The Parent Press: Post-Session Virtual Town Hall Wednesday! & Session Update
The Georgia General Assembly’s legislative session resumed on Monday, June 15th, and we adjourned Sine Die Friday, June 26.
Post-Session Town Hall with Rep. Bee Nguyen Wednesday July 1 - Join Us!
Hate Crimes - HB 426
In a positive turn of events, the Georgia State Senate passed through our chamber a strong version of HB 426, a bill to establish punishments for hate crimes, on June 23rd. The passage of this bill is something I and many other Democrats have been advocating for years, long before the tragic incidents with Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks. Given these current circumstances, it finally became evident to the Republican majority that waiting any longer was simply unacceptable. In a time when bipartisanship feels increasingly difficult, on this issue human decency prevailed, and HB 426 passed the Senate with a vote of 47-6. It also passed the House with bi-partisan support.
This bill’s journey has been well-storied. The original HB 426 was introduced in 2019 and passed the Republican-controlled House more than a year ago with some bipartisan support (Democrats supported it more than Republicans did). But Republicans in the Senate were not eager to put it to a vote in committee, and before the General Assembly went on a break due to the pandemic, it seemed as though they were going to attempt to bury it and prevent it from reaching the floor. Over the course of our hiatus, the protests in favor of civil rights swept throughout the country, and in Georgia, thousands of people - many of whom have never before participated in the political process - mobilized to rally in support of HB 426. My office received nearly 5,000 emails on this topic, and I couldn’t be more pleased about that.
Last week, though, Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan and other Republicans announced preposterous amendments to the bill aimed at including law enforcement as a protected class under HB 426. Senator Harold V. Jones II and I fought vigorously to oppose these changes in a Senate Judiciary Committee fight Friday June 19, but it still passed through the committee on a party-line vote of 5-3. Suddenly, a bill Democrats and progressive advocates had been championing for weeks became our enemy.
I encouraged many of you not to give up hope and to continue contacting Republican officials. If there’s one thing to remember about legislative politics, it’s that nothing is certain until a final vote is had. Advocates for justice yet again mobilized themselves, showing no exhaustion, and successfully pressured the Republicans into dropping their absurd law enforcement provisions from the bill. On Tuesday, the Senate debated the bill, and it passed overwhelmingly that afternoon. Moments after our chamber erupted into celebration, HB 426 was returned to the House for a final vote, as the Senate bill made some minor changes to their original. In the House, it passed by a margin of 127-38 -- a much larger margin than its original passage, with many more Republicans joining the Democrats -- and on June 26th, Governor Brian Kemp officially signed it into law. You can watch a video of him doing that here.
There are so many things I want to say, but first and foremost, I want to express my immense gratitude to all of my constituents. I’ve served in the General Assembly for eight years now, but I’ve never before seen such incredible passion and fierce advocacy from the people of District 42. Harbor no illusions: the only reason Republicans caved - both on putting it to a floor vote and on removing law enforcement provisions from the bill - is because of advocates like you. They knew that they could not possibly go back home and face their voters after the outcry of support from ordinary folks around the state. Your perseverance won this battle.
Lastly, I want to remind everyone of the changes that are possible in our state. It’s always difficult to pass legislation as the Minority party in the chamber, and it can be quite frustrating at times when Republicans deliberately block Democratic bills from reaching the floor or even committee. But HB 426 stands as a testament that even our very divided system of government can produce amazing results. The bill we passed out of the legislature is a strong, progressive bill, even if Republicans are unwilling to admit it. It protects not just race, religion, gender (including the rights of transgender individuals), and national origin, but also sexual orientation and disability status. We know that HB 426 will not fix all of our state’s problems. Today, though, let’s celebrate the accomplishment of a goal decades in the making. Rejoice in the knowledge that we, as a state, came together and found our common humanity. Take comfort in knowing that Georgia’s future is brighter than its past.
And then, tomorrow, we get back to work.
HB 838 Regarding Police Protection
Not all news this week is good news. Unfortunately, a bad piece of legislation, HB 838, also passed the Senate this week. Many of the provisions that were removed from HB 426 about protecting police still found refuge in this bill. Among its language, it allows police officers to “bring a civil suit against any person… for damages, either pecuniary or otherwise, suffered during the officer’s performance of official duties.” It also claims that anyone who commits “bias motivated intimidation” against an officer “shall be punished by imprisonment of not less than one nor more than five years, a fine of not more 72 than $5,000.00, or both.”
This legislation was a political compromise to get the hate crimes bill through. It is offensive that many, or even most, Republicans would not or could not vote for Hate Crimes without the political cover of also making police officers a protected class. Police officers did not suffer centuries of state-enforced discrimination, and have not been a targeted, oppressed minority. Worse, in 2017 we already put special additional protections for police into Georgia law. Now, as much as I respect and appreciate cops, equating them with groups who have struggled for equality for years, especially Black Georgians, is truly scandalous.
However, given the rush to pass HB 838, there are some serious drafting problems with the legislation. It could permit a person who kills a police officer for being an officer to receive a one-to-five year sentence. So, it isn’t even protective of police officers -- it actually makes killing them a lesser offense. This article has more details. I urge you to contact Gov. Kemp and ask him to veto HB 838.
The State Budget
In the end, cuts worth 10% of the state budget, or $2.2. Billion, were passed. This included just under a billion dollars in cuts to education. None of the various proposals on the table to raise revenue, including something basic like moving our tobacco tax to the national average (which would have netted over $600 million) were passed. I find it unconscionable that our state’s leaders are keeping our tobacco tax absurdly low while cutting funding for schools at the same time. As a result, this budget reflects values I cannot agree with and I voted NO both times it was before us. You can read more about the budget’s specifics and amounts cut here.
DeKalb Elections Process
Several of you have reached out about your voting and election concerns so I will be working with Senators Anderson, Butler, and Harrell to hold a Senate DeKalb Delegation hearing about the election concerns specifically related to DeKalb. Please stay tuned for more details in mid-July.
One bit of good news: State Farm Arena has just been announced as the state’s largest voting precinct, and will be operational beginning July 20 for the August 11 run-offs! Don’t forget - we have runoffs in DeKalb, including for Sheriff and County Commission District 6.
HB 1243 Regarding DeKalb Ethics Board
Many of you have worked toward strong ethics reform in DeKalb County for years, and I have so appreciated your efforts along the way. It is because of advocates like you that today we were able to reach a point where we have hopefully found an appropriate compromise to get the DeKalb Ethics Board functional again. HB 1243 passed the Senate Thursday, and the House agreed to the Senate’s changes on Friday.
This bill, spearheaded by Rep. Viola Davis, keeps the independent ethics officer but also puts in place an ethics administrator to whom those who witness or become aware of an ethics violation could file an anonymous or sworn written complaint. Upon receiving the complaint, the ethics administrator will send notice to the subject of the complaint by the next business day. The current DeKalb Ethics Board will serve until the end of 2020, and a new board will be appointed by December 31st of this year. The appointment process has changed so that three of those members will be appointed by the DeKalb House Delegation, three by the DeKalb Senate Delegation, and one by the DeKalb Tax Commissioner. Many of you will recall that the reason the legislation was necessitated in the first place was because of a Georgia Supreme Court ruling that the appointment process put into law in 2015 was unconstitutional as to the appointment of a majority of the members.
Additionally, two alternate members who will serve as ex-officio members will be selected by the Clerk of the DeKalb Superior Court. Each ethics board member and the alternates will serve for three years with staggered terms. Now that this bill has cleared both chambers, it will go to the Governor’s desk for his signature. Then DeKalb voters will have the chance to vote in a referendum on the measure in November. I am hopeful we can get to a “YES” vote and have our Ethics Board operational again!
Many of you played a key role in putting the ethics act before the voters in 2015 and not giving up after the judicial ruling to ensure we kept a strong and independent ethics board in DeKalb. Thank you -- I am proud to represent you. One of the main reasons this took so long to fix was the chaos caused by Vernon Jones, who did not want the ethics board to be able to function. His objections were finally overcome and he is leaving the General Assembly, so hopefully our DeKalb Delegation will continue to be able to work constructively to solve issues facing the County.
HB 1114 Regarding Post-partum Medicaid Expansion
It is not new information that the state of Georgia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in all of the U.S. It is also disproportionately higher for Black women. I spoke about this devastating issue earlier this session with a point of privilege where I explained that Georgia can no longer leave behind its women, especially Black women. That is why I am so thrilled that HB 1114 passed unanimously in both the House and the Senate this session! This bill extends Medicaid coverage for new mothers to six months (where it was previously only two months). $20 million has also been included in the budget for this change.
SB 408 Regarding Worksharing
SB 408 also passed this week with my vote. With the current state of the economy, I fully support the work-sharing program that this bill will allow the Department of Labor to establish. A work-sharing program is a voluntary program that is an alternative approach to laying off workers during economic downturns where employers can instead decrease the hours of their workers. Therefore, the worker can still have job security but also can receive unemployment benefits for the amount of hours that have been decreased because of the economic downturn. This program has several benefits, and I was happy to see it included in the bill. Additionally, this bill extends sick leave requirements for taking care of family members. Because of the uncertainty of our economy and the effect it has had on unemployment, this bill can hopefully ease some of the stress to workers and companies.
Bad Bills That Died
Luckily, SB 463, the elections re-write bill that had some provisions that could have made it easier to suppress the vote, including most egregiously a provision PROHIBITING the Secretary of State or any local elections officials from sending out absentee ballot applications, did not pass.
Also, HB 545, the “Right to Farm” bill that would make it more difficult to hold big factory farms responsible for toxic air and water pollution and harm to neighboring landowners also died!
All in all, this was a better close to the Session than most. We passed more bills than were necessary and some were bad, but the pandemic and the fact that Georgia is trending blue kept us more focused than in the past. A good sign for the future!
COVID-19 Cases in Georgia & DeKalb
You all probably know that COVID-19 rates in Georgia continue to climb. After a dip during the shutdown, our rates have increased week-over-week for the past 6 weeks. As of today, Monday, June 29th, there have been 77,210 known positive cases in Georgia.
Despite this, Gov. Kemp has not expressed any need for shutting establishments down again, as Governors in some hard-hit states have done. It may only be a matter of time, but I call on him to truly follow the science and put public health first. Georgia DPH, the CDC, and the AJC are providing continuous updates on the number of cases and documenting cases by county. Out of the 77,210 cases in the state currently, 5,448 cases are from DeKalb County as are 171 deaths. On Tuesday, June 2nd, DPH switched to once a day reporting at 3 PM. There is some discrepancy now that viral tests as well serology (anti-body) tests are being grouped together as are confirmed cases. Additionally, we do understand when you separate those groups that the totals are not adding up to the same numbers.
Stay safe, stay well, and please stay home if you can.
Thank you for the honor of serving as your State Senator!