SR6: SR6 General Assembly Meetings and Adjournments; relative

Each year the General Assembly must adopt a resolution laying out exactly which days it will convene, hold committee work, and adjourn. This resolution sets that schedule for the 2025 regular session, running from January 13, 2025 through the constitutionally required 40th legislative day on April 4, 2025 (Sine Die, the final adjournment of the session). It lists each legislative day, marks committee work days, and identifies March 6 as Crossover Day, the deadline by which bills must pass their originating chamber to stay alive for the year. The resolution also addresses emergencies. If a disaster, attack, or other emergency makes it unsafe or impossible to meet at the State Capitol in Atlanta, the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate can jointly suspend the schedule and reconvene the legislature either at a temporary location named by the Governor or back at the Capitol once conditions allow, with prompt notice to all members.

• Sets the exact calendar of legislative days, committee work days, and Sine Die adjournment for the 2025 regular session running January 13 to April 4, 2025.
• Designates March 6, 2025 as Crossover Day, the point in the schedule marked for bills to move between chambers.
• Allows the House and Senate to each set their own daily convening and adjourning hours, while requiring each chamber to stay adjourned until its next scheduled legislative day.
• Lets the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate jointly suspend the meeting schedule and relocate sessions if an emergency or disaster makes meeting at the Capitol unsafe or impossible.
• Requires prompt notice to all House and Senate members if the schedule is disrupted, and lets the General Assembly adopt a new schedule by joint resolution once it reconvenes.
• States that adopting this resolution counts as both chambers' consent needed under the Georgia Constitution for such emergency relocation actions.

This resolution directly affects members of the Georgia House of Representatives and Senate, legislative staff, and the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate, who gain emergency authority to relocate or reschedule sessions. It also indirectly affects anyone tracking bill deadlines, such as lobbyists, advocacy groups, and state agencies.

The schedule determines when lawmakers can act on bills, including the Crossover Day deadline that decides whether legislation survives for the year. The emergency provisions matter because they give legislative leaders a clear, pre-approved way to keep the General Assembly functioning during a disaster without needing a new vote in the moment.

• Part I lists specific dates for legislative days 1 through 40, committee work days, Crossover Day (March 6), and Sine Die (April 4, 2025).
• Part I states meetings otherwise follow Georgia's standard rules for legislative meetings (O.C.G.A. § 28-1-2), with each chamber setting its own daily convening and adjournment hours.
• Part II lets the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate jointly suspend the schedule and reconvene at a temporary seat of government the Governor names during a declared emergency (O.C.G.A. § 38-3-52).
• Part II provides that if no temporary location is declared, the same officers can instead pause and later reconvene the session back at the Capitol in Atlanta.
• Part II requires the Speaker and President to promptly notify all members if the schedule is disrupted, keeping each chamber adjourned until the newly set reconvening date.
• Part II specifies that adopting this resolution serves as both chambers' required constitutional consent for such emergency schedule changes under Article III, Section IV, Paragraph I(b) of the Georgia Constitution.

1. 2025-01-13House Read and Adopted (House)
2. 2025-01-13House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-01-13Senate Transmitted House (Senate)
4. 2025-01-13Senate Passed/Adopted (Senate)
5. 2025-01-13Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Steve Gooch (R, SD-051)Primary sponsor
• John Kennedy (R, SD-018)
• Greg Dolezal (R, SD-027)
• Brandon Beach (R, SD-021)
• Randy Robertson (R, SD-029)
• Larry Walker (R, SD-020)
• Ben Watson (R, SD-001)
• Kay Kirkpatrick (R, SD-032)
• Jason Anavitarte (R, SD-031)

1. PassedSenate voteJanuary 13, 2025

   56 yea, 0 nay

   Adoption: Senate Vote #8

• legislative calendar
• General Assembly session
• Crossover Day
• emergency government continuity