SB 117: Public Officers and Employees; a misdemeanor offense for violations regarding complaints by public employees; provide

Georgia law already lets public employees report fraud, waste, and abuse in government programs and protects them from retaliation for doing so (O.C.G.A. § 45-1-4). Currently, if an employee wins a retaliation lawsuit, a court 'may' award attorney's fees, court costs, and expenses, meaning it is optional. This bill changes that word to 'shall,' making the award mandatory whenever a public employee prevails in court. The bill also adds a brand-new penalty: any agent of a public employer who violates the law's ban on retaliating against whistleblowers, or on adopting policies that block employees from reporting wrongdoing, would be guilty of a misdemeanor. A small wording change also clarifies that the definition of 'public employee' covers employees of state-funded local and regional government entities. The changes would apply to complaints and retaliation covered by this Code section going forward.

• Changes the law so courts 'shall' (must) award attorney's fees, court costs, and expenses to a public employee who wins a retaliation lawsuit, instead of the current optional 'may.'
• Creates a new misdemeanor criminal offense for any agent of a public employer who retaliates against a whistleblowing employee or blocks employees from reporting wrongdoing.
• Clarifies the definition of 'public employee' to make clear it covers employees of state-funded local and regional government agencies.
• Repeals any other Georgia laws that conflict with these changes.

State and local government employees who report fraud, waste, or abuse, and the supervisors, agencies, and officials who receive or act on those complaints. It also affects public employers and their agents, who could now face criminal misdemeanor charges for retaliating against whistleblowers.

Public employees who blow the whistle on wrongdoing would have a stronger financial incentive to sue, since winning would automatically bring paid legal costs. Officials who retaliate against them would risk criminal charges, not just a civil lawsuit, raising the personal stakes for supervisors.

• Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 45-1-4, keeping the existing definitions of 'government agency,' 'public employee,' 'public employer,' 'retaliate,' and 'supervisor' with a minor clarifying edit to the public employee definition.
• Subsection (d) keeps existing bans on public employers retaliating against whistleblowing employees or adopting policies that prevent employees from reporting violations.
• Subsection (e) keeps the existing one-year (or three-year) statute of limitations and list of court remedies, including reinstatement and back pay, for retaliation victims.
• Subsection (f) is amended so a court 'shall' rather than 'may' award attorney's fees, court costs, and expenses to a prevailing employee.
• A new subsection (g) makes it a misdemeanor for any agent of a public employer to violate the retaliation and anti-blocking provisions in subsection (d).
• Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws.

1. 2026-01-12Senate Recommitted (Senate)
2. 2025-02-28Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
3. 2025-02-27Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (Senate)
4. 2025-02-10Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
5. 2025-02-06Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Rick Williams (R, SD-25)Primary sponsor
• Chuck Payne (R, SD-54)
• Lee Anderson (R, SD-24)
• Max Burns (R, SD-23)
• Brian Strickland (R, SD-42)
• Steve Gooch (R, SD-51)
• Mike Hodges (R, SD-3)

• whistleblower protections
• public employees
• government accountability
• state government ethics