Bad Bills, Bad Bills, What You Gonna Do?

It’s an election year, and lawmakers are doing their best barbeque impression down at the Capitol. Plenty of drinking, those relatives you can’t get rid of, and lots of red meat getting thrown around. Sorry folks, but real BBQ ain’t chicken. With a Republican super-majority, you can expect that a lot of the bills are going to be tough to swallow, and this month has proven no exception. Like the last couple of years, the Republican majority has loaded the crossover calendar full of craptastic bills aimed at moving Georgia backwards to please a small contingent of the right-wing. If it’s come up on Fox News, it’s probably before the Legislature. So without further ado and in no particular order, let’s cover the worst of the bunch.

Starting off with:
SB 404/ HB 621 (DACA licenses)
Another doozy, SB 404 would remove the ability of Deferred Action immigrants, including DREAMERs, to obtain a driver’s license. HB 621 was shut out in committee on Tuesday, but SB 404 passed the Senate Judiciary Non-Civil committee with only one no vote. As of Rules on Wednesday, SB 404 was not on the calendar going into Monday, but its language could still be amended onto a bill that’s germane.

HB 875 (Gun Bill)
The concealed carry gun bill has had a lot of different names over the last few years, but HB 875 is its newest iteration. This bill would stipulate that local governments must allow for concealed carry in government buildings if no security is present, and decriminalizes many instances of being caught with a concealed weapon. This bill is very much alive and has been first read and assigned to the Senate Judy Non-Civil committee. Odds are this bill will come up before the end of session in our committee and both sides are very polarized.

HB 714 (School workers unemployment)
Contracted schools workers such as school bus drivers, cooks, and others can currently claim unemployment if they cannot secure a job for the period school is not in session. This is how it has been for years. Republicans are now trying to do away with this provision though, and HB 714 would make it so that these workers cannot collect unemployment benefits. This is currently before the Senate Insurance and Labor Committee.

HB 891 (Early Voting)
It’s voter suppression, plain and simple. HB 891 would have originally limited local municipalities early voting periods to 6 days in municipal elections. Some cities would have been exempt. While this bill passed the house, there was an amendment attached to it that changes some the language and makes it so they can shorten or lengthen the early voting period by city. It hasn’t been assigned a committee yet but expect to see this one come up in the Senate for sure.

SB 98 (Abortion Coverage)
At the tail end of the barbeque, we have an attack on the right for a woman to choose. SB 98 would prohibit abortion funding on healthcare exchanges and also prohibit tax funds being used to provide coverage for state employees. Republicans have been trying to remove coverage from health plans in the state for years and this is the newest attempt to limit women in the state from using their choice in situations by cutting of funding life-lines. The mindset is somewhat like Texas and other red states, if they can just make it as difficult as humanly possible, abortions will suddenly stop. It’s never worked that way; I don’t know why they think it will now. This is a dangerous piece of legislation that will harm women across the state and move us backward.

The two discrimination bills (SB 377/ HB 1023) appear to be DOA for Monday, both having hit snags with leadership.

As you can see, we’ll have our hands full until March 20th. If there has been any good from this session, there’s been a lot more of hateful bills that have bubbled to the surface over the last few weeks and while contacting your representative or senator is helpful, this isn’t going to stop until we elect people who will actually work for all Georgians and the only way to do that is to make sure you and your friends are registered and actually vote on the 4th of November like it’s a Presidential election. Turning out like we normally do on a midterm year is only going to continue the cycle until there is some meaningful change. Unless we change the underlying issues, we’re all going to continue to suffer through this game every year until we make a change in the players involved and we do that by going to the polls in droves in November.