SR 4: Senate Officials, Employees, and Committees; relative

This resolution is the Georgia Senate's internal operating rulebook for the two-year legislative term. It 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, chaplains, interns, and office personnel, with pay and duties set within available funding. It also sets specific pay for the Secretary of the Senate, the Majority and Minority Leaders, and Administration Floor Leaders, and it lays out how senators and leadership are treated as one-person committees entitled to expense, mileage, and travel allowances when doing official business between sessions. It caps how many paid days a member can claim for this kind of work, lets committees keep working between sessions with the same allowances, and specifies which funding source pays for each part. The resolution took effect immediately when the Senate adopted it.

• Authorizes the Senate Committee on Administrative Affairs to hire pages, aides, court reporters, consultants, and staff for policy, budget, and press offices, with pay set within available funds.
• Sets the Secretary of the Senate's salary at its prior level plus any percentage raise given to other legislative branch employees.
• Grants the Majority Leader and Minority Leader $2,400 per year in salary and each Administration Floor Leader $1,200 per year, on top of regular legislative pay.
• Designates individual senators as one-person committees so they can claim mileage, travel, and expense allowances for official business done between legislative sessions.
• Lets the Senate Committee on Administrative Affairs cap the number of paid days per year members can claim for this out-of-session work.
• Specifies that funding for these provisions comes from the Senate's own budget, the Secretary's office budget, or the President's office budget, depending on the part.

Senate officers including the President Pro Tempore, Majority Leader, and Minority Leader, individual state senators, the Secretary of the Senate and that office's staff, the President of the Senate's staff, and Senate employees such as pages, interns, chaplains, and administrative personnel.

The resolution determines how much Senate leaders and staff are paid, how senators are reimbursed for work done when the legislature is not in session, and how Senate committees keep functioning between sessions, directly shaping the Senate's staffing budget and operations for two years.

• Section 1-1 authorizes the Senate Committee on Administrative Affairs to hire postmaster, pages, aides, consultants, and staff for policy analysis, budget, and press offices.
• Section 1-1(b) lets the President of the Senate agree with the House to create and staff new joint offices of the General Assembly, funded from ancillary General Assembly funds.
• Section 2-2 sets the Secretary of the Senate's salary at the prior amount plus any legislative-branch-wide percentage raise from the General Appropriations Act.
• Section 4-3 sets annual salaries of $2,400 for the Majority and Minority Leaders and $1,200 for each Administration Floor Leader, on top of regular pay.
• Section 4-1 exempts the President Pro Tempore, Majority Leader, and Minority Leader from the annual cap on paid allowance days.
• Section 5-3 authorizes the Senate Committee on Administrative Affairs to cap the number of allowance-eligible days per year for other members.
• Section 6-1 designates which funding source (Senate operating funds, Secretary's office funds, or President's office funds) pays for each part of the resolution.
• Section 6-3 makes the resolution effective immediately upon Senate adoption.

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
• legislator pay
• state government administration