Parent Press Week 3 of the 2025 Legislative Session
Do you want to make a difference? Add your voice to be heard during the 2025 Legislative Session. Come hear from and speak with your legislators on Sunday, February 2 at 6PM at Glenn Memorial Church. Representatives Crawford, Draper and Oliver will give you the scoop on what's happening in the House and I will share an update from the Senate.
Click on the link to ask submit questions in advance.
Safe Gun Storage - Again!
I file safe gun storage legislation in the Senate every year. Every year, my bill goes unheard in committee. But, I am not giving up! Representative Michelle Au has filed a similar bill in the House and she made some progress last year when her bill was heard even though it was too late for the legislation to make it to the House floor for a vote or cross over to the Senate.
I filed SB 49. What can YOU do? The bill has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee on which I serve. Help me to advocate and lobby Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to give this simple piece of legislation a hearing so we can work seriously on keeping our children safe from guns, the #1 child-killer.
Making gun storage the law sends a message and enables us to enforce responsible gun ownership. As I said to the Georgia Recorder:
“By not saying ‘That is not something that you are legally allowed to do under our state’s code,’ by that not being there, that sends a message. That sends a message, like, it’s just fine to leave your gun lying around kids. So that, to me, is one of the reasons that it is important to have it stated in Georgia code that it is not legal to leave a gun around minors.”
“That is not to say that other ways to get at that problem don’t have merit, but I do believe that part of what our laws do is they represent our values as a society, and if those laws are so at counter purposes with the way you want people to behave, then you need to look at that piece of it, too."
Click HERE to see the full article.g
Bipartisanship in Action on Healthcare
We are working hard to work with our Republican colleagues to get more Georgians insured. We are still a long way from crossing the finish line, but there is hope. Our caucus is engaged and energized with new leadership and new ideas.
Four Republican Chairmen, who mostly represent rural communities where hospitals have struggled to stay open, have already joined us in signing a proposed bill. I will keep you posted as the legislative process unfolds. I am hopeful, but Gov. Kemp is still committed to his Pathways program that so far has spent $58 million and insured only about 4,200 people -- at a cost of $13,360 per person. That money is going to consultants, instead of paying for healthcare for Georgians. Despite this abysmal failure, the Governor is against expanding Medicaid. Having Republican signatories when that is well-known is a huge victory!
You can read the news report HERE.
State Budget
Passing the state budget is the single most important task of the the Georgia legislature, and in fact our only Constitutionally-required job. The Governor creates and proposes the budget and the legislature evaluates the proposal and make changes. Normally, this begins when agency heads come to speak to the Appropriations Committee for a week of hearings. However, the Senate hearings scheduled for last week were summarily cancelled by Republican leaders due to the snow, with no plan to reschedule these hearings. To me, this represents an appalling ratcheting up of the Governor's and Republicans' desires to control the budget process and remove it from scrutiny.
The Governor is asking for $1 Billion to fund his one-time tax rebates while our state's needs for childcare, transportation, law enforcement, education, disaster relief and more are mushrooming, especially as the President is cutting off funds and firing federal workers.
Budgets are always politically shaped and values-driven. By keeping state revenues flat for the past 5 years, the Governor has hoarded deployable funds in an undesignated surplus with a balance of $11.5 Billion. Claiming to be fiscally responsible, the Governor is not investing your money in our state and our families.
Our Democratic caucus is in the minority without the power to drive the agenda. But we are working watchdogs, analyzing and asking tough questions. I encourage you to pay attention to how your tax dollars are being allocated. To learn more, see the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute's overview.
