The Holland Report - 2023, Week 11

Sara Fuchs

During our second-to-last week of the legislative session, the House has worked to move bills through committee and vote on them on the floor. We delighted in welcoming advocates and constituents for World Down Syndrome Day, Child Suicide Prevention Day, DeKalb County Day, Environmental Justice Day and more.

The Georgia Constitution restricts the legislature to meeting for only 40 days each year, and the one objective we must achieve during that period is passing a balanced budget. With only two legislative days left, the budget remains incomplete. The House passed a budget a few weeks ago, but the Senate has returned the budget with several cuts, including significant reductions in funding for the University System of Georgia, the HOPE scholarship, Georgia Public Broadcasting and state employee pay raises. The House voted to disagree with the changes, so some lawmakers will be locked in a room together this weekend (figuratively) to hash out a compromise before legislative day 39 on Monday.

We passed some good bills this week, but some bad ones also got through despite our objections. Check out the recap below.

After a last-minute Twitter publicity campaign, my dog Bader was finally named Dog of the Day in the AJC's Jolt column! #barksforbetsy

This Week on the Floor of the House

The Good!

SB199
State's Employee Benefit Plan Council; council to establish health savings accounts; require
My good friend on the Senate side, Sen. Jason Esteves, introduced this bill, allowing state employees, including teachers, to establish health savings accounts.

SB106
"Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Act"; enact
This bill provides for a three-year pilot program to allow coverage for remote maternal health clinical services under the Medicaid program, which will help with our maternal health crisis.

SB45
Education; care of students being treated for epilepsy or a seizure disorder; provide
This bill, known as AJ's law, requires schools to accept, maintain and review seizure action plans submitted by parents of children who have seizure disorders.

SB86
Education; eligible students participating in the Dual Enrollment program to access HOPE career grant funds for certain CTAE courses; allow
This bill allows eligible students participating in the Dual Enrollment program to access HOPE career grant funds for certain CTAE courses irrespective of whether they have reached maximum credit hour caps.

SB218
Identification Cards; issuance of identification cards to persons completing a term of incarceration; provide
This bill allows the Department of Corrections to provide identification cards to releasees, in conjunction with the Department of Driver Services.

The Not So Good!

SB1
State Government; automatic repealer on the prohibition on state and local governments from requiring proof of COVID vaccination for government services; remove
SB 1 removes the sunset date of June 30, 2023, on the law passed in 2022 that prohibited any government agency from conditioning or mandating the provision of services or access to any person providing proof of a COVID-19 vaccination, including schools. This is an unnecessary bill that erodes public trust and threatens permanent damage to the health and safety of Georgia. I voted against this bill, but it passed the House.

The Not So Good that Turned Into Good!

This is not a good bill, but it passed committee and made it onto the House floor late on Thursday. After an hour-long vigorous debate, with passionate speeches from many of my Democratic House colleagues, Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones made a motion to table this problematic school voucher bill, and the motion passed. We may still see it before the end of Sine Die.

SB233
'The Georgia Promise Scholarship Act'; establishment of promise scholarship accounts
This bill creates a voucher program that allows parents of students whose resident school rates in the bottom 25% of student achievement to utilize a fund of $6500 per student per school year. Which schools are in the bottom 25%? We don't have that data yet, but it will most likely be rural school districts, that don't even have a private school in that area to attend, much less one that only costs $6500/year. School vouchers divert critical educational funding from schools in need.

The Feel Good!

Rep. Leesa Hagen introduced a bill designating the Southeast Georgia Soap Box Derby as the official soap box derby of the State of Georgia. In Senate committee, language from the Senate sports betting bill was inserted into Rep. Hagen's bill. Not wanting her bill to be associated with sports betting, she removed her language from the bill. In the Rules committee this week, the Chairman of Rules, Rep. Smith, stripped SB158 and inserted the soap box derby language. All's fair in love and politics, I suppose! SB158 passed the House unanimously. Apparently, soap box derbies have bipartisan support.

On the Senate side, HB30 (the antisemitism definition bill) was tabled in committee over disagreements on how to define antisemitism and concerns about freedom of speech. I always say that nothing is dead until Sine Die, and sure enough, the language from this bill was inserted into HB144, so we'll see what happens on the Senate side!

Join me & Rep. Saira Draper (HD90) the day after SINE DIE for a legislative wrap-up! Which bills made it to the finish line, and perhaps more importantly, which bills did not?
Pre-register for the Zoom link here.

If you haven’t already, please browse my website, betsyforgeorgia.com.

As your Representative, your concerns are important to me. Please contact me at betsy.holland@house.ga.gov or 404-656-0116 with questions, concerns, or solutions you may have regarding legislation or other happenings in District 54.

To stay updated, follow me on Twitter and Facebook, and follow the Georgia House of Representatives @GAHouseHub on Twitter. Additionally, in-depth information regarding current bills, Georgia's annual and supplemental budgets, committee meetings, and livestreams from the General Assembly can be accessed via www.legis.ga.gov.

I encourage you and your family to visit our State Capitol and my office, where all constituents are welcome. I look forward to connecting with you!

My office is located at:
18 Capitol Square, SW
409-B, Coverdell Legislative Office Building
Atlanta, Georgia 30334

Thank you for allowing me to serve as your representative.