A bill aimed at letting family members visit their loved ones in Georgia hospitals and nursing homes during emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic cleared the state Senate Monday after being gutted last week.
Sponsored by Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, the bill originally would have blocked hospitals and long-term elderly care facilities from limiting patients’ ability to visit with family members in the event treatment or hospitalization lasts more than 24 hours.
It was scaled back to permit only legal representatives and caregivers who could include family members to visit loved ones for short amounts of time, marking a compromise with health-care and nursing-home professionals wary of opening their doors during infectious-disease events like COVID-19.
But last week, Setzler’s bill was stripped of even that watered-down provision by members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee – which includes a half-dozen doctors and health-care workers – to only require that hospitals and nursing homes follow federal rules for allowing outside visitors.
“This bill gives hospitals and long-term care facilities absolute, complete control over their visitation policies,” Setzler told the committee at a March 24 hearing. “This bill [as amended] has nothing to do with visitation.”
Setzler’s gutted bill passed by a 49-2 vote on Monday and is likely to undergo further changes in what’s called a conference committee before it can gain final passage.
Parts of Setzler’s original visitation bill could be tacked onto other pieces of legislation still alive in the 2021 legislative session before the General Assembly shuts down shop this Wednesday.
Supporters have argued Setzler’s original bill would relieve the despair families have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, when dying loved ones often were reduced to spending their final moments with family via phone calls for live video and not in person.
They call the visitor-allowing measure one of the most important legislative actions they can take this year after fielding thousands of requests from constituents to loosen hospital and nursing-home visitation rules amid the pandemic.
“This bill may not be perfect,” said Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, at last week’s committee hearing. “But I think if we go back to the status quo of what we lived through the past year, that is also far from perfect.”
But the bill drew some backlash from hospital and long-term care representatives who worry an influx of visitors could weaken safety protocols and run afoul of federal rules on allowing visitors during emergencies.
Currently, Georgia allows visitation at nursing homes and long-term care facilities based on levels of COVID-19 positivity rates in a given community.
“When we hear such significant, resounding messages from our medical community and our health community … I find it impossible to walk away from that body of evidence and advocacy on their part and pass anything other than [the gutted bill],” said Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, at the March 24 hearing.
More than 849,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Sunday afternoon, with nearly 206,000 more reported positive antigen tests indicating likely positive results. The virus has killed 16,487 Georgians.
Legislation to crack down on illegal street racing in Georgia by criminalizing promotions on social media and confiscating cars from repeat offenders passed out of the General Assembly Monday.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Josh Bonner, R-Fayetteville, would make it a misdemeanor for anyone in Georgia who organizes, promotes or participates in street racing, also called drag racing.
Drivers caught participating in drag races would have their driver’s license suspended for up to one year for the first offense and three years for a second offense. A third drag-racing offense would see their license revoked. Misdemeanor charges and fines would also be involved as part of the punishment.
Drag-racing drivers who have been convicted three different times could also have their vehicle confiscated unless it is a family car that would lead to financial hardship. In that case, the vehicle’s title would have to be transferred to another family.
The crackdown measure on drag racing was pushed by Gov. Brian Kemp as part of his legislative priorities on crime matters including toughened penalties for human traffickers and criminal gangs. It echoed a separate drag-racing bill sponsored by Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur.
The measures came as city and state officials in the metro Atlanta area also seek a crackdown after complaints of rampant street races in the city and surrounding communities.
Bonner, who is one of Kemp’s floor leaders in the state House of Representatives, said earlier this month his bill targets organizers and promoters of drag races in order to “nip it in the bud.”
“People are being invited, social media is being engaged to get folks into an area to actually participate in this,” Bonner said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on March 17.
The state Senate passed the bill by a 46-3 vote on Monday after clearing the House by a 130-39 vote earlier this month. It now goes to Kemp’s desk for his signature.
Bonner’s bill faced some pushback from defense attorneys who questioned what difference the tougher penalties would make since local police already have a tough time arresting drag racers. Opponents also worried someone could have their car confiscated if it was being used by another person for drag racing.
“A study committee would provide an opportunity for all the stakeholders to contribute to a solution without defaulting to using our criminal legal system as a remedy,” said Mazie Lynn Causey, policy advocate for the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, at the March 17 hearing.
Legislation to expand state-funded scholarships for special-needs students to attend Georgia private schools cleared the General Assembly Monday.
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, passed nearly along party lines in the Senate in the face of critics who called it a workaround for controversial private school vouchers.
The bulk of Gooch’s bill aims to make special-needs scholarships available for students with a wide range of conditions including autism, Down syndrome, behavioral impairments and drug or alcohol abuse.
Students would have to be enrolled in Georgia public schools for at least a year unless they were adopted children, come from military families or faced challenges with online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A contentious part of the bill that would have allowed students to secure special-needs scholarships with a doctor’s note was scrapped last week. Opponents argued savvy high-income families could have taken advantage of that provision via doctors who might falsify diagnoses.
“This bill is more narrowly defined to the advantage of the public school system at their request,” Gooch said on the Senate floor Monday. “Those concerns that some of you have from your school boards have been identified and addressed.”
The bill passed by a 30-18 vote in the Senate Monday after squeaking out of the House last week by the barest of margins. It now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk.
Gooch and other supporters dismissed the notion scholarships would be harvested by wealthy families that game the system, stressing the focus is on boosting educational opportunities for special-needs children in Georgia.
Opponents likened Gooch’s bill to school voucher plans that divert tax dollars from K-12 public schools, putting a drain on tight resources for state-funded schools in favor of private schools that tend to have more money per student.
“Families with the resources, the know-how and who live in proximity to private schools will be the beneficiaries of the expanded eligibility, while rural and working-class taxpayers will be left footing the bill for a program whose ultimate cost we can’t even accurately tabulate,” Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, said earlier this month.
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives gave final passage Monday to legislation that would let state employees and teachers take up to three weeks of parental paid leave.
The House passed the bill 153-8 just days after the state Senate approved it unanimously. It now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.
House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, unveiled the bill last year as one of his top priorities for the 2020 General Assembly session. But it got sidetracked after lawmakers took a three-month break because of the coronavirus pandemic.
When the legislature returned to the Gold Dome last June, the Senate stripped paid parental leave from the bill and substituted a measure reducing lawmakers’ salaries. The House refused to support the change, and the bill died.
The legislation would apply to parents following the birth of a child of their own, an adopted child or a foster-care placement. Full-time employees would become eligible for paid parental leave after six months on the job.
About 246,000 state employees and teachers in Georgia would be eligible for paid parental leave.
ATLANTA – Georgians would be able to buy cocktails to- go under legislation that cleared the General Assembly Monday.
The state House of Representatives voted 120-48 to pass a bill that originated in the Georgia Senate that would let Georgians buy up to two mixed drinks in to-go cups holding a maximum of three ounces of liquor in each. Georgia already allows to-go sales of beer and wine.
Supporters in both the House and Senate, which passed the bill early this month, pitched the measure as a way to help restaurants battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Even when we’re fully out of this pandemic, the eating habits of Georgians have changed. Georgians will eat out differently,” Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton, said on the House floor before Monday’s vote. “This bill will give us the flexibility to meet that change.”
The bill, which now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk, would not let customers buy only mixed drinks. They would have to buy food along with their take-out drink order.
To-go drinks would have to be in tightly sealed containers without holes for straws and be sealed so securely it would be easy to tell whether they had been opened.
They also would have to be stored in a glove box, locked trunk or behind the back seat while driving.
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States released a statement after Monday’s vote praising final passage of the Georgia bill.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated Georgia’s hospitality businesses, and it will take years for them to fully recover,” said Jay Hibbard, the group’s senior vice president of state governmental relations. “Cocktails to-go has already proven to be a vital part of their survival during COVID-19 and will only provide increased stability in the months and years to come.”
More than 30 states plus the District of Columbia allow restaurants and/or bars to sell cocktails to-go.
