ROSWELL – First responders, law enforcement officers, and teachers looking to buy a home for the first time would get help from the federal government under legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.
The HELPER (Homes for Every Local Protect, Educator, and Responder) Act would establish a one-time home-loan program under the Federal Housing Administration that would help eligible first-time home buyers overcome front-end financial hurdles that otherwise would make purchasing a home unaffordable, including eliminating down payments. It is modeled after a home-loan program aimed at veterans.
“This is all about ensuring that public servants … can live in the communities they serve,” Ossoff said Monday during a news conference outside Roswell Fire Station No. 24. “The challenges of home affordability make it difficult.”
“As home prices have increased, those who put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe and those who educate our children … have struggled to keep up with rising housing costs,” Roswell Mayor Kurt Wilson added. “It’s time we recognize their service by providing them a way to become homeowners.”
Ossoff introduced the bipartisan bill last week along with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.
U.S. Reps. John Rutherford, R-Fla., and Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., have introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., got a drone demonstration during a recent tour of a research farm in Watkinsville. Photo credit: The Office of Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock
ATLANTA – With four members of Georgia’s congressional delegation serving on either the U.S. House or Senate Agriculture Committee, Peach State lawmakers will have a lot to say about the next Farm Bill.
It was in that spirit that state Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler Harper led a group of Georgia farm industry leaders to Washington, D.C., to advocate for priorities including crop insurance reform, an updating of “reference prices” – government-mandated minimum prices for certain crops – and stepped-up technological research.
“It was very productive … an opportunity for us to take the Georgia message and make sure it was heard,” Harper, just back from the trip, told Capitol Beat Friday. “It’s important that we have federal policy in that Farm Bill that works for Georgia.”
Congress must renew the Farm Bill every five years. The deadline for reauthorizing the 2018 Farm Bill is Sept. 30.
Will Bentley, president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, who was on the Washington trip, said a key goal for Georgia is to make the state’s specialty crops – fruits and vegetables – eligible for crop insurance. Specialty crops are not included in the current Farm Bill and, thus, fruit and vegetable growers can’t get insurance coverage for their crops.
“Traditionally, specialty crops were high enough in value” not to need such subsidies, Bentley said.
“Our blueberry crop and peach crop have been hit by natural disasters,” he said. “For the first time ever, these high-value crops need help.”
Besides adverse weather, another problem affecting the economics of specialty crops is also hitting commodities including cotton and peanuts: Reference prices are not keeping up with the inflated costs farmers are being forced to pay for inputs including seeds, diesel fuel and fertilizer.
“With 90% of our nation’s food supply coming from approximately 12% of our nation’s producers, ensuring a strong farm safety net is a top priority in the next Farm Bill,” said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, a member of the House Agriculture Committee.
“Increasing reference prices to reflect the increased costs of fuel and fertilizer will help farmers in Georgia and across the country.”
Along with the need to update reference prices, Georgia lawmakers and farming industry leaders also are calling for the Farm Bill to address unfair trading practices conducted by foreign competitors in Mexico and Central America.
“We need coverage for price declines while our fruits and vegetables are in season,” Bentley said.
Another goal for Georgia lawmakers and agriculture industry leaders is making sure the next Farm Bill recognizes the importance of technology in making farming more efficient.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., who serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee, is working to attach legislation he introduced promoting “precision” agriculture incorporated into the Farm Bill. Warnock visited the University of Georgia’s Iron Horse research farm in Watkinsville last month to see technology used in precision farming including water monitors and drones.
“Precision agriculture is a promising development in the agriculture space,” Warnock said. “It allows us to use technology so that farmers can make good decisions on how much feed they need, how much fertilizer, how much water, at a time the cost of inputs has gone up.”
Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta, ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, has made expanding rural broadband service a key priority for the Farm Bill.
“We must ensure that appropriate funding is given to [the U.S. Department of Agriculture] to help us bridge the digital divide between rural and urban America,” Scott said. “USDA knows what works for our rural communities better than many other federal agencies and will provide a more immediate solution to our rural communities who do not have adequate and affordable broadband access.”
All of the agricultural production programs the Farm Bill supports make up a small minority of its funding. About 85% of Farm Bill funding goes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) commonly known as food stamps.
Warnock said protecting SNAP from budget cuts is an important priority to benefit both farmers and low-income families.
“A lot of farmers are still struggling coming out of the pandemic,” he said. “The last thing we ought to be doing is taking food out of the mouths of hungry children and their families.”
While reauthorizing the Farm Bill historically has been a bipartisan endeavor, this year’s debate could be affected by the partisan battle over increasing the nations’ debt ceiling that is currently dominating Washington. Congressional Republicans are pushing for spending cuts in exchange for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling.
But Harper said he is optimistic funding for farmers will escape the budget axe.
“Members of Congress understand the importance of the agriculture industry,” he said. “Agriculture is national security. If we’re not protecting our ability to grow food and fiber here in our nation,” communities are a lot less safe.”
ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Friday announced several steps his office is taking to ensure ballot security in next year’s elections.
In a call with county election officials from across the state, Blake Evans, director of the secretary of state’s Elections Division, said the state will be conducting “health checks” in all 159 Georgia counties. The health checks will examine election management systems, ballot marking devices, and scanners to verify that the software used in last year’s elections has not been changed.
The secretary of state’s office also will coordinate with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to conduct security assessments of the storage and warehousing of all election equipment in each county, Evans said.
A longer-term undertaking will involve pilot projects to examine the functionality in a real-world setting of new software that has yet to be deployed anywhere in the state. Because the process will require updating nearly 45,000 pieces of voting equipment, the statewide move to the new software isn’t scheduled to take place until after the 2024 elections.
“Election deniers and those with similar claims in the courts may want us to irresponsibly move faster to make this change,” Raffensperger said Friday. “However, I have told our team we will move in a responsible, deliberate, and mature way that will put the needs of voters and our election workers first.”
Raffensperger, a Republican, has been a leader in defending the integrity of Georgia’s 2020 and 2022 elections, including the famous January 2021 phone conversation with then-President Donald Trump when the secretary denied Trump’s claims that the election was rigged and demand for Raffensperger to “find” an additional 11,780 votes. That was the margin Trump would have needed to defeat Joe Biden in Georgia.
Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the Peach State since Bill Clinton in 1992.
ATLANTA – More than $225 million in federal pandemic relief funding will be used to finance 142 neighborhood improvements including parks and sidewalks across Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp announced this week.
Grants of up to $2.2 million will go to eligible nonprofits and local governments in low-income census tracts to improve or maintain recreational facilities or for park or sidewalk repairs needed due to increased wear and tear on outdoor public infrastructure during the pandemic.
“With our partners on both the local and state levels, we’ve prioritized helping Georgia’s communities further recover from the pandemic with a bottom-up approach,” Kemp said Thursday. “We’re investing these funds to see that those most heavily impacted have even more resources at their disposal.”
Forty-nine of the 142 projects are receiving $2.2 million grants, including improvements to May Park in Augusta, construction of an aquatic center in Baldwin County, additions and renovations at the Butts County Senior Center, and revitalization of Faison Park in the city of Oxford.
A detailed summary of each project award can be found at https://opb.georgia.gov/awarded-grants.
ATLANTA – The U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed civil rights lawyer Nancy Abudu of Georgia Thursday to become the first Black woman to serve on the Atlanta-based U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 49-47 primarily along party lines to confirm Abudu, who faced criticism from Republicans during the confirmation process over her work since 2019 for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
“Nancy is an extraordinarily qualified and experienced jurist who is committed to the U.S. Constitution and upholding the fundamental rights of all people,” said Margaret Huang, the SPLC’s CEO. “She has a brilliant legal mind and will bring the fairness and intellectual vigor this judgeship demands.”
Most recently, Abudu was the director of strategic litigation for the SPLC. She also established the center’s voting rights practice group, a team dedicated to strengthening U.S. democracy and protecting the voting rights of communities of color.
Before that, she worked for the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Nancy Abudu is a champion for justice and a stalwart public servant,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. “I’m pleased Ms. Abudu, a relentless advocate for the rule of law and a dedicated servant to communities across Georgia and the South, will soon sit on the 11th Circuit Court.”
Abudu’s nomination by President Joe Biden was held up in the Senate by the absence of Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., who missed weeks at the Capitol due to illness before returning earlier this month.
The 11th Circuit has jurisdiction over federal cases arising in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.
