I really do look forward to serving in this next role as treasurer of the United States.

I will tell you, when I first got the call a couple Saturdays ago, I wasn't sure they dialed the right number because I was expecting something in transportation or commerce.

But after I talked to them and they said that the boss wanted me to be the treasurer, I said, yes, I'll accept.

So it's going to be a great opportunity.

It's going to be life changing.

Going to Washington, D.C., but I will never forget you guys.

I'll never forget where I came from.

And thank you for all you've done for me.

Thank you very much.

The Trump administration taps a member of the Georgia legislature to join his administration.

After more than ten years serving the Alpharetta area.

Senator Brandon Beach heads to Washington as U.S. Treasurer.

Good evening, and welcome to Lawmakers on Georgia Legislative Day 35.

I'm Donna Lowry in Atlanta.

More on Senator Beach and the action at the Capitol.

Coming up tonight, we're going to dive into a legislative smorgasbord of issues under consideration under the Gold Dome.

Two lawmakers will discuss issues dealing with small businesses and big corporations, too, as we examine workforce housing and community development legislation.

We'll look closer at the homestead exemption bill that passed in the Senate, but is headed back to the House for another vote.

And as things wind down at the Capitol, the debate continues over some of the big issues, such as the Religious Liberty Bill.

First, let's get to today's Capitol report from Sarah Kallis.

Hi, Donna.

Tears in both chambers today, but for very different reasons.

If you look in the bottom left hand corner, it will have the the name of the Treasury of the United States at the bottom left hand corner.

And that will soon have display Brandon Beach's name on it.

So let's give Brandon a big round of applause for.

The Senate said farewell to one of their own this morning as Lieutenant Governor.

Burt Jones announced the appointment of Senator Brandon Beach as the Trump administration's new U.S. Treasurer.

I love this institution, the Senate.

I love this chamber.

I love the people in it.

And it's a great body, and it's going to be a great memory for me to know that I served in this Senate chamber.

The legislators voted on eight House bills.

Some of the more notable bills HB 92, which would extend the deadline that counties and municipalities can opt out or rescind an opt out of the property tax homestead exemption.

We've given some more opt in opportunities.

There wasn't an opportunity to opt back in.

We're letting that be done on an annual basis.

As of March 1.

If people want to opt back in, and this year we're extending it to April 30.

For those that may want to and there's some reasons they might want to.

And then we have they will revisit that decision.

If they don't have anything in place in 2027 as well.

The bill was passed 52-2 and HB 340.

The Distraction Free Education Act would ban cell phones from K through eighth grade schools during the school day, allowing each school system to set their own phone policies.

Research shows it takes over 23 minutes to regain focus after a distraction, meaning many students never fully get engaged in their education.

Our teachers are seeing.

Our teachers are seeing the impact firsthand.

Over 85% of high school teachers and 68% of middle school teachers report that cell phones are a major problem in their classrooms.

The bill was also presented as a school safety issue.

Removing phones creates a safer school environment in an emergency.

We want our kids full and undivided attention, clear phone lines, no misinformation.

Teachers listening, kids listening to teachers, kids listening to school resource officers.

If, God forbid, there's an incident in the school.

I want my child and your child to be able to follow instructions very clearly without distraction to get out of the building, get out of a classroom and be safe.

Despite concerns from some Democrats over parents being able to communicate with their children in an emergency, the bill was overwhelmingly passed 54-2 In the House.

A tearful thank you from a member.

But I want to thank you.

This is a family in here and you won't believe the calls and the texts I've had.

Wow.

It's amazing.

And I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Rick Townsend.

If you if you get a chance, read Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 29 11.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

And plans to give you a hope and a future.

Yes.

Smith was let go from his job at the Harris County Chamber of Commerce after voting no on the tort reform bill last week.

The House then took up several bills dealing with public safety and children.

Senate Bill 123 defines chronic absenteeism in schools and lays out a plan to address it.

While this is not going to fix chronic absenteeism, this is a step in the right direction.

We're stating that if a district as a whole has a rate 10% or higher, they have to have an attendance review team.

And if a individual school has a rate of 15% or higher, they also have to have a dedicated review team.

Mr. Speaker, that is the bill.

It passed 100 60-1 and SB 42.

First Lady Marty Kemp's tenth bill related to human trafficking, would increase penalties for sex trafficking of minors.

It passed unanimously.

At least two courts in Georgia have indicated that the Georgia Human Trafficking statute for minors that we passed last year is similar to the pimping and Pandering of minors statute, which carries a lesser sentence.

So this bill will fix that in order to make sure that we, have the more serious and more, more of a punishment for those that are sex trafficking and human trafficking are minors.

The House also passed SB 110, which would revise the definition of child neglect in Georgia code.

The bill was written after a Georgia woman was arrested for child neglect after neighbors saw her ten year old son walk down the road unsupervised.

When I was growing up, my mom would send me into a store to buy something I would potentially, you know, I'd walk down the street to go to a friend's house.

And with what we've seen in, in, particularly in the media with the reporting around this, the concern that arises here is that parental autonomy that allows for a child to develop a sense of independence, the ability to think for themselves, to really develop and mature.

Sorry for the feedback here, but but that that may be subject to interprend="00:13:47:00" region="pop2" style="basic" tts:origin="38.75% 74%" tts:extent="20.63% 5.33%">with cities or counties and the governing inconsistent with the parents rights and responsibilities.

Despite some pushback.

Mr. Speaker, is it not true that parents who are accused of neglect often believe that they have not been neglectful?

The bill was passed 100 to 69.

No session tomorrow.

Donna, is committee meetings take priority.

The House and Senate will both be back on Thursday and Friday this week.

That's my Capitol report.

Thanks, Sarah.

We're going to talk about the homestead exemption and small business issues with two Lawmakers familiar with what it means to own a business.

Joining the show is Republican Representative Ron Stephens of Savannah.

He chairs the House Committee on Economic Development and Tourism.

Also here is a member of that committee, Democratic Representative Solomon Adesanya of Marietta.

He's also on the business Development and Governmental Affairs committees.

Welcome to Lawmakers to both of you.

Thank you.

So, Representative Stephens, I'm going to start with you.

Let's begin with what happened today in the Senate with the homestead exemption bill, which is HB 92, and it requires governing authorities like school districts to opt out.

And it gives them the ability to do that and extends the the time for them to do so to April 30, which was I think was going to be around 1 March.

And originally you had interest in this type of legislation for 25 years, and you have a paper to show it.

We're going to show it up on the screen.

But you brought it with you.

I did, it's newspaper.

It's funny, it's been 27 years ago.

We started trying to come up with a mechanism that would not be a burden to the taxing authorities, but also be able to essentially freeze property taxes.

And we called it.

Then it was I was in the minority.

We called it Stephens Day because we were the first to to come up with the idea.

And it's taken essentially 25 years for the rest of the state, if you will.

But up until that time, we've had 60 taxing districts to also adopt the same procedure.

It's been a fun ride.

It's been an amazing windfall for the for the homeowners, especially those that want to live in their home and, and retire in their home.

And I don't think in our area anyway, with the increase in assessments and homes, it was very hard for people to stay in their home.

So big deal.

Explain this a little bit.

So what happens is that the school districts and other governmental bodies have been will have the the option of opting out.

The thing about it is they're trying to figure out whether they're going to have the money with this homestead exemption.

And that's the beauty of this thing.

Whenever it exactly the way that it was back in 25 years ago is no revenue is lost.

And in addition to 581, they placed the cost of living index on there.

So you get exactly the same revenue as you had the previous year.

Plus there's a cost of living bump in it.

So it's a it's a great deal.

Okay.

So you voted for it.

Representative Adesanya.

So tell us about your thoughts on it.

I think it's helpful every time you have a bill that helps Georgians, Democrats, we have fought hard to create an economy that works for everyone.

We also understand that it's important that we have a system where people are not just struggling to to get by, but they can actually get ahead and every opportunity we have to advance the will of the people.

I'm always supportive of it.

Okay.

So it'll go now back to the house.

They'll have to look at it, but it seems pretty good that it's going to pass on that.

So I want to move on to something else.

You have your small business owner.

Tell us about the what the what your business is and what legislation you're interested in.

For small businesses.

Yes.

So I am a restaurant owner.

I have three restaurants in the metro area.

It's called kale me crazy.

We sell salads like crazy.

Yes, we sell salads, organic and healthy food.

And it's important to support small businesses.

What I'm pushing back on is the increase in tariffs by the other party, mainly from the federal down to 25%.

If you look at the imported goods to us, from China, Mexico and Canada account for 40% of the goods that are imported into the country.

So imagine having a 25% tariff on those that is going to crush.

It's really going to crush people.

And inflation has been rising over the last three months.

I don't think it's a way to do it.

I think it's misguided.

And I by and large think that we have to push back and create an environment where businesses can thrive, because at the end of the day, it passes down to the consumers, and they're the burden.

They're the ones carrying that burden.

Yeah.

So you're really worried about what's going to happen.

We're going to have to wait and see though.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Well, I'll come back to you in a moment.

Representative Stevens, you have two bills that deal with something different.

Workforce, housing and community development.

HB 317 and House resolution 192.

There's lots of development along Georgia's coastal area.

You're from the Savannah area, especially with the Hyundai Mita plant coming in.

So is your legislation looking to help manage that workforce a little better?

A good bit.

You know, as you know, we've got 159 counties in Georgia, our neighboring state, Florida has 67.

You can imagine the problem of trying to plan and get infrastructure to all these areas.

With so many counties, all the bill does is it allows for what our neighboring states already do, and that's to allow bonds to be sold.

And, and to to folks with, with private investment to extend infrastructure where it's needed.

We'll be able to even accumulate several counties to come under one umbrella, if you will, for this, Debbie Riyadh.

And it should extend infrastructure and create economic development where some of the counties are so small, they really don't have the wherewithal to do that.

And so you want something that will oversee all of that, some kind of.

It's a private investment, and only for the infrastructure, but it has nothing to do with with cities or counties and the governing part.

All this is is a bond mechanism to fund it.

Once it's funded, the counties or cities take it over and it goes away.

Tell tell us what's going on down in the Savannah area with this.

With the mega plant coming in.

The metal plant, I should say.

They're starting, you know, tomorrow they're doing the ribbon cutting.

It's a big, big day.

It's a, you know, close to 3,000 acres.

And for those that have ever gone to Savannah, if you can picture Tybee Island, the island itself will fit on the footprint of the mega plant.

So it is a massive, massive undertaking.

It's about 12.5 times larger than any project we've ever done in the state of Georgia.

It's going to create about 18,000 jobs.

I believe by the time it's all over, it is probably the biggest economic development project by far, that we'll see in the near future.

And it's going to give these folks in the fastest growing county in the state that we have, which is Bryan County.

It's going to give those folks an opportunity to have jobs and not have to leave the state.

Wow.

I've been by there.

I can't believe there's a ribbon cutting tomorrow.

So they're finally getting there.

It is enormous.

You drive and you drive and you're still passing it when you're down there.

So we'll keep up with what's going on with those bills right now.

There.

Where?

Right now.

We wanted to hold them back to their 54 pages as one of the bills.

So we wanted to make sure that we vetted it well and and we'll have a vote next year.

Okay.

All righty.

I know there's some other things you want to talk about.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

So it's House Bill 394.

And that's pretty much to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour right now, Georgians are struggling.

And we've got to recognize that I am a business owner.

And I can tell you that I recognize that challenge.

I recognize that issue.

And all of my employees pretty much make over $15 per hour, even though it's a low skilled job.

But we also have to encourage businesses and industries in Georgia and by way of doing that, the legislature has to come up with a bill that we can advance to say, hey, this is the minimum wage that we're going to have in Georgia.

I have a lot of my employees and people, even at that minimum, the $15 per hour.

A lot of them have to work two jobs to, to, to survive with kids.

And with the way it is now in schools where we're not offering lunches at school, it's difficult for people to get by layoffs and people losing their jobs all over the place.

We've got to, as a legislature, set the tone by saying, this is what we want as the minimum wage, and that's how we can actually encourage Georgians who, you know, are hard working.

Yeah.

So this this session, you're not expecting anything to happen on that.

But yes.

You're keeping hope alive.

That we are.

I am.

You know, and that's you know what?

I think we're here and sent to do.

Keep pushing, keep fighting, keep advocating for the issues that matters to the people.

We didn't get any hearing.

It was a bill by representative McClain, by the way.

It didn't get any hearing.

And he's been an advocate, a fierce advocate for, labor union and wages and ways to advance the agenda of the people.

And we're going to keep fighting for it.

You know, next year is going to be another year.

And we'll we'll push that through.

Hopefully.

We'll have you back on then.

Thank you very much.

Thank you both for being here today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Coming up, we have two House members from different sides of the aisle.

And they're going to give their thoughts on legislation dealing with tort reform, religious freedom and transgender athletes in women's sports.

You're watching Lawmakers on GPB.

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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 the sunroof.

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

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.

The 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.

Eyes open.

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.

We're jumping 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.

As the session wraps up, the controversial bills that passed on each side of the Capitol are now undergoing review by the other chamber.

We're going to talk about some of those bills with two legislators who've seen their share of action under the Gold Dome.

As signing day approaches.

Joining us is Democratic Representative Derrick Jackson of Tyrone.

His committees include Defense and Veterans Affairs and Regulated Industries.

Also here is Republican Representative Trey Kelley of Cedartown.

He's vice chair of both the health and Health and Ways and Means committees.

Welcome to Lawmakers to both of you.

Appreciate you being here.

Great.

So let's start.

Let's start with one of the controversial bills you both voted no to SB 68.

The lawsuit overhaul or tort reform bill.

Of course, that's the one that Governor Brian Kemp has as a priority.

I want to get both of your thoughts.

I'll start with you, Representative Kelly.

Donna, thank you for having me tonight.

And frankly, I don't feel it's productive for me to unpack a couple of the reasons that I voted against the bill.

But what I want to focus on is looking forward something I'm extremely proud that Speaker Burns has announced and is leading on, which is holding our insurance companies accountable moving forward.

We heard a lot of conversation during this debate from hardworking Georgians in my district about wanting to see their insurance premiums go down, and I think the special study committee that Speaker Burns has initiated is a logical next step in this process.

And so I'm proud to see us lead on that.

A lot of people want to see something done on insurance.

Your reasons for voting against it?

Well, I voted no because it negatively impacts not only the citizens but the victims.

You know, when an individual gets injured, you should have a remedy.

And that remedy should be decided by the jury.

Senate Bill 68 will deny the jury for making sure that the victims are made whole, but also, Senate Bill 68 will not change insurance premiums.

And so you cannot advertise that Senate Bill 68 is going to reduce premiums where there's nothing in that bill or any of the eight sections, that will certainly impact or decrease insurance premiums.

Well, we'll see what happens.

But thank you both for talking about that.

Representative Kelly, I'm going to move on to another thing.

The House Judiciary Committee is looking at SB 36, the Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

In 2016, you voted in favor of a similar bill.

The House Judiciary Committee will once again look at SB 36 tomorrow after hearing hours of testimony earlier.

Well, actually last week.

What are your thoughts this time around?

Well, I was proud to support it in 2016.

I'm proud to support it.

Now.

This is an important bill, but it shouldn't have to be controversial.

This is something that 39 states currently have in place.

In law.

This was a policy that was championed at the federal level by president Bill Clinton, where we're simply seeking to do is make sure our exercise of religion, our First Amendment protection exercise of religion, has the same protection that the other four First Amendment rights have.

It's simply protects those who want to exercise their religion in the same way that we protect freedom of speech, freedom of the press, our right to assemble, and the right to petition our government.

I think our freedom to practice our religion is just as important as those other four rights, and I think that's worth protecting.

Yeah, but back then, then Governor Nathan Deal did veto it.

So we'll we'll see what happens.

I do want to get your thoughts on it before we go any further.

Listen, we already have religious freedom, right?

I'm a retired naval officer.

The Constitution always already guaranteed us religious freedom.

But Senate Bills 36, and you already mentioned Governor Deal.

Why he vetoed it.

And the reason why I continue to fight against bills such as this, because it would divide us.

No one should be able to use their religion to discriminate, and that this bill will allow that.

And so we need to have legislation to bring us together, not not separate us.

I remember back in 2016, the fear was that there would be businesses not coming into Georgia.

They'd boycott Georgia because of it.

What are your thoughts?

We've heard that song and dance before, and they said that with our election bill and it didn't happen.

They canceled the all star game and it's back.

And so I think that's a little disingenuous by our businesses.

I think it's an issue if some of our spokesmen for our business community make it an interest, frankly, they're not leaving 39 other states, and I would hope they wouldn't leave the number one state in the nation to do business over the last 11 years.

Yeah.

What are your thoughts on that?

Well, I think the political climate is different.

I mean, you see in citizens right now who are mad and upset, and if businesses are starting to take on a principle that goes against the citizens they'll end up being boycott.

I mean, let's look at target right now.

Target lost $16 billion because they started doing something that goes against those who were patronizing target.

So I think the political climate has changed.

Citizens are upset if this bill goes through.

Not only corporations will go against Georgia, but the citizens of Georgia will go against Georgia.

We'll see what happens.

First of all, we have tomorrow morning to see what happens in the hearing.

Okay.

We're going to switch gears again and get into controversial legislation that would ban transgender athletes from playing women's sports.

This afternoon, the House Education Committee voted to pass SB one out of committee.

Now, it's now a compromise bill that incorporates aspects of HB 267 that passed in the House.

And, for instance, SB one now is called the Riley Gaines Act.

The name Representative Josh Bonner gave it in the House.

And Representative Jackson, you voted against the legislation in the House?

Why?

Yeah, I voted against this because this is another piece of legislation.

Again, will discriminate.

This was specifically discriminate against those in the LGBTQ+ community.

We don't need legislation here in Georgia that's going to divide us.

The other reason why I will continue to fight against treacherous bills such as this is because, no, there's nowhere in Georgia that indicates that this is happening.

We even talked to the NCAA that has 510,000 student athletes, 510,000.

And they said they only had nine incidents.

And so this is a bill that's looking for a problem.

And that problem does not exist in Georgia.

Representative Kelly.

With all due respect to my Democratic colleague, the Democrats are searching for problems to find with the common sense piece of legislation.

This is about making sure that biological males don't compete against biological females.

We have title nine protections at the federal level that were established to make sure that our daughters, our sisters, our, you know, mothers looking back historically didn't have to compete unfairly with with males.

And that's something that we need to continue to fight for.

It's something that we need to address, being proactively.

And I'm proud to see the House lead on the Riley Gaines act.

We have seen.

Unfortunately, our daughters and young girls who have spent their whole lives training as athletes, finally reaching the pinnacle of their careers only to be knocked down by biological males.

And that's unfortunate.

And it's uncalled for.

And it's something that the citizens of Georgia will not tolerate any longer.

Yeah, well, it certainly has the support in the House and the Senate because you had the two bills.

What are you thinking is going to happen next?

I think you're going to find Democrats such as myself continuing to fight against it again.

The Georgia High School Association said zero incidents.

And then again, the NAACP, the the NCAA said out of 510,000, only nine incidents come on.

So it's not happening.

Okay.

I wanted to ask you, so are you happy with this compromise between the two chambers?

I think it's an important issue.

And I think it's good that Georgia leads on this.

I'm glad that we're not waiting for a problem to develop this week in Oregon, a biological male in high school competed in a track race against one of the top biological females in the state and beat her by 7 seconds.

We have different we have different classes and we ought to be proactive.

In Georgia, I think that I don't ever want a single female in Georgia to have to experience that heartbreak, because a biological male felt like he couldn't compete in his classification and came over to hers.

I think we've struck a good compromise.

I'm proud to see the Riley Gaines act move forward, and I look forward to supporting it on the floor.

You were going to say.

I'm just saying this legislation do not even mention the word safe.

They say it's for safe to have safe women and girls sports.

They don't even mention the word safe.

Again, this is a bill that's going to divide us.

It's.

And we're not Oregon.

This is Georgia.

It's an incident.

And we don't ever want to be.

And it's common sense.

It doesn't have to say safety.

It's common sense that lacrosse, rugby, soccer, any of those wrestling.

We don't want biological males competing with biological females.

That's common sense.

It doesn't have to be in black and white.

That should be something that's drawn on each of our hearts.

I got two sons that play football, Donna, and they're not trying to play football against women.

They play football for Duke.

And another one plays at Kennesaw.

They play against other young men.

And so as far as you're concerned.

The the problem doesn't exist.

And it should never.

Okay.

I think you agree on that part of it.

Yeah.

I was trying to get in.

I don't know if we have really quick.

You have HB 196 that deals with pharmacies.

Can you explain that?

And just like 20s.

20s, it will help our Main Street front line pharmacy, health care workers stay open.

Address some of the schemes that have been played by our PBMs to protect our independent pharmacies.

Proud to support it.

That's the issue.

We can both agree on.

Both supported it and looking forward to getting it over the finish line.

And it has to do with those coupons and all the discounts people get on when pharmacies.

All right.

Well, I appreciate you both being here and and giving me your opinions.

All righty.

That does it for Lawmakers tonight.

It's a committee day at the Capitol tomorrow, so we won't have a show.

So join us on Thursday when we'll talk about Georgia's move to change the way its 911 system operates.

Have a good evening.