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Crossover Day: Bills On The Floor

Charlie

The legislature convenes today for Day 28, or “Crossover Day”. If you need to understand Crossover day, start here. In shorthand, the most straight line for a bill to become a law involves getting it passed by either the House or Senate by today.

For a bill to get on the floor, it has to first pass the Rules Committee of either chamber. The Senate Rules committee usually meets in the afternoon. Thus, the Senate has a long list of bills already released that may receive consideration today. That press release is at the bottom of this post. Note that they can and usually do have supplemental Rules committee meetings on busy days to add others for consideration.

The House Rules Committee is meeting now, prior to the chamber’s 10am time for convening. They, too, will likely have supplemental Rules committee meetings. Or not. It’s crossover day. Anything goes until midnight or after.

What’s likely on the table from the House today? A short summary:

A bill to make abortion illegal once a heartbeat is detected. This is a bill that social conservatives can expect to make it to the Governor’s desk this year, given that RFRA has stalled in the Senate.

A resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution to legalize casino gaming has passed a House committee and may make the House floor today. This bill avoids most details that were in the last “Destination Resort” plan, and simply puts forward the question if it’s time to expand the gaming monopoly in Georgia currently enjoyed by Georgia Lottery Corporation.

Certificate of Need reform is likely the biggest battle in the House, at least in terms of major lobbying interests fighting each other. The can of worms is open, and even if it should fail to move forward today, expect this to be an ongoing battle as major medical power players flex their muscle and defend their current turf/battle to open up the other guy’s turf.

Hate crime legislation sailed out of the Judiciary Committee, but didn’t receive a floor vote on Tuesday.

A bill that would rein in local governments mandating expensive design standards that raise the cost of housing and contribute to exclusionary zoning (HB 302) is one of the biggest low-profile battles in this year’s session. It has pit Realtors and homebuilders against the equally powerful county and municipal government associations. While the battle has been mostly among Republicans choosing their favorite talking points (local control vs government overreach), the debate has lacked the needed bi-partisan voices noting that every government mandate continues to push the cost of housing further into unaffordable territory.

AND IN THE SENATE:

RFRA has been tabled. For now.

The City of Atlanta has a nice airport. It would be a shame if something happened to it.

The Senate has a companion bill for Certificate of Need. That doubles the chances that this fight continues to if not through Sine Die.

A bill to provide Education Savings Accounts to students in public schools to attend private schools or pay for additional homeschooling expenses failed to pass Tuesday after multiple Republican Senators sided with the Democratic caucus position of “No”. The bill is eligible for reconsideration today, after those Senators have had 48 hours to think about what they’ve done.

While the House is trying to lower the cost of home ownership with HB 302, the Senate appears to be trying to raise it. SB 178 wants to raise the cost of a form letter from an Homeowners Association provided at closing from $10 to $350. There is no justification whatsoever that an HOA needs $350 to tell a closing attorney what the financial condition of the HOA is. Period.

Big ticket items that have already passed one chamber and thus remain alive for the rest of the session include upgrading voting machines, medicaid waiver request, legalization of medical cannabis, and of course, the budget.

The Senate’s full list of bills eligible for a vote today as of yesterday’s Rules Committee meeting is as follows:

The following bills will be on the Senate floor on Thursday, March 7 – Crossover Day:

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