainy Monday in Atlanta at the Capitol.

Hi, Donna.

Perhaps it was legislative hangover from Thursday's frantic crossover day, but Monday took on a far more mellow mood in both chambers.

In the Senate.

The day started with a royal visit as Queen Lori the Third stopped in to promote her cause.

Elevate Africa.

The Queen consort of the Warri, Delta State, Nigeria, had a sense of humor when it came to knowing who she actually was.

I know that African royalty often raises eyebrows in America thanks to certain infamous emails, so I can imagine the Google searches to verify that this Nigerian queen was legitimate.

Well, well, here I am and I bring you greetings from His Majesty Ogiame HUAC the third and the good people of the Warri Kingdom in Delta State, Nigeria.

The Elevate Africa Non-profit's role is to quote, empower and spotlight new African leaders and indigenous solutions.

Last month, we inaugurated our 2025 Elevate Africa Fellows, 17 remarkable fellows from 13 different African countries.

All of them embody the brilliance our continent offers to the world.

Their work spans from revolutionizing agricultural systems to pioneering A.I.

Driven healthcare solutions, innovations that can contribute meaningful answers to our global pressing problems.

The Senate then took on the only bill on the docket.

HB 15, is a bill that adds cleanup language in banking and financial laws.

This bill this year particularly contains revisions to laws impacting banks, bank holding companies, credit unions, merchant acquired limited purpose banks.

That's a particular term of art.

Foreign bank offices, installment lenders, money service businesses.

Money transmitters, sellers of payment instruments and check cashers.

And it.

Also, there are a few areas that touch on mortgage lenders and broker laws.

The bill was passed 46-1 The house quickly gaveled in and gaveled out after passing the local calendar, but members made time to commemorate the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia.

Thank you.

The reputation for excellence and governance, operational efficiency and fiscal responsibility mean continued success.

As a testament to the leadership of its management, employees and participant communities who have made public power a real asset in Georgia.

And discuss President Donald Trump's administration and its effects on Georgia.

One lawmaker condemned more proposed government agency cuts from President Trump's administration.

The proposed 87,000 federal job cuts within the VA predominantly affected military veterans, which comprised one third of agency employees.

This threatens to undermine the very foundation of honor, respect and gratitude that we owe our veterans.

The Veterans Administration is not just another government agency.

It is the lifeline for millions of men and women who have dedicated their lives to protecting our freedoms.

Representative Josh Bonner congratulated former U.S. Representative Doug Collins appointment as VA Secretary.

Colleagues, I just wanted to take a moment to just speak a moment about how proud we are to have one of our former colleagues, one of our former Congressman Doug Collins, as our new secretary of the Veterans Administration.

I've been in communication with Secretary Collins, and I'm happy to report that he's doing an incredible job for us.

While it is true that we will be finding some efficiencies within the veteran administration, the sole purpose of finding these efficiencies is to do one thing, and that's to serve our veterans better.

And finally, Lawmakers prepared to go trout fishing tomorrow.

Tomorrow is trout fishing.

Day.

This is our.

Georgia Legislative Sportsmen's Caucus event.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 11, from 2:00 P.M. To 6:00 P.M. At the West Palisades Park.

Okay.

That's at 9:32 acres Ridge Drive, southeast.

It's the closest place to the Capitol that you can catch trout fish in.

So everything will be provided.

The gear, the waders, everything is provided.

Just need you to come if you can, please.

Committee meetings will take on new importance this week as they start to look through the 440 bills passed over from each chamber on Crossover Day.

With only a month left in this legislative session.

Tomorrow, the House is expected to vote on the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

And as you know, Donna, it's the one piece of legislation they are mandated to pass each year.

That's my Capitol report.

Thanks, Sarah.

Now to some grim statistics.

In 2021, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported 286 children with autism went missing.

Wandering is common and dangerous for children with autism, especially during warmer months when children are playing outside.

Family gatherings can be high risk situations for children with autism.

Also, children with autism may be reluctant to come when their names are called.

Run away from police sirens, or be afraid of dogs.

We're going to talk about trying to help families of children and adults with autism and more.

Joining me is Democratic Representative Carl Gilliard of Savannah.

He's secretary of the House Creative Arts and Entertainment Committee, and he's on the House Appropriations Committee.

And Democratic Senator Donzella James of Atlanta.

She is chair of urban affairs and vice chair of interstate cooperation.

Welcome to Lawmakers to both of you.

Thank you.

Representative Killian, we're going to start with you.

What made you introduce House Bill HB 465, the Autism Missing Person Alert System Act?

Well, it's a it's a bill that saves lives.

My brother, I'm one of ten children.

And my NE brother, my my youngest brother has down syndrome and suffers from autism.

But there's a young lady named Ebony Spencer who has a son who suffers from autism.

And those are individuals that are young and adult.

This bill is a saving life bill, and the GBI had gotten over 175 phone calls this year for reports of people that were missing.

So how could we come up with a bill that would save lives?

I think House Bill 465 exemplifies that.

And so tell us what the bill would do, because it passed in the House unanimously.

It is, you know, it's a unique bill that patterned after Mattie's law.

And Mattie's law is the disability alert for those that have disabled family members.

So this will simply sound the alarm for those that have a family member with autism that's missing, the chances are through the GBI that the time frame will be cut down, that law enforcement can have a better sense of finding that individuals because of the way the alert goes out.

And with the GBI being the the persons that are orchestrating, I'm sure that we'll have a chance to save lives.

And Mattie's call also for elderly people too.

So it is.

It will be encompassing a lot.

You you favor this law.

Talk about it a.

Little bit.

Oh yes.

I also introduced legislation, Senate Bill 211.

That almost was exactly like the bill that passed.

But my bill didn't didn't move much in the Senate.

The only difference in my bill was that it added a I.D.

Bracelet for all the people with autism.

They could wear it like the the ones that say, you know, I have heart condition or diabetes or whatever.

We want one for autism too, because these kids, I have a grandson that has autism, I have only two grandsons.

So his big brother was a genius and doing great.

And he's seven years younger and he's still at Douglas County schools, but he's different.

He was nonverbal until he was seven.

But when they I think parents are often in denial.

And so by the time my son and his wife knew something was wrong, the lieutenant governor, Casey Cagle, and I got an opportunity to introduce legislation so that insurance companies could pay for the screening for children for from up to eight years old.

I wanted to make it up to 12, but they made it up to eight.

So we found out.

And when I found out that when I just helped my grandson, but thousands and thousands of children right here in Georgia.

So yeah.

So I'm working very hard on that.

Early screening is important.

I know that.

And so I know you'll be supporting this his bill when it comes over the Senate.

That's where it is now.

Absolutely.

And I'm very honored that he asked me to to carry it when it got there.

And I'm trying to talk him into putting just that little bracelet on there so that we would be able to also have another way and everything that we can do to help our artistic young people, because my mother taught special education in Atlanta public schools.

And the kids are so misunderstood.

And she wants to make sure that we take care of them.

Well, let's hope that we get unanimous in the Senate, too.

But I want to talk to you real quick about a couple of the things.

Several years ago for you, for several years, you fought for tenants rights, and you have SB 106.

It would repeal the current law to place restrictions on rent regulation by local governments.

Tell us about it briefly.

That bill is the rent control bill.

Yeah.

And the state of Georgia has a.

Rent prohibited.

Any rent control.

And it's only one of nine states that does not have some kind of rent control.

So what they prohibited it.

So I want to lift that prohibition and let local control happen with the cities and the counties.

Because after Mr.

Chair, was he was the chair of the Black Caucus, and he sent us to all the HBCU schools.

And I had an opportunity to talk to so many students that were having problems finding somewhere to stay.

And it was because the rent was doubling and tripling.

And sometime quadrupling.

And that's what happens when they get ready to renew the lease.

And then I found out it's not just the students, it's our our seniors who who are now needing to go get a smaller house is the veterans who are coming back and want to rent something close by.

So we have a real serious problem with the escalating rent.

And so we it's hard to stop that.

And then I found out that it's foreign entities that come in and buy all these things and all the buildings and the empty places, or buy a whole building and, and the leases that they have now those people are gone and they raise them up.

So we need to put this prohibition.

The the mayors wanted the county commissioners want to have that control.

And they know best what's better for their area?

Well, keep an eye on that.

I want to get to some more things.

Representative Gilyard, another of your bills passed unanimously.

HB 303, the original 33 act.

It refers to Georgia's first 33 African-American lawmakers in 18 68, after reconstruction.

They were some of the first black state legislators in the United States.

And there's a statue on the Capitol grounds in their honor.

Tell us what your bill would do.

So, you know, the original 33, Donna, they stood up so we can sit down.

And so this bill simply gives us 33 names that will be honored inside the Capitol as a memorial.

You know, these were 33 heroic Americans.

And they were kicked out.

I didn't say that.

They were kicked out of.

They were kicked out in 18 68.

The legislature.

They were not able to serve in 14 of them were lynched.

I want to say that again.

They were lynched.

And so this is important, that every time I have that little name tag on and I think I'm all that in a bag of chips, I think about the giants of the shoulders that we stand on.

And so this is a fitting tribute to 33 great Americans.

Okay, I want to real quick tell you you've got some HOA bills, right?

I do.

Give me a give me a little brief thing on them.

I want.

To say.

I want to say real quick that my uncle Leroy Johnson was the first black senator since reconstruction.

And he didn't come until the late 60s and early 70s.

Okay, so yes, but yes, I do have these HOA bills because so many people are having so many problems with the Hoa's now and getting their homes taken from them and sold on the courthouse steps.

So we have to do something.

We've had five hearings.

I put legislation in it, went through a couple of the committees, and it stayed on the rules.

Now because it didn't get crossed over.

Okay.

Unfortunately.

We'll keep an eye on SB 107 and 108 then.

For you.

Correct.

Thank you.

I want to get into something with you represent Gilyard.

We have a little time left and I know that you formed one of the first positive rap groups in the nation called Candy love.

Tell us about it and drop a few beats.

Candy love was the first.

Let me, let me let me clear it up.

Before they was Outkast, before there was Goodie Mob, we were the first.

We were the first kings of the South for rap.

We did positive rap.

Okay, so one of the things we did, our people fight against one another.

Maybe one day they would discover others lost their lives so we can gain throw away their lives on crack cocaine, release the grip and then you will be free.

Get a taste of some spirituality.

Whatever you do, don't give up the fight.

Stand up and fight for what's right.

All righty then.

I just needed somebody to give me a beat to go with that.

Yeah.

All right.

But we were the first.

So I'm looking forward to to hearing my comrades in the General Assembly.

Now try to get me to rap.

Oh, yeah.

I think that should happen anytime.

Sometime soon.

We'll have it back.

Have you back here in Lawmakers?

There you go.

All right.

We'll be right here.

Thank you.

So much.

We'll be paying attention to your bills, which are now on both of them now in the Senate.

And we'll keep up with what you're doing.

Thank you both for being here today I appreciate it.

My pleasure.

Thank you so much for the opportunity.

All right.

Coming up, we discuss bills dealing with maternal health and transgender athletes.

Two members of the Georgia House join us.

This is Lawmakers on GPB.

Georgia Farm Bureau, a grassroots 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.

I'm a queen.

I don't fear anyone.

This is a woman people wanted to follow.

You are an important part of our work.

You're stronger than you know.

Saddle my horse immediately.

She's a female trailblazer.

We did it by acknowledging our own worth.

Oh, please do continue.

I got my head out to show.

Whoa, whoa whoa la la la da da da da.

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.

Welcome back to Lawmakers.

I'm Donna Lowry.

Both the House and Senate passed bills before Crossover Day to ban biological males from playing girls sports in the Senate.

It's called the fair and safe Athletic Opportunities Act.

The House bill is called the Riley Gaines Act, named after a swimmer who became an advocate for removing transgender women from women's sports.

We're going to talk about that bill and more with two members of the House, Republican Representative Josh Bonner of Fayetteville is chair of defense and Veterans Affairs.

He was commissioned as an active duty Army officer in military intelligence before transitioning to the United States Army Reserves and Democratic Representative Ann Westbrook of Savannah.

She's an attorney and on the House Economic Development, tourism, judiciary and State Planning and Community Affairs committees.

Welcome to Lawmakers, both of you.

I appreciate that.

Sarah Bonner, tell us why you wanted the Riley Gaines act.

So I'm the father of two girls.

I have a daughter who plays soccer, and it's been very near and dear to me to make sure that in Georgia that we protect female athletes.

And so that's exactly what the Riley Gaines act does.

It protects female athletes in Georgia, and it keeps biological males out of their sports and out of their locker rooms.

And so that's a subject very near and dear to me.

And also with a lot of constituents and a lot of folks in Georgia.

Okay.

You voted against it.

Why did you say no?

I voted against it because there is nothing going on in girls and women's sports in Georgia.

that-I rnru or aqnb.

There were no even prior to this bill, there were no transgender athletes competing in athletics in Georgia.

That's according to reporting from the AJC.

Even in the in the entire NCAA of 500,000 NCAA collegiate athletes, there were less than ten transgender athletes competing.

So with all the issues that we have in Georgia and your your previous segment covered them, covered many of them beautifully.

Affordable housing, lack of access to health care.

We don't need to burn precious legislative days of our 40 day session on an issue that is, frankly, nonexistent, according to the numbers in Georgia, there are issues facing girls and women's sports throughout the country, and including in Georgia.

Those issues are under investment in our programing.

Those issues are harassment and abuse.

And and some of those scandals around sexual abuse have reached Georgians.

But this bill just doesn't solve anything that's going on in Georgia.

Right.

Your response?

Well, I would certainly push back on that.

We do know that it's happening in Georgia.

We know that it has happened.

We passed a rule, a law two years ago that allowed the Georgia High School Association to put into rule a ban on biological males participating in female athletics.

So we certainly haven't seen it in that period of time.

But we know it's happening based on the testimony of those that came to committee that were against the bill.

A number of those folks said that they did participate in female athletics.

And so and I would push back to say, even if it's just one who wants to sacrifice their daughter on this altar of ideology when we don't have to.

So who wants to be the one?

One is too many, in my opinion, and I think we owe it to every female athlete in Georgia to offer a level playing field that they can compete on.

You did have some Democrats vote for it, but mostly along party lines, right?

We certainly was a majority party line vote, but we did in both in the Senate version and the House version.

We did have some Democrats vote with us, and we're certainly appreciative of that.

And I think it certainly shows that this truly is a bipartisan issue, that when the polling is done throughout Georgia and the U.S., it's overwhelmingly in support of this legislation.

Anything you want to add?

Yeah, I'll just add there have been many dark periods in our history where things have polled well, where things were popular.

And, you know, history doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes and scapegoats change at different times in our history.

But one thing we often hear when we are seeing individuals scapegoated is we're doing it for our women and our girls.

And so as someone who played sports all the way through college, my my college athletics, my earlier years in athletics were my leadership training and what got me here.

And I know I have colleagues in the House who have that same story.

This isn't what girls and women need.

We need support for our programing and all those kinds of issues.

We don't need to be used as political props.

All right, Chairman Bonner, now we've got you.

You have passed in the House to the Senate.

The Senate has passed the House.

Tell what?

Tell us what happens next with these two bills since they're so similar.

Certainly.

Well, so we're certainly working with our Senate colleagues.

Our goal is to, regardless of what version emerges, our goal is the same to protect female athletes in Georgia.

And so whichever version of the bill does that, we're certainly going to push forward.

And but we'll be working very closely with our Senate colleagues in making sure that the input that they put forward is incorporated into the bill.

Okay.

We'll see.

We're going to change gears right now.

We'll see how what happens with that.

Representative Westbrook, HB 488.

Another bill that you sponsor, the Pregnancy Center Fraud Prevention Act, which aims to prevent pregnancy centers from misleading advertising.

You spoke on the issue last month during a big rally in favor of your legislation.

What are pregnancy centers and what would your bill do?

Well, these centers go by a number of different names.

Sometimes they're called crisis pregnancy centers, sometimes they're called anti abortion centers.

Sometimes they're called fake clinics.

But they confuse and mislead women.

They are not clear about what services they offer, what services they don't offer.

They really exist to talk women out of having abortions.

And and they do that by sort of dressing up and masquerading as health clinics.

But they are they do not have to provide the range of health services that clinics do.

They don't provide the standard of care that medical clinics do.

They're not bound by HIPAA.

And so women go into these centers thinking they're getting one thing and what they're actually getting is counseling out of one of their options that's available to them under the law in Georgia.

They aren't regulated as business enterprises because they're nonprofits generally, and they aren't regulated as health providers because they aren't health providers.

In fact, you'll see those disclaimers sometimes on their website that we are not a substitute for health care.

So at a time where we know that maternal mortality is sky high in Georgia and those rates are not coming down, infant mortality is high in Georgia, women can't access Ob-gyns and half of Georgia's counties.

Pediatric care is hard to access.

In about 42% of Georgia's counties.

We shouldn't be funding these clinics that don't actually provide health care.

Women have a right to accurate, evidence based care.

So the bill on the first bill would prohibit basically false advertising by these by these crisis pregnancy centers.

And it would the second bill, the companion bill, two bills actually are companion bills address the funding because Georgia funds these crisis pregnancy centers, these sort of fake clinics, to the tune of $2 million every single year.

And given the state of women's health care in Georgia, Georgians have a right to ask whether that's the highest and best use of their tax dollars.

My bills would redirect that funding to an evidence based home visiting program that's already being used in Georgia, and it's getting better outcomes for moms and babies.

Okay, nothing passed by for Crossover Day, but it's still alive.

That's right.

We'll see what happens next, next, next year because it's a biennium.

I want to change gears a little bit.

You spoke on the floor today.

You praised Georgia Congressman Doug Collins, who is the new secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Tell me what you learned about what he's planning.

Well, as as all of our state agencies or federal agencies are doing now, they're looking at how to find efficiencies in government.

And the Veterans Administration is one that, routinely constituents of mine and folks from all over the state of Georgia.

Veterans don't have great experiences with the VA.

It's a very bloated and inefficient agency.

And so what Congressman Collins Secretary Collins is doing is seeking to find efficiencies in that.

So he's not cutting not making any cuts to the frontline workers that provide the service.

But a lot of the administrative and back end work, all the things where the process has been kind of gummed up for veterans.

And so the overall goal of finding those efficiencies is to make sure that the veterans receive the benefits they've already earned and receive the best health care that they can.

Okay.

We'll keep up with all of that.

I'm going to get one more bill in for you.

You have another of your areas of interest is maternal health care.

And with House resolution 274, it would you want to allocate more money to actually 2 million more dollars to the Georgia pregnancy and Early Childhood Home visiting program?

Tell us about that.

And we're running out of time.

So I'll be quick because I kind of covered this a little bit already.

This is basically just reallocating those dollars instead of sending $2 million every single year of Georgia taxpayer money to clinics that don't actually provide health care.

Let's redirect that.

Let's direct that to this home visiting program that is already established.

It's serving women and babies in rural Georgia, and it's getting great outcomes.

Okay.

And you had a veterans bill.

Tell us about it.

So there's a number of veterans bills that we got passed.

In fact, Representative Westbrook and I cosigned a veterans bill together.

So there are ways we can work together for our veterans.

But one in particular that I'd like to highlight is the Save act.

It is a bill that regulates the claims consultant industry.

These are the companies that come in and help veterans assemble their packets to apply for benefits and get them that much faster.

We provide a regulatory framework for those companies that allows them to operate in Georgia, regulated, and allows a veteran to get those benefits that much faster.

And how did your bill do so?

It passed over to the Senate, and we're hoping to have a hearing this next week in the Senate committee.

Who's who's carrying it for you?

That would be Senator Chuck Payne.

Okay.

And is he a veteran, too?

He is.

He is.

All right.

So you're feeling pretty good about it?

I am he's the chairman of their their veterans committee in the Senate.

And that that particular bill was voted out of the Senate last year.

And we've got high expectations this year.

Yeah.

Can you believe after today, ten days left.

Ten days.

You guys have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it in though.

That's right.

But you're ready, huh?

We are.

Okay.

We'll stick with it.

Well, thank you both for coming on the show, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for having me.

Well, that does it for Lawmakers today.

Tomorrow.

My conversation with the Commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, Commissioner Kevin Tanner.

Among other things, we'll talk about forensic beds for people in jail who may need mental health services.

Until then, have a good night.