Coronavirus has sickened tens of thousands and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Legislation aimed at shielding businesses and medical providers from lawsuits brought by person who contract coronavirus has cleared a key hurdle in the Georgia Senate.
The COVID-19 legal liability measures were tacked onto a bill whose original intent was to create a specialty license plate for the Georgia Tennis Foundation that would read, “Play Tennis!”
Called the “Georgia Pandemic Business Immunity Act,” the measure would prevent lawsuits from being filed in Georgia against a broad range of groups by people who claim to have contracted coronavirus on premises that those groups manage or own.
Groups affected by the bill would run the gamut from restaurants and other businesses to state and local governments, and health-care providers including doctors, dentists, psychologists, therapists, social workers and athletic trainers.
Sen. John Albers, who brought the measure, said he drafted it in recent weeks alongside representatives from local chambers of commerce, business associations and trial attorneys.
The aim is to calm fears from business owners and others that they could face an avalanche of litigation in the coming months as Georgia’s economy continues reopening, Albers said.
“This legislation will allow our business community to start to return to normalcy and provide services to Georgians without fear of needless litigation, while still ensuring that legitimate legal action is possible,” said Albers, R-Roswell.
Groups could still face lawsuits if they intentionally place persons at risk of contracting coronavirus or show gross negligence in following social distancing and sanitizing guidelines ordered by the governor.
The immunity protections would take effect from the start of Gov. Brian Kemp’s public health emergency declaration in late March to two years after the last executive order that the governor issues. The state’s public health emergency is currently still in effect.
The measure drew support from Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who presides over the Senate. He called it “thoughtful legislation that ensures consumers are protected and encourages businesses to reopen – without the worry of lawsuits hanging over their heads.”
In a surprise move, the liability measure was added Monday during a Senate Public Safety Committee hearing on the tennis specialty license plate measure, House Bill 216.
Albers, who chairs the committee, said that was done to speed through passage of an important measure during the hectic resumption of the 2020 legislative session this week.
The underlying bill’s sponsor, Rep. Teri Anulewicz, said she was caught off guard by the move by Albers and given short notice ahead of Monday’s meeting.
“In [Georgia political] vernacular, this is known as stripping the bill,” said Anulewicz, D-Smyrna. “I had 30 minutes notice. My opinion on the matter was of no relevance to the committee.”
The overhauled bill passed by a 5-3 vote out of committee, with the committee’s three Democratic members voting in opposition. They included Sens. Valencia Seay, D-Riverdale; Harold Jones II, D-Augusta; and Tonya Anderson, D-Lithonia.
The bill now heads to the full Senate for a vote. If passed, it would then head back to the House for a final floor vote.
ATLANTA – Legislation allowing nonprofits in Georgia to provide sandwiches to needy children when school is not in session gained final passage in the state House of Representatives Monday.
The bill, which passed 150-12 and now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk, was prompted when state health inspectors halted a Marietta-based summer food program last summer after 24 years of serving free sandwiches to thousands of school children in Cobb and six other counties.
A stipulation in state law barred MUST Ministries from receiving and distributing donated homemade sandwiches, forcing the group to raise nearly $250,000 to keep the program afloat last summer.
“Every community that’s represented here has children that if they don’t go to school, they do not eat,” said Georgia Rep. Bert Reeves, R-Marietta, who carried the bill in the House on behalf of state Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta, who introduced the bill in the Senate.
Rep. Doreen Carter, D-Lithonia, objected to a provision in the bill that prohibits nonprofits from taking part in the free-sandwich program if they don’t have a kitchen on their premises for preparing the food. She argued that would make it more difficult for small rural-based nonprofits to participate.
Reeves suggested nonprofits that don’t have a kitchen of their own could look to partner with a church or another non-profit with kitchen facilities.
“This bill solves a lot of problems, but it doesn’t solve every problem,” he said.
The Georgia Senate passed legislation Monday that would give Georgians the legal ability to sue the state and local governments.
Lawmakers took up the measure by Rep. Andy Welch, R-McDonough, after House lawmakers passed it in late February, shortly before the General Assembly suspended the 2020 legislative session amid the coronavirus pandemic.
House Resolution 1023 was the first piece of legislation taken up in the Senate as lawmakers resumed the session on Monday after a three-month hiatus.
Passed unanimously, the measure proposes a constitutional amendment targeting the doctrine of sovereign immunity, a centuries-old legal concept that holds that the “sovereign” – or government – cannot be sued without its consent.
If ratified by voters this fall, it would change state law to let Georgians sue governments to halt unconstitutional laws but would not allow them to collect monetary damages or attorneys’ fees.
The measure now heads back to the House for final passage since some changes were made in the Senate to revise the implementation date.
Sen. John Kennedy, who sponsored identical legislation on sovereign immunity in the Senate, said permitting lawsuits against the state and local governments would give Georgians a greater voice in the operations of governance and legislating.
“I believe that this sufficiently protects everyone’s rights in an equal way,” said Kennedy, R-Macon.
Welch brought similar legislation last year that both the state House and Senate passed unanimously. But Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed it, arguing the waiver would hurt the government’s ability to function.
Former Gov. Nathan Deal also vetoed a similar bill that passed in 2016.
Bids to undo sovereign immunity stem from Georgia Supreme Court rulings that gave state and local governments broad leeway in claiming sovereign immunity. But the high court also opened the door for lawmakers to pass a waiver removing that legal protection.
In other business Monday, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution giving the Georgia Commission on Freight & Logistics until the end of this year to complete its work. The panel of lawmakers and logistics industry executives was formed last year to look for ways to improve the state’s freight rail network.
“We still have some unfinished business,” said Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.
The commission originally had been due to expire at the end of last year. The resolution now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp his signature.
Thousands protested outside the State Capitol in Atlanta on June 15, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Georgia lawmakers reconvened Monday for the last lap of the 2020 legislative session as protesters marched by the thousands to the state Capitol in Atlanta to condemn police brutality and racial injustice.
The march, organized by the Georgia NAACP, started from the Richard B. Russell Federal Building and proceeded the half-mile to the Capitol, where protesters greeted mask-wearing state lawmakers who took their seats in the Georgia House and Senate chambers amid new distancing requirements prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.
At the protest march, several speakers called on lawmakers to pass a package of criminal justice reform bills that include repealing the state’s citizen’s arrest and stand-your-ground laws, as well as creating “anti-choke hold” rules, a ban on no-knock search warrants and new oversight for district attorneys.
“If they don’t pass these bills, then we’re going to fill up the jails,” said James Woodall, president of the Georgia NAACP. “Because we’re going to shut it down.”
The 12-bill package, unveiled last week by members of the Georgia House Democratic Caucus, also includes a hate-crimes measure aimed at adding extra penalties for persons convicted of crimes committed based on a victim’s gender, race or other identifier. The measure, House Bill 426, has languished in the Senate for more than a year after the House passed it in March 2019.
House Speaker David Ralston noted that 465-day lag since his House colleagues passed the hate-crimes bill and called on the Senate to act on it in the days remaining in this year’s session.
“If we leave here without passing a hate-crimes bill, it will be a stain on this state that we can never wash out,” said Ralston, R-Blue Ridge.
Senators seemed supportive Monday of taking up the speaker’s challenge. Several senators kicked off the restarted session by urging swift passage of the hate-crimes measure.
While Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan – who presides over the Senate – has argued the bill might benefit from more tweaking, others said too much tinkering could doom its chances in the race to wrap up the session amid ongoing concerns over coronavirus.
“Members of this Senate, it is time to act,” said Senate Minority Leader Steve Henson, D-Stone Mountain. “There is no excuse why we are not moving with all due haste as we see protesters on the street in front of us.”
Sen. Lester Jackson, D-Savannah, pointed out Georgia is one of only five states that does not have a hate-crimes law on the books. He also noted the measure now awaiting a vote in the Senate was brought by a Republican lawmaker, Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, and has gained more Republican support than have past efforts to pass hate-crimes legislation.
“It’s not just a black issue, it’s not just a Democratic issue,” Jackson said. “It is a people’s issue. It is a Georgia issue …. It’s just the right thing to do.”
Several Republicans agreed Monday that hate-crimes legislation should be passed in the coming days. Sen. P.K. Martin IV, R-Lawrenceville, praised the actions of protesters in his backyard of Gwinnett County and said lawmakers should make use of the current session to “take substantive steps to eliminate racism in our culture.”
“We should collectively stand up against racism,” Martin said. “We should pass meaningful hate-crimes legislation this session.”
Others threaded the needle more between passing the hate-crimes bill and showing support for law enforcement officials in Georgia. Sen. Randy Robertson, a retired major with the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Department, said police officers face dangerous work environments and should not be universally condemned for the actions of a few.
“The men and women of law enforcement, they do not hate,” said Robertson, R-Cataula. “Those who do, don’t make it.”
Others, including Sen. Jeff Mullis, dismissed recent calls from protesters to defund local police departments, saying people from other states should visit Georgia since business restrictions have been relaxed amid coronavirus and “because we respect the order of law.”
“So come on out there, in America, bring your business to Georgia if they’re going to un-fund your police department,” said Mullis, R-Chickamauga. “We’re not gonna do that here.”
While Ralston strongly endorsed the hate-crimes bill, he said other portions of the Democrats’ package of criminal-justice reforms – including doing away with the citizen’s arrest law – will have to await a “broader conversation” he pledged to undertake after the legislative session.
The march outside the Capitol came days after Rayshard Brooks was shot dead by an Atlanta police officer during an altercation at a Wendy’s restaurant south of downtown Atlanta. It also comes amid nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd late last month in Minneapolis, and following arrests last month in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was gunned down by a white man near Brunswick.
During Monday’s demonstration, Lloyd Pierce, head coach of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, pressed for ending Georgia’s stand-your-ground law amid concerns over conflicts of interest involving Coastal Georgia investigators in the Arbery case.
“Our law enforcement can’t hold themselves accountable,” Pierce said. “So we need to repeal the stand your ground.”
Protesters also slammed state election officials and lawmakers for issues seen during last week’s primary election, when social distancing measures and inadequate training of poll workers on how to operate new voting machines led to long lines at polling places and mistrust in the voting process.
In the wake of the primary, Ralston has instructed the House Governmental Affairs Committee to conduct an independent investigation of the problems that occurred with last week’s voting.
“I’m not interested in finger-pointing,” the speaker said, referring to the back-and-forth laying of blame Democrats and Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger engaged in after the primary. “I’m interested in facts.”
ATLANTA – An effort to end “surprise billing” of medical charges in Georgia appears about to pay off.
The state Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee unanimously passed legislation Sunday aimed at unexpected medical bills that can add up to thousands of dollars and bankrupt families. Sunday’s vote came one day before the General Assembly resumes a 2020 legislative session interrupted three months ago by the coronavirus pandemic.
House Bill 888, which the Georgia House of Representatives passed overwhelmingly in March, would require insurers to cover emergency services a patient receives whether or not the provider is a participant in the patient’s insurance coverage network, said Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, sponsor of a similar bill the Senate passed in February.
Typically, unexpected out-of-network charges come from specialists including radiologists or anesthesiologists.
In the case of non-emergency services, the bill requires out-of-network providers to notify patients in advance of what the charges will be, Hufstetler said.
Disputes over a bill between an insurer and provider would trigger an arbitration process overseen by the state Department of Insurance, which would contract with outside arbitrators to decide the final bill.
Hufstetler said the arbitration would be conducted “baseball-style,” meaning the insurer and provider would each set a number, and the arbitrator would choose one or the other. Such a system would lead to more realistic proposals by parties to an arbitration, he said.
“If both sides want their number picked, they won’t put out a number from left field,” he said.
Lobbyists for Georgia insurers, hospitals, physicians and consumer advocates have been working for five years to come up with language all sides could agree on.
On Sunday, representatives of the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and the Medical Association of Georgia (MAG) testified in support of the legislation as a good compromise.
“This bill will take patients out of the sometimes stressful negotiations that come with out-of-network providers,” said Anna Adams, vice president of government relations for the GHA.
“We’re glad to be close to the finish line on this thing,” added Derek Norton, MAG’s director of government relations. “It’s a great bill for patients.”
Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, the committee’s chairman, said he considers the surprise billing legislation among his top five priorities for the final 11 days of the 2020 session. It could get a final vote on the Senate floor as early as Wednesday.
