In the News
CALL TO ACTION: This list is quite long, for any of these bills that you feel strongly about, please call your Representative or Senator.
Tom Thomason /March 24, 2025
➡️In Voting Rights…
HB397 would reduce the number of days of early voting. It has passed the House and awaits a vote in the Senate Ethics Committee.
TAKE ACTION: Please call your Senators and tell them you oppose this bill.
SB175 would ban ranked-choice voting in Georgia. This bill has passed the Senate and awaits a vote in the House Governmental Affairs Committee.
TAKE ACTION: Let your House reps know you oppose this bill.
➡️In Dollars and Sense…
HB68 sets the July 1, 2025-2026 budget at $37.7 billion for next year. It includes increases in spending for education, prisons, and housing. This bill has passed the House and is currently in the Senate. The Senate is trying to increase the amount allocated for private school vouchers from $45 million proposed in the House budget to the original $141 million requested by the Governor. The Senate is also asking for 1% cuts from all departments so that $321 million for construction projects can be paid for outright as opposed to via a bond proposed by the House.
TAKE ACTION: Please call your Senators and ask them to stand strong on fully funding agencies and keeping school vouchers at the lower amount.
➡️The Latest Culture War Bills…
SB36: This so-called “religious liberty” bill, which could open the door to discrimination, passed the Senate and sits with the House Judiciary Committee. The Committee brought the bill for a vote last week, and it failed to pass. It may come up for another vote, so we must be vigilant! As written, the bill could be used to legally discriminate against certain groups of people in various circumstances, such as same-sex couples adopting children, landlords denying housing to an unmarried couple, or an employer firing an employee based on religious beliefs.
TAKE ACTION: Tell your House representative that you do not support this bill.
SB74 would strip library workers at all public libraries (county, university, K-12, and community libraries) of protection from criminal prosecution if they “knowingly” distribute material that is deemed “harmful to minors.” This is simply an impossible task as there were over 11 million items checked out from Georgia libraries last year. This bill has passed the Senate and awaits a vote in the House Judiciary Committee.
TAKE ACTION: Tell your House representative that not only do you not support this bill, it would be unenforceable and overturned by the courts if it passes.
➡️In Reproductive Rights…
HB428 is a bipartisan bill that guarantees the right to IVF. It passed the House, has passed out of committee in the Senate, and now awaits a full Senate vote.
TAKE ACTION: Ask your Senator to vote in favor of the bill.
➡️In the Legal and Corporate World…
SB28 seeks to give lawmakers more power over state agencies, granting them the authority to stop new rules and regulations put in place by said agencies. This is all under the guise of lessening “red tape.” Democrats were at least able to make some slight changes to the bill to make it better (raising the threshold for rule review from $1M to $3M, for instance), but it still is going to put a tremendous amount of oversight on a part-time legislature that is not equipped to handle it. This bill has passed the Senate and the House Committee on Budget and Fiscal Affairs Oversight and awaits a full House vote.
TAKE ACTION: Reach out to your House representative and tell them you oppose this effort.
SB21 would punish communities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials by stripping them of sovereign or governmental immunity, leaving them open to lawsuits. This bill has passed the Senate and is currently with the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.
TAKE ACTION: Let your House representative know that you oppose this measure as punitive and irresponsible given the law enforcement shortages, overcrowded jails, and tight budgets that municipalities face.
SB27, which establishes the offenses of doxxing and aggravated doxxing with vague definitions that could lead to overcriminalization, passed the Senate and awaits vote in the Judiciary Non-Civil Committee in the House. This bill could disproportionately impact activists, journalists, and individuals in sharing publicly available information.
TAKE ACTION: Support the ACLU in opposing this bill by contacting your House rep and telling them you oppose this bill.
➡️In the Ongoing Republican War on Trans Rights…
ALL of the bills below passed out of one chamber of the legislature and crossed over to the other.
SB39, which prohibits taxpayer dollars from being used for hormone therapy, surgery, and other “gender-affirming” medical services, has passed the Senate and sits with the House Health Committee.
SB1, which forbids transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports programs from elementary school through college, has passed the Senate and is sitting with the House Education Committee.
HB267 is the House version of SB1. It passed along party lines in the House and now sits with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
SB30, which bans the use of hormone treatments and puberty blockers on minors, passed the Senate and now awaits a vote in the House Public and Community Health Committee.
SB185 would ban the use of public funds to pay for gender-affirming care for people in state prisons. It has passed the Senate and currently awaits a vote in the House Public and Community Health Committee.
Republicans are hell-bent on passing anti-trans legislation this session. Do what you can to protest these bills by contacting your legislators and please support your trans friends however you can.
➡️And Finally in the World of Guns and Ammo…
SB163 would allow people aggrieved by local gun regulations to recoup actual damages, or up to $50,000, up from $100 under current law. This bill was a response to a Savannah ordinance requiring people traveling with guns to keep them locked up and out of sight when the vehicle is parked. This bill passed the Senate along party lines and awaits a vote in the House Judiciary Committee.
TAKE ACTION: Contact your House members to strongly oppose.
SB47, which waives state and local taxes on the sale of firearms, ammunition, gun safes, and other accessories for 11 days in October during hunting season, has passed the Senate and awaits a vote in the House Ways and Means Committee.
TAKE ACTION: Contact your House Members to express support for the gun safe part of the bill and to oppose the rest.
SB17, which requires schools to install “panic” buttons to quickly summon police and emergency responders in the event of a school shooting, also passed the Senate and awaits a committee assignment in the House.
SB179, which requires schools to receive disciplinary records from new transfer students within five days of their arrival, passed the Senate, has passed out of committee in the House and awaits a full House vote.
HB268, a school safety bill that does nothing to address guns, passed the House and awaits a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. It mirrors many of the Senate bills listed above, requiring schools to develop physical safety plans in the event of an active shooter and mandating that schools share information about transferring students within five days of their arrival at a new school. The bill has some good things in it, but there are privacy concerns about keeping a student threat database, which could be misused. Ultimately, the bill's denial of the gun part of the school shooters epidemic is shameful.
TAKE ACTION: For SB17, SB179, and HB268 above, call and let your Representative or Senator know that you expect better than these half-measures, which never address the actual gun problems.
Meanwhile, true gun safety bills that were presented were not given committee hearings.
The one piece of good news is that HB79, which would provide a tax credit to gun owners who purchase a lockbox and safely store away their firearms, passed the House and now sits with the Senate Finance Committee.
TAKE ACTION: Call the chair, Senator Chuck Hufstetler, at (404) 656-0034 and tell him you support this bill and to give it a hearing and a vote