State Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, spoke Tuesday against an amendment proposed by fellow GOP Senator Colton Moore, Trenton, that would have gutted a bill aimed at increasing assistance to very low-income pregnant women.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate Tuesday approved a bill that would expand eligibility for the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program in Georgia to pregnant women.
Currently, federal law allows very low-income pregnant women to receive the cash assistance, but Georgia law does not. The new bill would change that, said Sen. Mike Hodges, R-Brunswick, the bill’s chief sponsor.
“Expanding eligibility to pregnant women would continue to build on the steps Georgia’s taken to improve maternal health for low-income populations, such as extending Medicaid postpartum coverage to 12 months,” said Hodges.
There are 5,343 households in Georgia currently relying on TANF, with an average monthly benefit of $280, Hodges said.
“Georgia lawmakers have … taken an important step by expanding Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to pregnant women and eliminating the TANF family cap,” said Staci Fox, president and CEO of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
An amendment proposed by Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, drew sharp criticism from Moore’s fellow Republicans, who argued it does not fit the GOP’s pro-life philosophy.
Moore’s amendment would have removed a provision from the bill that increases the amount of TANF aid if a woman becomes pregnant with an additional child while already receiving the assistance.
“I don’t feel comfortable [with] state dollars going to incentivize more children in that situation,” Moore said.
“You’re assuming someone has made themselves a baby factory to earn a minimum amount of money per month,” responded Sen. Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton. “In that dire situation, your solution is to take the money from them … to teach them a lesson?”
Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, harkened back to the 2019 vote for Georgia’s Republican-sponsored heartbeat law, which prohibits most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.
“This chamber’s already spoken,” Tillery said. “We spoke four years ago. We said that we believe that heartbeat began life, and if you still take that position or if you believe that you should support families, then you’re going to have to reject … the amendment.”
Moore’s amendment failed and the bill, which has already received House approval, breezed through 50-1, with the single no vote coming from Moore.
The bill now moves to GOP Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for approval. Kemp endorsed the proposal in his annual State of the State message to the legislature in January.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The first of two new nuclear reactors being built at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle has reached a key step toward going into service this spring, the Atlanta-based utility announced Monday.
Vogtle’s Unit 3 has safety reached initial criticality, meaning the reactor has been started, atoms are being split, and heat is being generated.
“Reaching initial criticality is one of the final steps in the startup process and has required tremendous diligence and attention to detail from our teams,” said Chris Womack, chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Power. “We remain focused on safely bringing this unit online, fully addressing any issues and getting it right at every level.”
Now that the Unit 3 reactor has reached criticality, operators will continue to raise power to support synchronizing the generator to the electric grid and begin producing electricity. Then, they will continue increasing power through multiple steps, ultimately raising power to 100%.
The work points to an in-service date of May or June, with completion of the second new reactor at the plant south of Augusta – Unit 4 – due a year later.
Commercial operation of the Plant Vogtle expansion has been a long time coming. The Georgia Public Service Commission approved the project 14 years ago at an estimated cost of about $14 billion to be divided between Georgia Power and three utility partners.
But the work has hit a series of delays that have put the project seven years behind and driven up the cost to more than twice the original estimate.
The project has been dogged since its inception by criticism from environmental groups and consumer advocates that it’s too expensive. Despite the work being so close to completion, opponents continue to call for an alternative approach to expanding the nuclear plant.
“Georgia Power’s glacially paced rush to build antiquated nuclear reactors has committed Georgia to a sadly out-of-date energy profile,” said Glenn Carroll, coordinator of Nuclear Watch South. “Our state is blessed with abundant wind and solar which can fuel all of our energy needs. It would still be beneficial in the long-run to abandon Plant Vogtle and pursue sustainable, clean energy.”
But Georgia Power officials say the Plant Vogtle expansion remains an essential part of the utility’s commitment to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy to its 2.7 million customers for the next 60 to 80 years.
Once operating, the two new units are expected to power more than 500,000 homes and businesses.
ATLANTA – Controversial legislation that would allow heavier trucks on Georgia’s state and local highways has narrowly cleared the Georgia House of Representatives.
Lawmakers passed House Bill 189 by a margin of 93-81 during a marathon Crossover Day session Monday, the General Assembly’s self-imposed deadline for bills to get through at least one legislative chamber and remain alive for the year. It takes at least 91 votes in the 180-member House to pass a bill.
The legislation would allow commercial trucks to exceed the current legal weight limit of 80,000 pounds by 10%, for a total of 88,000 pounds, on roads other than interstate highways, which are subject to federal restrictions.
When the measure was introduced last month, it would have applied to commercial trucks no matter what they were hauling. But following complaints from the Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT), representatives of local governments and highway safety advocates, the bill’s sponsors scaled it back to apply only to trucks hauling farm products – including poultry – timber, granite, concrete, or solid waste.
“We bring Georgia in line with at least three of the states around us: Tennessee, Alabama, as well as Florida,” Rep. Steven Meeks, R-Screven, the bill’s chief sponsor, told his House colleagues.
Other supporters said the farm and timber industries – key economic drivers in Georgia still suffering supply chain disruptions from the pandemic as well as a shortage of truck drivers – need the savings they could achieve from heavier loads requiring fewer trips
“This is important to the lifeblood of the state,” said Rep. Spencer Frye, D-Athens.
Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, pointed out that trucks weighing up to 95,000 pounds have been rolling along Georgia highways for the last three years, since Gov. Brian Kemp issued an emergency order early in the pandemic.
But the bill’s opponents said allowing heavier trucks permanently would wreak tremendous damage on the state’s roads and bridges, forcing the DOT and local highway departments to spend huge amounts of money on repairs and maintenance at the expense of new badly needed road construction.
“This bill is destructive for roads, especially county roads and bridges,” said Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville. “These communities don’t have the resources to fix these.”
Taylor also cited warnings from the DOT that heavier trucks would threaten highway safety.
“What price are we willing to pay to carry a few more logs on a truck or a few more bales of cotton?” she asked.
ATLANTA – The Georgia House’s Republican majority has passed legislation creating an oversight board for the state’s district attorneys and solicitors general over the objections of Democrats who argued the panel is unnecessary and politically motivated.
House Bill 231 passed 98-75 primarily along party lines on Monday, the Crossover Day deadline for bills to clear at least one legislative chamber to remain alive this year.
The eight members of the Prosecuting Attorneys Oversight Commission would be appointed by the Georgia Supreme Court to investigate complaints against prosecutors and hold hearings.
The panel would have the power to discipline or remove prosecutors on a variety of grounds including mental or physical incapacity, willful misconduct or failure to perform the duties of the office, conviction of a crime of moral turpitude, or conduct that brings the office into disrepute.
The bill comes amid complaints by Republicans that some Democratic prosecutors have publicly declared they would not prosecute Georgians arrested for violating the state’s six-week abortion ban. Fani Willis, Fulton County’s Democratic district attorney, also has come under fire for launching an investigation into then-President Donald Trump’s alleged interference with the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
During Monday’s debate, supporters said the conduct of Georgia judges is subject to oversight and the same should apply to prosecutors.
“This is a nonpartisan issue in my mind,” said Rep. Joseph Gullett, R-Dallas, the bill’s chief sponsor. “It’s vitally important for counties who have district attorneys who are bad actors.”
But opponents said the State Bar of Georgia, the attorney general’s office, the legislature, and ultimately voters hold the power to discipline or remove from office wayward prosecutors.
An oversight commission would take power away from judges, said Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta.
“I believe in prosecutorial discretion,” she said. “If you start picking and choosing what district attorneys should prosecute … you’re trampling on prosecutorial discretion.”
But Republicans countered that complaints of misconduct by prosecutors cut both ways. House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, cited the Ahmaud Arbery case, where Glynn County’s Republican district attorney dragged her feet in prosecuting the slaying of the Black jogger near Brunswick by two white men.
“The proposed methods for removing prosecutors are insufficient,” Efstration said. “This is a reasonable approach to deal with circumstances where a district attorney or solicitor is violating the law.”
But Democrats also cited the Arbery case to demonstrate the current system works. In that case, the district attorney who refused to act was ultimately voted out of office.
“The district attorney is elected by the people,” said Rep. Shea Roberts, D-Atlanta. “They know who best represents their values.”
The bill now heads to the state Senate, which passed similar legislation last week and sent it to the House.
State Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, spoke against a bill that would bar gender-affirming hormone therapy or surgery for transgender Georgia youth.
ATLANTA – The Republican-controlled state Senate approved a bill Monday night that would bar certain gender-affirming treatments for youths under age 18.
Sponsored by Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, Senate Bill 140, which passed 33-22 along party lines, would prohibit hospitals and doctors from providing either hormone-replacement therapy or gender-affirming surgeries to minors.
“This is simply saying … we’re asking for the children to be 18 years or older before they make a decision that will alter their lives forever,” Summers said.
The bill would allow the revocation of a hospital’s or physician’s license if the rules are violated, Summers said. It does allow for some exceptions, including for treatment of certain medical conditions and for those who are already on hormone-replacement therapy as of July 1, 2023.
“What we’ve tried to do is strike a really good balance,” said Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, noting that the bill would allow transgender youth to continue with gender-affirming mental health and puberty blocker treatments but not irreversible hormone-replacement therapies or gender-affirming surgeries.
Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, urged her colleagues to vote against the bill after describing the evolution of her thinking on care for transgender youth after learning that her then-daughter identifies as a male.
Harrell said the medical standards of care for transgender youth have been recently rewritten with a heavy emphasis on providing young people with individualized care and necessary counseling before starting hormone-replacement therapy or undergoing gender-affirming surgery.
“The problem I have with this bill is that It only addresses what we won’t do for our children,” Harrell said. “We need to focus on what we can do for these kids. … Doctors and mental-health professionals shouldn’t be in a hurry to treat with hormones and surgery. But banning them outright is not the answer, either.”
Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, described the negative effects youths who want but cannot get gender-affirming care experience, citing a study that found that 56% of transgender youth have attempted suicide.
“This is about making sure that children can be well while they go through a season of transition,” Jackson said. “I ask you to vote ‘no’ on this not because you understand but because you have compassion in your hearts for what these children are experiencing.”
Medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, support gender-affirming care for transgender children when the physician and family deem it appropriate.
“There is strong consensus among the most prominent medical organizations worldwide that evidence-based, gender-affirming care for transgender children and adolescents is medically necessary and appropriate,” Dr. Moira Szilagyi, then-president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, wrote last year. “It can even be lifesaving.”
The bill now moves to the state House for consideration.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
