HR753: HR753 House Study Committee on Improving Access to Internal Medicine in Rural Areas; create

This resolution, offered as a House Rules Committee substitute to HR 753, sets up three distinct study committees inside the Georgia House of Representatives. The first, an eight-member committee including three non-legislator healthcare providers, would study why many rural Georgia counties lack internal medicine physicians and how transportation shortages compound the problem. The second, a five-member committee of representatives, would examine whether Georgia's legal process for unmarried fathers to establish parental rights (called legitimation) could be made more affordable and accessible. The third, a seven-member committee including the chairs of three House committees, would study whether Georgia should legalize casinos, horse racing with pari-mutuel betting, and sports betting, weighing tax revenue and economic effects against potential social costs. Each committee can hold meetings, receive legislative expense allowances funded through the House budget, and must file a report with any recommended legislation before all three committees are abolished on December 1, 2025.

• Creates an eight-member House Study Committee on Improving Access to Internal Medicine in Underserved Areas, including three non-legislator healthcare providers familiar with rural needs.
• Creates a five-member House Study Committee on the Affordability and Accessibility of Georgia's Legitimation Process, the legal process unmarried fathers use to gain parental rights.
• Creates a seven-member House Study Committee on Gaming in the State of Georgia, made up of three committee chairs and four additional appointed representatives, to study casinos, horse racing betting, and sports betting.
• Requires the gaming committee specifically to hold at least four public hearings around the state plus one meeting to finalize findings, unlike the other two committees.
• Funds legislative members' expenses through Code Section 28-1-8 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, paid from money already appropriated to the House.
• Sets all three committees to be automatically abolished on December 1, 2025, after which any approved report or recommended legislation must be filed with the Clerk of the House.

Rural Georgians who lack easy access to internal medicine doctors, unmarried biological fathers seeking parental rights through legitimation, and Georgians interested in casino gambling, horse racing, and sports betting all fall under one of the three study committees. Legislators appointed to serve, plus the non-legislator healthcare providers named to the internal medicine committee, are directly affected.

None of these committees change any law by themselves. Instead they set up formal House processes to gather information and potentially recommend future legislation on rural healthcare access, parental rights procedures for unmarried fathers, and whether Georgia should legalize forms of gambling, issues that could shape bills introduced in later sessions.

• Section 1 creates the internal medicine committee, sets its membership at eight (five legislators appointed by the Speaker plus three healthcare providers), and cites statistics such as 142 of 159 counties being healthcare shortage areas.
• Section 1(7) and the parallel provisions in Sections 2 and 3 all set December 1, 2025 as the abolishment date for each committee.
• Section 2 creates the five-member legitimation study committee, focused specifically on cost and accessibility barriers facing unmarried biological fathers.
• Section 3 creates the seven-member gaming study committee, naming the chairs of the Ways and Means, Regulated Industries, and Economic Development committees as automatic members.
• Section 3(4) requires the gaming committee to hold at least four public hearings across the state plus a final meeting, a higher public-engagement requirement than the other two committees.
• Each section's report provision requires majority approval of a quorum before a committee's chairperson can file a formal report with the Clerk of the House.

1. 2025-04-04House Passed/Adopted By Substitute (House)
2. 2025-04-04House Third Readers (House)
3. 2025-04-02House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
4. 2025-03-31House Second Readers (House)
5. 2025-03-28House First Readers (House)
6. 2025-03-27House Hopper (House)

• Sandy Donatucci (R, HD-105)Primary sponsor
• Leesa Hagan (R, HD-156)
• Beth Camp (R, HD-135)
• Rob Clifton (R, HD-131)

1. PassedHouse voteApril 4, 2025

   166 yea, 0 nay (5 not voting, 9 absent)

   Uncontested House Resolutions: House Vote #444

• rural healthcare access
• internal medicine physicians
• legitimation and parental rights
• gaming and casino legalization
• sports betting