SB96: SB96 Official Code of Georgia Annotated; provisions creating certain boards, panels, authorities, centers, commissions, committees, councils, task forces, and other such bodies; update and modernize

Georgia law creates many boards, councils, and commissions to advise state agencies on topics from housing to lupus awareness to firefighter training. This bill is a wide-ranging cleanup bill that touches more than a dozen of these bodies across many titles of Georgia law. It expands the State Housing Trust Fund for the Homeless Commission from nine to eleven members and changes how its members are appointed. It eliminates several bodies entirely, including the Environmental Advisory Council, the Jekyll Island Citizens Resource Council, the Stakeholder Advisory Board, the Governor's Office for Children and Families, the Georgia Volunteer Fire Service Council (folding its duties into the Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council), the Board of Homeland Security, the Employment First Georgia Council, the Georgia State Games Commission's core structure, and the Lottery Retailer Advisory Board. For each eliminated body, the bill transfers its assets and liabilities to the State of Georgia effective July 1, 2025. It also revises the Georgia Council on Lupus Education and Awareness, the Office of Health Strategy and Coordination reporting list, and the Erosion and Sediment Control Overview Council's duties, folding in functions previously handled by the repealed Stakeholder Advisory Board.

• Expands the State Housing Trust Fund for the Homeless Commission from nine to eleven members and changes how the Governor, Senate President, and House Speaker appoint members.
• Eliminates the Environmental Advisory Council, the Jekyll Island Citizens Resource Council, the Stakeholder Advisory Board, and the Governor's Office for Children and Families, transferring their duties or assets elsewhere.
• Merges the Georgia Volunteer Fire Service Council into the Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council, which now handles certification and rulemaking for volunteer fire departments too.
• Repeals the Board of Homeland Security, the Employment First Georgia Council, most of the Georgia State Games Commission's founding provisions, and the Lottery Retailer Advisory Board.
• Adds new definitions for 'competitive integrated employment' and 'disability' to Georgia's vocational rehabilitation law and assigns Employment First Policy duties directly to the Vocational Rehabilitation board.
• Requires that all assets and liabilities of each eliminated body transfer to the State of Georgia effective July 1, 2025.

People experiencing homelessness who rely on housing trust fund grants, environmental policy stakeholders, Jekyll Island residents, families in the juvenile justice and child welfare system, volunteer and professional firefighters, lupus patients and advocates, people with disabilities seeking employment services, amateur athletes in the Georgia State Games, and lottery retailers.

Several advisory boards that reviewed policy or advocated for specific groups, such as children's services, volunteer firefighters, and lupus awareness, will disappear or be absorbed into other agencies, changing who oversees these programs day to day and how their functions are funded and staffed going forward.

• Part I (Section 1-1) expands the State Housing Trust Fund for the Homeless Commission to eleven members and revises appointment authority among the Governor, Senate President, and House Speaker, effective August 23, 2025.
• Part II repeals key duties in O.C.G.A. § 12-2-2 tied to the Environmental Advisory Council's structure while keeping an advisory council of 15 members.
• Part III (Section 3-1) repeals the Jekyll Island Citizens Resource Council entirely (O.C.G.A. § 12-3-233.1).
• Part IV replaces references to the repealed Stakeholder Advisory Board with the Erosion and Sediment Control Overview Council throughout erosion control training law (O.C.G.A. §§ 12-7-7.1, 12-7-19, 12-7-20).
• Part V repeals the Governor's Office for Children and Families (O.C.G.A. Chapter 5 of Title 49) and reassigns its data-sharing and reporting duties to agencies like the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and Department of Human Services.
• Part VI merges the Georgia Volunteer Fire Service Council into the Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council, consolidating certification, rulemaking, and enforcement for both paid and volunteer fire departments (O.C.G.A. Title 25, Chapter 3 and 4).
• Part IX repeals Article 2A on the Board of Homeland Security while keeping the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency director's duties intact (O.C.G.A. § 38-3-20).
• Part XI repeals most of the Georgia State Games Commission's founding code sections (O.C.G.A. §§ 50-12-41 through 50-12-44, 50-12-48) and shifts audit oversight to the Department of Audits and Accounts.

1. 2025-05-09Effective Date 2025-07-01
2. 2025-05-09Act 92
3. 2025-05-09Senate Date Signed by Governor (Senate)
4. 2025-04-07Senate Sent to Governor (Senate)
5. 2025-03-27Senate Agreed House Amend or Sub (Senate)
6. 2025-03-21House Passed/Adopted By Substitute (House)
7. 2025-03-21House Third Readers (House)
8. 2025-03-18House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)

• Drew Echols (R, SD-049)Primary sponsor
• Bo Hatchett (R, SD-050)
• Chuck Hufstetler (R, SD-052)
• Chuck Payne (R, SD-054)
• Randy Robertson (R, SD-029)
• Ben Watson (R, SD-001)
• Sam Watson (R, SD-011)
• Russ Goodman (R, SD-008)
• Larry Walker (R, SD-020)
• Shawn Still (R, SD-048)
• Ricky Williams (R, SD-025)
• Lee Anderson (R, SD-024)
• Carden Summers (R, SD-013)
• John Albers (R, SD-056)
• Steve Gooch (R, SD-051)
• Blake Tillery (R, SD-019)
• Greg Dolezal (R, SD-027)
• Frank Ginn (R, SD-047)
• Brian Strickland (R, SD-042)
• Clint Dixon (R, SD-045)
• Kay Kirkpatrick (R, SD-032)
• Timothy Bearden (R, SD-030)
• Matthew Gambill (R, HD-015)

1. PassedSenate voteFebruary 20, 2025

   35 yea, 18 nay (1 not voting, 2 absent)

   Passage: Senate Vote #69

2. PassedHouse voteMarch 21, 2025

   162 yea, 0 nay (5 not voting, 13 absent)

   Passage: House Vote #295

3. PassedSenate voteMarch 27, 2025

   51 yea, 0 nay (1 not voting, 4 absent)

   Agree To House Substitute: Senate Vote #309

• state government boards
• firefighter certification
• homeless housing commission
• child welfare agencies
• disability employment policy