HB 1443: Public Service Commission; allow designee of a member of the General Assembly to intervene in certain cases

Under current Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 46-2-59), a member of the General Assembly can step into a proceeding before the Public Service Commission, the state body that regulates utilities like electricity, gas, and some transportation services, and intervene on behalf of constituents without paying a fee. That right belongs only to the legislator personally. This bill would change the law so that a legislator's designee, someone the legislator names to act in their place, could also exercise that right to intervene without a fee, with the same full rights and privileges as any other party formally admitted to the case. The bill also makes small wording updates elsewhere in the section, replacing references to "his" with "his or her." The change would take effect once enacted, since the bill contains no separate effective date and simply repeals conflicting laws.

• Amends O.C.G.A. § 46-2-59 to let a designee named by a member of the General Assembly intervene in Public Service Commission cases, not just the legislator personally.
• Preserves the existing fee-free intervention right and extends it so the designee can act with full rights and privileges of a party.
• Updates gender-neutral language throughout the section (changing "his" to "his or her") without altering the underlying substantive rules.
• Leaves unchanged the 30-day deadline for other parties to apply for leave to intervene and the standards the commission uses to evaluate such applications.

Members of the Georgia General Assembly and the people they might designate to act on their behalf, Georgia constituents whose interests are represented in Public Service Commission cases, the Public Service Commission itself, and other parties (such as utilities) involved in commission proceedings.

Legislators are often unavailable to personally attend Public Service Commission hearings on utility rates or services. Allowing a designee to intervene means a legislator's constituent interests could still be represented in these cases even when the lawmaker cannot appear, without that designee needing to meet the general interest-based intervention test.

• Section 1 amends O.C.G.A. § 46-2-59(e)(3) to add "or his or her designee" after "member of the General Assembly," allowing the designee to intervene without a fee on behalf of constituents.
• The amended provision gives the designee "the full rights and privileges of a designated party," the same standing as any formally admitted party.
• Other subsections, including the 30-day deadline for intervention applications and the criteria for granting leave to intervene, remain unchanged.
• Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws, a standard closing provision.

1. 2026-02-26House Second Readers (House)
2. 2026-02-25House First Readers (House)
3. 2026-02-24House Hopper (House)

• Don Parsons (R, HD-044)Primary sponsor
• Jordan Ridley (R, HD-022)
• Spencer Frye (D, HD-122)
• Charles Martin (R, HD-049)
• Mary Williams (D, HD-037)

• Public Service Commission
• utility regulation
• state legislature powers
• intervention rights