The Parent Press: 2020 Session 2 Week Report

The second week of the 2020 Legislative Session is behind us.  I hope you are making plans to attend my Town Hall next week where I will give you all of the details! Read on for summations of some of what the Senate has been working on.

Business Courts

Changes to the recently-established Georgia Business Court are currently under consideration in the Senate.  The issue of whether both parties to litigation had to agree to appear before the business court has been a sticking point since discussions began on this legislation (the creation of which Georgia voters approved in a Constitutional Amendment referendum in 2018).  I supported creating the business court, which is supposed to help sort out complex business disputes more efficiently than the regular courts can. On the issue of one party being able to demand the lawsuit be heard in business court (instead of the local court) versus both parties having to agree, I would rather it be both parties unless the legislation is very clear that this court is limited to corporate entities with fairly similar sophistication.  If consumers or much smaller businesses can be dragged in without consent, I am more concerned. Right now the legislation seems to allow for a wide range of parties to be dragged in without their consent, so I’m opposed this change.  

Right to Harm or Right to Farm?

A controversial bill that deals with property rights and environmental issues, HB 545, is under consideration.  It didn’t pass last year, but it’s back again.  This legislation would make it more difficult for property owners in (mostly) rural areas to take action against nearby large-scale agricultural operations or others who cause a potential nuisance. The bill would alter Georgia’s laws such that property owners cannot sue nearby operations after one year of their presence in that area, even if they began the objectionable behavior (like spraying hog excrement, as happened in the case in N.C. that inspired this bill) only after they had already been there one year. It also prevents local property owners from taking action against one of these operations if it is any more than five miles away, even though this number is rather arbitrary.

Legislators in favor of this have defended it as “protecting” the state’s agriculture industry, but in reality this bill grants large agricultural corporations a free pass to wreak havoc in our communities. This effort to prevent citizens from filing complaints against these operations could mean that communities affected by polluted water, loud noises, or strong smells could have no course of action to take against the creators of these problems. We already have a court system that handles these exact issues and I see no reason to deliberately limit the ability of Georgians to be able to stand up to corporations or operations who negatively affect their quality of life at home.

Dual Enrollment 

On Tuesday, the Senate passed legislation limiting the popular dual enrollment program, otherwise known as HB 444, a bill I have concerns about. The main goal of this bill is to cap students to 30 credit hours of college courses in high school and mostly limits the program to 11th and 12th grade students (with a grandfather clause for students already in the program). If students opt to take more than 30 hours, they will have to pay. The bill was voted on 34-18 and will now go back to the House.

I voted no, because Georgia has not systematically gathered and evaluated data on the program to determine exactly how it is working and who is using it, which should be Step 1 in implementing changes.  The rush to change it stems from the fact that the costs of the program have risen rapidly and with a budget shortfall, the Governor’s office was rushing to constrain the program. We should more fully understand the cost-benefit analysis of the dual enrollment program before making major cuts that can affect a child’s education - particularly with the cost of higher education unaffordable for many families, despite an economy where having post-secondary education is becoming more critical. 

Other states have implemented requirements for their dual enrollment programs that data on students and outcomes be collected. I believe Georgia should take this common-sense step with regard to our dual enrollment program, and am in the process of drafting legislation to that effect.  Therefore, I am in the process of drafting legislation that would make that a requirement.  

HB 327/ Charlotte’s BilL 

A bipartisan bill (SB 327) (otherwise known as “Charlotte’s Bill”) was filed that will require nursing mothers are allowed time and a place to pump breast milk during work to pump their breast milk (not including the restroom). This bill was inspired by a Georgia public school teacher who was not allowed to pump breast milk at work. As a mother, I know that breastfeeding is the best option for both mother and baby and mothers can only realistically continue after returning to work if the support systems are in place that encourage pumping.  I look forward to supporting this effort!

Ballots instead of Barcodes!

As many of you know, Georgia is implementing the new voting machines (stay tuned for an announcement of a town hall I am planning where you can see a demonstration).  The Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, just proposed a rule that recounts in close elections will take place by simply rescanning the ballots in the machines. And this means just rescanning barcodes.  This a huge disappointment, as well as a bait and switch, as he has said numerous times that the human-readable text would actually be the vote of record for recounts. We are in an era where we know foreign governments have and are attempting to hack our elections. And Georgia is giving its residents no assurances by not physically comparing the human-readable vote to the machine vote count. As mentioned in the AJC article, the State Election Board will be voting on this proposal February 28th and taking comments until then. 

Other News From the Senate This Week!

Controversial Resolutions on the Senate Floor Monday

The General Assembly is scheduled to vote on a Resolution condemning the impeachment proceedings against President Trump next week.  This is a waste of time because it has no real impact, but I expect it to pass on party lines.

Another Resolution supports the rights of the Iranian people to protest actions of their  governmental regime and support democracy, which is fine, but then it throws in that Nancy Pelosi and Democrats are complicit in the regime’s acts of violence because they are “obstructing” Trump’s military and diplomatic efforts. Sigh! It would be preferable if my Republican colleagues stayed focused on issues facing Georgians that we can actually move the needle on. 

Horse Racing Bill on Thin Ice

The Senate Majority Leader, Mike Dugan, is indicating that there isn’t support for horse racing in the Republican caucus and it was not allowed a vote after a hearing in committee.  After polling many of you, I am sure that’s just fine with most of my constituents. 

As always -- thank you for the opportunity to represent you in the State Senate! It is a great honor.