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House Transportation Committee

House Transportation Committee, March 31, 2026

2025-2026 Regular Session · 406 CLOB · 24 min

This is a machine transcript of the General Assembly's video, made by a speech-recognition model. It is not an official record and can mishear words, names, and numbers. Speakers are not identified. The video is the record: every timestamp links to the moment it plays.

Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: the summaries Georgia Commons wrote, under headings that name them, then the whole transcript with its times. View raw is the transcript alone.

The video is the General Assembly's, played from its Vimeo channel. Select any time below to play that moment. Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Agenda

Summary

Written by an AI model (gpt-6.1-sol) from the transcript. It is not part of the record, and the video is what was said.

The committee approved SR 624, a package of road and intersection dedications, and HR 1894, a proposal combining studies of road construction costs and utility-related transportation delays. Both received voice votes with no opposition heard. The chair also announced a possible meeting the next day on a Senate proposal to combine the ATL and GRTA, but no action was taken on that proposal during this meeting.

Bills discussed (2)

Each account covers the stretch of the meeting it names. The bill's number is said in that stretch, unless it was the only bill on a committee's agenda.

SR 624. Officer Drew Haynes Brown Memorial Intersection; Cobb County; dedicate

From 0:16:53 · turns 5 to 36

The chair presented SR 624 as a Senate road-naming resolution to which House dedications had been added. The chair said the package contained 38 House dedications and nine Senate dedications, and asked members to leave the Senate provisions unchanged. The chair also described plans to divide the floor presentation among members covering memorials and other honorees. The committee approved the resolution by voice vote, with no opposition heard. Later, a committee member asked why an expected dedication was missing from the list. The chair explained that it had already been sent to the Senate separately.

HR 1894. House Study Committee on the Basic Building Blocks of Transportation; create

From 0:20:21 · turns 15 to 26

The chair explained that HR 1894 would combine two study committee proposals: one examining road construction materials and costs, and another examining rights of way and utility issues. Referring to an earlier transportation presentation, the chair said basic road construction material costs had risen 40 percent, well above inflation. The chair said the study would examine why costs had increased and whether anything could be done. A member involved in the utility proposal said Georgia expected to invest more than $7 billion over the next year and pointed to work along State Route 400 as an example of projects requiring utility relocation. That member said constituents reported delays and that discussions with transportation, Department of Transportation and utility groups showed a need for further study. The chair said the resolution could reach the Rules Committee Thursday morning before the session ended. Members voted in favor by voice vote, with no opposition heard, and the chair moved on.

Transcript

41 turns. Select a time to play that moment of the video.

  1. 0:13:54

    We'll get, we'll get started in just one minute. We do have a sign-up sheet, but I don't think anybody needs to sign up for it, unless they wanted to. No. Josh might want to.

  2. 0:14:10

    It's 8:00,

  3. 0:15:01

    so let's go ahead and, uh, bring our meeting for the House Transportation Committee in order. The no- notification that we do have a quorum here at 8:00 in the morning. I thank y'all very much for being here bright and early. Um, I wrote down this morning, last meeting, then I put a question mark. I was thinking about it's the last meeting really of a committee in these rooms. You know, 'cause, uh, we went on a tour of the new building a couple days ago, and we'll be a- across the street, you know, next year.

  4. 0:15:33

    And, uh, so just be starting saying goodbye, but don't say goodbye yet, because we may have a meeting tomorrow to look at a Senate proposal that, uh, Senate Leader Anna Vitardi has been working on on, um, combining the ATL and, um, slipped my mind. GRTA. GRTA. Uh, they've been working on it. I will credit Josh and, um, Jenna for taking what they came up with in Transportation Senate last week.

  5. 0:16:06

    And w- we wanna have a meeting just so y'all will be aware of it, and so that we would have had a committee meeting before that could see the House floor on Thursday. It's, it's extensive. There's a lot to it, but I just really wanna credit, uh, Josh for coming in here the last week, spending a tremendous amount of time trying to make sure it fits and it does what we wanna do. And I thank you, Josh, for your time in working on that. But I real, I real think, but I just wanted to warn you, so it could be sometime tomorrow.

  6. 0:16:36

    I'm gonna meet with our leader, uh, this, in just a little bit to kind of figure out what time, what we wanna do to do that. I'll let you know just as quick as I can. That one's sort of a bit out of my hands. Okay, so first up, a road naming bill. Uh, Senate Resolution 624. Now, I'm gonna call out somebody. I hadn't seen hide nor hair of this man till today. Representative Gilliard, where you at? I'm here. We're glad to see you at a transportation meeting.

  7. 0:17:07

    I don't know that we've seen you here before. Maybe you have and I haven't. I, I may have not noticed. Chairman said you needed eight, so I, I thought I'd be a part of it. Oh, well, thank you. I appreciate you doing that. But now, Representative has four road namings in this, 'cause I thought that was why you were here. Might be. Might be. Well, um, so I'll tell you, Committee, as you're looking, I see y'all looking at the, um, the summary sheet that you see that, um, Danny has put together. I just want just a minute as we look at these.

  8. 0:17:40

    I wanna recognize the work of two or three people. You know, Parker Hamilton. Stand up, Parker. Okay, when you do a road dedication, you gotta have a clearance letter. He's the man. There's 38 of these on here. Thank you, Parker. Jenna and Danny, who, who we know, we all know very well, do all the rest. Putting all these together, checking them, getting the, getting the dates, getting the forms, getting everything together, and I just wanna give them a round of applause.

  9. 0:18:11

    These two ladies are just superheroes.

  10. 0:18:17

    But like I said, there are 38 from the House. There are nine from the Senate. And, you know, we can't do, mess with what the Senate has, y'all. You've gotta leave theirs alone 'cause we want them to leave ours alone. But you look and, and so what there are, there, um, I think there... How many memorials? There's, I think it's 20, and then the rest of them, there's... No, there's 30, or I forget. I don't remember. We wrote it down yesterday, memorials, and divided it up. And what we're gonna do on the House floor, the first one we're gonna present is, uh, Bill Fincher will do the Mandi Ballinger one.

  11. 0:18:52

    And that's, uh, he'll, we'll let him do, you know, that's gonna be fun. That's gonna be Bill's first speaking from the whale. And then we're going to let Lauren do the memorials, and Brian Prince will do the honorees, so, 'cause there's a lot of them. And so we like to say just a few minutes about each one, and that's what we'll do. And I got that cleared with Speaker yesterday. So looking at, anybody have any questions on SR 624? That's the Senate bill that's come over and we've added our road namings to.

  12. 0:19:28

    Okay, do I need a motion? So moved. So moved. Got a second? Second. Could all those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, measure passes. Oh, Lauren. Yes, sir. Really quick. Um, Mr. Chairman, Committee, um-

  13. 0:19:46

    I want, y'all know the passion that Chairman Jasperse puts into, into this road name. You hear it all year, and this is one of his, uh, most precious honors that he gets to do as chairman. And so I just, I just wanna thank you at, from the, from the committee and, and from our friends that went in Transportation for your passion with the road naming and what you do for transportation. It's, it's clearly evident that, that this is, this is your passion of, of love is, is transportation.

  14. 0:20:13

    Yes.

  15. 0:20:13

    So that's what we just wanna say thank you.

  16. 0:20:14

    Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Appreciate that. Okay, next up, you look at HR1894. Now if you recall, Chairman McDonald had a bill. We passed, uh, yeah, a, a study committee on looking at issues around our right of ways and utilities issues. And what we did, we have had-- We're combining two study committees. The one I'm adding is on building blocks of road construction.

  17. 0:20:48

    And when I-- And, you know, some of y'all will get picked on that one, I'm sure. But all of us know that when Russell McMurray was here earlier this year, we looked at the cost of just the basic materials to do road construction, up 40%. It's way above inflation, and we're looking at that. We'll be looking at that this summer, fall, whenever we get-- When, probably this fall when we get, get to it af- during the election season. But we're gonna look at why and what we can do about it, if there's anything we can do about it. And the same with, uh, Lauren's thing on right of way.

  18. 0:21:20

    Lauren, do you wanna s- Would you like to speak just a moment on yours?

  19. 0:21:24

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I mean, this idea is, as we look at what we're about to invest in the state of Georgia, probably north of $7 billion over the next year. You can see projects even starting up 400 with that investment, uh, uh, for that toll expansion. And doing all this, it's, there's going to be some, some monies that are gonna be, uh, within the, the five-mile radius of 400 being spent, and, and course, getting utilities moved, and that infrastructure's very important. And, and course, we all hear f- from our constituents about those delays.

  20. 0:21:58

    So this study committee's just something that we've, we, we kinda threw a bill out and worked with, uh, three different, uh, groups, being our, uh, transportation group, our DOT, and our utilities. And, and we kind of, we, we saw there needs to be s- some work even further, so the study committee's what we came up with. Uh, I'll sit down over, in the off time to, uh, as three groups and, or four groups to, to talk about this and hopefully prepare for, uh, our tomorrow in transportation.

  21. 0:22:28

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So take a look at that. You'll see the resolution there in your hand, House Resolution 1894. And we will have-- Someone asked me just a few minutes ago, "Do you have time to get this done before sine die?" We sure do. That's why we're doing this today. It'll be out in rules on Thursday morning, so we'll have plenty of time, 'cause we'll be here plenty of time on Thursday. So, uh, we look at have a-- Do I have a motion to pass House Resolution 1894?

  22. 0:22:59

    Motion to pass.

  23. 0:22:59

    Motion. We got a second?

  24. 0:23:01

    Second.

  25. 0:23:01

    Thank you, ma'am. All those in favor of House Resolution 1894 say aye.

  26. 0:23:06

    Aye.

  27. 0:23:06

    Any opposed? Thank you. So I, finally, I'll let you know about the meet- Number 12. Excuse me, I'm sorry. Mr. Seabaugh.

  28. 0:23:17

    Sorry, Mr. Chairman.

  29. 0:23:17

    Mr. Floor Leader.

  30. 0:23:19

    Does this have all the right road namings on them?

  31. 0:23:21

    Yeah.

  32. 0:23:21

    'Cause I don't, I don't see mine for John Williams on here.

  33. 0:23:24

    That would've been one we sent over earlier to the Senate.

  34. 0:23:27

    Okay.

  35. 0:23:28

    It's in the Senate.

  36. 0:23:28

    Thank you.

  37. 0:23:29

    Yes, sir.

  38. 0:23:32

    Okay, any other questions? Then we'll let you know about the meeting tomorrow since I have another meeting here in just a little bit. But I appreciate y'all being here at 8:00 and, uh, wish us good today and, and on Thursday. It's gonna be two long days, but I hope your bills pass and you do well. Without any further ado, our meeting's adjourned. Thank you.

  39. 0:24:03

    Chairman Powell, good to see you.

  40. 0:24:06

    We just named, we just named I-75 after you.

  41. 0:24:09

    No, he was-

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