House Governmental Affairs Committee, March 18, 2026 Video: https://vimeo.com/1174873407 (a timestamp t plays at https://vimeo.com/1174873407#t=s) Page: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/2026-03-18/house-governmental-affairs This is a machine transcript of the General Assembly's video, made by a speech-recognition model. It is not an official record and can mishear words, names, and numbers. Speakers are not identified. The video is the record: every timestamp links to the moment it plays. [0:19:58] Well, good. [0:20:04] We're gonna s- continue to be at ease for just a minute. I've gotta get a couple more, uh, committee members here before we have a quorum. So we're working on that right now. [0:26:25] Okay, we're gonna go ahead and get started now. Um, and this is the House Governmental Affairs Committee. Appreciate everybody's patience. We had to c- this tough time of year and tough time of day, so we had to gather some members together to make sure we had a quorum. Uh, I'm gonna open us up in a word of prayer if y'all will join me. Bow your heads. Dear kind, heavenly Father, God, we thank you, Lord, for the blessings of living in this state, God. We ask your wisdom, your guidance, and your discernment as we look to, uh, conduct the business of the people of the state of Georgia. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. [0:26:55] Amen. [0:26:55] All right, we're gonna, first thing we're gonna do is, uh, we're gonna hear Senate Bill 284. And, uh, this is a committee substitute and a presenter substitute. So I will, uh, welcome Chairman Hilton and Chairman Meeks to the table to go over Senate Bill 284 for the committee. Y'all may proceed when you're ready, sir. [0:27:21] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm sure the committee will be thrilled to know this has nothing to do with ballots, ballot boxes, or elections. [0:27:29] Thank you. [0:27:30] Welcome change. [0:27:34] Still sort of subject. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, uh, I bring to you Senate Bill 284, which is, uh, I'm reading from LC474222S. Head nods. All right. Uh, Mr. Chairman a- and members of the committee, uh, the unfortunate reality is all too often nowadays fraud is on the rise. And so we're seeing a lot of our own constituents, uh, be the victims of it. Uh, having a long career in, in banking and finance, I was previously, uh, registered Series 7, 63, and 79, and so, and well-versed in, in all of this. [0:28:11] And, uh, our job was to look out and, and monitor for fraud, and, uh, it, it is happening, and all of our constituents are impacted by it. So Senate Bill 284 aims to address that by, uh, making sure that our constituents who are victims of fraud, uh, are recompensated, have their, uh, have those dollars returned to them as quick as possible. And so, uh, really, the crux of the bill, uh, you will find on lines 35 through 41, uh, which allows the securities division, uh, to get back dollar for dollar, uh, the fraud money that was lost. [0:28:47] Uh, currently, right now, they c- they're only or- able to order civil po- fines, which are capped at, uh, 10, 10 fines, 50,000 each, capped at 500,000, uh, for the fines. So, and a lot of times, that fraud amount can be a lot more than that. So, uh, Senate Bill 284 provides a remedy for victims of fraud, uh, by allowing us to get those dollars back directly to the victims quicker. Um, I will now... Senate Bill 284 is a combination of that bill, uh, and a bill by Chairman Meeks, uh, which passed through Education Committee with flying colors, and I will allow him to address that portion of the bill on Section 2. [0:29:31] I'll just simply highlight the last section of the bill, Section 5. Uh, th- this act shall become effective upon the governor's signature. The rationale, again, being there, we'd like for the governor to get it quick, sign it so victims can start getting their money back. Uh, and with that, I'll turn it over to Chairman Meeks to walk you through Section 2 of the bill. [0:29:51] Uh, thank you, Chairman, and, uh, chairman and members of the committee. So Section 2 of the bill, as it was mentioned, it was, uh, House Bill 669, which was passed out of the Education Committee earlier this session. Uh, the bill simply allows, uh, school systems to access, uh, roofing, roofing improvements on existing buildings using a supplier that is, uh, identified through the cooperative purchasing agreement or agency. Uh, this procurement method for, uh, for roofing improvements also makes schools eligible for capital outlay projects, uh, capital outlay reimbursements in the case of low-wealth schools, low-wealth capital grants. [0:30:27] So, uh, that's what that bill does. It was brought to us, uh, after, uh, Ware County down in South Georgia had an issue, uh, trying to do some roof improvements on a school. So, uh, members of the committee, that was Section 2 of the bill. [0:30:41] Okay, thank you. We've got a couple of lights flashing here. Uh, Representative Adesanya. [0:30:46] Th- th- thank you, Chairman. Um, I kinda, like, got lost. Uh, we, we started talking about the compensation from, like, fraud, correct? [0:30:54] Correct. [0:30:55] And that's to, um, all banks in Georgia? [0:30:59] No, so what happens is, so you have someone, a fraudster, who, uh, uh, gets a victim, right? And that victim, say they're out, uh, round number's $100,000, right? [0:31:10] Mm-hmm. [0:31:10] And so right now, uh, our securities division can lev- levy a civil p- fine on that person, uh, but they cannot get dollar for dollar back that money from, uh, from the fraudster. So this would allow them to issue an order to say, "Hey, you bad guy. You've taken $100,000 from this person. You now owe it back to them." Uh, and then if that person does not pay, then they can go after them with a court order and really, you know, start to bring a- additional action. [0:31:42] So this is, this is giving more teeth and tools to our secur- securities division to get valuable dollars back to victims of fraud. [0:31:52] Um, so the w- just a follow-up, um, Mr. Chairman. Um, so the way we have it now, when somebody gets frauded, uh, do they get the whole portion of that? Or how, who determines how they get paid? [0:32:05] Great question. So right now, if you are the victim of a fraud, you have to hire an attorney. You've gotta go through an expensive court process, uh, to hopefully someday get maybe a portion of those proceeds back. Uh, this allows, uh, our a- our state agency to issue a direct order, uh, for those dollars. [0:32:24] Thank you. [0:32:26] Okay. Representative Burnough. [0:32:29] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, does this just apply- [0:32:34] Hold on. Let's... [0:32:37] Try again. [0:32:39] Thank you. [0:32:40] Oh. Hmm. Maybe try two. Try, try number two. We couldn't get number one. [0:32:44] There you go. That one works. [0:32:46] Thank you. So does this just apply to individuals, or does it also apply to banks? [0:32:52] So, so this applies to anyone who is subject to the Georgia Uniform Securities Act. So anybody, business or individual, who violates that act or is found in violation, uh, this then is appli- applied to them, and an order is issued for them to repay the victim. [0:33:10] Okay. Thank you. [0:33:11] Yes, ma'am. [0:33:14] Okay. Uh, Chairman Powell. I'd like to be recognized for a motion. Okay. I have no other lights blinking. Let's see. Uh, let's see if we have anyone signed up to speak to the bill. We do not, and we- Wait, wait. Whoa. Okay. Did- I suggest what leave well enough alone. We, we have a, uh, we- I wave. You wave? [0:33:37] I wave. [0:33:38] Okay. Okay. Well, when you signed up, you signed up for 428. So we have a dyslexia bill we passed last year. So, uh, but thank you. I couldn't resist, Scott. Please, please forgive me. You can supply the medication. Okay. We have a motion do pass, and we have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. [0:33:59] Aye. [0:34:00] Any opposed? Motion carries. Passes. [0:34:02] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [0:34:03] Thank you. [0:34:03] Thank you. [0:34:04] All right. Now, we've got one other, uh- [0:34:11] Hilton. Hilton. Hilton, yes. [0:34:15] Hey, uh, Chairman Hilton, just a, just a, a thumbs up. You're gonna be the House sponsor of that bill, correct? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. One other bill on the agenda, it actually comes from my senator, my, uh, [0:34:30] my roommate when we're down here in the apartment. And, uh, he is tied up in a presentation on the Senate floor and asked if I would present his bill. It's a very, very simple bill. Barely over a page. So this is House, uh, excuse me, Senate Bill 593. The, uh, uh, primary sponsor of the bill is Senator Hatchett. And I'm just gonna read the language of the bill. This is in 36-71-14. [0:35:02] It adds this language. "Upon written request by any individual which includes a specific description of project scope, a municipality or county imposing development impact fees pursuant to this chapter shall disclose the total amount," excuse me, "total amount of the development impact fees that would be due to the municipality or county as to any parcel or parcels of real estate in the event of a transfer of ownership of such parcel or parcels." This is basically a transparency bill. [0:35:32] Uh, fairly straightforward. As I say, one sentence. Uh, do we have any questions? No. I'll move that. O- okay. We got a do pass. Second. Second. Okay. We do have, uh, well, we do have someone signed up to speak. She waved? Okay. All right. Uh, we have a motion and a second. Any comments, questions? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. [0:36:03] Aye. [0:36:03] Any opposed? [0:36:04] No. I mean, aye. Aye. [0:36:09] I said the other one. [0:36:10] Oh. Look, either way it passes. Thank you. We're not recording a, a voice vote, so. [0:36:16] All right. [0:36:16] All right. Good deal. Thank you. That's the- [0:36:18] I'm still ready to go. [0:36:19] That's the end of our agenda today. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.