House floor session, March 25, 2026 (legislative day 37, PM)

Transcript

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1. 0:17:44

   Members, we're going to, uh, come to order. I'll ask all members to come to the floor. We're gonna get started on some privileged resolutions. I'm gonna ask the clerk if he'll ring the bell.

2. 0:18:00

   Honoring the life and memory-

3. 0:18:01

   Wait a minute. No, no, I didn't ask you that, Mr. Clerk. You gotta listen to me. You never pay attention to me, Mr. Clerk. Even when I try to trip you up like I did then. Would you ring the bell, please?

4. 0:18:11

   Yes, sir.

5. 0:19:04

   Members will all come to the floor. Mr. Clerk, will you read to...

6. 0:19:12

   Will you read the caption to a group of privileged resolutions?

7. 0:19:20

   Uh-

8. 0:19:20

   Just a minute, just for a moment.

9. 0:19:21

   Pages.

10. 0:19:22

    Members, if you have a page today, we're gonna t- we will go ahead and take some page photos. So if, if you have a page today, I'll invite you to come up front now while we're doing some, while the clerk is reading these privileged resolutions. May I say the caption again, Mr. Clerk? I wouldn't want you to have to read the entire resolution. So Mr. Clerk, the gentleman's recognized.

11. 0:19:55

    Honoring the life and memory of Marcus Messiah Garvey. Honoring the life and memory of John Allen Dickerson Senior. Honoring the life and memory of Mike Stuckey. Honoring the life and memory of Dr. F. Hugh Kirby. Honoring the life and memory of Larry C. Warnock. Honoring the life and memory of Buck Chapman.

12. 0:20:28

    Honoring the life and memory of Shepherd Greene III.

13. 0:20:35

    Commending the East Laurens Lady Falcons basketball team for their victory in the GHSA Class A Division 1 Girls State Championship. Recognizing September 16th, 2026, as National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Day at the State Capitol. Recognizing March 31st, 2026, as MARROW Day at the State Capitol. Recognizing commending Lady Oliver. Recognizing September 2026.

14. 0:21:06

    Recognizing and commending Akbar Mohammed.

15. 0:21:14

    Recognizing and commending Representative Derrick Jackson. Recognizing and commending Representative Jasmine Clark. Recognizing and commending Representative Draper. Recognizing commending Representative Romman. Recognizing and commending Representative Teddy Reese.

16. 0:21:37

    Recognizing commending Representative Miller. Recognizing commending Representative Edna Jackson. Recognizing commending Representative Mack Jackson. Recognizing commending Representative Dewey McClain. Recognizing commending Representative Carl Gilliard. Recognizing commending Representative Park Cannon. Recognizing and commending the legal externs for the 2026 regular session of the General Assembly of Georgia. Commending Paulding County social workers during the National Social Workers Month.

17. 0:22:07

    Recognizing Impact Georgia Day and honoring distinguished Georgians for their contribution to the state and beyond.

18. 0:22:20

    Honoring the life and legacy of Sister Bessie Mae Harrison Manuel. Honoring the life and legacy of Mary Ann Harrison.

19. 0:22:33

    Commending GJ Plug for his influential contributions to Atlantic music culture. Recognizing and commending Anne Lane Coy. Recognizing and commending the honorable service of Dexter Sharper. Recognizing the importance of regulated trapping. Recognizing and commending New Edition for their outstanding contributions to music entertainment and for their cultural and industry impact.

20. 0:23:02

    Recognizing and commending First Lady Sarah Reynolds Copeland. Recognizing July 4, 2026 as Georgia Highland College Community Impact Day. Recognizing and commending Reverend Dr. Rufus Copeland on the occasion of his 40th pastoral anniversary. Congratulating and commending Atlanta Dermatology and Aesthetics. Recognizing and commending Rock Shaw Incorporated upon the celebration of its 30th anniversary. Recognizing and commending Dr. Stephanie Dean Kearse, Kearsey and the Georgia General Assembly special event interns from Georgia State University.

21. 0:23:43

    Recognizing and commending Chef Hank Reed. Recognizing Union County as the sorghum capital of Georgia. Commending Dr. Daniel A. Sims. Commending Dr. Delvecchio S. Finley. Recognizing and commending Teresa Labarum Mitchell. And recognizing and commending Buy Local Savannah for its enduring commitment to strengthening independent businesses and preserving the unique character and economic vitality of Savannah and Chatham County and for other purposes.

22. 0:24:15

    That completes the reading of the privileged resolutions.

23. 0:25:23

    That completes the reading of the privileged resolutions. Is there any objection to the adopting the privileged resolutions? Hearing none, the resolutions are adopted.

24. 0:32:47

    Members, we're ready to continue moving forward. We have, um, a couple of, we have a little bit of a rules calendar this afternoon we're gonna move forward with. But right now we're gonna take a further action. I'm going to recognize Chairman Green for a motion.

25. 0:33:09

    Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move that the House agree to the Senate substitute to House Resolution 1050.

26. 0:33:18

    Mr. Clerk will read the caption.

27. 0:33:21

    House Resolution 1050 by Representative Greene and the 154th and others authorizing conveyance of certain state-owned property in Clayton County.

28. 0:33:34

    The gentleman is recognized to explain his motion.

29. 0:33:38

    This is our annual, um, conveyances, and the Senate, uh, added one to what we had already, uh, passed here in the House, and that was for Floyd County, and that was for a lease for 30.5 acres being a portion of the Georgia, uh, Northwestern Technical College campus. And, um, we're doing that for $10 annually because it's going to be used for the public there.

30. 0:34:12

    And that's what it does, Mr. Speaker and members of the House.

31. 0:34:17

    The gentleman has no questions. Thank you for your explanation. On the gentleman's motion that the House agree to the Senate substitute to House Resolution 1050, all those in favor will vote yes, those opposed will vote no, and Mr. Clerk will unlock the machines.

32. 0:35:10

    Have all members voted? All members voted. If so, Mr. Clerk will lock the machines. On the gentleman's motion, the yays are 156 and nays are 0, and the House has agreed to the Senate substitute to House Resolution 1050.

33. 0:35:33

    Representative Gerald Greene is recognized for a motion.

34. 0:35:39

    Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and gentlemen of the House, I move that the House agree to the Senate substitute to House Resolution 1051.

35. 0:35:50

    Mr. Clerk will read the caption.

36. 0:35:56

    House Resolution 1051 by Representative Greene of the 154th and others authorizing the grant of non-exclusive easements for the construction, operation, and maintenance of facilities, utilities, roads, and ingress and egress in, on, over, and under, uh, various counties in the state of Georgia.

37. 0:36:17

    Chairman Greene will explain the Senate substitute. Thank you.

38. 0:36:23

    Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and gentlemen of the House, um, your committee, uh, will ask you to vote for the Senate substitute here, uh, adding Chatham County.

39. 0:36:37

    In this spot.

40. 0:36:38

    Adding Long County and Muscogee County to those particular areas there.

41. 0:36:44

    Yeah.

42. 0:36:44

    Uh, they didn't quite get in time for the part that we needed to send it over to the Senate, so the Senate added them over there. Uh, for Chatham County, it, uh, out at Wormsloe, uh, historic site. The one in Long County is, uh-

43. 0:37:06

    Up in the next county

44. 0:37:06

    ... part a grant to an easement in the Atlanta W- Atlantic Waste Services. And then Muscogee County is a grant, an easement to the Flint, uh, Electric Membership Corporation. And Mr. Speaker, that's all it does in that respect, and I ask you to, uh, vote for the House Resolution 1051. Mr. Speaker, if there's no questions, I yield the way.

45. 0:37:33

    Thank you for, thank you for the explanation. You have no questions. On the gentleman's motion, the House agree to the Senate substitute to House Resolution 1051. All those in favor will vote yes, those opposed will vote no, and Mr. Clerk will unlock the machine.

46. 0:39:23

    Have all members voted? All members voted. If so, Mr. Clerk will lock the machine. On the passage of the gentleman's motion, the yays are 163, the nays are 0, and the House has agreed to the Senate substitute to House Resolution 1051.

47. 0:43:06

    Members, we're going to get started on the rules calendar, believe it or not.

48. 0:43:16

    This goes along with the invite resolution we had this morning. Chairman Lumsden.

49. 0:43:29

    Members, I want you to give the gentleman in the well your attention. He's going to explain Senate Bill 433. So give him your attention, please, when that time comes. Mr. Clerk, will you read the caption to Senate Bill 443?

50. 0:43:45

    Senate Bill 443 by Senator Strickland of the 42nd and others be entitled an Act to amend Article 3, Chapter 2, Title 40 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to prestige license plates and special plates for certain persons and vehicles. This bill having referred to the Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, that committee recommends that this bill do pass.

51. 0:44:23

    Well, Mr. Chairman-

52. 0:44:25

    Only 'cause he was first in the box

53. 0:44:26

    ... I was looking at 443. I think we're gonna take up 433 is what you're going to explain to this body. So, um, I'm gonna recognize Chairman Lumsden, and he's going to speak to Senate Bill 433. Chairman Lumsden.

54. 0:44:44

    Mr. Speaker, members of the House, I bring to you Senate Bill 433. This is a bill that addresses some issues that affect our law enforcement and first responders and those that they may encounter who are on the autism spectrum. For parents and individuals with autism, uh, spectrum disorder, a, uh, regular traffic stop can quickly escalate into a sensitive situation. Many individuals with autism have sensory, uh, sensitivity or communication differences that might not translate well when interacting with law enforcement.

55. 0:45:18

    After a routine traffic stop turned into a severe behavioral episode for Layla Luna's son, Rio, she knew that something could be done to better prepare law enforcement for interacting with individuals like her son. In 2024, South Carolina passed Rio's Law and became the first state with an identifier license plate to alert law enforcement and first responders that someone in the vehicle is on the autism spectrum. And with your favorable vote today, Georgia will be the next.

56. 0:45:49

    Senate Bill 433, Rio's Law, will create a special license plate for persons with autism, uh, spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities and such persons' spouses, parents, or legal guardians in Georgia. This is a tool for law enforcement. It allows responders to approach a vehicle or situation with awareness before escalation into a sensory overload for an individual au- with autism occurs. The plate is optional.

57. 0:46:19

    You must have a diagnosis from a licensed practitioner to obtain the plate. Uh, you can add p- uh, parents and legal guardians, uh, can also get re- obtain the plate to ensure that the, those who are affected with the spectrum disorder is covered. And, uh, ad- additionally, it, uh, additionally, it will create a, um, post-certified training at the, uh, police, uh, Georgia Public Safety Training Center to, um, to alert, to make law enforcement aware that they are, uh, about to encounter someone with a s- a spectrum disorder.

58. 0:46:55

    So that's what the bill does. Uh, I would, uh, be glad to answer any questions, and I'd appreciate your favorable consideration.

59. 0:47:03

    Gentleman has a couple of questions. One of them is Representative Holland, Representative Betsy Holland to your right, to your right.

60. 0:47:10

    Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield?

61. 0:47:12

    I do.

62. 0:47:13

    Is it not true that autism and anxiety often go hand in hand, and having an anxiety response can make it even more difficult to follow instructions from law enforcement? And this license plate is going to be a gift for autistic people to make sure they're treated more fairly by police officers.

63. 0:47:27

    The lady knows of what she speaks.

64. 0:47:29

    Thank you for bringing the bill.

65. 0:47:32

    Gentleman yield for another Chair Lady Camp to your right as well over to the doors is recognized for a question.

66. 0:47:38

    Do you yield?

67. 0:47:40

    I do.

68. 0:47:41

    Thank you. Isn't it true that this type of training actually de-escalated a very heightened emotional situation for my nephew just last year as a state trooper in Ohio who had been trained in this specific line was able to de-escalate my nephew after he had a lot of challenges in a traffic stop?

69. 0:48:01

    I'm sure you know of what you speak.

70. 0:48:03

    Thank you.

71. 0:48:04

    Representative McDonald, Lauren McDonald to your right is recognized for a question. Does the gentleman yield?

72. 0:48:11

    I yield.

73. 0:48:12

    Isn't it true that Connor Tollerson, he supports this bill 100%?

74. 0:48:18

    You are correct.

75. 0:48:19

    Thank you. And to make it even more important, he's watching, so we'll see about that. The gentleman has no further questions.

76. 0:48:28

    Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield the will.

77. 0:48:31

    Gentleman's yielded the will. We do have a speaker. Representative Rhonda Taylor is recognized to come speak to the bill. Representative. She waives.

78. 0:48:42

    That concludes our presentations on Senate Bill 433. Is there any objection to the previous question being ordered? Hearing none, the previous question is ordered. Is there any objection to agreeing to the report of the committee, which was favorable to the passage of the bill? Hearing none, the report of the committee is agreed to. Shall this bill now pass? All those in favor of the passage of the bill will vote yes. All those opposed will vote no. And Mr. Clerk will unlock the machine.

79. 0:49:48

    Have all members voted? All members voted? If so, Mr. Clerk will lock the machine. On the passage of Senate Bill 433. The nays are 169, the nays are zero. This bill, having received the requisite constitutional majority, is therefore passed.

80. 0:50:21

    Congratulations to our champion. Connor, thank you for your work. Appreciate you being engaged.

81. 0:54:22

    Mr. Clerk, will you read the caption to Senate Bill 306, 306?

82. 0:54:28

    Senate Bill 306 by Senator Robertson, the 29th, being titled an act to amend Code Section 48-5-7.4 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to preferential assessment for bona fide conservation use property and bona fide residential transitional property. This bill having been referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, that committee recommends that this bill do pass by Rules Committee substitute.

83. 0:54:54

    Representative Chas Cannon is recognized to present Senate Bill 306.

84. 0:55:01

    Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have for the, uh, body today Senate Bill 306. Some quick background on the Rules Substitute. It's on your desk for 306. The LC number is 443555S. The under- the, basically this is a combination of three bills. It includes the original underlying language from Senate Bill 306, which a- addresses the CUVA statute. It also includes original language from my bill, HB 547, which I doubt you remember, but that pa- bill passed the House, uh, this body here on March 6th.

85. 0:55:33

    Also addresses the CUVA statute. And then finally it includes some clarifying language from House Bill, uh, 1199 concerning the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, which the House passed last week on March 18th. I'll go through just some quick thing, discussion of the bill. Uh, lines 24, 26, my original language, no change. Uh, lines 37 through 41, that is original language from the underlying bill, which addresses how to receive notice of expiring CUVA covenants. Uh, so this bill adds, uh, two new notices.

86. 0:56:06

    One's gonna be through certified mail or through email, which those two options do not exist now to the taxpayer. The only option now is through basically, um, normal mail. Um, then we've got, uh, let's see here, uh, lines 47 through 67. Again, underlying bill language. It allows a taxpayer in certain circumstances to get a refund, uh, if they can prove by a sworn affidavit that they did not receive an expiring covenant notice from the county assessor's office. Again, a win for the taxpayer.

87. 0:56:37

    It's more notice to the taxpayer about expiring, uh, covenants. Lines 68 through 86, original language from my bill, 547, no changes. Lines 105 to 111, same thing, original language to my bill. No changes there. Lines 113 through 118, this is the clarifying language from House Bill 1199 regarding the low-income tax credit. So here's the bottom line with that language. It appears the wording we passed, uh, last week needs to be cleaned up just a little bit because it could put existing projects and some that are already under construction in jeopardy of shutting down.

88. 0:57:11

    So that's the feedback we're getting from industry. Uh, so the language included in lines 116 through 118, uh, was approved by the Rules Committee and would accomplish the will of the House as it relates to the intent of the language. So that's the intent. Uh, we wanna limit the program. We want, wanna make sure we do it right, and we think this language does that. And with that, Mr. Speaker, I'll yield for any questions.

89. 0:57:39

    You have no questions. You did a excellent-

90. 0:57:41

    I yield the well, Mr. Speaker

91. 0:57:42

    ... excellent job.

92. 0:57:42

    Thank you very much. Ask for your favorable consideration.

93. 0:57:44

    Excellent job. The gentleman has yielded the well. Thank you for the presentation. Is there any objection to the previous question being ordered? Hearing none, the previous question is ordered. Is there any objection to withdrawing the committee's substitute? Hearing none, the committee's substitute is withdrawn. Is there any objection to adopting the subst- substitute offered by the Committee on Rules? Hearing none, the Rules Committee substitute is adopted. Is there any objection to agreeing to the report of the committee, which was favorable to the passage of the bill? Hearing none, the report of the committee is agreed to.

94. 0:58:15

    Shall this bill now pass? All in favor of the passage of the bill will vote yes. Those opposed will vote no. And Mr. Clerk will unlock the machine.

95. 0:58:46

    Have all members voted?

96. 0:58:59

    All members voted? If so, Mr. Clerk will lock the machine. On the passage of House, excuse me, Senate Bill 306. 306, the yays are 158, the nays are none. This bill having received the requisite constitutional majority is therefore passed. All right, members, we're gonna take a little break from the Rules calendar.

97. 0:59:27

    I'm gonna invite all members to come to the floor.

98. 0:59:33

    We have another one of those bittersweet moments that are part of this House and our family. I'm gonna ask all members to come to the floor. If you're on the floor,

99. 0:59:48

    you need to cease conversation

100. 0:59:53

     and give the lady who's going to be in the well... And thank you all for y'all's patience, by the way. We appreciate y'all. Thank you. And thank you for being here.

101. 1:00:07

     Doorkeepers, if you'll manage those doors, if there's anyone who needs to come in, let them in. If there are any conversations close to your doors, will you invite them to go to the ante room?

102. 1:00:44

     Members, I'm gonna ask you to, um, give the lady that's approaching the well your full attention. I really don't want to acknowledge her, but I guess it's my duty.

103. 1:01:01

     Chair Lady Lynn Smith is recognized to speak to her family and the House.

104. 1:01:14

     Chair Lady Smith.

105. 1:01:19

     Well, good afternoon, everyone, and thank you, Mr. Speaker and colleagues, for this opportunity to say my goodbyes. When I first came up here in 1997, I got lots of advice, and I'll pass along a couple of them to you. Remember the toes you step on today are connected to the derriere you kiss tomorrow. Welcome, welcome to the House of Representatives, and I was ready. I, I can handle that.

106. 1:01:50

     I had an opponent in the primary, and I barely beat him and, and, but I won the recount. And then in the general, I beat the speaker's candidate. So I didn't know what I was coming into. And, um, but the moment I was in here and I saw all the interactions, the joshing, the anger, whatever drama, I thought, "This is a lot like my family, just bigger." So I would love to put the photo up if I can.

107. 1:02:23

     Um, uh, that's some of my family. And it's my mother's 75th. My husband and I are on the back. Just all the way down. It's three times that size now. And thank heavens there's always someone who makes order take place in the House, like Mr. Speaker. And, and you know what? No matter the struggles, whatever, we were intended by our Constitution to be the large member of the House and to be the most local voices for the people we serve.

108. 1:02:57

     And for me, looking at stepping away was, was not an easy choice, but, um, it's time. And I'll say some a little bit later of why. But before I make my remarks, I wanna point out to you that when you're up here this long, you have all kinds of family. So I have my, my family, and my daughter Martha, and if she'll stand. Don't s- don't tear up, Melmie.

109. 1:03:27

     And my, my sister Kathy Radigan. And then, um, my, my, I guess capital family, um, Alicia Johnson, Pam Lewis, Pat Alexander, and who, who are you? Nicole Chappelle. I finally named her my mom and aunt, 'cause she looks after me. And then also, when I expand this family that I have come to view everybody up here, I've chaired House Natural Resources Committee since 2005.

110. 1:04:02

     Our issues are real complicated. Very hard to discern truth from fiction or anything like that. And this person, Shauna Jones Frierson, came to me, and we were talking of a concept. University of Georgia is a land-grant university, and part of their role is to be available t- in situations such as this. And I, I was running into someone telling me they can't vote on that bill, it was a good bill, because my Aunt Betty's cousin three streets over said, "Don't vote on it." And I thought, "Well, they don't have any information." If you don't have the information you need to refute a statement like that, you're gonna get what you get.

111. 1:04:45

     But Shauna and I, Laura Meadows, University of Georgia, and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, we sat down to try and figure out how to make this available to our, our c- our members. And, um, it worked, y'all. We started, I think it's, this is our 11th year. And, um, we, we go, we, our goal in the Natural Resources Committee is to go around the state. We are the Natural Resource Committee.

112. 1:05:17

     So we have benefited so much from seeing all parts of our state, and we understand better the legislation that we have to pass when we do it. So I want to thank the Dobbs Foundation, who helps to fund the Carl Vinson Institute of Government's Georgia House Policy Academy. Because we can go there, we can debate, we can say, "This isn't gonna work." But, but what we're doing is learning. And t- uh, when we get so confused on so many of our issues up here, I go, "You know, knowledge is what you want.

113. 1:05:52

     That's what you need." So I'm just very grateful for that. I also wanna recognize my committee members and everyone. It, this is my capital family. I mentioned my, my friends here, but, um, the House Natural Resource Committee, if y'all wanna stand, you're my family. So, or just wave your hand. Or just don't. I mean I wanna thank you. Because when you've been together for so long, you know how to work, you know what the problems are gonna be.

114. 1:06:24

     And that, to me, helps to make the House of Representative extremely strong for the people we represent. Um, I also wanna just do some shout-outs to, uh, my subcommittee chairs, Vance Smith and John Corbett. They had to carry a lot of tough bills this year, and great hearings, and the solutions were made. And then also, I was trying to th- oh, let me mention my committee analysts, Anna Smith, David Hartman, Dan O'Connor, uh, the interns, Owen Hockmans and Victor Avila.

115. 1:06:58

     That's my family, y'all, up here. That's, that's the core. And I think wherever we w- are and whatever office we're in, that's a subset of this family. And so I like it when we can figure out and find ways to get together to debate reasonably. And if you can't solve the problem that year, you can do it the next year or whenever. But to give you an idea of, um, I guess how long I've been up here, let's see.

116. 1:07:29

     The Speakers of the House were Tom Murphy, Terry Coleman, Glenn Richardson, Mark Burkhalter, David Ralston, Jan Jones, and Jon Burns. So that's gonna give you an idea of how many years. The governors were Zell Miller, Roy Barnes, Sonny Perdue, Nathan Deal, and Brian Kemp. Y'all, that's a long time. But I've enjoyed every minute of it. I've enjoyed the ac- the interaction. Um, I'm also a school teacher and I kinda wanna say, "Y'all, you need to act better here and there when things go on." But, but we are so lucky that we have this as a place where we can function and help the people we represent.

117. 1:08:13

     So I'll move on now to, um, some of my prepared comments. Today, I stand before you with a full heart and deep gratitude as I conclude 30 years of service to the Georgia General Assembly. When I first took this oath of office three decades ago, I could not have imagined the journey ahead, the challenges we would face, the progress we would achieve, and the relationships that would shape both my life and my career.

118. 1:08:44

     Public service is never the work of one individual. Never. It's the collective effort of dedicated colleagues, committed staff who are engaged on behalf of the public. I have been so fortunate to be surrounded by all three. Together, the Georgia House of Representatives and the Natural Resource Committee, we have navigated uncertain times, had areas where we can agree and disagree, we have found common ground, and I, I think everyone on this, our Natural Resources Committee, we would step forward to help each other out, and that's what leads to easy conversations on a hard subject.

119. 1:09:28

     And now, um, just to show you what it was like m- during my first few years of service, my friend, former friend who encouraged me to run, um, told me that, um, "You won't do anything. You can still run your printing company. You're in the minority party." And so I said, "Okay." And she was right. I got home by noon and I started doing all my work. But that changed, that changed in, um, 2005.

120. 1:09:59

     The first bill that was passed by the Georgia Republican Party in the majority was something called, um, now I'm gonna get it right. Uh, it was the, it was the bill, the Land Conservation Bill. We were, as a state, we were growing too fast, and we weren't keeping up and, and always the best stewards of per- certain areas of our state. So that, that was an honor for me to be able to do that. But several good measures followed this bill. Anti-littering legislation.

121. 1:10:30

     Why is that a problem? You've got a new client coming to your neighborhood, they see trash on the road. Are they gonna stop? No. So that was another thing to tackle. That was under Governor Perdue, by the way. That was his initiative. So going on, as we move into different areas in history and decades, when I became this chair in 2005, our state was in serious trouble.

122. 1:11:01

     We were heading maybe towards a route. We had unpleasant, horrible relationships with Georgia and Florida. Um, economic development was a problem. Use of water was a problem. Correct use of water. We, we were not together. Our farmers were ha- were using old techniques, and we were being sued in the US Supreme Court. So it limited all the things that we could do, and we had to begin it again to figure out what we can do.

123. 1:11:35

     So the time during the Deal administration was more about water legislation. Um, how do we deal with long-term water wars that we were fighting? How do we solve it? Well, the actions this General Assembly body took with the passage of the State Water Management Planning Act played a critical role in the US Supreme Court's decision to reject Florida's lawsuit. We could breathe just a little bit. And w- when you hear something like that, it, you know, it's, um, not solid in your mind, but this harmed so many people.

124. 1:12:14

     We had s- areas, one was Hart County in my area. We could not get water to them. It was that bad. If you're in Atlanta, and you're in the center part of Atlanta, there's an old quarry in there, real deep quarry. Well, y'all, City of Atlanta created a, a, a reserve, and I, who's claustrophobic, thought I was just gonna go look at it, and they put me on a little tiny train with this thing, and we went in, and it was dark, and, you know, we just rode all the way through.

125. 1:12:47

     But the point is, given the talents of people, we can solve these problems. This, this passage of this bill has freed us up as, as a country, as a state. But, um, the other thing to understand is ... Well, let me put it to you this way. For our committee and for the well-intended people who are trying to explain to us why we should vote the way we do, they're given certain amount of information, and it's, maybe if you verified it, it would be sort of different.

126. 1:13:22

     But, um, I wanna show you something with a photo, uh, that explains to you what something looks like when it's brought to me. Let's see if we can get it up there. All right, you have to reverse it one, flip it one more time if you can. No? All right. That's what that is. Let's go back to the first photo. What do you think that is, now that you've seen the second one? Yeah, it's a wine bottle with light on it, right?

127. 1:13:55

     No. Look behind it. Dig deep. There's crossbars up there. Look at that shadow. Look, that bottle is a shadow too, but look at the reflection coming through that bottle. What is going on? Well, now show them the second one. All right. Those of you who use AI, I wanna tell you there's something called Mother Nature that can do it better than you can. Because you look at that Listerine bottle, you look at the shadow of what looks like a wine bottle, and then you begin to see what's happening.

128. 1:14:29

     The sun was coming through the western window, it refracted the light to create the color, and it created the shadows. Now, I'm giving you that example because I think for a lot of us, especially newer members, how do we figure out how to vote? How do we get the right answers? "Oh, no, so-and-so's gonna call me. They're gonna be mad." And so as I bring this talk to a close, I, I think it's so important to take time to really learn and understand the issues.

129. 1:15:01

     If you've got a colleague or a friend who can't, so be it. We win by the majority vote. So I wanna end this by saying, to the people I have had the honor to serve, thank you. To my colleagues, past and present, thank you for your partnerships and your commitment to the institution. As I step away from this role, I do so with confidence in the future. That's y'all. Sorry. For the Georgia House of Representative, we, we are the grounded folks.

130. 1:15:35

     We ain't running for higher office. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You look well.

131. 1:15:42

     I can see why.

132. 1:15:55

     Oh.

133. 1:16:26

     Oh. Chair Lady Smith, why don't you bring your friends? They were not crying earlier. But now they are. Before you come up, you know, I think you, um, I think it's very evident how your colleagues, what your colleagues feel about you, what they think about you. Your longevity in this body speaks volumes to me on your perseverance and how you were able to work with people. You've, uh, been through a transition here.

134. 1:16:56

     In that transition, you've managed to maintain the respect of members that served with you when you came here, and there are some here. And those new members have gained, um, quite an understanding of how you work, and what you work on, what's important to you, and because it's important to them. And probably, um, also I would say you're very much loved by the members of this House, and by the public you've dealt with, and by the members of the, people in this building, and the people you've dealt with in different agencies. Um, but through all that, you've done something also very, very important to 11 million Georgians.

135. 1:17:31

     You have protected

136. 1:17:35

     and you have promoted our environment in this state, our natural environment. I wanna thank you personally as a Georgian for standing strong, and doing the right thing, and making sure the future of our state will be just as sound, and just as enjoyable, and just as healthy as our past has been. You've, you've met the challenges. Thank you. We love you, and we appreciate you, and we wish you the very, very best.

137. 1:18:06

     Thank you.

138. 1:18:25

     Come on, ladies. She's still giving orders. That won't change.

139. 1:20:53

     She's done pretty good for a girl from Jessup, Georgia. Pretty awesome. Thank you, Chair Lady Smith. Thank you, members. Chair Lady Smith is going to, uh, take her entourage out to the South Annie Room. If you would like to walk by and have a photo, you'll be very much welcome to do that. We're going to take just a short break here and let things kinda settle down, then we'll move on with the rules calendar.

140. 1:33:59

     Members of the House, we'll come back to order. We're gonna move on to the rules calendar. But I'm gonna ask our friends,

141. 1:34:10

     Consul General, if you will stay positioned right there just for a moment. You won't go any further out.

142. 1:34:29

     I'm gonna...

143. 1:34:57

     Members, we're going to have an morning order in the afternoon. Our guest has not arrived this morning, so

144. 1:35:09

     I'm, I'm going to invite Representative Ray Martinez to come to the well and some friends.

145. 1:35:16

     Hope you can.

146. 1:35:17

     Members will give him your attention, please.

147. 1:35:21

     Josh Bonner.

148. 1:35:26

     And friends.

149. 1:35:30

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Spe- Mr. Speaker and colleagues, today we celebrate Georgia-Canada Day at the Capitol.

150. 1:35:39

     Woo!

151. 1:35:40

     That's right. Georgia, Canada is our number one export and has been over for 20 years. Georgia exported 7.4 billion in goods to Canada, with plastic articles being the number one export. Georgia imported 6.5 billions in goods from Canada, with the number one export being engines and turbines. There are over 300 Canadian-owned businesses in Georgia employing 33,000 Georgians.

152. 1:36:10

     Most notable Canadian countries is CAE, an aerial space company on Gulfstream's campus in Savannah. West Fraser, a British Columbia-based lumber producer with, uh, two mills in Georgia. And, and Canfor in lumber and producer with three facilities in Georgia, including a southern headquarters in Moultrie, Georgia. In 2024, trade between Georgia and Canada am- Was at 13.9 billion, making Georgia the number one state in the Southeast with trade with Canada.

153. 1:36:51

     With us here today is Canada, is Ca- is Canada Counsel General Michelle Kwan and her staff. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now lead the well. Thank you.

154. 1:37:04

     Members, help, um, the gentleman and myself and you all, um, welcome our visitors and our partners from Canada. The counsel general's up, up here, so you, if you will rise and let's give them a good Southern welcome to the great state of Georgia from the great country of Canada.

155. 1:37:54

     Members, we will get back on the rules calendar. Mr. Clerk, will you read the caption to Senate Resolution 622? 622.

156. 1:38:04

     Senate Resolution 622 by Senator Kirkpatrick of the 32nd and others. A resolution creating the Joint Study Committee on evaluating escalating costs in Georgia's foster care system. This resolution having been assigned to the Committee on Juvenile Justice, that committee recommends this resolution be adopted.

157. 1:38:27

     Representative Beth Camp is recognized to present Senate Resolution 622. Chairlady's recognized.

158. 1:38:34

     Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. This is a joint study committee between the Senate and the House.

159. 1:38:45

     And this is to facilitate a study committee to try to determine why the escalating cost of children in foster care has happened. Since 2022, the cost have escalated 159%. Um, it costs more to house these kids, we know that, but we need to drill down and find out exactly how we can handle this more efficiently and make sure that the 10,000 children that are in foster care in our state get the services they need. Mr. Speaker, I'm open for any questions.

160. 1:39:16

     Lady has a question. Representative Buckner to your left is recognized for a question.

161. 1:39:20

     Does the gentlelady yield?

162. 1:39:21

     I do.

163. 1:39:22

     Uh, will this House study take into effect, take into account that we ha- have had, um, lower per diem rates for our caregivers than the rest of the country for, at a very high rate. Much, much lower. And we have, um, a, um, a lot of the numbers that we're using that are, that are, we're basing our number of kids in foster care and the amount of money being spent is based on population numbers that were when we were four million people in the state of Georgia, and now we're 11.

164. 1:39:56

     So, um, the fact that there's an increased number of kids in the system and inflation and that we're, we're already at a very low rate, I hope will all be considered in this study committee.

165. 1:40:06

     Thank you, Representative Buckner. They, it most definitely will be. Um, the number of providers that we have available, where they're available, um, transportation factors in when we don't have providers available to children in DFCS custody. All those will be taken into account. Uh, I had a committee, a joint committee hearing with Chairman Dempsey back in December, and those were some of the issues that were brought forth, which is part of the reason why we are moving forward with a full study committee, so we can uncover all the issues that factor in.

166. 1:40:42

     Will the lady yield for one more question?

167. 1:40:44

     Yes.

168. 1:40:45

     Um, will it also be included in this study committee that when the foster children are moved around that we have a new system where the information about those children arrives before the child as they're moved across the state? Many times when children are moved from, say, Savannah to Columbus, their school and medical records don't get there until several weeks after they have arrived.

169. 1:41:07

     Well, most assuredly, um, Senator Kilpatrick, Kirkpatrick also has a bill that I'm hopeful we will be hearing that moves forward with ensuring those children are within, enrolled within three days, as stipulated in federal law in the ESSA.

170. 1:41:26

     Thank you.

171. 1:41:26

     Thank you.

172. 1:41:28

     Lady has no further questions.

173. 1:41:29

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I ask for favorable consideration of the members, and I yield the well.

174. 1:41:34

     Lady has yielded the well. Is there any objection to the previous question being ordered? Hearing none, the previous question is ordered. Is there any objection to a- agreeing to the rep- report of the committee, which was favorable to the passage of the bill, of the, excuse me, to the adoption of the resolution? Hearing none, the report of the committee is agreed to. Shall this resolution now be adopted? All in favor of the adoption of the resolution will vote yes. All those opposed will vote no. And Mr. Clerk will unlock the machine.

175. 1:42:38

     Have all members voted?

176. 1:42:44

     All members voted? If so,

177. 1:42:52

     Mr. Clerk will lock the machine. Right now. Yes, sir. On the adoption- Like, like, you- ... of Senate Resolution 622, the yeas are 165, the nays are zero. The re- and this resolution, having received a requisite constitutional majority, is therefore adopted.

178. 1:43:19

     Members ...

179. 1:43:28

     Members, we do have a supplemental local calendar. Let's go ahead and take it up and get it out of the way, too. So now we have third reading passage of this one uncontested local bill. If there's no objection, obviously we will vote on the local calendar as a whole with a recorded vote, since there's only one. That makes sense to me. Hearing none, it is so ordered. Mr. Clerk, will you read the local calendar? House Bill 1567 by substitute by Representative LaHood of the 175th City Equipment.

180. 1:44:00

     House Bill 1567 provides for a referendum on consolidating the city equipment with Brooks County. Is there any objection to the previous question being ordered on the local calendar? Hearing none, the previous question is ordered. Is there any objection to agreeing to the report of the committee, which was favorable to the passage of the bill? Hearing none, the report of the committee is agreed to. Shall this bill now pass? All those in favor of the passage of the bill on the local calendar will vote yes.

181. 1:44:32

     All those opposed will vote no. And Mr. Clerk will unlock the machines.

182. 1:45:01

     All members voted? All members voted. If so,

183. 1:45:10

     all members voted. If so, Mr. Clerk will lock the machine. On the passage of the supplemental local calendar, yeas are 96 and nays are 68. This bill, having received the requisite constitu- constitutional majority, is therefore passed.

184. 1:45:28

     Mr. Clerk, will you read the caption to Senate Bill ...

185. 1:47:55

     Mr. Clerk, will you read the caption to Senate Bill 547? 547. Senate Bill 547 by Senator Strickland of the 42nd, to be entitled an Act to Amend Code Section 16-6-13 in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to penalties for violating Code Section 16-6-9 through 16-6-12 so as to modify the penalties for the offenses of pimping and pandering. This bill having been referred to the Committee on Juvenile Justice ... I'm sorry, just j- judiciary non-civil.

186. 1:48:28

     That committee recommends that this bill do pass.

187. 1:48:42

     Representative Tyler Paul Smith is recognized to present SB 547. Give the gentleman the will of your attention, please. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and gentlemen of this most august and learned body, I bring to you Senate Bill 547. This'll be one of the more simple bills you see here today. Uh, traditionally, current law, uh, treats the offenses of pimping and pandering as misdemeanors. Simply, this bill would make both pimping and pandering felonies punishable by imprisonment for one to 10 years, regardless of whether that was a first offense.

188. 1:49:23

     Whereas currently, we make a first offense a misdemeanor, now it is a felony. Ladies and gentlemen of this body, I would tell you that with the big world events that are coming to our state here within the year, that the likelihood of these offenses being committed are substantially increased. Now's the time for this body to stand and make sure that we deliver a message that our state will not tolerate this sort of behavior of those preying on the most innocent among us.

189. 1:49:59

     With that, Mr. Speaker, I'll yield for questions if there are any. The gentleman has a couple of questions, r- couple of questions. Representative Daisa Jones, to your left, is recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield? I do. Thank you so much for this bill. I do have a question. Uh, given that sex trafficking remains a major concern-

190. 1:50:22

     An issue for the state of Georgia impacting vulnerable children and families across communities. Isn't it true that we could send a clear and immediate message of zero tolerance for those who exploit human life for profit by being strict from the onset rather than escalating over time?

191. 1:50:45

     I think this bill accomplishes that very goal that you had, had stated.

192. 1:50:51

     Representative Jasmine Clark to your left. She's recognized for a question.

193. 1:50:56

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield?

194. 1:50:57

     Of course.

195. 1:50:58

     Um, so I know we use the phrase pimping and pandering often in here. Can you actually define pandering?

196. 1:51:06

     Yes. If you will look at that, it, it's akin to, uh, sexual solicitation in a way, uh, but not quite to that purpose. Uh, pandering is very similar to that, and so it- it's not quite to the solicitation. I know that the gentle lady's very learned, and so if you'll look within the code section there, uh, pandering will actually be found in OCGA 16-6-12.

197. 1:51:37

     12? Okay. Um, does the gentleman further yield?

198. 1:51:39

     One more.

199. 1:51:40

     Um, does this also pertain to activities that happen online? Like for example, um, the way people sometimes use social media to solicit or quote, "pander", or o- other media outside of, I guess, what a lot of people traditionally think of when they think of pimping and, and pandering.

200. 1:52:02

     I think you'd have to look at the end result. Uh, that, you know, several hypotheticals in mind I could see where it would le- lead to the end result. I'd have to lead you to the case law to see, uh, whether we've had s- cases such as that. I, I, I'm sure that, um, a pimping charge that has been levied before would have started online. I, I would not be surprised by that. Uh, I know that pandering cases have in the past.

201. 1:52:28

     All right. Thank you.

202. 1:52:29

     With that, Mr. Speaker, if there's no other questions-

203. 1:52:32

     Yes, you have no further questions.

204. 1:52:33

     All right. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield well and ask this body's favorable consideration.

205. 1:52:37

     Gentleman's yielded the well. Is there any objection to the previous question being ordered? Hearing none, the previous question is ordered. Is there any objection to agreeing to the report of the committee, which was favorable to the passage of the bill? Hearing none, the report of the committee is agreed to. Shall this bill now pass? All in favor of the passage of the bill will vote yes. All those opposed will vote no, and Mr. Clerk will unlock the machine.

206. 1:53:29

     Have all members voted?

207. 1:53:38

     It's frozen.

208. 1:54:00

     Literally frozen.

209. 1:54:01

     I thought you meant your machine was frozen.

210. 1:54:08

     Have all members voted? If so, Mr. Clerk will lock the machine. On the passage of Senate Bill 547, the yays are 166, the nays are two. This bill having received the requisite constitutional majority is therefore passed. Mr. Clerk, will you read the cap- caption to Senate Bill 430, 430.

211. 1:54:34

     Senate Bill 430 by Senator Robertson. The 29th being entitled an act to amend Article III, Chapter 13 in Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to excise tax on rooms, lodgings, and accommodations. This bill having referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, that committee recommends that this bill do pass by committee substitute.

212. 1:55:01

     Chairman Ron Stephens is recognized to present Senate Bill 430.

213. 1:55:07

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and gentlemen of the House, House Bill 430, excuse me, Senate Bill 430, um, was, is a committee substitute that was introduced to make it clear that military museums will be eligible for hotel/motel tax revenue. It was not clear before. We substituted our language in the Senate bill, um, 11, House Bill 1179 to protect destination marketing organizations from waste, fraud, and abuse. Hotel/motel taxes are collected by local governments.

214. 1:55:39

     The local government takes half, then the local governments contract with the DMO marketing organization to promote tourism for the purpose of putting heads in beds. DMOs, destination marketing organizations, are private nonprofits sometimes affiliated with your local chambers of commerce dedicated for one thing, and that's to, to advertise tourism to get folks there. What this bill does with the Hotel/Motel Tax Performance Review Board, which sits under DCA, allows the board to review complaints about changes to DMOs.

215. 1:56:17

     Mr. Speaker, that's what the bill does. I wanna just take a moment to, uh, thank former Representative Richard Smith. Uh, this will help his museum and the minority leaders in Columbus, Georgia, Warner Robins. And, uh, also down in my area, the Mighty Eighth Air Force in Museum in, um, Pooler, Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I'll take any questions if there are any. To your left, Representative Lupton, you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield? Yes, ma'am. Do you have any numbers on how much tax funding this could reroute?

216. 1:56:54

     Um, it, it's not about rerouting. It's, for example, if, uh, and none of our larger, uh, DMOs cities have a problem. They contract for folks that go out and actually do the right thing with marketing for, to get folks there, and they do this on a long-term basis. Usually, complaints come in from typically smaller cities that might have an explosion of hotels, where there may be some potential for abuse, and this goes in front of the committee under DCA that actually hears these.

217. 1:57:25

     Right. Thank you very much. Yes, ma'am. To your right, Representative Westbrook is recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield? Yes, ma'am. I think I saw in this version there's also some language that I believe is from a bill you had about, um, flexibility that local governments would have to change their DMO. Did that make it in this version? It is. And again, it, it, but it l- shortens the time before a complaint can be heard. And again, our larger cities, yours and mine- There's no issues at all.

218. 1:57:57

     The, the issue comes sometimes with smaller cities, uh, where there might be an opportunity to divert some of this money away from the other half, if you will, the city's half, uh, to market what it's supposed to be for, for tourism, that might be diverted into other areas. Uh, will the gentleman further yield? Sure. Does it preserve some flexibility for, uh, cities, either large or small, to change their DMO? It does. Thank you.

219. 1:58:26

     Gentleman has one more question from a military museum, I think, or museum at least. Representative Al Williams is recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the gentleman yield? Absolutely. I agree with the bill. It does a marvelous job, and certainly we have a museum at the Fort Stewart Museum. But also, is it not true that even though we're a smaller city in Hinesville, Liberty County, that we obey the rules to the dot and make sure that there are no abuses?

220. 1:58:59

     And as a member of that board, I've never taken a payoff. And the gentleman so states. Mr. Speaker, I'll ask for your favorable consideration, and I'll yield the well. That question gives me great confidence in mankind, I can tell you that much. The gentleman has yielded the well. Is there any objection to the previous question being ordered? Hearing none, the previous question is ordered. Is there any objection to adopting the committee's substitute? Hearing none, the committee's substitute is adopted.

221. 1:59:32

     Is there any objection to agreeing to the report of the committee, which was favorable to the passage of the bill? Hearing none, the report of the committee is agreed to. Shall this bill now pass? All in favor of the passage of the bill will vote yes. All those opposed will vote no. And Mr. Clerk will unlock the machine.

222. 2:00:13

     Have all members voted?

223. 2:00:17

     All members voted? If so, Mr. Clerk will lock the machine. On the passage of Senate Bill 430, the yays are 169, the nays are zero. This bill, having received the requisite constitutional majority, is therefore passed. Mr. Clerk, will you read the caption to Senate Bill 503? 503. Senate Bill 503 by Senator Harbin of the 16th and others, to be titled an Act to Amend Chapter 7 and Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to kinds of insurance, limits of risks, and reinsurance so as to exempt rental home marketplace guarantees from the definition of property insurance.

224. 2:00:58

     This bill, having been referred to the Committee on Insurance, that committee recommends that this bill do pass by committee substitute.

225. 2:01:08

     Representative Matt Reeves is recognized to present Senate Bill 503. The gentleman is recognized. Thank you, Speaker Burns. Senate Bill 503, as amended in the House Insurance Committee last week, is a consumer protection measure to codify best practices used by short-term rentals like Airbnb or Vrbo to protect homeowners who choose to rent out their properties to guests. It's a National Conference on Insurance Legislators model bill. It had bipartisan support in the Senate with 42 votes, and it codifies the common practice that's already going on in Georgia with the national model s- uh, statute on point, and it puts guardrails and certainty into our insurance code to continue protecting homeowners who choose to rent out their homes.

226. 2:01:53

     That is the second and third page of the bill. The remainder of the bill presents, uh, our insurance affordability legislation that 170 of us voted on and sent to the Senate, Senate. Uh, about 95% of that has been put in House Bill 1344 in the Senate. Uh, we are, uh, sending this back over with that language just for insurance purposes to get the legislation done, and we continue to work on the remaining 5% with the Senate through Senate Bill 462 here in the House.

227. 2:02:23

     So this is good insurance affordability legislation. I respectfully request your favorable consideration. Glad to yield the well if there are no questions, Mr. Speaker. We have a question from Rep- Representative Park Cannon right behind those flowers. Lady is recognized.

228. 2:02:39

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Do you yield? To the retiring representative, I do. Thank you. It's just a see you later. Um, is this a consolidation of four other bills?

229. 2:02:51

     It is, uh, 1344, 1274, 1262, and 1263.

230. 2:02:57

     Okay. So-

231. 2:02:58

     As well as 1042. You reminded me there was a judicial security, uh, legislation to protect our judges that was put in that also, and that is over in the Senate in 1344. But until we get it back, we thought it was prudent to send it to them with those included.

232. 2:03:13

     Thank you. Do you further yield?

233. 2:03:14

     Yes.

234. 2:03:15

     So let's stick to House Bill 1344. With House Bill 1344 and the added focus on faster claims and stronger oversight, how does this bill actually help homeowners recover after damage?

235. 2:03:31

     Um, that is a great question. That is what our insurance affordability legislation did. We're gonna save Georgians money and also make sure that our claims are handled more fairly, including claims on Airbnb or Vrbo.

236. 2:03:43

     Do you further yield for one more?

237. 2:03:44

     Yes, I do.

238. 2:03:45

     And how does this impact mental health parity focus?

239. 2:03:49

     This does include mental health fine increases, surprise medical billing fine increases, and general fine authority in addition to other fines. Thank you. I yield the well.

240. 2:03:59

     The gentleman has no further questions. I think he's yielding the well.

241. 2:04:02

     Thank you.

242. 2:04:04

     Is there any objection to the previous question being ordered? Hearing none, the previous question is ordered. Is there any objection to adopting the committee substitute? Hearing none, the committee substitute is adopted. Is there any objection to agreeing to the report of the committee which was favorable to the passage of the bill? Hearing none, the report of the committee is agreed to. Shall this bill now pass? All in favor of the passage of the bill will vote yes. All those opposed will vote no, and Mr. Clerk will unlock the machine.

243. 2:04:53

     Have all members voted?

244. 2:04:59

     Yes.

245. 2:04:59

     All members voted?

246. 2:05:06

     If so, Mr. Clerk will lock the machine. On the passage of Senate Bill 503, the yays are 165, the nays are two. This bill, having received the requisite constitutional majority, is therefore passed.

247. 2:05:39

     Members, we're gonna take a further action right here, and I'm gonna recognize Representative Richardson for a motion. The gentleman's recognized for mo- for a motion. Representative Gary Richardson.

248. 2:05:51

     Mr. Speaker, I make a m- I make a move that we agree to Senate substitute to HB 439.

249. 2:05:59

     The gentleman moves that the House agree to the Senate substitute to House Bill 439. Mr. Clerk will read the caption.

250. 2:06:06

     House Bill 49, um, 439, to be entitled an Act to Amend Code Section 48-8-50 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to compensation of dealers, reporting and paying tax, and reimbursement deduction.

251. 2:06:22

     Representative Richardson is recognized to explain the Senate substitute to House Bill 439.

252. 2:06:31

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker and colleagues. I come to you with HB 439 LC 474254S. This bill authorized the establishment of a local homeowner's incentive adjustment grant fund by cities and counties after approval by local voter referendum. This tool has long been available to the state. This bill is created to provide local communities the ability to voluntary rebate homestead property using collected taxes that are determined be, to be more than their budget requires.

253. 2:07:06

     The local government would spread the funds between homesteads with an equal credit applied to each taxability, not to exceed the tax owed. I'll be glad to ask any, answer any questions.

254. 2:07:20

     Representative Whip Park, to your left, right in front of you, is recognized for a question.

255. 2:07:25

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield?

256. 2:07:26

     Yes, I do.

257. 2:07:27

     Uh, is it not true that on line 56 this, uh, bill states that it is enacted pursuant to Article 7 of the Constitution with respect to the establishment of a mechanism for tax exemptions?

258. 2:07:42

     Uh, according to lege council, we feel confident that this is, uh, has the ability to move forward. Yes, sir.

259. 2:07:50

     Yes, sir. A- and just to clarify, it, this should be able to move forward with, uh, a two-thirds vote. Is that your understanding?

260. 2:07:57

     Uh, no, sir. That was not my understanding.

261. 2:08:00

     Uh, do you know which legislative council provided you that opinion and whether or not they could provide a written opinion?

262. 2:08:06

     Uh, number, uh, uh, m- uh, s- Stuart Morelli. I don't have his number in front of me. I'm sorry.

263. 2:08:14

     Thank you, sir.

264. 2:08:15

     Yes, sir.

265. 2:08:18

     Gentleman, you up for another question?

266. 2:08:19

     Yes, sir.

267. 2:08:20

     Uh, Representative Wilkerson, to your left, in the back.

268. 2:08:24

     Uh, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield?

269. 2:08:26

     Yes, I do.

270. 2:08:27

     Uh, to follow up on the whip's question, I guess the concern is that back in 2000 when the homeowner tax relief grant was passed, I thought that was specifically for this body to give homeowner tax relief, which we've done twice since 2009, so we haven't done it, you know, the other- 14 years or so, that we can give that relief. Is it not true that there is some concern about using that at the local level because there are very specific parameters that were done at that time to make sure it was constitutional?

271. 2:08:56

     Yes, sir. It, it was back in the early 2000s when, uh, government, uh, Governor Barnes was here, and it was for the state. But again, uh, according to Leg Council, we feel confident that, uh, we have the ability to do this.

272. 2:09:11

     Does the gentleman yield for one more question?

273. 2:09:12

     Yes, I do.

274. 2:09:14

     So just to make sure I understand, what this would do is it would allow the same taxpayers that came out for 581 that asked for relief to go back to the polls, and the county would have to allocate some money of some sort from some... So basically, they could tax apartments or get rid of homeless programs or something like that to use the funds?

275. 2:09:34

     Well, well-

276. 2:09:34

     'Cause where are these funds coming from?

277. 2:09:35

     Well, the, these funds would, would come from a growing community that is growing their tax base with industry coming in or, uh, other type developments. So, uh, it would be excess over the approved budget.

278. 2:09:50

     Thank you.

279. 2:09:50

     Yes, sir.

280. 2:09:51

     Gentleman, do you have one more question? Representative Newton to your right.

281. 2:09:55

     Yes, sir.

282. 2:09:55

     To your extreme right is recognized for a question.

283. 2:09:57

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield?

284. 2:09:59

     Yes, sir.

285. 2:09:59

     Uh, doesn't it say on line 60, in particular, since we're discussing this and how it's different from some other things, it, it specifically says, and I'll read, "Any county or munici- municipality that wishes to establish this local homeowner assistance grant." This is a completely voluntary program. No county's required to, to do it. Isn't that correct?

286. 2:10:19

     No, no county is required. It's, uh, completely voluntary with a voter referendum.

287. 2:10:24

     And the county has to decide whether that voter referendum even occurs, right?

288. 2:10:28

     Yes, sir.

289. 2:10:29

     All right. Thank you very much for this attention to-

290. 2:10:30

     Well, I thank the gentleman where this bill may have traveled, I didn't look at that part, but, um, Chairman Blackmon from Ways and Means knows a little bit about these sub- this subject matter. I'll recognize him for a question.

291. 2:10:43

     Does the gentleman yield?

292. 2:10:44

     Yes, sir.

293. 2:10:45

     Is it true, uh, Representative Richardson, that, uh, this would allow counties, on a very limited basis, to actually roll back homeowner property tax in the event that they have economic development that pertains to that particular district?

294. 2:10:59

     Yes, sir.

295. 2:11:00

     And in, in many instances, that may, in effect, uh, benefit homeowners across the state.

296. 2:11:07

     Absolutely. Yes, sir.

297. 2:11:08

     And it, again, this is a very scaled back version that is, is only mirrors what the state is capable of doing at this current time, and that we've had a number of subject matter experts weigh in and that this would be something that could be utilized should this measure pass.

298. 2:11:22

     Yes, sir. That is the intent.

299. 2:11:24

     All right. Thank you for bringing the measure.

300. 2:11:25

     Thank you, sir. Mr. Speaker, I yield the well.

301. 2:11:33

     Gentleman had one more question, but he's yielded the well.

302. 2:11:39

     On the gentleman's motion that the House agree to the Senate substitute to House Bill 439. All those in favor will vote yes, those opposed will vote no, and Mr. Clerk will unlock the machines.

303. 2:12:18

     Have all members voted? All members voted. If so, Mr. Clerk will lock the machines.

304. 2:12:33

     On the gentleman's motion, the yays are 99, the nays are 64, and the House has agreed to the Senate substitute to House Bill 439.

305. 2:12:54

     Mr. Clerk, were you ready to caption the Senate Bill 540? 5-4-0.

306. 2:13:00

     Senate Bill 540 by Senator Anna Stavarney of the 31st and others to be entitled an Act to Amend Chapter 5 of Title 39 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to online internet safety. So it requires certain disclosures related to conversational AI services. This bill having referred to the Committee on Technology, Infrastructure, and Innovation, that committee recommends that this bill do pass by Rules Committee substitute.

307. 2:13:28

     Chairman Todd Jones is recognized to present Senate Bill 540. The gentleman's recognized.

308. 2:13:35

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Colleagues, just as a reminder, this is on your desk. It's LC640123S. I appreciate the bipartisan effort in order to basically perfect this bill. For many of you who not know, we have had AI chatbots to a significant amount of maturity over the last year to two years. In addition, we expect AI chips to be able to commence true reasoning within the next six to twelve months. So it is imperative that we start putting some type of guardrails around how the chatbots are going to interact, not just with adults, but also with minors.

309. 2:14:10

     I'd like to, if it's okay, take you quickly through this bill because of the importance of it. First and foremost, they're designed to simulate, uh, pardon me, an AI companion chatbot is designed to simulate a s- and sustain human and human-like relationships, and you would see that. Um, they are used in personally retaining information on prior interactions, asking unprompted and unsolicited emotional-based questions, and sustaining an ongoing di- an ongoing dialogue. So effectively, the idea is to create a relationship between a human being and an AI chatbot.

310. 2:14:42

     What an AI chatbot is not, and I think this is imperative, it is not Basically a chatbot that's used for business internal purposes. It is not one that's used strictly for customer service purposes. It's not one that is a narrowly defined educational tool. So effectively, we wanted to make sure that we were including those that we believe that adults and minors could be subject to creating a true, or at least feeling like they were c- creating a true human type relation. On the adult side, we insist that the chatbot basically disclose from the very beginning that it is a chatbot, and then every three hours making sure that that disclosure occurs again.

311. 2:15:20

     With minors, they get the disclosure at the beginning and then every hour instead of every three hours. In terms of if the chatbot company effectively determines that it is a minor and this, and the bill goes through how they will determine that, these are some of the things that they cannot do. And you'll see that lines 91 through 99, but I'll give you just a couple of them. Producing visual material of sexual explicit conduct, generating statements that suggest that the user engage in sexual conduct, simulating romantic and sexual encounters.

312. 2:15:53

     So at the end of the day, one of the things that we wanna make sure that we do is that the operator is taking, uh, reasonable measures to prevent the AI companion chatbot from prompting a minor to return to the companion for emotional support, prompting the minor for excessive praise designed to deepen the emotional attachment, and variable or unpredictable awards intending to increase engagement, effectively putting things out there to increase them in terms of coming back. The operator w- is responsible for maintaining protocols, especially regarding mental health, and we basically ask them on mental health to be able to send out things like what 988 is and where they can possibly get that support.

313. 2:16:30

     We also ask that they provide a summary and a report on their website in terms of what are some of the mental health issues that they're finding, then the number of issues that they are finding. Finally, we talk about what the parents can do in terms of managing the screen time, and then definitely making sure that we have what is necessary in terms of the minor's age verification and then the retention of that data. And I wanna thank the committee members for taking some time on this in terms of the timing on that, and you'll see that on lines 148 through 150.

314. 2:17:01

     Finally, from an enforcement mechanism, the attorney general is empowered for this. And then in addition to that, the attorney general also has the opportunity on a first time violation to provide a cure period because one of the things we wanted to avoid was a good actor in the chatbot space working well for 24 months, 36 months. Suddenly there's one violation, giving the attorney general the ability to give that one time cure period for 30 days. Last but not least, many of you have heard that the White House has put out framework on what they believe the AI framework should be for the entire country.

315. 2:17:33

     I will tell you I am in favor of something like that because we shouldn't have a patchwork of 50 different rules. But that stated, we can't expect necessarily that Congress will move as ex- as, uh, expeditiously as we would like them to. So we put that the effective date would be July 1 of 2027. This gives Washington, if passed, about a year and three months to get it right. If not, we'll come behind that and this bill would become effective and become a statute in July 1 of 2027. Mr. Speaker, that is the bill and I'll stand for any questions.

316. 2:18:02

     Representative Romman up the center aisle is recognized for a question.

317. 2:18:06

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield?

318. 2:18:08

     Yes.

319. 2:18:08

     Um, is it not true that these chatbots have now been connected to multiple deaths because they have actually helped people complete suicide around the country?

320. 2:18:17

     Yes, it has been rep- uh, pardon me. Yes, rep- representative, it has been reported that these chatbots have had at least some level of contribution to that and you will see inside of the bill how we hope that we are putting strong guidelines and guardrails around prohibiting that here in the state of Georgia.

321. 2:18:33

     Rep- representative Sanchez to your right is recognized for a question.

322. 2:18:38

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield?

323. 2:18:39

     Yes, sir.

324. 2:18:40

     Thank you for this legislation. I think it's really important that we do this. I g- my question is, um, I know that this talks about companion chatbots. I know there was some discussion, um, earlier about all AI systems. Is there a reason we narrowed it to companion chatbots only in this bill or?

325. 2:18:54

     Yeah, Representative, thank you for the question. For us, what we wanted to be able to do was to provide to industry, provide to parents and to minors. We want to be able to provide them a very thin but indus- uh, pardon me, chatbot focused, I'll say, legislation to address effectively the question that I just got from the prior rep- representative. But thank you for your question.

326. 2:19:14

     Representative Jasmine, Representative Jasmine Clark to your left is recognized for a question.

327. 2:19:19

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield?

328. 2:19:21

     Yes, ma'am.

329. 2:19:21

     Um, to follow up on the, um, question that was just asked, would this apply to things like ChatGPT that where you can actually have a conversation or if you're on Twitter, Grok?

330. 2:19:40

     So Representative, again, what we wanna be able to do is look at, uh, lines 16 through 18. Um, if you believe that ChatGPT creates an environment that is designed to sustain human and human-like relationships, then the answer to your question is yes.

331. 2:19:55

     Um, does the gentleman further yield?

332. 2:19:56

     Yes.

333. 2:19:57

     So I guess my question is not necessarily what I believe, but would the, the operators of ChatGPT believe that this bill pertains to them or again, some of these other AI engines that do form these connections but they may not market themselves that way?

334. 2:20:17

     Yeah, I can't speak for private industry nor shall I from this well. Uh, at the end of the day I wanna let them make their own decision. They will be able to read this bill and make their own determinations if they're gonna take the proper safeguards.

335. 2:20:28

     Thank you.

336. 2:20:29

     Okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield the well.

337. 2:20:32

     Gentleman has yielded the well. Is any ob- any objection to the previous question being ordered? Hearing none, the previous question is ordered. Is there any objection to withdrawing the committee substitute? Hearing none, the committee substitute is, is withdrawn. Is there any objection to adopting the substitute offered by the Committee on Rules?

338. 2:20:54

     Hearing none, the Rules Committee substitute is adopted. Is there any objection to agreeing to the report of the committee which was favorable to the passage of the bill? Hearing none, the report of the committee is agreed to. Shall this bill now pass? All in favor of the passage of the bill will vote yes. All those opposed will vote no. And Mr. Clerk will unlock the machine.

339. 2:21:18

     Have all members voted? If so, Mr. Clerk will lock the machine. On the passage of Senate Bill

340. 2:21:36

     540, the yays are 166 and nays are zero.

341. 2:22:15

     This bill having received the requisite constitutional majority is therefore passed.

342. 2:22:33

     Mr. Clerk, will you read the caption of Senate Bill 594? 594.

343. 2:22:40

     Senate Bill 594 by Senator Beard and the 30th to be entitled an Act to Amend Part IV of Article VI of Chapter 9 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to internet and email fraud so as to establish a criminal offense of digital identity fraud. This bill I refer to the Committee on Technology, Infrastructure, and Innovation. That committee recommends that this bill do pass by Rules Committee substitute.

344. 2:23:33

     Representative Brad Thomas. Chairman Thomas is recognized to present Senate Bill 594.

345. 2:23:41

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker, members of the House. Artificial intelligence is evaning at, advancing at a pace that our laws just haven't kept up with. SB 594 takes a measured, targeted approach to closing some of the most critical gaps. It addresses election deepfakes with appropriate First Amendment safeguards. It applies to, uh, only to paid operatives in political ca- campaign arena. Uh, you may remember this language. Uh, it has passed this chamber twice now as, uh, HB 986, and last session as SB 9. Uh, it requires transparency in cam- campaign advertising, and it enhances penalties when criminals weaponize AI tools.

346. 2:24:18

     Uh, this bill also creates a new offense of digital identity fraud. It, if someone uses your name, your image, your likeness on social media, uh, to, uh, to commit it, to pro- I'm sorry, to impersonate you without your consent with the intent to deceive, cause harm, or commit fraud, that's now a felony. This isn't hypothetical. Georgians are having their identity stolen and weaponized online right now, and statutes have not kept pace. This provision will give this law enforcement and the victims the tools that they need.

347. 2:24:48

     But I also wanna focus on what I believe is the most urgent addition to this bill, and that's the prohibition on AI-generated sexual explicit materials. Uh, this language has passed this chamber also two times over the years. Today, under existing Georgia law, our ability to prosecute the, these materials, uh, depends on the depiction of a real child. Artificial intelli- intelligence has changed that equation. Uh, these tools can now generate real obscene images of children, images indistinguishable from the ph- uh, photographs of actual victims without a single child being involved.

348. 2:25:25

     Th- this is a gap in our law that we can't afford to leave open. Uh, the use of actual images, uh, the use of actual images of our children to create these images with the intent to lure disturbed individuals to the dark web that actually do feature images of real children. Uh, it makes knowing distribution, solicitation, or pro- uh, possession with the intent to distribute AI-generated CSAM materials a felony carrying one to fif- to 15 years. It requires a mandatory reporting to, uh, in NCMEC and the GBI, and it exempts law enforcement so they can investigate and prosecute these cases without legal ambiguity.

349. 2:26:02

     SB 594 closes that gap. Uh, with that, Mr. Speaker, I'll take questions. The gentleman has several questions. Representative Berry, to your left, is recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield? I do. I have a question about the time limit on election material. It's 90 days, but if someone makes a mugshot of me in 91 days, why the time limit? Why are we allowing material before 90 days and not after 90, after the 90 days?

350. 2:26:35

     I appreciate that question. It's come up pretty, uh, pretty much every time I've presented it in the well. Um, it has to do with the fact that we have to make sure that we are very explicit on tying this to a campaign, uh, and to make sure that we don't, um, infringe upon anybody's First Amendment rights.

351. 2:26:52

     Will the gentleman further yield?

352. 2:26:53

     Yeah, sure.

353. 2:26:54

     So within that 90 days, is there, if a candidate is found to be found guilty of that, is there a way to get... Is there a penalty for getting them off the ballot or will they remain on the ballot for people to vote for them?

354. 2:27:04

     Uh, so it, it, it, the, the process will, goes, it first goes to the elections board who looks at that, and then at that point it would go to the, the, um, the attorney general's office or one of the attorney, um, local attorney generals. So thank you.

355. 2:27:20

     Thank you.

356. 2:27:21

     Representative Gissler to your right is recognized for a question.

357. 2:27:27

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield?

358. 2:27:29

     I do.

359. 2:27:30

     Um, so I was looking at the original version of this bill, which I think is in section 32 of the substitute. Is that correct?

360. 2:27:38

     Uh, uh, just tell me the line number you want me to look at and I'll, I'll look it up.

361. 2:27:41

     Uh, so, s- well, they're different line numbers. The original bill... And I'll, yeah, I'll get to my question. The original bill had provisions in it, um, for, you know, the, the part about impersonating someone's identity. Um, it had provisions that allow or required operators to remove that content if they're served notice by law enforcement, and then it allowed a provision for basically someone to sue if that isn't done. But those seem to be missing from the current version, and I was wondering if you could explain that.

362. 2:28:14

     Well, like I said, like, without you providing me a reference of, in the lines, I've... It's, it's a 12-page bill, so it would help me out a little bit.

363. 2:28:22

     Well, yeah, sure. Uh, the parts I'm asking about are lines 43 through 57 in the original bill.

364. 2:28:27

     Okay.

365. 2:28:27

     They're not in this sub.

366. 2:28:36

     I'll tell you, out, out of respect for time, is there any chance, since you are my s- one of my seatmates, we could just sit down and find this?

367. 2:28:41

     Uh, sure. It was intended to be a, a friendly question anyway, but sure.

368. 2:28:44

     Okay. Thank you.

369. 2:28:45

     Thank you.

370. 2:28:46

     Representative Okoye to your left is recognized for a question.

371. 2:28:53

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield?

372. 2:28:56

     Yeah. Of course.

373. 2:28:57

     Uh, if I hear you correctly, uh, any infringement will have to go to the elections, um, uh-

374. 2:29:08

     You said the election board.

375. 2:29:08

     You said the election board, right?

376. 2:29:10

     That's correct.

377. 2:29:11

     Okay.

378. 2:29:11

     They will, they'll conduct a, a investigation and send a re- a referral to, uh, attorney general or the, uh, uh, venue, whatever, whoever has venue.

379. 2:29:21

     So if that board is partisan, that might present a problem.

380. 2:29:28

     Well-

381. 2:29:28

     But thank you, though

382. 2:29:29

     ... I, I, uh, that, I guess that that's more of a statement, but, uh, my answer to that is actually, I think the concern is, is, uh, my, I guess my general belief has always been the best thing to do is always decentralize decision-making when you can. And in this case, instead of having an attorney general that can, you know, decide this, it, it, we have an investigative process that's in place that's fair and transparent for everyone, and I, I think that was the, the intent of, of putting that in. And by the way, just so you know, this bill went through committee, the tech committee.

383. 2:30:02

     It's passed out unanimously every time, and that, that's always had bipartisan support.

384. 2:30:09

     Representative Rice to your left is recognized for a question.

385. 2:30:13

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentl- gentleman yield?

386. 2:30:16

     I do.

387. 2:30:16

     Is it not true that this bill ensures AI-generated explicit images of minors is treated as a serious criminal offense?

388. 2:30:25

     It, it's true. It does do that, and it should be treated that way. Thank you.

389. 2:30:31

     Representative Moore to your left is recognized for a question.

390. 2:30:35

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield?

391. 2:30:37

     I do.

392. 2:30:38

     Can you tell me, this, this would be a felony with a 15-year sentence. It's almost a mandatory minimum. Um, why would it be so egregious in sentencing for an AI image?

393. 2:30:54

     Uh, you'd have to tell me which, which part you're talking about specifically. Are child, talking about the child sexual explicit material or are we talking about the election deepfake?

394. 2:31:02

     Well, that would be covered under another law, not AI-generated of a person who would, in this chamber, who would be running for an elected office w- to whom the, uh, you know, the elections board would govern. Uh, what, what we're saying is that the government, is that the... I'm not the government. We are the government. What we're saying here is that the elections office would govern over this, and they would, w- be the ones to make the decision that would turn this into a felony?

395. 2:31:34

     Well, actually, first offense is actually a misdemeanor, just so you know. It's first, first offense misdemeanor, second offense felony.

396. 2:31:41

     So let me just ask this question.

397. 2:31:44

     Okay.

398. 2:31:44

     Is the election board gonna gov over, govern over a sexually explicit piece-

399. 2:31:50

     No

400. 2:31:50

     ... of material?

401. 2:31:52

     No, ma'am. Th- this is c- different sections of the bill. So that particular bill that you're talking to, a- about is the election deepfake portion of this bill, and in that case it would go to the elections board because it's an election process. If someone was found, a- assuming they went through the whole process, a first offense is a misdemeanor, a second offense is a felony. That's for the elections board piece of this.

402. 2:32:18

     E- even in a sexual crime?

403. 2:32:20

     No, the, the, those are complete- prosecuted completely different. They, I realize they're all in the same bill, but they're all in the same subject arena-

404. 2:32:27

     Well, see, that's misconstrued-

405. 2:32:28

     ... so they do different things

406. 2:32:29

     ... here, and I'm having a hard time understanding.

407. 2:32:32

     Okay.

408. 2:32:33

     Are we talking about elections? Are we talking about deepfake on an elected official or someone running for elections? Are we talking about 15-year mandatory minimums? Are we talking about ruining someone's life? Which one? Is this all in the same bill?

409. 2:32:51

     I, I would say if y-

410. 2:32:51

     Is it not-

411. 2:32:52

     ... if, if you make AI child sexually explicit material, 'cause there are little ears in the room, um, I, I-

412. 2:32:57

     Does the gentleman yield for one more question from me?

413. 2:33:00

     Uh, sure

414. 2:33:02

     I'm trying to understand this because it doesn't make much sense to me. Lady, you have a question? Even if I did a da-- even if I did a deep fake, why would we let the elections board take over a sexual case? That's what I'm trying to explain to you. You're, you're c- you're, you're commingling two things that are actually different subjects within the same bill, and it, it's not uncommon for sometimes to have more than one thing placed into one bill together. So, so I think the only thing I could do to answer the lady's question is to reassure you that the elections board has nothing to do with sexually explicit material- Okay ...

415. 2:33:38

     and it actually has reporting requirements. It actually has reporting requirements that, uh, address that particular issue, and I can find it for you real quick if you'd like me to. Yes, I would. That's fine. Thank you. Representative, um, Santos to your right is recognized for a question. And then you have a couple more, and that's it. Does the gentleman yield? Yes, ma'am, I do. This bill covers both election-related AI deception and serials-- serious criminal protections for minors.

416. 2:34:11

     Why were these distinct policy areas not separated to allow each to be fully debated on its own merit? No, that's a great question. Thank you. They actually have been individually debated on their own merit. That's what I-- kind of why I brought that up earlier. Um, the el- deep fake election bill has been debated on this floor twice. The sexual-- the child sexual explicit material bill has been debated on this floor twice, and both times it's passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. So thank you. And then both of-- uh, by the way, yeah, the, the common topic matter here is the fact that they b- all deal with artificial intelligence.

417. 2:34:46

     So, uh, thank, thank you for your question.

418. 2:34:50

     Representative Jones to your right, to your far right is recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield? Oh, yes, I do. Just for clarity, for elections deep fake, isn't it true that that person would have to answer initially to the elections board, and for child exploitation, that bad actor would have to answer to the DA? Uh, yeah, that is correct, and it also mentions in lines two thirty-one through two thirty-three specifically the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for reporting and National Center for Mi-Missing and Exploited Children.

419. 2:35:23

     So that's specifically laid out in this bill. It is clearly defined. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, sir. Representative Lisa Campbell to your left is recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield? I do. Thank you. Um, I just want to ask a, a point of clarity. In section two dash four, specific to the campaign advertising, um, the definition of AI-generated media, uh, describes that it would be a depiction of a real individual speech or conduct that did not occur in reality- Correct ...

420. 2:36:01

     and appears to be reasonable. This could apply to an individual who is a candidate or to an opponent or to just any elected official running for office. Is that correct? I'm sorry. Re-restate that one more time. The definition of AI-generated me-media just defines it as imagery that is created through the use of AI that depicts a real individual speech or conduct that did not occur in reality and appears to be a reasonable-- appears to be real, um, authentic to a reasonable observer.

421. 2:36:42

     And in this definition, this would apply, a little bit further down in article five, to anyone. It could be your own content as a candidate or an elected official, your opponent, or any other person running for office. Is that correct? Uh, I think there's a touch of a non-sequitur in there. Uh, and the o-only reason-- you're, you're pulling in a definition. This is the definition of AI-generated media. Correct. But the application that you're talking about is actually listed, uh, as, uh, a person, means an employee, staff member, or otherly similarly paid, affiliated individual of a political party, uh, political body candidate, candidate committee, blah, and it goes on.

422. 2:37:24

     And those are on lines thirty-seven through thirty-nine. But the actual law that, that they would be breaking is, is defined, uh, further in twenty-one five, uh, where it says, um, that notwithstanding prohibitions, any person may use AI-generated content in any campaign advertisement, so as long as the campaign advertisement, it discloses that AI was used to make this. So- So just in practical terms- If- ... anyone in this body or any other, uh, government body in the state can use AI for their own to demonstrate things they personally didn't say or their opponent didn't say, and that's legal as long as it is, uh, disclosed.

423. 2:38:08

     That, that's correct. A-and- Okay ... one of the things that we did do is just tighten it up a little bit. It just needs to say this was cr-- AI-generated content. That's it. That, and that-- there's no intent to deceive if you have a, a flag on it that says this is AI-generated content. I think that makes it pretty clear to the, to our constituents, and I think transparency in campaigns is something we can all fight for. So thank you for the question. I agree. Thank you.

424. 2:38:32

     Gentleman further yield? Uh, uh, Mr. Speaker, I think I've answered plenty of questions. With that, I'm gonna yield the well. Gentleman yields the well. We do have a speaker on the bill. Uh, I'm gonna recognize Chairman Tyler Paul Smith for some comments in favor of Senate Bill five ninety-four. Gentleman's recognized. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, I'll be brief. Uh, I wanna thank, uh, Chairman Thomas. He has been a tireless advocate on trying to be on the forefront of this, and, uh, thankfully, before it's too late, we've been able to

425. 2:39:10

     Get this legislation before each and every one of you. There seems to be a lot of consternation this session about court challenges. And I'm going to submit to each and every one of you, if we let that worry overcome us, we would never pass a single change to our state code. Part of the reason that Senator Byrd and I were both involved in this legislation is because we've had a case that has come up in our actual districts.

426. 2:39:49

     And what I will submit to you is this: this is a bill that is best understood as a targeted criminal ban on social media impersonation of Georgia residents. If you've been paying attention to anything across the country, I- I'll particularly guide you to testimony before the United States Congress. A gentleman testified there that he had received a AI-generated phone call that sounded exactly like his son, and the fact pattern was basically leading to them trying to get money out of him.

427. 2:40:36

     We talk a lot about protecting our elders and those that are the most vulnerable against us. You look at who will be preyed upon if we do not reign this in, you're looking at the elders being hit first, those that we all get phone calls from, "How do I get off of this solicitation list? People keep calling me. I've told them to take me off." And they'll call you and I. My grandparents, while they were still alive, they'd call and ask me what the legitimacy of this phone call was.

428. 2:41:11

     Think about that. If you get a phone call with your child's voice on the other line

429. 2:41:21

     that someone in the most devious and disheartened manner has decided to generate with AI, or heaven forbid, you get a video as AI progresses that shows a very, very realistic depiction, chaos will ensue. I will submit to you that, yes, I'm sure someone will challenge this. I have no doubt in my mind.

430. 2:41:52

     But ladies and gentlemen, this being such a fire-tested piece of legislative drafting that I believe Chairman Thomas has been working on for well over three sessions now, it is time we protect the citizens of this state from this ever-growing and evolving machine that if we don't put guardrails up on, we will woe the day that we failed to act.

431. 2:42:23

     With that, Mr. Speaker, I hope that brings some clarity to this great House, and I ask that every member join me in favorable consideration of this bill.

432. 2:42:34

     I'm gonna give the next speaker some extraordinary consideration here and let her speak in opposition to the bill. Representative Jasmine Clark is recognized to speak.

433. 2:42:45

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I do appreciate the consideration. I rise today to explain why I cannot vote for this legislation, and I wanna start off by saying I actually agree with 75% of what is in this bill, and if it were presented to me as separate bills, most of these would get a yes vote from me. But I'm really, really concerned about the first part of this bill where we create a window where someone cannot use a deep fake against you as if the internet is not forever.

434. 2:43:21

     Let's be honest. Someone could make an AI deep fake and upload it 91 days before an election, and it will run through the duration of the election. They could make it 95 days or 100 days. I think it is very difficult for me to grasp that elections only happen in a 90-day period. I have seen elections go on for a very long time.

435. 2:43:53

     There are people in this room that have been running for office way longer than 90 days for the primary election, and so I'm just very concerned about that one particular piece. This has always been my concern about this bill. I've registered that in the past, but I want to go on record. I am specifically opposed to the first part of this bill, and if this part were not in the bill, I would be a yes, but today, I will be voting no. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

436. 2:44:24

     Ladies, you rule the world. I appreciate your viewpoint. We're gonna let you fix this when you get to Washington for all 50 states.

437. 2:44:32

     That completes our comments on Senate Bill 594. Is there any objection to the previous question being ordered? Hearing none, the previous question is ordered. Is there any objection to withdrawing the committee substitute? Hearing none, the committee substitute is withdrawn. Is there any objection to adopting the substitute offered by the Committee on Rules? Hearing none, the Rules Committee substitute is adopted. Is there any objection to agreeing to the report of the committee, which was favorable to the passage of the bill? Hearing none, the report of the committee is agreed to.

438. 2:45:03

     Shall this bill now pass? All in favor of the passage of the bill will vote yes. All those opposed will vote no. And Mr. Clerk will unlock the machine.

439. 2:45:36

     Have all members voted? For what purpose Representative Wade rise? Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. Speaker. State your inquiry, sir. Mr. Speaker, is it not true that I've had the opportunity to work with a great representative from District 21 on this important issue because I have two children, and I actually, as a parent, two years ago dealt with an almost reconfiguration of my daughter's picture, and that I was fortunate enough to be a dad who was paying attention at the time and was able to prevent that error from potentially damaging her, and it could have also impacted other friends in, uh, a negative manner, sir.

440. 2:46:15

     Is that not true? I'm sure that's true. I know the gentleman knows of what he speaks, and thanks f- thanks for being a good father. For what purposes Whip Park rise? Parliamentary inquiry. State your inquiry, sir. Mr. Speaker, do you think that, uh, the Senate is not taking this up because they may want to continue to engage in deepfakes?

441. 2:46:39

     Whip Park, I'm doing everything I can to pass some bipartisan bills over in the Senate, and I don't think I'll answer that one, but I'm sure the gentleman believes in what he speaks.

442. 2:46:50

     Thank you for the inquiry. All members now voted this so.

443. 2:46:58

     Clerk will lock the machine. On the passage of Senate Bill 594, the yeas are 159, the nays are six. This bill having received the requisite constitutional majority is therefore passed. For what purposes Representative Carmen Rice rise? To make a motion. State your motion, ma'am. I would like to make a motion to recommit Senate Bill 475 back to rules.

444. 2:47:26

     That's certainly a motion we can consider. Mr. Clerk, will you read the caption?

445. 2:47:41

     Senate Bill 475 by Senator Camp of the 38th to be titled an Act to Amend Code Section 22-2068.1 re- relating to charter school funding.

446. 2:47:54

     On the lady's motion that Senate Bill 475 be recommitted to the rules, be withdrawn from the calendar and recommitted to the Rules Committee. Is there objection? Hearing none, so ordered. Mr. Clerk, will you read the caption to Senate Bill 566?

447. 2:48:12

     Senate Bill 566 by Senator Huffstetler of the 52nd to be entitled an Act to Amend Chapter 5 of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to ad valorem taxation of property so as to provide for the acceptance of tax digests in the event of a publication error made by a newspaper. This bill having been referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, that committee recommends that this bill do pass by committee substitute.

448. 2:48:42

     Representative Shaw Blackmon is recognized to present Senate Bill 566, 566. Representative Blackmon.

449. 2:48:52

     Thank you, uh, Mr. Speaker, fellow members. I bring before you Senate Bill 566, which, uh, mirrors, uh, pretty closely what we sent over there in HB 275. I think you received unanimous, uh, approval, uh, from this body. Um, it is language brought to us by the Georgia Association of Assessing Officials and ACCG. It cleans up some homestead language. It also provides, uh, the framework for a new, uh, assessment notice, uh, one of the most taxpayer friendly documents I think we've, we've been able to push out.

450. 2:49:24

     It is supported by all the cities and the counties and the schools. And, um, Mr. Speaker, I'd just ask for this body's favorable consideration. Be- be happy to try to answer any questions, uh, pertaining to the bill if, if-

451. 2:49:38

     Gentleman yield. Whip Park, right down in front of you, has a question.

452. 2:49:41

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the chairman yield?

453. 2:49:43

     Ye- yes, sir. Of course.

454. 2:49:44

     Uh, Chairman Blackmon, is it not true that I greatly appreciate your hard work and I look forward to voting yes for a bill that GMA, ACC- ACCG, and the school boards all support?

455. 2:49:53

     It's, it- it's amazing that we can sit here and, and, and say that, and I've been able to say that about a piece of legislation that I am carrying. But yes, sir, it is true. Thank you very much. Thank you for your support.

456. 2:50:05

     Love it when we all work together, especially those folks out in the countryside, right? Gentleman has no further questions.

457. 2:50:12

     All right, I yield the well. Thank you.

458. 2:50:16

     Gentleman's yield of the well. Is there any objection to the previous question being ordered? Hearing none, the previous question is ordered. Is there any objection to adopting the committee substitute? Hearing none, the committee substitute is adopted. Is there any objection to agreeing to the report of the committee, which was favorable to the passage of the bill? Hearing none, the report of the committee is agreed to. Shall this bill now pass? All those in favor of the passage of the bill will vote yes. Those opposed will vote no. And Mr. Clerk will unlock the machine.

459. 2:51:01

     Have all members voted?

460. 2:51:11

     Can we do one more further-

461. 2:51:13

     All members voted

462. 2:51:16

     ... 'cause that's the last bill, wasn't it?

463. 2:51:17

     If so, Mr. Clerk will lock the machine. On the passage of Senate Bill 566, the yays are 161, the nays are zero. This bill having received the requisite constitutional majority is therefore passed.

464. 2:51:33

     Might not, might hold it.

465. 2:51:42

     Mr. Clerk, will you read the caption to Senate Bill 472? 472.

466. 2:51:52

     Senate Bill 472 by Senator Hickman of the 4th and others to be titled an Act to Amend Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to elementary and secondary education so as to provide for the suspension of members of local boards of education following certain audit findings or findings by the state auditor of financial mismanagement or misconduct. This bill having been referred to the Committee on Education, that committee recommends that this bill do pass by committee substitute.

467. 2:52:22

     Representative Will Wade is recognized to speak to Senate Bill 472 to present the bill.

468. 2:52:30

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Colleagues, I rise to present to you Senate Bill 472, and it should be in your folders. It's LC492813S. This is a companion bill. Many of you remember, uh, House Bill 1164. Uh, this continues the efforts of ensuring transparency and accountability within state funds that serves the students across our state and our local school systems. This is about enhancing transparency and accountability.

469. 2:53:00

     Senate Bill 472 protects students and families by holding local school districts accountable for financial mismanagement. This legislation strengthens our Department of Accounts and Audits. It also gives tools to local systems by identifying early issues and creating a statewide fiscal monitoring intervention system, which is what House Bill 1164 laid out. Again, this will clarify that the school board members who were serving at the time of the school board that was subject of the finding of a loss of accreditation as well as financial mismanagement would be potentially at risk of losing their board membership.

470. 2:53:38

     This is only for those school systems that are in the high-risk fiscal designation. And the way I say it in North Georgia means you gotta be in the ditch and put yourself in the ditch knowing you put yourself in the ditch. You've really gotta make a mistake to end up in this situation, and you cannot just plead ignorance. You're a school board member, it's your job in my view to make sure that you know the finances of your district and how those monies are being spent. Number two, this local superintendent could potentially be suspended if you are a superintendent that's failed to have your su- school system audited.

471. 2:54:17

     It's your job to ensure that the monies that local people pay you, and you fund your school system as well as the state through our QBE formula that we have fully funded m- many, many years in a row now, that those dollars are utilized properly. Starting July of 2026, any new contracts for school superintendents would have provisions to address that situation only again in the egregious situation of high-risk fiscal mismanagement. This also limits an advance of distribution of state education funds potentially that could be used as a part of a corrective action plan.

472. 2:54:53

     And I'll also point out, Mr. Speaker and colleagues, this will have a petition for lo- consolidation of independent and county school systems, which is in section four, interoperations after a majority vote, so you still have to have a majority vote within that jurisdiction. Um, and then verse seven, there's a creation of statewide fiscal monitoring intervention system to allow for what the State Board of Education will continue to do, which is update their audit committee and have a minimum of six audits per year. And it will give the state auditor a ex- somewhat of expanded investigation authority to ensure that they address any irregular- irregularities, governance concerns, and if there is actual true evidence of misconduct.

473. 2:55:37

     Then th- this obviously would take effect upon the signature of the governor. I'm happy to, uh, yield for any questions, Mr. Speaker. I know there's some folks that signed up, uh, that have some objection to the bill, but I'm happy to hopefully address some of their concerns at this time. You have some folks who wanna ask you a question, and then we do have speakers. So, uh, w- let's give you a couple of questions. Representative Carter, to your left, is recognized for a question. Representative Doreen Carter. Way back to your left. Thank you, Mr.

474. 2:56:07

     Speaker. Does the gentleman yield? Yes, to my friend and education committee colleague. Okay. Thank you. So indulge me a little bit because I think we addressed this, but I just wanna make sure that we're clear. I, I understand what we're doing as far as the superintendents in the school district, but clarify for me the monitoring from the auditors. What will... If, if a school district misses an audit, how is that communicated, and what responsibility does the audit- the state auditors have in making sure that there's notification? Yeah. So in House Bill 1164, that laid out the timeframes.

475. 2:56:40

     Typically, there would be thresholds of between 30, 60, and 90-day triggers. It would also ensure that there's communication between state agencies so as to we address these issues honestly before they become major, right? The whole point is, is to have the a- audits completed. What we tried to fix in the House Bu- Bill that has already been passed and sent to the governor ensures that if you're using a third-party auditor that is not the Department of Audits, they follow the same standards that the Department of Audits lays out, and they now have to submit that to the Departments of Audits for review and approval.

476. 2:57:16

     If that triggers concerns or, quite frankly, they leave out certain components of the audit function, the auditor would immediately know, and then they would have the authority to go in and address those situations. Having a plan to first give a corrective action plan to give them an opportunity to cure those issues, very similar to me in the banking industry, there are situations in which our fa- our state faced the great fiscal cl- crisis. Many financial institutions went under M- MOUs. It's a very similar process to address those concerns. And I do believe most of our school systems will see this as a net benefit in the long run.

477. 2:57:51

     Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones is recognized for a question if the gentleman will yield. Thank you. Does the gentleman yield? I certainly do. Thank you. Is it not true that Senate Bill 472 protects students and taxpayers by demanding accountability and increased transport- uh, transparency so that hopefully we will avoid situations like we've had in the past where, uh, there has been a lack of accountability and transparency, and it leads to mismanagement and further problems that sometimes lead to an increased millage rate and, uh, disruption for students and staff?

478. 2:58:31

     To my colleague that has spent a lifetime and a wonderful, amazing career serving in the benefit of students, you know exactly of what you speak. Thank you. Representative Beckles, to your left, she's standing to your left, is recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield? I certainly do. Uh, you mentioned suspension. Do we have any mechanisms in place for reinstatement if the issues are resolved? Yeah. So, and when I said the suspension, it would be a, a contract. So most school superintendents have a three-year contract.

479. 2:59:03

     Correct? Or if a school board member, uh, is recommended to either be suspended or removed, the State Board of Education, depending on the level of the egregiousness, there could be a corrective action plan that ensures that the board members continue to meet, and they meet those objectives, then that c- suspension could be waived. But in some situations, if they're refusing to do the job that they were elected to do... Mm-hmm. And, and I do think there is a conversation worth having related to this. I, as a former school board member that served just shy of 16 years, I knew from day one I could be removed by the governor if our school system failed to meet accreditation standards.

480. 2:59:43

     I, as a school board member, have much more authority over our budget process and communication and holding our superintendents accountable and our finance directors than I ever had to the teacher in the classroom that affected the outcomes of education performance, which drives your accreditation process. So I think there may be a conversation to, to change that as a board member removal in the long term. I'd love to have that policy debate. Okay. But I think this is high time to ensure that this is a way, and as a former member that swore an oath to protect the children of my district and to ensure taxpayers had transparency, this is a very fair, and I think, thoughtful step to ensure that we do that process.

481. 3:00:21

     Thank you for the question. Thank you.

482. 3:00:24

     Leader Hugley right down front is recognized for a question.

483. 3:00:27

     And then, Mr. Speaker, I'd love to th- make this my last question 'cause I know there's others who wanna speak.

484. 3:00:32

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the gentleman yield?

485. 3:00:35

     I certainly do.

486. 3:00:36

     Uh, isn't it true that in my local area we have some great school board members, so I don't really understand what has been happening. Can you bring me up to speed in terms of why we need this? What's happening in our state that precipitates this bill?

487. 3:00:51

     Certainly. So through this, uh, summer and, uh, there has been notification that there are 41 school systems across our state out of 180 that are not in compliance with the audit standards that are currently in law. Some of those systems had third-party audits that were performed, did not submit them to d- to DOA. Some of them have not had an audit in two or three years. So we're ensuring that that loophole is closed. That, that is what this bill seeks to, uh, to address.

488. 3:01:22

     And I do think 41 systems out of 180, that is enough for the state to take this type of action. Thank you for the thoughtful question. I appreciate it. Mr., uh, Speaker, I ask for the favorable consideration, and I yield the well.

489. 3:01:35

     Gentlemen, this concludes our questions at, questions, and the gentleman has yielded the well. We have, uh, three folks, three of our members that have signed up to speak in opposition to the bill. I'm gonna allocate 15 minutes total. It'll start with Representative Lupton, then Representative Wilkerson, and Representative Berry. Now, that'll be between the three of you to allocate that 15 minutes between yourselves. Representative Lupton is recognized to speak to Senate Bill 472. Lady's recognized.

490. 3:02:05

     Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. Oh, SB 420, 472. We had a lot of good discussion about this bill in the House Education Committee. Um, we understand, some of us understand some of the situations that brought us to this point. Um, however, some of the things that we want to do here that are being said in this bill to correct some of these oversights, um, I believe are a bit heavy-handed and if not reinventing the wheel a little bit.

491. 3:02:39

     Um, if the state auditor finds that a school or a system is in trouble, it empowers the state, uh, board of education to recommend that the governor suspend any eligible members of the local BOE or the superintendent with pay. I noticed that in the bill, with pay. Now, of course, um, I'm, represent DeKalb County. DeKalb County Schools has had more than its fair share of, um, arguments and, and, um, and, uh, somewhat, um, and some of our own problems.

492. 3:03:11

     Um, and we know that the superintendent... In fact, there was discussions in my district about, "Hey, how are we gonna get rid of our superintendent?" Um, there were some legal issues with our superintendent, and, um, people started talking about, "Well, you know, the governor can come in and remove the superintendent." That's already there. That's a, that's a punishment that is al- that can already be at hand. But it's interesting that, um, we are giving the state BOE the prerogative to come in, remove a superintendent or a school board member, and this local district still has to pay them even though the local, um, the local elected officials have not chosen, um, to suspend a superintendent even though they can do their own, um, suspensions.

493. 3:03:58

     If you look at lines 432 through 438, right at the very end of this bill, um, it's a mirror, mirror language of what's right above it in the bill, but I believe it's entirely too broad. It says, um, "If there are circumstances or information that indicate mismanagement or misconduct on the part of any official employ- or employee of a school system during either a past or present administration, a state auditor has a duty to make a full investigation." That sounds pretty broad.

494. 3:04:31

     Um, the situation that's happened in DeKalb County has been, um, rather, uh, duly dealt with by the elected officials that were elected in the local, um, in our district. They took care of the superintendent. They put him on suspension. They looked into whatever financial mismanagement may have happened. They determined that nothing untoward happened. But they made sure that they got, uh, they fired the superintendent without paying, with maybe 30 days of pay.

495. 3:05:01

     That was it. They dealt with it very quickly. It was a local issue. The state did not need to get involved. Um, I think that's local government doing its job. Now, if local government is, for whatever reason, not doing its audits, the state, I believe, has a clear view of what's happening there and can step in and say, "Hey, do your audit. Do your audit." Um, there's another piece of language that's kinda stuck in here. It was also stuck in another bill that we're not terribly fond of.

496. 3:05:34

     Uh, it includes language that lowers the threshold of registered voters needed to trigger a vote to dissolve an independent school system. It takes that from 25% of registered voters in that district to 10%. Now, we've got districts of all sorts of different sizes, and if we're talking about registered voters within a school district, I don't know what we're looking at, but if we're looking at districts that only have about 5,000 students in them to begin with, you're looking at less than 500 people can put a ballot initiative on the ballot.

497. 3:06:09

     They can do that every year if they want. Uh, the, the law says no sooner than 12 months, but they, they could do that. That's, we have a high standard for putting things on a ballot in Georgia, and I think we have good reason for doing that, um, because-

498. 3:06:26

     We know we w- we could take a lot of things to the voters, uh, but we set ourselves a high standard to make sure that, um, what we're discussing needs to be met, uh, as a concern by a lot of people. 10% is not a lot of people to get something on the ballot. Um, with that, uh, Mr. Speaker, I'm gonna cede some of the rest of my time to my, my better spoken, um, colleague. Um, is, is it gonna be you, David? Uh, David Wilkerson.

499. 3:06:56

     Ya da da da da da. Thank you very much. Don't sell yourself short, short. You're pretty well-spoken. Yeah, that too. Representative Wilkerson is recognized to speak to the bill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Uh, today I come, uh, to oppose Senate Bill 472. Um, uh, I'm gonna be brief 'cause we have another speaker, but really the bottom line is this is creating more government to solve ineffective government.

500. 3:07:27

     On March- in March, we got a report that tells us exactly how these school systems are doing. Exactly, so there's no misunderstanding that six districts have not turned in any financial data for '23, '24. We know who those are. We could easily do that. Back earlier, last, uh, uh, recently, we passed a bill because we need more CPAs in these communities. If you go to some communities, the person keeping the books could be someone that worked in the cafeteria for a number of years, is very good at keeping home finances, and s- now they are keeping the books for the school.

501. 3:07:59

     So you don't have necessarily the support or the expertise you need in these communities. You don't have the audit firms in these communities. And so what we can do, instead of scapegoating people, we need to provide support from the state level. And how do we do that? That's the question that we need to determine, is how do we help these local districts versus scapegoating them? The piece that primarily concerns me is the removal of school board members. Our laws in Georgia do not allow school board members to be as effective as they can be.

502. 3:08:30

     So I know there has been a situation where school board members have been removed, but you may have two school board members. That would be similar to, we have some bills that are completely bipartisan. We have some bills that are one-sided versus the other. That would be like coming in here and saying, "Because you pass vouchers, we gotta remove everybody," when in effect, you have some people that may be sounding the alarm in these local districts. They are saying, "Something is wrong here. Something is wrong here." And those school board members are being silenced. We've seen that in some of my local district, where s- three of the school board members are outweighed by the other four, and they have raised alarms, but because they are in the minority, they never get a decision.

503. 3:09:09

     If the governor comes in and removes, the governor is going to remove whoever they want. And a lot of times, that does not turn out well for people that look like people in my community. They're gonna remove people that they may not have connection to. So I'm asking you to not create more government, not create a, another system that is not gonna be effective, and to provide support to these local communities because we know from the report who these troubled systems are, and that we need to go down there and make sure that, that those families are being taken care of, and not pass another bill when we just passed one to deal with audits, um, that will just duplicate what we have.

504. 3:09:45

     And I'm gonna yield my time to my colleague. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield the well. Gentleman yielded the well. Representative Berry is recognized to speak to the bill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Uh, I rise also today in opposition to Senate Bill 472. I guess we're the, one of the last parties that actually believes in local control here. 'Cause now I've heard it said this bill is about accountability, and that sounds good, and it polls well, but when you slow it down and take a closer look, that's not really what this is about.

505. 3:10:18

     So I wanna ask a simple question: Who is this for? 'Cause if th- this is about a specific situation, if there's a specific district, a specific issue, a specific breakdown, then we have a process for that. It's called local legislation. We can be targeted. We can be thoughtful. We can address the problem without rewriting the rules for the entire state. In Georgia, we elect our local school boards for a reason. Parents, grandparents, neighbors, they choose the people they trust to run their schools.

506. 3:10:49

     And if those leaders fall short, the people already have the power to hold them accountable at the ballot box. That's how democracy is supposed to work. But this bill says, "Hold on. We don't quite trust that." It says the state should be able to step in, suspend elected leaders, and take control when it decides something isn't right. And that may sound reasonable at first, but here's the problem: it doesn't stop there. Because once you open that door, it does not close easily.

507. 3:11:19

     Today it's financial audits. Tomorrow it could be curriculum. Next year it could be staffing decisions. That's how a system built on local control slowly becomes one controlled from the top down. When the state steps in, it doesn't step in everywhere equally. Historically, it steps into communities that are already under pressure, often Black communities, often low-income districts, often places that have been underfunded for years. So instead of fixing the root problem, we end up punishing the symptoms.

508. 3:11:50

     So let's talk about the funding piece of this bill, because it puts limits on how school districts can access their funding early, and that sounds technical, but here's what it means in plain English. Schools have less flexibility to manage their money, and when you tighten the budget like that, it doesn't hit everybody the same. The folks in central offices making six figures, they're gonna be just fine. But the classroom, that's where the pressure shows up. That's the teacher who doesn't get extra support. That's the bus driver working longer hours.

509. 3:12:22

     That's the student who needs a tutor but cannot get one. And let me say this as clear as I can. If you want to help a struggling school, you don't start by taking away local leadership. You start by giving them the resources to succeed.

510. 3:12:35

     If you want accountability, you don't centralize power, you strengthen the community. And if you think you can improve education by squeezing school budgets, well, that dog just won't hunt. 'Cause at the end of the day, this isn't about us, it's about the students we represent. They don't care about audits and authority structures, they care about whether they have a good teacher, a safer classroom, and a fair shot at success. So let's not overcomplicate it. Let's not overreach, y'all. Let's call it, let's not call it about accountability when it especially looks like a whole lot more of government control.

511. 3:13:09

     I urge a no vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield the well. Gentleman yields the well. That completes that portion of the 15 minutes that those opposed to the bill were allocated. Is there any objection to the previous question being ordered? Hearing none, the previous question is ordered. We do have a minority report. Minority report will have up to 20 minutes. We will recognize Representative Karlton Howard to take as much of that 20 minutes or as little, whatever the gentleman desires.

512. 3:13:42

     Representative Howard is recognized to speak. Give the gentleman your attention, please. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and colleagues. We often talk about unintended consequences. This bill today is a bad bill that has negative intended consequences, and I would like to ask this body, this chamber, to think about real carefully what we're about to do w- with, uh, with this bill.

513. 3:14:13

     What we're asking now is we're asking the, uh, us to vote and give the governor of Georgia, who is a statewide elected official, who is a partisan official, we're asking us to give him the power to suspend and effectively remove members of a locally elected school board member based on the findings of an unelected state auditor. We're not asking for a criminal conviction.

514. 3:14:44

     We're not asking, uh, there's no formal charges. There's no conviction by a jury, no vote of the people who elected those board, board members in the first place. It's just a recommendation from the state auditor, a hearing before the State Board of Education, and then the governor's discretion to act. In essence, what we're saying is we're taking the, uh, the report from a minor auditor, uh, his findings, and that should not become a major, uh, takeover of a school board.

515. 3:15:18

     I wanna be clear about, about my objection to this bill. That is the executive branch of the state government reaching into local communities, removing local officials that those communities elected themselves. A- a- and I think this body, we ought to be uncomfortable, uh, when we do things like that, and we're seeing it more and more where we're getting into the weeds of our local government. Trust me, in my community, the public will act to remove any bad actors, any board officials, any superintendents that are in the wrong, and it'll happen through existing processes.

516. 3:15:57

     Local school boards l- are the one, one of the most immediate expressions of what our democratic process looks like. They're, they're, they're our neighbors. They're our friends. Listen, parents and community members who ran for office, they knocked on doors. They earned the trust of the people in their districts, in their communities, and, listen, and they ran on the premise that, "I will take care of your children. I will educ- educate your children and give them the best resources to be successful." When a school board member is elected, the voters in that community are saying, "We trust that person.

517. 3:16:34

     We trust them to make decisions for us and our children." W- we're giving them the authority and, and if they f- if they fail us, we got a right at the next ballot box to vote them out. That is how democracy ought to work, but seemingly it's not working that way in SB 472 because what this does is it inserts the state into the relationship of the local school board and those who elected them. It says your vote matters, but if the state auditor makes a finding and the governor agrees, your vote can be undone without being asked over again.

518. 3:17:14

     I don't think that's a small thing. That's a pretty big issue. I think it's a fundamental shift on in how we understand local democratic governance in Georgia. Some things ought to stay local. Look at what, look at what triggers this suspension. What, what happens w- how does, how does this mechanism get into effect? On SB s- 472, a school board member can be suspended if the state auditor designates the school system as requiring the highest level of monitoring or intervention, or if the auditor finds evidence of financial mismanagement or conduct.

519. 3:17:54

     Notice what's missing. Notice, notice what's missing in the, in the formula here. There's no requirement that the board member personally engaged in misconduct. There's no requirement that their, uh, specific decisions caused any the financial problem. There's not even a requirement that they knew about the issue that failed and that, uh, to a- and failed to act. Actually, a, a board member could, could have been elected after the problem existed, after the problem began, and the board member could have been actively trying to fix the situation, but yet they can be suspended as well.

520. 3:18:31

     Under this bill, they can still be suspended because the school system received a bad audit finding, and they happen to be sitting on the board at the time. I think what they call that on the streets is that's guilt by association. It, it is not accountability. It actually is not real fair justice, and it's not a standard we should be comfortable codifying into the laws of Georgia. Here's another problem with how this bill works.

521. 3:19:03

     Once a board member is, is, is suspended, they have between 30 and 60 days to petition for the reinstatement. But watch this, and, and when th- h- and when they petition, the burden falls on them. They have to prove that their continued service is more likely than not to help the district improve. The state doesn't have to, have to prove or deserve that they deserve to be removed, but they have to prove that they deserve to be reinstated. That's not how the system should work.

522. 3:19:35

     Most systems of a democratic society where there's accountability, that r- runs the burdens the other way. We don't ask elected officials, nobody asked me in this house, uh, to prove my worthiness to continue serving. That's left up to the voters who makes that decision. SB 472 flips that whole premise, that concept. It makes removal, uh, the default and the reinstatement the exception. That is just fundamentally inversion of how we treat, uh, democratically elected officials in the state of Georgia.

523. 3:20:12

     Let me s- let me say something directly about which communities this bill will mostly affect. I don't think it's a surprise. The school system that most likely received the adverse findings, the negative consequences of this bill, uh, are the systems that are designated high risk or those that have been operating with the least amount of resources, more mandates and less resources for the longest time. They are disproportionately systems serving predominantly Black and Brown students in rural and urban Georgia.

524. 3:20:49

     Listen, th- th- there are communi- they are-- these communities that have fought for decades to have their voices heard in a local government, and now we are taking that voice away from them. Communities where school boards cease to represent hard-won political representation, communities where elected officials reflect and are accountable to the populations that they serve. Uh, SB 472 creates a mechanism that is most likely to be used, uh, in exactly those communities, and it does so without offering any additional resources, again, to address the underlying problems of those communities, such as poverty.

525. 3:21:32

     That is not reform. This bill is, actually has a, has a tendency or the possibility of being punitive and cau- and, and offers punishment. And it, and it falls hardest on those who can least afford to do it. So my brother, in closing, uh, Mr. Speaker, if, if, if there's genuine financial concern, if there's g- genuine financial mismanagement in a school district, guess what? Not surprisingly, Georgia law already provides a path to address it.

526. 3:22:02

     There are laws already on the book. The state auditor has investigative authority. The courts, the courts are available. Voters can remove their own representatives. We don't have to need an auditor to decide that. What we do not need and what we should not create is a mechanism for the governor to suspend locally elected officials based on administrative findings without criminal conviction, without a community vote, and without accountability structures that protect the democratic process of self-governance for local communities.

527. 3:22:37

     This bill asks us to trade local democratic control for executive branch authority, and, uh, today, I'm not willing to make that trade, and I urge my colleagues to join me in voting no to SB 472. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield the rest of my time to my, my suite mate, uh, R- Representative Cheokas.

528. 3:23:02

     Chair recognizes Representative Adeyina for the final, uh, time for the, uh, minority report.

529. 3:23:10

     Thank you, Madam Speaker pro tem. Mm.

530. 3:23:18

     Mr. Speaker, I've been in this chamber long enough to know that arguments for expanding state power rarely come dressed up as what they actually are. They come dressed up as accountability, as reform, as protecting public interest, and sometimes those justifications are real. Sometimes the state does need to step in.

531. 3:23:48

     But sometimes, and I believe this is one of those times, what's being proposed is straightforward state overreach into local authority, and we should call it that even when it comes wrapped up in language we find appealing. SB 472 contains a provision that should concern every member of this chamber who believe in local control of education.

532. 3:24:19

     It mandates the specific terms that must appear in every local school superintendent's employment contract in the state of Georgia. That is legislature writing employment contracts for local school systems, and I don't think that's our job. Let me be specific about what we're talking about, because the details matter here. Section two of SB472 requires that any superintendent contract entered into or renewed after July first, 2026 must include terms making it an act of default grounds for termination if the superintendent is found by the state auditor to have engaged in financial mismanagement or misconduct, or if the superintendent knowingly failed to comply with a state intervention plan.

533. 3:25:12

     Now, I want to be clear. Those are not unreasonable things to want in a superintendent's contract. Most school boards like mine would probably include provisions like those on their own. But that's exactly the point. Most school board-- school boards would handle this themselves. They don't need the state legislator telling them what to put in their employment agreements. When the state mandates the specific terms of a local employment contract, it has substituted its judgment for the judgment of the local school board.

534. 3:25:47

     It is saying, "We don't trust you to manage your own superintendent. We're going to do it for you." That is not a partnership between the state and local schools. That is the state treating local boards as administrative arms of a state bureaucracy. Here's what gets lost when we mandate contract terms for school boards like mine in Gwinnett. Every su-superintendent relationship is different. Every school district has its own history, its own culture, its own set of challenges.

535. 3:26:20

     The relationship between a board and a superintendent is one of the most consequential partnerships in local governance, and it requires flexibility, trust, and the ability to negotiate terms that fit the specific situation.

536. 3:26:39

     A small rural district hiring its first su-superintendent in a decade has different needs than a large urban district managing a complex multi-school system, which I'm familiar with. A board that's navigating financial recovery needs different contractual tools that one operating in stable conditions. State mandated contract terms don't account for any of that. They impose a one size fits all framework on situations that are anything but one size fits all.

537. 3:27:18

     Local boards were elected precisely to exercise this kind of judgment. When we mandate contract language from every state-- from the state level, we're telling those boards that their judgment isn't trusted. That Gwinnett County Schools know better, and I don't think Gwinnett does know better. I do-- I don't think that Atlanta does know better. I also want to talk about where this kind of mandate leads because precedents matter.

538. 3:27:50

     If the legislator can mandate what must appear in a superintendent's employment contract, what else can they mandate? Can it specify terms of teacher contracts, administrator contracts? Can it dictate performance metrics that must appear in every principal's evaluation? Once we establish that the state can write terms of local employment agreements, there's no logical stopping point. Every future legislator can add new required provisions. Every new political majority can insert its priorities into local contracts.

539. 3:28:26

     That is not a theoretical concern. That is a natural consequence of accepting the premise that the state has authority over local employment agreements. The better principle, the one this chamber should hold to, is that local school boards have exclusive authority over contracts they negotiate with their employees. The state sets minimum qualifications. The state audit financials practices, but the state does not write the contracts.

540. 3:28:59

     There's certain-- there is a certain irony worth noting here. SB472 is at least in part a response to concerns about financial mismanagement in local school systems. The argument is that boards, local boards haven't done enough to hold their superintendents accountable, and the response to that concern about local accountability is to remove local authority. To take away from local school boards the flexibility to structure superintendent contracts according to their own judgment.

541. 3:29:33

     If local boards have been insufficiently accountable, the answer is better tools for local accountability, not replacing a local judgment with a state mandate. You don't fix a local government pro-- governance problem by eliminating local governance. And frankly, if a local board is so dysfunctional that it can't write a basic superintendent contract without the legislator's help, mandating contract terms isn't going to fix that dysfunction.

542. 3:30:04

     It's just going to paper over it while leaving the underlying problem intact. In closing, Madame Speaker pro tem, I believe in local control, not as a talking point, as a governing principle. The people closest to a problem are generally best positioned to solve it. Communities given the authority and the resources can make good decisions for themselves.

543. 3:30:36

     There's a saying that I'm familiar with. «Na who wear shoe sabi where e dey pain am. Na who wear shoe sabi where e dey pain am.» Oh, I'm sorry. Let me translate. The one who knows where the shoe pinches- Knows where to fix it.

544. 3:30:57

     SB 472, superintendent's contract mandates runs directly counter to that p- principle. It tells local school boards that they cannot be trusted to negotiate their own employment agreements without the state's legislators' guidance. That's not reform, that's micromanagement, and if we're willing to accept it here, we should be honest with ourselves about what that means for local control as a principle going forward.

545. 3:31:28

     I urge my colleagues to vote no on SB 472. Thank you, Madam Speaker. I yield the well.

546. 3:31:38

     Gentleman has yielded the, the well. It's now the chairman's time. The chair repr- uh, recognizes Chairman Erwin for the chairman's time.

547. 3:31:49

     Thank you, Madam Pro Tem. Madam Pro Tem, I rise in support of Senate Bill 472. This bill is about accountability in our school systems, and we've heard that word many times. As leaders, we should not s- shy away from the accountability that the public entrust in us. When there's serious financial mismanagement, misconduct, and repeated failure, the state cannot simply look the other way.

548. 3:32:20

     Georgia families expect school leaders to act responsible, protect taxpayers' dollars, and keep the focus where it belongs, on students. Senate Bill 472 gives the state stronger tools to step in when local systems are not meeting that responsibility. It creates consequences for mismanagement, adds oversight where it is needed, and helps ensure public education dollars are handled with care. Parents deserve to know that the money intended for their children's education is being managed honestly and effectively.

549. 3:32:57

     Teachers deserve school systems that are stable, responsible, and focused on s- supporting the classroom. Students deserve leadership that puts their future ahead of excuses and mismanagement. The legislation is not about punishing schools. It's about protecting students, supporting teachers, and restoring trust in systems that have gone off course. When public confidence is shaken, accountability is the first step towards rebuilding it.

550. 3:33:34

     Members of this House, I ask for your favorable consideration on Senate Bill 472. And Madam Pro Tem, I yield the well.

551. 3:33:44

     Gentleman has yielded the well. Is there any objection to adopting the committee substitute? Chair hears none. The committee substitute is adopted. Is there any objection to agreeing to the report of the committee, which was favorable to the passage of the bill? Chair hears none. The report of the committee is agreed to. Shall this bill now pass? All in favor of the passage of the bill will vote yes. All those opposed will vote no. And the clerk will unlock the machine.

552. 3:34:53

     Have all members voted?

553. 3:34:59

     Have all members voted? If so, the clerk will lock the machine. On the passage of the bill, the yays were 96, the nays were 58. The bill, having received the requisite constitutional majority, is therefore passed.

554. 3:35:25

     Chair recognizes Representative Rhodes for a motion.

555. 3:35:31

     Thank you, Madam Speaker. I move that the House agree to the Senate substitute to House Bill 1182 as amended by the House.

556. 3:35:40

     Representative Rhodes moves that the House agree to the Senate substitute to HB 1182 as amended by the House. The clerk will read the caption.

557. 3:35:48

     House Bill 1182 by Representative Rhodes and the 124th and others to be entitled An Act to Amend Article 3 of Chapter 12 of Title 2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated Relating to Soil Amendments So as to Provide for Additional Prohibited Acts.

558. 3:36:04

     Chair recognizes Representative Rhodes to explain the Senate substitute and the House amendment.

559. 3:36:10

     Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is a soil amendment bill that we sent over to the Senate, um, a week or two ago. We had to make a slight change over there, uh, to make a waiver that says is, if the adjoining property owner signs a written, uh, agreement that storage could be inside 100 feet. They didn't quite get the language right, and we had to fix it over here. So that's all this bill does, Madam Chair.

560. 3:36:37

     Is there any objection to the adoption of the House amendment? The Chair hears none, and the House amendment is adopted. On the gentleman's motion that the House agree to the Senate substitute to House Bill 1182 as amended by the House, all those in favor will vote yes, all those opposed will vote no, and the clerk will unlock the machines.

561. 3:37:09

     Okay. It's only just now coming out.

562. 3:37:29

     Have all members voted? Have all members voted? If so, the clerk will lock the machines. On the gentleman's motion, the yays were 153, the nays were zero, and the House has agreed to the Senate substitute. House Bill 1182, as amended by the House.

563. 3:37:45

     It's in the chamber but going out now.

564. 3:37:53

     The House will stand at ease for a couple minutes while the few, uh, another amendment is, two pieces of legislation are handed out.

565. 3:38:02

     Okay.

566. 3:41:14

     The chair recognizes Representative Reeves for a motion.

567. 3:41:22

     Thank you, Madam Speaker. I move to agree to the Senate substitute on House Bill 1020.

568. 3:41:27

     Representative Reeves moves that the House agree to the Senate substitute to House Bill 1020. The clerk will read the caption.

569. 3:41:34

     House Bill 1020 by Representative Reeves. The 99th being entitled an Act to amend Chapter 23, Title 47 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to the Georgia Judicial Retirement System so as to provide for the payment of monthly retirement benefits for credible service as a district attorney at the age of 65 years.

570. 3:42:00

     The chair recognizes Representative Reeves to explain the Senate substitute.

571. 3:42:06

     Thank you, Madam Speaker Pro Tem and members of the House. I present to you House Bill 1020. This passed the House as the DA's retirement bill with all the requisite retirement issues covered with the state auditor. It went to the Senate, and the Senate added on the DA pay bill, which had made it to the Rules Committee as of crossover day. But, uh, like many good bills, uh, we ran out of time that day. So, uh- The Senate has sent back House Bill 1020 with the DA pay bill included in it, so this is both a DA retirement and pay bill.

572. 3:42:41

     The DAs have not received a, uh, statutory increase in pay for 11 years, so this, uh, is a long time coming. What it does is it mirrors what we did over the last three years with our judges. It ties the DAs pay to the federal judges and allows, uh, subject to appropriation, the DAs to get paid 88% of federal judges. Uh, it also changes the, the way supplements are done. There is a figure in there about 10% or 20 or so thousand dollars, and then the DAs can also, uh, continue receiving drug court supplements of approximately $6,000.

573. 3:43:22

     So what it does right now, the DA state pay is about $130,000. Uh, this will be a significant increase tied to federal judge salary. This will support public safety. This will, uh, pay these state judicial circuit officials well, and then the counties can continue to provide funds for assistant DAs, for investigators, and all the other needs of the district attorney's office while increasing our state, uh, salary for district attorneys. So I would respectfully request approval of this DA pay and retirement bill to support public safety and give some uniformity around the state, just like we did last year with our superior court judges who hear the DAs cases.

574. 3:44:05

     Gla- and I yield for any questions. Chair recognizes Representative Evans for a question. Thank you. Madam Speaker, does the gentleman yield? I do. Uh, my first question is I was trying to find it and I couldn't find when is the opt-in date that we're giving folks- The, the Senate- ... 'cause we had- The Senate moved it from 2034 to 2030. Uh, we had done 2034 in the House Judiciary Committee. Right. The Senate did it, uh, in 2030, and that's because in this year's budget, uh, the latest version has 175,000, that's a 35 to th- uh, $40,000 increase.

575. 3:44:41

     Mm-hmm. And, uh, between 2026 and 2027, uh, that is the current opt-out, opt-in period- Mm-hmm ... by 2028. And I would like to emphasize that if a district attorney likes the current locality pay- Mm-hmm ... they can continue with that. They have until, uh, 2030 to opt in. Uh, will you further yield? I will. Isn't it true that we do not need a bill to have a DA pay raise? And in fact, even though this bill has a raise in it, it, it, w- uh, to go up to $206,000, it is all up to appropriations.

576. 3:45:16

     There is nothing about this bill that requires us to give the DA, DAs a pay raise. And in fact, the only thing that is required from this bill is that local governments who want to invest in public safety, who want to invest in their elected DAs, will no longer be required to, whether or not we appropriate a raise or not. Isn't that true? Um, I would point out that from an academic perspective, that may be the case, but the Senate has been pretty firm that we do need to have a change in the statutes. Also, DA pay over the years, in addition to the appropriations process, you've had a statutory process, and because this adopts what we did with the superior court judges, albeit 2% lower, uh, this follows a sound framework that was, uh, reviewed for three years with the judges, an additional year with the DAs.

577. 3:46:05

     So it combines both our statutory authority and our appropriations authority. And I would commend, uh, the appropriations subcommittee that you're on for working on DA pay, but I would contend, uh, the way it's worked forever with DAs, you need both a sound statutory authority and appropriations to do it. Also, this is a long-term thing. The federal judges get raises, so the DAs will not have to come to the Capitol more on, uh, the statute because those federal judge pay, that gives more flexibility to the Appropriations Committee.

578. 3:46:38

     Will you further yield? I will. Um, isn't it true that even though w- we are going to suggest that pay raise, pay raises be tied to the federal judges, just like we did the superior court judges, even still, unless and until we appropriate it, it's not a raise? Just like, for example, we said that for the superior court judges last year, they are not getting an increase this year. Isn't that true? Well, uh, I just checked with, uh, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Judiciary Appropriations, and both the House and the Senate have given a significant raise to our district attorneys, uh, with the expectation this bill will be passed.

579. 3:47:15

     District attorneys, but not judges, you would agree? Well, uh, I'm not as familiar with the judge's- Okay ... appropriation. I've studied the district attorney's appropriation and can confirm the latest number in there is 175,000, which is a 35 to $40,000 state raise. And our local officials, they will appreciate that. That is money they will not have to bear. Will you yield for one more? Yes. Isn't it true that because this bill will limit supplements for elected DAs-

580. 3:47:44

     But won't limit su- local supplements for ADAs. That's what you said a moment ago. What we are setting up is a scenario where local governments will be free, as they should be, to invest in public safety for ADAs and raise their pay, but not for DAs, so that when there is a vacancy in the circuits where DAs currently get supplements because their local governments have chosen to invest in that public safety, isn't it true that those ADAs who would be the most qualified that we would want to run for DA to take over those offices will be financially disincentivized to do so because they will have to take a pay cut to take a higher elevated job, uh, which in metro counties sometimes means running an office of 300 people compared to other counties that might have offices of 20.

581. 3:48:29

     Isn't that true? No, that is not the case. I would direct everyone's attention to page seven, section five. The Senate did add a schedule for ADA pay that was approved by the District Attorneys Association. Over 40 district attorneys have signed their name requesting us to approve this, and even more persuasively, over 40 public defenders have said, "Please approve this. This will, uh, increase the standard of pay for the state judicial circuit officials." And there are 100 ADAs who get paid more than their boss now, and this bill will fix that.

582. 3:49:05

     Well, now I have to ask you to yield for one more. There are others who would like to ask questions. M- Madam Chair, I would just ask, this is, there was a misrepresentation I'd really like to ask the speaker to clarify. I don't think he meant to mislead the body. Final question, please. I- Isn't it true that, yes, the, the budget gives an increase for ADAs, but what this bill will do is limit local supplements for DAs, but not limit local supplements for ADAs. And so local governments will likely continue to supplement ADA pay so that it will go up higher, but the DA pay will not continue to have those same local supplements.

583. 3:49:37

     Isn't that true? I think that the locals will appreciate the fact that in section five of this bill, we have increased ADA, uh, figures on the state level in addition to the boss, the district attorney, and it gives more uniformity and order to the district attorney and assistant district attorney pay across the state. The chair recognizes, uh, the majority leader for a question. Thank you, Madam Speaker. Does the gentleman yield? I do. Sir, is it not true that DAs are state officials that deserve a parity pay system across the state similar to the system in which we put in place for judges in legislation last year?

584. 3:50:18

     That is exactly true. A- and sir, do you yield for one more question? I do. Is it not true that over, in preceding years, we have increased assistant DA pay year, uh, year to year over time, but we have not, uh, increased the elected DAs pay over that time, and your proposed legislation here is a means by which we can address that disparity that has accrued over time? That's right. In 2008, uh, chairman of judiciary worked hard for a DA pay increase at that.

585. 3:50:52

     The Great Recession hit. In 2015, the state of Georgia had a DA pay increase. The DAs have been patient for over a decade now. This bill locks in a sound compensation formula tied to federal judges, which is, that's the top of the legal profession. We're tying our DAs to federal judge pay along with the appropriations process. Chair recognizes Chairman Parsons for a question. Thank you, Speaker. Does the gentleman yield? I will. Well, isn't it true that everything you said makes sense to me, but I'm not a lawyer and I don't have any question like the previous questions you had.

586. 3:51:29

     My question is, um, does the state pay public defenders, and if so, have they had a raise any time in the last few years? We had testimony from numerous public defenders in House Judiciary that they support this bill. That's because recently by statute, we have tied the chief public defender's pay to the district attorney's pay, so they like this. This will increase both chief public defender and district attorney pay. They are heavily supportive of it. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

587. 3:51:59

     Chair recognizes Representative Ford for a question. Does the gentleman yield? I do. Um, is it not true that this bill will be beneficial for rural Georgia, um, where many areas are considered attorney deserts? It will, but it'll, it'll benefit DAs all across the state, uh, including in South Georgia. Chair, I- I yield the well. Well, the gentleman has yielded the well. On the gentleman's motion that the House agree to the Senate substitute to House Bill 1020, all those in favor will vote yes, all those opposed will vote no, and the clerk will unlock the machines.

588. 3:53:09

     Have all members voted?

589. 3:53:16

     Have all members voted? If so, the clerk will lock the machine. On the gentleman's motion, the yays are 100, the nays are 55, and the House has agreed to the Senate substitute to HB 1020.

590. 3:53:38

     Senate Bill 587 will be postponed until the next legislative day. Senate Bill 23 will be postponed to the next legislative day. Senate Bill 446 will be postponed until the next legislative day.

591. 3:54:18

     We're moving on to afternoon orders. The chair recognizes Represen- Representative Stinson for an afternoon order.

592. 3:54:39

     Chair recognizes Chairman Dickey for an afternoon order.

593. 3:54:51

     Thank you, uh, Madam Speaker. Um, I just wanted to call my livestock, house livestock, uh, team up. Um, Angie, um, Bethany, uh, Trey Kelley, Chas Cannon, I think Teddy Reese is gone. But this team, um, showed, um, what did we show, cattle?

594. 3:55:14

     Cattle.

595. 3:55:15

     Uh, this year down at Perry. We got a great facility, uh, at Perry for our young people, uh, all across our state to show animals. And, uh, thank you for what, uh, this, um, this body does to support the, uh, Perry Agri-Center. And, uh, this team was not successful this year. The Senate has won this trophy. I had to go steal it from Chairman Goodman's office, but I wanted to, uh, let the, let the House know how good these, uh, folks, uh, showed this year and successful.

596. 3:55:51

     We're gonna get this trophy in, in the House office next year. Teddy Reese won the grand champion, though, and, uh, I just really, he had a great animal.

597. 3:56:03

     And we all have great kids.

598. 3:56:04

     And we had great kids. Great, great young people, so proud of them, uh, raising those animals, uh, and showing them across our state and at Perry. So thank y'all, uh, for what you do, and we're gonna, we're gonna have a winning team next year.

599. 3:56:19

     Yes.

600. 3:56:19

     Great. Go Ag Week.

601. 3:56:29

     Yes.

602. 3:56:29

     Chair recognizes Representative Stinson for an afternoon order.

603. 3:56:37

     Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I'm inviting other women to please join me.

604. 3:56:48

     Colleagues, I rise today to recognize a remarkable Georgian, a familiar voice to many across our state, Martha Zoller-

605. 3:57:00

     Yay

606. 3:57:00

     ... of Gainesville. As this body knows, Martha suffered a heart attack on February 5th. Thanks to the swift response of her church family, the Hall County Fire Department, and the exceptional team at Northeast Georgia Health System, she received immediate care and began a strong recovery. Today, I'm pleased to share that Martha's not only back at work, but she has embraced this moment as a calling. She is now using her platform to champion heart health, encouraging Georgians to know the signs, take symptoms seriously, and prioritize their well-being.

607. 3:57:37

     Martha has been a force in Georgia's civic landscape, an author, columnist, former congressional candidate, and the leading voice of North Georgia's most influential news and ta- talk outlets. Her contributions have earned her numerous honors, including being named Woman of the Year in 2024. Martha can be seen weekly on The Georgia Game. The Georgia Game is Fox 5 Atlanta's weekly public affairs program, the longest-running program of its kind in Atlanta.

608. 3:58:08

     Today, we honor Martha's recovery. We honor Martha's return and her commitment to helping others protect their health. We wish Martha, she's on the screen, we wish Martha continued strength as she carries this message forward of prioritizing your health, paying attention to your body, and taking good care of your heart. So congratulations, Martha Zoller. Today is your day in the Georgia House of Representatives.

609. 3:58:39

     Thank you. Thank you, Madam Speaker. Thank you, ladies, for joining me.

610. 3:58:46

     Chair recognizes Representative Ali for a afternoon order.

611. 3:58:54

     Thank you, Madam Speaker. Members, on the screen is 13-year-old Alicia and 11-year-old Sean, siblings that are in the foster care system that are looking to be adopted. Uh, both enjoy Taylor Swift's music and Selena Gomez's music. They enjoy watching animated movies by Pixar, including Frozen, Inside Out, and Big Hero 6. And both are amazing at board games, making me afraid to compete against them. However, we can make sure that they are adopted at itsmyturnnow.dhs.ga.gov. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

612. 3:59:24

     I yield the floor.

613. 3:59:28

     All right. The House needs to recognize, uh, two birthdays. Yesterday, everyone, um, give a shout-out to Chairman Brian Prince, who had a birthday yesterday.

614. 3:59:45

     And today, uh, not a better way to celebrate your birthday than, uh, for Floor Leader Wil Way. Today is his birthday.

615. 4:00:11

     We have a couple of announcements. The chair recognizes Chairman McDonald for an announcement.

616. 4:00:22

     Intergovernmental Coordination will have a meeting at 1:00 PM tomorrow. That is Thursday. It's our first meeting, so it's the day that I'm gonna learn how to run Intergovernmental Coordination. So 1:00 PM in room 341 tomorrow, Thursday.

617. 4:00:38

     Chair recognizes Representative Buckner for an announcement.

618. 4:00:47

     Thank you. Tomorrow, even though it's a committee day, will be the last meeting of Working Families, and they are planning to serve lunch. So if you're here for committee meetings and want lunch, come join us in room 310 of the Legislative Office Building. We'll talk about the good, bad, and ugly. Bills, not people.

619. 4:01:06

     Chair recognizes Chairman Gunter for an announcement.

620. 4:01:10

     Thank you, Madam Speaker. Uh, House, uh, Judiciary will meet in 132 upon adjournment. Um, it may be a short meeting. Uh, we have a bill to discuss, so thank you.

621. 4:01:22

     Chair recognizes Chairman Anderson for an announcement.

622. 4:01:26

     Thank you, Madam Speaker. Uh, House Governmental Affairs will meet tomorrow at 11:00 in room 606. Thank you.

623. 4:01:34

     The Majority Leader is recognized for a motion.

624. 4:01:38

     Thank you, Madam Speaker. I move that this House stand adjourned until Friday, March 27th, 2026 at 10:00 AM.

625. 4:01:46

     On the motion of the Majority Leader that this House stand adjourned until 10:00 AM on Friday, March 27th, 2026, all those in favor will say aye.

626. 4:01:58

     Aye.

627. 4:01:59

     All those opposed will say no.

628. 4:02:02

     No.

629. 4:02:02

     The ayes clearly have it, and the House is adjourned.