SR4: SR4 Senate Officials, Employees, and Committees; relative

This resolution lays out how the Georgia Senate organizes its staff and pays certain officials and members during the 2025-2026 two-year legislative period. It authorizes the Senate Committee on Administrative Affairs, the Secretary of the Senate, and the President of the Senate to hire pages, aides, consultants, chaplains, interns, and other staff, with pay and duties set by whoever does the hiring, subject to available state funding. It also sets specific salaries for the Majority and Minority Leaders ($2,400 a year) and Administration Floor Leaders ($1,200 a year), and it treats individual senators and top leaders as one-person committees so they can claim travel and expense allowances for official business when the legislature is not in session. It caps how many such days count, and it states funding sources for each part. The resolution took effect immediately upon Senate adoption.

• Authorizes the Senate Committee on Administrative Affairs, the Secretary of the Senate, and the President of the Senate to hire staff such as pages, aides, consultants, interns, and chaplains, with pay set within available state funding.
• Sets fixed annual salaries of $2,400 for the Majority Leader and Minority Leader and $1,200 for each Administration Floor Leader, on top of their regular legislative pay.
• Designates the President Pro Tempore, Majority Leader, and Minority Leader as one-person committees who can claim daily travel and expense allowances for official business during periods when the Senate is not in session, without a cap on days.
• Designates each other senator as a one-person committee eligible for similar travel and expense allowances for in-state legislative duties, subject to a day limit set by the Administrative Affairs Committee.
• Allows the Senate Committee on Assignments and the President of the Senate to keep standing committees and interim study committees active between sessions, with members receiving travel allowances for that work.
• States that all personnel hired under the resolution serve at the will of whoever hired them and can be fired with or without cause.

Senate staff and interns, the Secretary of the Senate's office, the President of the Senate's office, Senate leadership including the President Pro Tempore, Majority and Minority Leaders, Administration Floor Leaders, and individual Georgia state senators who claim travel and expense allowances.

The resolution determines how Senate offices staff up and how much certain leaders are paid, and it controls when individual senators can be reimbursed for travel and expenses when the legislature is out of session, directly affecting Senate operating costs and staff job security since employees can be dismissed without cause.

• Section 1-1 lets the Senate Committee on Administrative Affairs hire postmasters, pages, aides, court reporters, and staff for policy analysis, budget, and press offices, funded by available Senate appropriations.
• Section 1-3 has the Committee on Administrative Affairs set the Sergeant-at-Arms' compensation.
• Section 2-1 and 2-2 let the Secretary of the Senate hire office staff and set the Secretary's salary at its prior level plus any legislative branch raise.
• Section 4-1 gives the President Pro Tempore, Majority Leader, and Minority Leader unlimited-day committee-of-one status for travel allowances between sessions.
• Section 4-2 gives other senators similar committee-of-one status for in-state legislative duties, capped by limits the Administrative Affairs Committee can set under Section 5-3.
• Section 4-3 sets annual salaries of $2,400 for the Majority and Minority Leaders and $1,200 for Administration Floor Leaders.
• Section 5-2 authorizes the President of the Senate to appoint interim study committees that can meet and claim travel allowances between sessions.
• Section 6-2 states that all personnel hired under the resolution serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority and may be discharged with or without cause.

1. 2025-01-13Senate Passed/Adopted (Senate)
2. 2025-01-13Senate Engrossed (Senate)
3. 2025-01-13Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
4. 2025-01-13Senate Hopper (Senate)

• John Kennedy (R, SD-018)Primary sponsor
• Steve Gooch (R, SD-051)
• Harold Jones (D, SD-022)

1. PassedSenate voteJanuary 13, 2025

   32 yea, 24 nay

   Motion To Engross: Senate Vote #4

2. PassedSenate voteJanuary 13, 2025

   56 yea, 0 nay

   Adoption: Senate Vote #5

• Georgia Senate operations
• legislative staffing
• legislative salaries
• interim committees
• travel and expense allowances