Party in the Georgia House of Representatives have walked out of the House chamber instead of standing in here fighting for fiscal responsibility of your tax dollars.

And a dramatic move, Georgia House Democrats walk out during the Vote over banning Georgia prisons from providing gender-affirming care for transgender inmates.

Good evening, and welcome to Lawmakers.

It's Day 39 the last Day Before Sonny Di.

I'm Donna Lowry in Atlanta.

We'll have more Coming up.

Georgia's business community is trying to adapt to some major changes these days.

They're tackling everything from how artificial intelligence is changing the business landscape to figuring out the potential effects of federal tariffs.

And this session, they turn to the governor and the legislature for help in limiting damage awards in civil lawsuits.

I had a chance to sit down with the president and CEO of the Georgia Chamber to discuss challenges.

The big win with tort reform, and a look at what's next.

Also tonight, we'll talk about what's been memorable this session and what bills are still hanging around before it all People to pass as much legislation as they can in the last two days of the session.

HB-3 97 is a controversial bill dealing with a variety of voting measures.

We helped them streamline this thing and this has the blessings of Gabrielle, who actually performs the elections all over the state.

If Texas the issues with our third-party candidates and it stops counties from doing this pop-up voting sites.

Not true.

Say Oppose the bill.

Election security is important, but this isn't about security.

It's about control.

It's about disenfranchisement.

And it's about keeping power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many.

Georgians want elections that are free, fair and accessible, not the partisan attempt to put more roadblocks between the people and the ballot box.

They say it erodes voting rights by removing Georgia from the Electronic Registration Information Center, gives unconstitutional power to the state election board, and would no longer allow absentee ballots to be hand-delivered the weekend before elections.

The ability for a voter to drop off an absentee ballot the weekend before election is a critical one.

It's a crucial access point that this bill would take away.

And in an era where we have seen that the Post office is wholly unreliable, many voters have relied on dropping it off the weekend before of election because life happens.

The bill passed along party lines 33-23 Two House bills recognizing homegrown Georgian foods, cornbread and Brunswick stew, were both frankensteined into new bills.

HB 14 would have made cornbread the official state bread, but was changed into the Georgia music office and Music Ready Communities Act, and HB 233 would have made Brunswick Stew the official state stew, but was co-opted into not only the stew but also making the fourth Friday each November National Sugar Cane Sirup Day in Georgia became the new home for the missing cornbread bill and prohibits state agencies from contracting with any country considered a foreign country of concern.

Both were passed, but no word on if the changes left a bad taste in anyone's mouth and in the House.

Recognition of one of our own as long term cameraman Wesley Nichols was recognized for his 25 years of contribution covering the legislature for lawmakers.

We are thrilled to honor Wes on his quarter century career milestone, capturing Georgia politics.

And another special guest in the chamber, Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp.

She was joined by Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Commissioner Kevin Tanner to talk about 988, the mental health crisis Hotline.

In 2023.

Only 16% of Georgians had heard of 988.

A poll that we did recently.

84% of Georgians have now heard of 988, and a lot of that is because of the work that the First lady has done, helping us spread the word.

Then the house moved on to the first of several rules calendars.

Members approved Senate Bill 17, or Ricky and Alyssa's Law, named after two school shooting victims.

The legislation originally in the bill to create a panic button system in classrooms, was added to the School Safety Bill passed Monday.

So this version of SB 17 added clarifying language.

We passed this in the School Safety Bill.

This is just an amendment and cleanup.

Members had personal testimony about this issue.

I waited a day or two before I asked my child if he had heard the news, and asked him how it felt.

I asked him if it made it feel scary or if it made him feel anxious, and he said, no, mom.

That school only had one resource officer.

Our school has two.

When an active shooter comes, we're going to be better prepared.

That was the day I realized that my child uses the word when, not if when he thinks about an active shooter coming to his school.

The bill passed unanimously, and a demonstration from the Democrats in protest of SB 185.

The bill would ban the use of state funds for gender affirming care for transgender prisoners in Georgia.

Democrats spoke in opposition.

What is it?

What is going on with my colleagues that they have become so obsessed with what is happening in transgender citizens?

Panties and their underwear and their boxer shorts and their bedrooms and their medical rooms.

When they talk to their doctors, when they deal with their families.

Why is it that this has become such an obsession.

And then walked out of the chamber?

Republicans were quick to criticize the move.

Probably the most disheartening moment I've ever had in my service here as a member of the House.

The bill passed 100 to two.

In an unusual move, the Senate also passed SB 214, which requires voters to use paper ballots in elections.

The bill will have to wait until the next legislative session to be considered, since it didn't pass before Crossover Day.

That's my Capitol report.

Donna.

Thanks, Sarah.

Every year, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce supports hundreds of bills that help businesses across the state, regardless of their size.

I recently chatted with the president and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce to get his insights on how this legislative session is shaping up for the business community.

We talked about some important topics, like the need for a skilled workforce, the challenges businesses are facing related to A.I., and how some companies are preparing for the impact of tariffs.

But first, we took a dive into a big win for the chamber civil lawsuit reform.

We're very excited and appreciative of the governor, the speaker and lieutenant governor of passing, really the first piece of of tort reform or lawsuit abuse reform.

And it put in perspective with me the other day when I realized it was 20 years ago this year that the Georgia Chamber worked with Governor Perdue to have passed the first round of tort reform in Georgia.

And it's been it's been 20 years of work every day with our members and with the General Assembly.

And so, you know, our hope here is that we see a reduction in some of the frivolous lawsuits that we see.

Some insurers return to Georgia that have left, that we see some stabilization of rates, and that maybe most importantly, we can actually see some of our rural hospitals improve their ability to attract doctors, particularly obgyns, into some of the parts of the state that really just haven't been able to to keep those physicians in place.

And so, big Bill 69 is still out there.

Some other bills that are still in that space.

But the governor's Senate Bill 68 was a huge win, a huge step.

Let's talk about 20 years.

What happened in that space, that tort reform space.

Over 20 years.

So what happened primarily was in those first five or six years after that, the court system overturned a lot of those findings that the General Assembly passed.

And the General Assembly, for whatever reason, we didn't come back and fix them.

When the courts pointed out that there were flaws out there.

And so between that and then a lot of new calls of actions being passed at the same time, the business community suffered through that.

We made our points.

But it wasn't until about three years ago that we decided that we really needed to engage differently.

The governor was very engaged.

He wanted to, you know, he traveled the state this year listening to businesses and doctors and everyone to really hear what those issues were.

And then he came out with his his two bills in January.

And you had some heavy hitters.

You had waffle House, you had Uber, you had those big executives involved.

You had those executives.

But I think what was on was more important is if you look at that first press conference the governor held and you look behind him, I look behind him.

I didn't see all the CEOs up there.

What I saw were hard working Georgians in their Home Depot aprons, in their waffle House aprons and their hard hats and their lab coats that said, this matters to me and my family, and I want to be here.

And we heard.

I mean, every community that I toured in the last three months, we heard from small business owners with their stories, just we heard from doctors saying they were shutting down their practices because their physicians were moving to North Carolina.

I mean, we heard those horror stories everywhere we went.

So this wasn't just about the grass tops.

This was the grassroots, everyday, hardworking Georgians saying, we need to see a change.

Do you worry about lawsuits like you had 20 years ago?

Of course.

And I think what we'll do this time is we'll go in and we'll battle those out and we'll try to preserve what Governor Kemp said was important.

What our members say is important, and we'd be much more vigilant than our predecessors were 20 years ago.

Let's talk a little about insurance reform.

So that is something that people are saying.

That's next year.

What are your feelings about that?

So I think we have to first of all, we need to make sure that these changes that go into 68-69 have a chance to work.

What we saw in Texas, what we saw in Florida is that those rates did come down in Texas.

They saw med mal rates go down 54%, took two years, but they saw them go in.

So listen, last year I consider what the governor passed last year was insurance reform when insurers had to provide all that data to John King.

We trust Commissioner King with what recommendations he might come back with as he looks at that data.

And so we'll be part of those discussions.

But I think we've got to let I think we'll see more insurers come back to the market because of what we've passed this year.

And the more competition in that market, the lower the rates are going to be.

If you've only got two or three companies that are writing, you know, trucking underwriting for trucking companies, they're going to set their own price.

If you've got 20 coming in, it's a much more competitive market.

And so that's what our hope is that we'll see some immediately stabilization, and then we'll work with the commissioner and others next year.

So you'll see some companies who want to come into Georgia stay in Georgia because they think insurance will stabilize, at least if if nothing else.

Right.

Hopefully they don't.

We won't see the frivolous lawsuits.

We don't see the nuclear verdicts at the same level.

We've closed some of those loopholes.

And our hope is the insurers we've talked to say we want to be in Georgia, we want to underwrite in Georgia.

It's just not feasible for us right now.

Okay, let's change gears a little bit and talk about your strategic plan.

Georgia 2050.

What is that?

So in January, after almost two years of traveling the state, listening to our members, listening to legislators, elected leaders at the local level, we unveiled Georgia 2050.

And it's a it's a bold 25 year outlook for the state's economy.

So it's more than just our strategic plan.

It's really a strategy for the state's economy.

And what we heard from business leaders that we weren't just thinking four or five years out that they were making investments for 20, 25 years.

And you think about it this way.

We were at Hyundai's Mita plant grand opening announcement last week with the governor.

They were very clear.

This is not a short term investment.

We're going to be here for the next 100 years to fix the interstate.

Going into Savannah is a 20 year project to build two new nuclear reactors, is a 20 year project to deepen.

The Port of Savannah is almost a 20 year project.

And so we felt it was important to look long term.

So this plan looks at the data, how Georgia is growing, where it's growing, what the business is going to look like, what the disruptions are going to be, and it focuses on five kind of core pillars, as we call them, making sure we've got the right workforce and talent in place, making sure those young men and women can I proof their careers.

That's what our big concern is.

Number two, to make sure that we've got the energy production in place and the infrastructure investments that we need to make sure that we're focused on growing the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs in the state, that we remain a competitive and vibrant location for economic development.

And at the end of the day, that we have regional prosperity and healthy communities so that every community in Georgia has the chance to grow.

And we've got the right health care support and systems in place to help them do that.

And so every policy, every event, every program, every bill at the Capitol that we work on falls under one of those five pillars.

First of all, let's talk about where are we now if we don't make some changes?

I think there are two things we need to look at.

Number one is we have to get men and women that are disconnected from the workforce.

Today, back in, if everybody that wanted to work could find a job and had the skills, we'd be at full employment.

That's why we have bills like Senate Bill 207 on occupational licensure reform, coming from Senator Strickland to make it easier for men and women that have been incarcerated to get the license they need to go into the workforce.

And so that's part of what we got to work on.

The other part is looking at Generation Alpha, which are our elementary, our middle school kids right now, to make sure that they've got the skill sets they need to be hirable 20 years from now when they get out of college, and that they've got the right skills in place, is I disrupts their first choice career and their second choice career.

So there's a lot of work that's got to go on in that space.

We have a couple bills that the governor supported this year.

Best place for talent being one of those.

And so we've got to have those types of policies.

But I also think we've got to be much bolder.

The fact that my son's a freshman at UGA right now, Go Dawgs.

He graduated with much the same class schedule that I had 30 something years ago.

And that's not going to work in a system where kids need more real world experience, more technology, experience more humanities, we're going to have to really rethink K through 12.

I think in the long term.

What were the bills that dealt with A.I.

That you were looking at this session?

So I think there's a lot of concerns.

We didn't have any specific bills.

There are lots of bills that kind of floated out there on data privacy and artificial intelligence.

And I think our concern has been and it will continue to be, our companies online transcend states.

They transcend countries.

And if every state has its own artificial intelligence bill and its own data privacy bill, all of a sudden your company, my company and everyone else, we've got 50 different states that we've got to watch their laws for.

And so we think that's a national solution that tells us what the parameters are for ethical A.I.

And for ethical data privacy, and that we're punishing the bad actors and not the mainstream mom and pop companies that that get hacked, even though they did everything they were supposed to do.

And so that's been a lot of our education at the Capitol this year, is helping legislators understand this is a very big issue.

It's a national issue.

And let's make sure that if we do pass bills, they look like a bill that North Carolina passed or Alabama passed so that we're all on the same on the same page.

We're almost at signing day.

What are you looking for in the next few days?

So we still need to pass a couple of bills and tort reform like the governor's Senate Bill 69 needs to move out of the Senate or out of the House.

That deals with third party and foreign litigation to make sure that people aren't abusing our legal system from Russia or from China, or from London, for that matter.

And then we've got a couple of more bills on tax that we want to get out.

But I think those will all move, move easily.

And quite frankly, at this part of the year, you play a little bit of defense to make sure that something that has unintended consequences doesn't undermine what you've been working on.

Okay.

I've got to ask some of the cutbacks at the federal level, especially, grants are already hitting some of the business community in Georgia.

So what are you hearing from your members and what are you saying to them?

So a lot of our members are worried about what the impact of tariffs are going to be.

They're worried about cuts, particularly in research and development.

We have a lot of research universities in Georgia.

We spin out a lot of companies from those.

So we're now part of a national coalition that's looking at how you fund science research and development to make sure that we're telling the right story, and we're getting those dollars that are available back into our universities and into our state.

You know, I've heard from the president of Morehouse and Emory about the potential impacts there.

So we're just trying to be a good advocate.

Make sure that our members of Congress understand where those dollars go, the impact that they have, and the fact that they're spinning off companies every single day in Georgia.

And that's the great work of the Georgia Research Alliance.

So we're trying to advocate and be a good partner there.

And then obviously on tariffs, we're just trying to work with our partners all over the country, all over the world, and make sure that Georgia businesses know what they need to do in order to be compliant and to mitigate or to lessen the impact of any of those tariffs and continue to talk to our friends in Washington every day about the potential impact.

I want to thank Chris Clark for that conversation.

That interview took place before the final passage of SB 69.

Another of the Tort reform bills.

It is now also on the governor's desk.

Well, coming up, as the session winds down, we take a look at what made this one stand out.

The twists and turns, and what to expect on signing day.

We'll get analysis from two people who have watched the legislative process unfold this year, and have done so in the past.

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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.

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Saddle my horse immediately.

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We did it by acknowledging our own worth.

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Heart like a lion.

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Wide open.

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But look at this.

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I.

Welcome back to Lawmakers.

I'm Donna Lowry.

You might say every Georgia legislative session has its own vibe.

Tonight, we're going to discuss some of the bills that made this session unique.

And look at what's yet to come as things wrap up.

Joining me is journalist Ty Tagami.

He's a reporter with Capitol Beat who is covering state government and Capitol.

Beat is a partner with GPB and you'll find the stories on GPB.

Also here is political analyst commentator Bill Crane, who is often on local and national media outlets.

He is the owner of CSI Crain Communications.

He also writes the column One Man's Opinion.

He'll give us his opinion tonight and more.

Welcome to Lawmakers to both of you.

Thank you for having me.

Let's let's start with this session and talk about each one having its own vibe.

How would you describe it?

I'll start with you, Bill.

I would say a national tilt and shift to the right in deference to the new president.

Return of Donald Trump and some business oriented bills like you just talked about with Chris, with Chris to the Georgia Chamber, to re underscore Georgia's place as a top place to do business.

Yeah.

How about you?

How would you describe it?

It's always a frenetic pace, but this year it feels even faster than it has been in the past.

And I think Bill's right.

There's there's a lot of emphasis on national issues or things that people have been talking about.

There have been a lot of bills about transgender issues, for instance, whether it's in the schools or the prisons.

There have also been some bills that really affect people birth to death.

I like to think of it with IVF guarantee in Georgia passing.

It was a very it was a bipartisan bill.

And that's important.

A lot of people were concerned about that publicly.

And then also on death, is this time to talk about one of my favorite.

Talk about that.

That Bill.

This was a favorite of yours.

I think so, just because it came out of nowhere and it.

I think, surprised all the lawmakers involved with it.

A funeral director brought a bill that has I guess it was already legal, but put some rules around composting.

It's something that composting people after we die.

So that's something that all of us at some point will, face.

And there's a new way to.

Explain it.

Ash.

Yeah, I was I was taken aback by it because I was thinking, increasingly, people are cremated.

They are.

They are.

And if they're not?

I'm on the board of the monastery of the Holy Spirit.

And we have a natural burial ground where you put people in hemp baskets and into the ground.

And I'm thinking, surely they're not going to be farming there.

I just I can't make the leap.

So, so talk about this a little bit.

So you said it's actually a tub.

They put people in.

And yeah, there's I mean they didn't go that far into the details.

But yeah, it's some sort of I was imagining a rain barrel or something, you know, looking like that.

And there there's a time frame.

It's like six weeks to two months and there's a certain temperature you have to maintain.

And if you do it right, it apparently there was testimony that smells like a feed store in the facility where they do it.

And what's I guess, compelling is that the family can have the remains back in the form of soil and plant it in their, you know, use it in their garden to grow things.

I will say, and I'm not trying to be too cynical, the funeral home industry has been very profitable for a number of years, but that industry is shrinking.

Fewer and fewer people are going for traditional burial cemeteries, so a new revenue stream.

Yeah, that was interesting.

Let's talk about you mentioned one bill that was was partisan.

And then we've had, you know, the bipartisan bill was IVF.

Let's talk about some more of the of the partisan bills.

And.

The statewide DOGE committee.

Yeah, talk about that.

Well, it's it's not something the state hasn't done before and couldn't do again.

I mean, Sonny Perdue, for example, when he was governor, authorized a study the state of Georgia did not have at that time a complete inventory of all the real estate that the state owned.

And that resulted in a lot of surplus real estate being sold, put back into the marketplace and also downsizing that inventory, the utility expense, et cetera.

So there's a place for this, but obviously that's probably not the reason that we got it this year.

So we'll see what happens with that as these agencies start cutting back.

Let's talk about another partisan taxes of course.

But it was reducing the tax rate, not the rebates that are coming back.

The state continues to work on that.

Yeah that's right.

This is this year was a continuation I don't remember last year's cut but this year it's it's income tax.

So it was a 0.2% rollback.

That.

Is 0.2 or 0.2 for last year.

Yeah.

The eventual goal is to eliminate it.

It's difficult to do because it's about a third of the state's revenue.

Yeah.

And then the other thing we were still waiting to see what's happening with the budget.

And I want to talk about that right now.

It's in conference committee because each side has their own idea of what they want in that budget.

And there.

And the governor's is a little different, too.

And the only thing the Georgia General Assembly has to do is pass a budget.

Now they got the little budget passed.

They got a little budget passed, which is chewing up the old year's budget with realities.

And what came in very quickly.

But yeah, it'll be a long night for Ty.

Yeah.

It looks like it'll be a lot dealing with part of it is the promise scholarship or vouchers where the the house is reduced, the amount of money, and the Senate wants to have more.

Yeah.

Well, the, I think Governor Kemp had one number which was kind of lower.

And then the house.

I'm sorry, I'm mixing that up with the other one, which was prisons.

Those are the two.

Those are the two contentious issues.

You know, there's a need for more correctional officers and improvements in facilities.

And so I think Kemp had one number.

The house had another.

And the Senate's kind of come in between with with a number in between.

And they're still negotiating the vouchers.

The house.

It was when the bill passed, there was an assumption that it would cost about $140 million a year, and the House set it at 40 million, I believe.

And the Senate put it back at 141 million, actually.

So we'll see where that goes.

Let's talk about what's going down to the wire.

The religious freedom bill.

Talk about that.

I do not believe it will be signed into law.

Really?

I do believe it'll pass.

It'll pass.

But you don't see it doing something.

Like with.

With, Governor Nathan Deal.

Who?

I don't think it'll be as dramatic as Governor Deal's statement was.

And I was talking before we started the show.

The Georgia Chamber was very vocal that time about the potential concerns they had about the Religious Freedom Bill.

They've been very quiet this time.

So but I also think Brian Kemp, the governor, is a very pragmatic man.

And there's still some questions about some of the verbiage and whether it would be overturned.

There is a federal law already that guarantees religious freedom, that a superseding statute that passed during the Clinton administration.

So then the need is not great.

It would be a pin to the conservative base of the Republican Party, and I think it will pass the General Assembly.

I do not believe the governor will sign it.

Wow.

What are your thoughts, even on any other bills down to the wire?

Well, there is a little bit of Republican resistance against.

Yes.

There was 11 Republican on the the last committee that passed it, who opposed it.

So there's some other.

Bipartisan, I'm sorry, partisan bills that actually do affect people.

And one of them passed today was the the it has to go back, but it was an election bill.

It would make some major 22 page bill.

So there's a lot of changes in there.

And I think one of the ones that one of the changes that people would notice right away is you can't drop off an absentee ballot at the weekend before an election.

You can now, but you wouldn't if this passes as is.

There are a host of other changes in there.

And that was a bitter vote for Republicans and Democrats.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, so just we only have a little bit of time.

Interesting.

Interesting session.

And that what we saw today with the Democrats was a a big move walking out.

Right.

I understand why the GOP has made such a series of issues around transgenderism.

But the specific bill, the one to provide gender affirming care in jails, mirrors the discussion again in the national campaign level.

And if you didn't see it, there was an ad with Vice President Harris talking about not just providing gender affirming care, but paying for transition surgery for state and federal inmates.

That was critical in that campaign.

We're going to have to leave it there.

I want to thank you both for coming in.

It always goes so fast because that does it today.

For Lawmakers.

There are more committee hearings tomorrow before signing day on Friday, so we will not have a show.

We'll be back on Friday for 1 hour Lawmakers with live interviews and we'll see you then.