Yet another day, attacking the same five women in metro Atlanta when they have actually done nothing to harm this body.

Senator, I agree, and I think, you know, the English language provides a great diversity of vocabulary depending on the intensity of a feeling about a topic.

You know, at the lower level, you might say it's a consideration.

At the middle level, you might call it a preoccupation.

And then when you get to this chamber's level of attention to Das, the word obsession applies.

Democratic frustration in the Senate today as a bill that would change the election rules for metro Atlanta district attorneys is debated.

Good evening and welcome to Lawmakers.

It's day 37.

There are just three more legislative days.

I'm Donna Lowry in Atlanta.

About a quarter of Georgia residents live in rural areas.

We're going to spend time talking about their unique challenges, such as limited access to health care, high poverty rates, and significant infrastructure gaps.

We'll discuss legislation looking to help improve the lives of rural Georgians with two lawmakers from different areas of the state.

Then two members of the House who represent larger communities will talk about moving vehicles and raising the minimum wage.

During the final push of this year's session, the days are getting longer as each chamber tries to work through as many bills as they can.

Here's Capitol correspondent Sarah Kallis with a report on the day's events.

Hi, Donna.

Today at the Capitol, lawmakers took up legislation dealing with school scholarships, money and autism.

On day 37, the Senate took up 14 bills and one resolution.

Most notable, the Senate took three related House bills and combined them all into HB 328.

I'll deal with vouchers from school scholarship organizations used for sending students to private schools.

The most controversial parts of the legislation increase the tax credit that can be claimed with a donation to SOS, as well as individual scholarship amounts.

It also nearly doubles the total scholarship fund to $225 million.

This.

As my friend from the 37th said, is a bill about giving parents choice, giving them control on the best situation for their children.

Democrats pushed back, saying that the vouchers mainly help families that can already afford private school.

I am someone that firmly believes that we should offer opportunities to go to schools that are better for your child, that better fit your child.

But I do not believe that we should be investing public dollars in schools that have no accountability.

We have no data on these schools as it relates to how their students can read, how their students can do math, or any of those things.

The bill was passed along party lines 30-20 HB 369 was a gutted House bill that would make district attorney's, as well as other county officials.

Elections in large metro Atlanta counties, nonpartisan.

Republicans inserted language from a previous Senate bill, SB 573, that was voted down on Crossover Day because of a clerical error into the new Franken bill.

It's important that we look at our law enforcement intensive counties the right way.

Things such as the World Cup coming.

World's busiest airport.

Super Bowls, NCAA, et cetera.

I've made my entire career in this General Assembly about public safety, and this is a public safety issue.

We again, we've already debated this bill.

Everybody knows how they're going to vote.

So I'd encourage us to move on.

Democrats said that this is once again, about punishing a district attorney's politics like Fulton County Fani Willis, rather than election fairness.

Either the role should be nonpartizan or it should be partisan.

And the state of Georgia can make a policy decision about it one way or the other.

But to pretend that there's anything at work in this bill other than rank raw partisanship.

As to the composition of district attorney elections in these large counties, is a complete farce.

Despite Democrats vowing to fight the new law in court, the bill was passed along party lines 32-21 and HB 11 12 could remove a bit of cash out of your pocket.

At least the pennies with the federal Treasury stopping production of the penny, the bill would round up or down cash purchases to the nearest $0.05.

If your total comes out to one or two, you round down to zero.

If it's three or four, you round up to five.

If it's six or seven, you round down to five and it's eight or nine.

You round up to ten.

The bill was passed unanimously.

The House moved through the rules calendar slowly today and did not vote on their first bill until after 2:00 P.M.. The first bill passed was SB 433 or Rio's Law, which would create an optional license plate symbol for drivers with autism or parents of children with autism.

The bill was named after a child with autism.

For parents and individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

A regular traffic stop can quickly escalate into a sensitive situation.

Many individuals with autism have sensory sensitivity or communication differences that might not translate well when interacting with law enforcement.

SB 433 also creates a training program for law enforcement officers on interacting with people with autism.

The bill passed unanimously and now heads to the governor's desk to be signed into law.

The House also passed Senate Resolution 622, which creates a joint study committee to examine the rising cost in Georgia's foster care system.

The legislation came after the Department of Family and Child Services reported an $88 million shortfall this year.

This is to facilitate a study committee to try to determine why the escalating cost of children in foster care has happened since 2022.

The cost of escalated 159%.

It cost more to house these kids.

We know that.

But we need to drill down and find out exactly how we can handle this more efficiently and make sure that the 10,000 children that are in foster care in our state get the services they need.

Senate Bill 547 aims to crack down on pimping by making, pimping and pandering a felony on the first offense.

Our state will not tolerate this sort of behavior.

Of those preying on the most innocent among us.

The bill passed 160 6-2 Also in the House today, two representatives said farewell to the chamber.

Representative Park Cannon is not running for reelection after serving in the House for ten years, and Representative Lynn Smith is retiring after nearly 30 years in the House.

The House also passed legislation dealing with regulating A.I.

Chat bots and cracking down on email.

Identity theft.

Lawmakers will be back on Friday for day 38.

That's my Capitol report.

Donna.

Thanks, Sara.

In Georgia, roughly 120 out of the state's 159 counties are considered rural.

Rural areas in the state are County with a population of 50,000 or less, or a municipality with a population under 15,000.

Joining me are two lawmakers who represent rural areas from Glennville and Tattnall County, with a population 3800-5 thousand, is Republican Representative Bill Werkheiser.

He is chairman of the Industry and Labor Committee, and he's also on the Appropriations Committee.

Also from Cordele in Crisp County, which has a population of about 10,000, is Republican Senator Carden Summers.

He is chairman of banking and finance and vice chair of regulated industries and Utilities.

Welcome to Lawmakers for this session.

To both of you, I appreciate this.

Let's talk about rural areas.

Chairman Somers, what are the unique aspects of living in a rural area?

What would you.

Say right off the bat?

I'd say traffic.

No traffic without question.

I mean, it's wonderful that you can get here and there in 5 minutes versus just getting there in about an hour.

Another thing is, you know, everybody, it's just so nice that you're in an area where people know people and, you know, you're it's not just your church groups, it's, it's your organizations in general.

You just know so many people in rural Georgia is amazing because you can actually go out and not see concrete buildings and massive structures.

You can actually see what God created.

Okay.

What about you?

What would you say?

I was going to say the same thing.

The fact that it's more of a community much bigger than your church group or you just you're in different civic clubs or whatever.

You just, it seems like, you know, a lot more people.

Yeah.

And it's a great place to raise your kids.

We're very fortunate to raise our kids in rural Georgia.

And during that time we were on 70 acres.

So it was just, it was a good time to do that.

Yeah.

And you guys want to keep it that way.

So I want to talk about the bill.

You have the Rural Incentive Act that tell us about why you wanted that.

What would that be about?

Going back to what you said earlier, about 120 counties being ruled rural Incentive act would play into effect that if you if you were between the ages of 16-35 and I did it to 35 because it takes that long to go to medical school.

And that's the issue with that.

But if you're between the ages of 16-35 and you stayed in rural Georgia and you worked in rural Georgia, you put roots in rural Georgia, you pay no income tax, period.

Wow.

It was an incentive to help people because the problem is most of our young people are being drawn up here to the donut because they think they're going to make this incredible salary.

They don't realize the cost of living is 2-3 times what it would be in rural Georgia.

So if they had some incentives to say, I just like incentives to help young people.

And that was an incentive I thought would be a really good one to put in there.

And it it's it's moved, but it's just sitting in a committee right now.

Okay.

But you said you you're not done with this.

I want to see it.

We got to give incentive to rural Georgia.

Okay.

All right.

We'll talk about that.

Chairman Werkheiser, you are dealing with the crisis.

You want to talk about the Georgia hospital crisis, and we want to talk about that a little bit.

The College of Coastal Georgia reports that Georgia ranks third highest in the nation for rural hospital closures since 2005.

Nine rural hospitals have closed 18 of 30 remaining rural hospitals are at risk of closing, and nine hospitals face immediate risk when it comes to service gaps.

60% of rural hospitals have zero OB physicians, 52% have no psychiatrists, and 39% lack dedicated emergency room physicians.

The impact is rural Americans have a 43% higher chance of dying from common illnesses due to these closures.

So Chairman Werkheiser explained the distance between some of these hospitals.

It's part of it.

What is the problem?

So I've got I get to see a little bit behind the scenes because I've been serving on one of our local hospitals for five years.

So I get a look at financials.

I get you get to talk about stuff that see how they operate and some of the problems.

And then during the Ossoff session, I went to, I visited, I went on a 300 mile trek through South Georgia, visited nine hospitals in a two day period, brutal schedule, but it got talked to every one of the CEOs.

And I said you know, what can we do as a legislature to help?

And so we, you know, just came up with a list of stuff.

And a lot of them were budgetary, but, but there was this one idea and that, that a bill, an idea I had that to allow some of these hospitals to join forces, whether it's through purchasing supplies, staffing contracts or, or negotiating insurance rates with carriers because they're just such a great disadvantage.

Yeah.

So they'll be able to, under your bill, they would share staffing the supplies.

And the big thing was insurance.

Explain what that why that is such an important part of, of your bill.

This should shock you.

So there's a hospital nearby that basically does just joint replacements.

But you can get a gallbladder surgery there and you might get, you might get reimbursed for that hospital, get reimbursed around 6,000, $6,000.

There's four other hospitals within 20 miles of that hospital where 82% of the folks that come into the hospital doors are either Medicaid, Medicare, or uninsured.

And so you're making money off 6%.

So they have the insurance companies have no incentive to bargain with you.

And so if you get a gallbladder surgery there, you might get reimbursed $600.

Just 600.

The difference is that big.

And so it's it's not fair in this bill.

The aim, the aim was to address that.

Okay.

We're going to talk more about that in a second.

What happened to your bill.

So I do want to talk a little bit about you, chairman.

Summers, let's talk about your bill that would punish protesters and who are on the interstate.

Okay.

Not punishing anybody.

First of all, I'm 100% believer in First Amendment.

You can protest.

I'll stand there with you and hold a flag.

The bill, that law was already in place in regards to blocking roads and streets, bridges, et cetera., et cetera.

What we did was, is say we made it a highly aggravated misdemeanor.

If they don't move when they're told to by law enforcement and by making it a highly aggravated misdemeanor, it simply added jail time and a higher fine.

The part about sidewalks and passageways was always a misdemeanor, so that didn't change.

We just had to put it back in the bill.

But it simply I mean, you don't want to you want to stop mothers from getting to school.

You don't want to stop ambulances.

You don't want to stop fire trucks.

I mean, they shouldn't be in the middle of the road.

I mean, you know, if you have a permit to close the road, that's one thing.

Everybody knows it.

But you don't have a permit to close the road just because you want a permit protest.

You want to protest, protest legally.

And how did that bill.

Do?

It passed House and Senate.

Yeah.

So it's ready to go to the governor.

Governor, I would think he would sign it any day now.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

All right.

I want to get back to what happened to your bill.

So it did great.

It was in the house, came out of the house.

What happened after it got to the Senate?

The House passed it unanimously.

Both in committee and as a chamber.

So it's a very bipartisan issue.

Apparently the Senate has different ideas on health care and they took the bill and replaced it with c o n, which basically killed the bill.

Certificate of need and explain what that is.

That's to get a hospital into an area.

Yeah.

And there there are reasons for certificate of need in, in the metro area, but it would the reason it exists now is to prevent a larger hospital taking that the non 82%, the 8% of people who can pay and setting up an ambulatory service or outpatient and capturing those patients, people who've got good insurance built a, you know, nice new ambulatory service.

And so seeing c o n or certificate of need prevents that from happening.

And there's a reason to do that because of cost and metro when you've got large hospital systems on top of each other, but and you know, folks will say, well, if you're a free market, you should be for getting rid of seal in health care is not free market by a long shot.

And so that's, that's not a good argument.

Yeah.

So you're not happy with what's so after they did that the bill has to come back to the House.

What I asked I had the bill withdrawn.

I said I was not going to waste my time dealing with that.

It dies at this point.

As far as you're concerned.

Yep.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

So this is what we hear when we we talk about a Frankenstein bill that comes over and you felt really good about it.

And now it's totally gone.

This time of year, you're going to have every bill.

You have to read them closely because just because they got the number on you saw two weeks ago doesn't mean what's in that bill today.

Yeah, we talk a lot about leading up to crossover, how important it is to cross over, but that doesn't mean it's going to make it.

So I can tell you're very disappointed.

I am okay.

All right.

Well I appreciate.

Con is so important to rural Georgia too.

I mean that's what I mean.

Rural hospitals are on the verge of closing.

I mean, hospitals are they teeter all the time, you know, just barely getting the doors open.

So anything we can do to help in regards to hospital care in rural Georgia, I champion what he was trying to do.

Yeah.

So you probably won't give up.

I, I it sounds like this is something you really care.

There's I don't know.

Okay.

All right.

Well, I appreciate you coming on because we're initially going to talk about this.

And then things happened today that you wanted to come on and still talk about it.

So I appreciate it.

Thank you both for coming on.

It's always great to have you on.

Thank you Donna.

So coming up, we'll talk about legislation fighting fentanyl traffickers, tightening n I l protection for high school athletes and capping fees on vehicles that are booted to Democrats.

Join me on the set.

And for one of them, it's his last time on Lawmakers because he's retiring from his seat.

Stay with us.

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Welcome back to Lawmakers.

I'm Donna Lowry.

We're going to talk about several bills with our guests.

And joining us is Democratic Representative Dewey McClain of Lawrenceville.

His committees include Industry and Labor, Motor Vehicles, and State Planning and Community Affairs.

Also with us is Democratic Senator Josh McLaurin of Sandy Springs.

He is secretary of the veterans, Military and Homeland Security Committee and another of his committees is Economic Development and Tourism.

Welcome to Lawmakers to both of you.

Thank you, I appreciate this.

We're going to start with you.

Senator McLaurin.

Actually, we're going to start with you.

Let's talk about the bipartisan anti-fentanyl legislation that targets traffickers.

What's behind that bill?

Sure.

So we've worked on fentanyl for the last couple of years.

But the the thing that I brought up that the minority party was with me on is we want to make sure that in our efforts to curb the amount of fentanyl on streets, that we don't go too far and criminalize people who are struggling with addiction because addiction is a disease, it requires mental health treatment.

What we really need is resources for those people.

And there was a problem with the bill that it criminalized people just for having not just fentanyl, but any drugs that might have a trace of fentanyl.

And it only required them to possess it, to charge them with trafficking.

And so the point that we were trying to make is let's make sure that we're only targeting the people who are really trying to distribute drugs.

We're not targeting people with addiction who might just have some, but really need treatment more than anything.

And that went through, you had a you had a few chances to make it go, but it.

It was actually an amazing moment.

I have told people it was one of the coolest moments I've seen in eight years of me being here.

Because you had an argument, a full debate, and then the majority said, you know what, let's amend the bill.

Let's make it better.

And then it was a bipartisan compromise that passed unanimously.

Okay.

I want to switch to you because I have McLaurin and McClain today.

Okay.

So representative McClain, you have are you a signer on HB 383, the Georgia High School n I l Protection Act?

And for those of you who don't know, you are a former pro football player, a linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons for five years.

And of course, they didn't have n I l contracts back then.

What are your thoughts on them overall?

Well done.

All I can say is, is that the n I l what's going on right now is we need to just make sure that the young people had an opportunity to put some guardrails on, because if we didn't want a young person to sign a ten year contract, it in a ninth grade, and then he it followed him through college, it'll follow him, you know, two years, three years in the pros.

So we wanted to make sure once, once he became 18 or he got out of high school, he, he could get a new n I l and that's what that was more also about.

And, and everybody loved it because you know, sometimes parents do get involved and they want to make sure they.

Johnny or Carol gets all the money they can get and, or they can too, if they sign a loan contract.

And we didn't want that.

You do like n I l contracts.

You know, that is probably, you know, I kind of wonder where it was when I was growing up because, you know, all I got was more of a, was a hamburger and a hot dog, but it wasn't n I l but but these what's going on right now is, you know, they should be paid.

Okay.

And so we're putting the protections in because they really are young when they're coming in at ninth grade doing that kind of thing.

All right, back to the other Mac McLaurin.

What protections are in it?

Let's talk a little bit about you served on I'm sorry, your opposing the changes made in HB 61.

The Senate included language in the bill to tighten restrictions on staying in extended stay hotels.

Sure.

So the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that people have certain rights when they stay in these extended stay places, right?

It's not just like a hotel that you book for one or two nights.

These extended stay places have become sort of an alternative to homelessness for people who really can't afford stable housing.

And it's not just by accident.

These extended stay locations, when they advertise their ads, say things like stay one night, stay forever.

So they're specifically trying to attract folks who are housing insecure.

So this bill, I didn't like the bill.

I voted against the bill, HB 61 essentially makes it harder for people to stay in extended stay if they lapse on payment, or if the owner comes up with another excuse to kick them out, and it makes it mandatory for law enforcement to come and charge those people with criminal trespass, that is not an answer to homelessness, in my opinion, and what I really would like to see is there be tenant protection.

So what I did was I tried to introduce an amendment that at 90 days of being an extended stay, you have the protections of a renter or a tenant.

Under Georgia law, that amendment failed.

I did have bipartisan support on that, but it ultimately didn't go through.

And I just think that we need to be having an honest conversation about how bad some people have it, and we shouldn't be making it harder on those people to try to find stable housing.

Okay, well, we'll keep up with that.

Let's switch to the other Mac.

You you also served as the founding member and president of the Metro Atlanta chapter of the National Football League.

Player Association.

You were part of all of that.

And the North Georgia Labor Council, AfL-CIO.

So one issue that you've pushed quite a bit is raising the minimum wage.

So talk about that a little bit.

Your passion for that.

Very passionate about that.

Because you've got to realize that the minimum wage in Georgia, which a lot of folks don't know, is $5.15 an hour, I mean, that's what's in code.

515 that's right.

And I tell people, you know, when I started out in 2013, trying to do $15 an hour, which I thought at that time was $31,000 a year.

But then you think about shelter, you think about transportation, you think about food, you think about clothing, insurance and things like that.

31,000 gross is not a lot.

But you fast forward 13 years and I really felt that 15 shouldn't be the number.

But since I hadn't gotten 15, why would I go to 25?

Or why would I go to 20?

And what I did on three, 942 years ago, what a lot of folks don't know Donna, which I was very disappointed about, was that we've got roughly 22-23% of state employees that make less than $15 an hour, which is which is sad when we've got a state that has roughly 15, 16 billion surplus, but you can't even pay the people that help you get the surplus of $15 minimum wage.

So yes, if you give me some money, I would I can go buy some things that I need.

What would I, I would get a better car.

I'd get a better place to stay.

I might even go out and have a little entertainment.

But the bills were 390 4-3 95, and I'll say the chairman was, well, he gave hearings only, but we've got to do better.

We've got to do better by the people that serve us in Georgia.

Yeah.

You're always care about those kinds of issues.

So I appreciate that.

And we're going to talk about what's happening with you in just a moment.

But I want to get to you, Senator McLaurin, you fought to go after.

Another thing was you fought to go after booting vehicles.

Oh, yeah.

This is my crusade.

I know it.

That's right.

For years now, I have been trying to take on the predatory car booting industry in the state of Georgia.

You got booted, right?

And that's not even about that.

Donna, listen, maybe I know people who got booted, but that is not what prompted this legislation.

It's not a selfish thing.

So, no, look, if you have driven a car in Atlanta, you either know somebody that's gotten booted or you've been booted yourself.

And a lot of people tell stories about how predatory it is.

People who live in an apartment complex get booted in their own lots, even when they have the sticker up.

They might have a tire that touches the line.

They might, you know, have fat fingered some kind of a, you know, accidentally put in their license plate.

Wrong.

Right.

And so these are reasons or justifications the booting industry will use to charge you 75 bucks and immobilize you where you can't leave the lot.

What if you've got small kids?

What if it's 10:00 P.M.

At night?

Right?

You can tell I've talked about this before.

So the bottom line is I had a bill to finally, once and for all, end this predatory industry.

There's plenty of alternatives.

You can ticket cars, you can do controlled access, you can tow, and towing would be a lot more infrequent.

It would not happen as often as booting happens.

And so people's fears about what would happen if we got rid of booting are really unjustified.

It is a predatory industry and it is fleecing drivers all across cities in the state.

And so that's your passion.

We just talked about his passion.

Okay.

And let's talk about what happens next.

You're getting ready to retire.

Yeah.

Now 13 years in the house has been great.

And I'll get a chance to spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and my wife too.

So I'm looking forward to spend a little more time, you know, and in fact, when I came here years ago as a pro football player, that was one thing.

So one thing just led to another and to another.

So now it's like, okay, so let's spend some time with the family and, and before they get older, I always tell people that 13 years ago, my eight month old was he's 13 now.

My 5-year-old Evan, he's 18.

And Daniel, my my 9-year-old at that time, he's 22.

And then Darian is 30.

My 17-year-old is 30.

So.

Wow.

So what about some time?

So I'm looking forward.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much for everything you've done down here.

You're moving on to from the senator.

One way or another, one way or another.

Representative McLean and our.

Lieutenant governor, we have something in common, which is we won't be back as members next year.

I am running for lieutenant governor, and if I lose, I'll be somewhere else.

If I win, I'll be right back in the Senate.

Just have a different seat.

So.

All righty.

But I think both of you will keep up your passion on the things that you really care about.

And we appreciate that.

So thank you so much.

Well, that does it for Lawmakers today.

We don't have a show the rest of this week or on Monday.

Lawmakers are gaveling in on Friday, though, and Sarah Kallis will have a Lawmakers Capitol report on Friday after the PBS NewsHour.

Have a good night.