Georgia CommonsHouse Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee
House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, April 1, 2026
2025-2026 Regular Session · 506 CLOB · 21 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.
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 took up SB 454 and approved it as amended by a voice vote, with no opposition heard. The chair explained that the changes would make exterior lockboxes at schools optional rather than required and remove an exception that would no longer be needed. No substantive questions or further debate followed.
Bills discussed (1)
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.
SB 454. Regulation of Fire and Other Hazards; use of temporary door locking devices in public buildings during certain emergency situations; authorize
From 0:18:31 · turns 9 to 14
The chair said SB 454 combined two legislators’ bills and described changes to its school lockbox provision. The chair explained that replacing a requirement with permission would allow, rather than require, elementary and secondary schools to install at least one exterior lockbox. The chair also said the changes removed an exception for schools whose governing bodies had implemented a documented, formal process, because that exception was unnecessary once installation became optional. A committee member moved to adopt the bill as amended, and another member seconded the motion. No substantive questions or further discussion followed. The motion passed by voice vote, with no opposition heard.
Transcript
16 turns. Select a time to play that moment of the video.
- 0:17:07
All right, everybody. We are, uh, we're going to go ahead and get started here in just a moment. Um-
- 0:17:14
Please view it on the
- 0:17:16
First of all, I'd like to thank all of y'all for being here, um, on a off day. And, uh, I'd like to start off by saying that, um, now that we're all here, we're not actually gonna have a meeting. So, thank y'all for coming.
- 0:17:30
That should be an April Fool's Day.
- 0:17:32
Thank you. Thank you for playing along, Mr. Skandalis.
- 0:17:38
My, uh, my wife and kids had one earlier this morning. They called me very first thing with one that, that I didn't think was funny at all, but-
- 0:17:47
They said you were good-looking?
- 0:17:50
Yeah, worse than that. They, yeah, they, uh, they played me pretty good, so I figured I had to do it back to somebody. Uh, Chairman Werkheiser is going to open us up in a word of prayer, and you are on, sir.
- 0:18:01
You mean make a motion and pray, or just pray? Our Father, we thank you for this opportunity. We thank you for giving us breath, and we thank you for all the things that you give us that we don't even recognize, and thank you for the opportunity to serve this state, and we just pray that we would do things in the best interest of the citizens of this state. And we just ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
- 0:18:26
Thank you very much. All right. We are, uh, gonna be dealing with Senate Bill 454. Um, and Chairman Williams is here, and, uh, Representative Ridley is here, and they have the, the, essentially, t- their two bills were combined into this. What we're gonna be changing, if you'll look on page three- Um, in section two, what we've done is we've taken out some, um, language and changed on line 61, if you see where it says, um, "Elementary and secondary school in the state may provide for the installation at each school one l- one of at least, of at least one exterior lockbox." Um, that used to say shall.
- 0:19:16
The exemption language that was taken out, uh, in the old bill was from line 60 to 64, and it basically talked about unless a local board of education or other governing body had implemented a documented and a formal process, um, then they would have re- been required to do this. But now, since we're making it a may, it don't make sense to have that, uh, uh, exception language that was in there before. So that's been changed. That's all the changes in the bill. Um, and so do we have questions? Do you have a question?
- 0:19:46
No, I'd just like to make a motion that we, uh, adopt as amended. Second.
- 0:19:53
Okay. I have a motion and a second. Anybody got any questions, any discussion about any of this? Any comments from the authors? I think they're all aware and all good with the, the changes here, so all right. Seeing no further discussion, all in favor say aye.
- 0:20:09
Aye.
- 0:20:09
Any opposed, same sign. All right, thank y'all very much. And I would like to say this, this will for sure be the last meeting we have of this committee, God willing, uh, this session. So, uh, I wanna thank Michael, and I wanna thank Megan, and I wanna thank Ann for, uh, helping us. They've done a great job.
- 0:20:31
All right. Thank y'all all very much. I appreciate your, uh, your help during the session, and, uh, we'll see you next year. Thanks.