ATLANTA – Georgia’s two Democratic U.S. senators have introduced legislation to protect the Chattahoochee River.
The bill authorizes $90 million for projects to improve water quality in the Chattahoochee, protect essential public works and restore ecosystems along the river. Individual projects would be allocated up to $15 million.
“The Chattahoochee River is one of Georgia’s most precious natural resources, vital to Georgia’s drinking water, agriculture, and our natural environment,” Sen. Jon Ossoff said. “That’s why I’ve written this bill to protect, preserve, and restore the Chattahoochee River for generations to come,”
“While the Chattahoochee River’s water quality has improved in recent years, there are still 1,000 miles of Chattahoochee watershed waterways that do not meet water-quality standards,” Sen. Raphael Warnock added. “Clean water is essential for heathy and thriving communities.”
The legislation would give the secretary of the Army up to two years to work with other federal agencies – including the Interior Department – to develop a comprehensive restoration plan for the Chattahoochee River Basin.
The federal government would cover 80% of project costs, to be accompanied by a 20% non-federal match.
According to the Georgia River Network, the Chattahoochee supplies 70% of metro Atlanta’s drinking water. As of 2013, the state of Georgia had approved more than 6,700 water withdrawal permits for agricultural use.
In 2019, the National Park Service reported visitors to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area added more than $200 million to the local economy, supporting more than 2,000 local jobs.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Gov. Brian Kemp (left) and Georgia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey (right) embarked on a statewide tour to promote mask use during the early months of the pandemic (Gov. Kemp official Twitter account)
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday that he will propose legislation giving Georgia parents the final say on whether to send their children to school wearing masks.
Kemp accused some school districts of “ignoring the science” on masking, as many states – including Democratic strongholds New York, California and New Jersey – have dropped mask mandates in recent days.
In Georgia, Atlanta Public Schools and the Gwinnett County Public Schools are among the school districts that have imposed mask mandates inside school buildings.
“This is gone too far,” Kemp wrote in a statement posted on Twitter. “Most of our citizens are not doing it around the state.”
Kemp came into conflict early in the coronavirus pandemic with then-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, while Bottoms and the mayors of Augusta, Savannah and Athens asked the governor to require masks in state buildings.
At one point, Kemp sued Bottoms and other Atlanta officials over her decision to impose a mask mandate in Georgia’s capital city.
But with vaccines available to everyone who wants one and hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 coming down, municipal governments have moved away from requiring masks.
However, new Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has decided to continue the mask mandate Bottoms reimposed in December was the omicron variant of the virus was spreading.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Controversial legislation aimed at preventing transgender public school students from competing in girls’ sports in Georgia cleared a state Senate committee Wednesday.
The “Save Girls’ Sports Act” would prohibit biological boys from competing with biological girls, with biology defined as a student’s gender listed on their birth certificate.
“This bill is about fairness,” Sen. Marty Harbin, R-Tyrone, the bill’s chief sponsor, told members of the Senate Education and Youth Committee.
“Boys have certain biological advantages when it comes to sports. … It’s simply not fair to force biological girls to compete against biological boys.”
To illustrate his point, Harbin said more than 1,400 males have run the mile in fewer than four minutes, while no female has ever accomplished the feat. He said biological high school girls forced to compete against transgender girls lose college scholarship opportunities they might have had otherwise.
But Democrats on the committee said the bill would single out transgender students as different and further endanger a group that already suffers a disproportionate amount of verbal abuse and physical attacks.
“We see transgender students considering suicide at substantial rates higher than other students,” said Sen. Sonya Halpern, D-Atlanta.
Halpern and others argued the state shouldn’t wade into deciding who can compete on which high school sports teams and leave those decisions up to individual schools.
The committee passed a similar bill sponsored by Harbin last year, but the measure failed to reach the Senate floor.
Harbin said 10 states have adopted legislation governing participation of transgender students in sports.
But Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, said several of those states are facing lawsuits claiming the legislation is unconstitutional because it discriminates against transgender students.
A ruling from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected later this year on a lawsuit challenging a Florida law that prohibits transgender male students from using boys’ bathrooms.
The committee approved Harbin’s bill Wednesday in a 6-4 vote along party lines. The legislation now moves to the Senate Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The Republican Governors Association (RGA) is going to bat for Gov. Brian Kemp with a $500,000 ad buy.
The statewide ad, launched Wednesday, praises Kemp as a “proven conservative leader” who cut taxes while creating one of the nation’s fastest growing economies.
“Governor Brian Kemp has been a conservative results-driven fighter for all Georgians throughout his time in office … despite constant roadblocks from the Biden administration,” said Dave Rexrode, the RGA’s executive director.
Kemp and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr have waged an ongoing battle with the Democratic White House over federal mandates requiring COVID-19 vaccines for various groups of U.S. workers. The governor has cited his stand in favor of keeping Georgia businesses open during the pandemic for the state’s strong economic performance.
The new ad endorsing Kemp follows an ad former U.S. Sen. David Perdue released last week touting former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of his Republican primary challenge of Kemp.
Trump remains angry with Kemp over the governor’s refusal to go along with the ex-president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia that saw Biden carry the Peach State.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) responded to the new Kemp ad as further evidence of a dispute among Republicans that threatens the GOP’s prospects in the general election for governor against Democrat Stacey Abrams.
“Donald Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican Party ensures that regardless of which Republican survives this primary, Georgia Republicans are guaranteed to have a rough time,” DNC spokeswoman Hyma Moore said.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Women seeking an abortion in Georgia would not be able to obtain abortion-inducing drugs without an in-person exam by a qualified physician under legislation that cleared a state Senate committee Wednesday.
The bill targets mail-order prescriptions of abortion-inducing drugs authorized by the federal Food and Drug Administration last year in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“These drugs were never intended to be provided without the direct involvement of a health-care worker,” Sen. Bruce Thompson, R-White, the bill’s chief sponsor, told members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. “These drugs were never intended to be delivered through the mail.”
Representatives of anti-abortion groups testified in support of the bill.
Katie Glenn, a lawyer for Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Life, said an estimated 27.000 American women went to a hospital emergency room last year reporting complications from taking an abortion-induced drug.
“There are abortionists who are willing to mail out abortion-inducing drugs without ever seeing a patient, even on video,” she said.
“If we’re going to be a state that values life, we’re going to have to protect women,” added Mike Griffin, public affairs representative for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.
But several obstetrician-gynecologists spoke out against the legislation, arguing that medication abortions are safe and that to prohibit them would restrict women’s access to health care.
Staci Fox, president and CEO of Atlanta-based Planned Parenthood Southeast, accused Republican lawmakers of pushing the bill for political gain.
She said the measure is unnecessary because Georgia already has a strong anti-abortion measure on the books, a 2019 law essentially banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The law is awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling before it can be enforced.
“Abortion has already been decided by this state,” Fox said.
The Democratic Party of Georgia issued a statement in advance of Wednesday’s vote criticizing the bill.
“Republicans’ latest anti-choice bill is a shameful, transparent attempt to place more obstacles between Georgians and essential reproductive health care,” party spokeswoman Rebecca Galanti said. “Georgia Democrats remain committed to safeguarding reproductive freedom.”
The committee passed Thompson’s bill 7-5, voting along party lines. It now heads to the Senate Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
