by Dave Williams | Mar 26, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s two U.S. senators and two members of the U.S. House from South Georgia Wednesday reintroduced legislation to establish the Ocmulgee Mounds as the state’s first national park.
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources passed the bill last November, but it had to be reintroduced because a new Congress took office in January.
The area is the ancestral home of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and has been inhabited continuously by humans for more than 12,000 years.
“Ocmulgee Mounds is a living testament to our intertwined histories and a robust source of economic and cultural vitality,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is sponsoring the bill along with Sen. Jon Ossoff and U.S. Reps. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, and Sanford Bishop, D-Albany. “Local leaders and everyday Georgians have been waiting for Congress to act and now is the time.”
“We made unprecedented progress last Congress toward creating Georgia’s first ever national park,” Ossoff added. “I look forward to working alongside Congressman Scott, Sen. Rev. Warnock, Congressman Bishop, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and local leaders to successfully establish Georgia’s first national park.”
The House version of the bill is being cosponsored by every other member of Georgia’s 14-member House delegation except Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens.
The bipartisan, bicameral push for the Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve Bill is earning broad support from local leaders in Middle Georgia.
“The opportunity to make the historic Ocmulgee Mounds a national park is so important to us because we have been included, we have been shown the respect of collaboration, and because of that we feel confident that the living history that will be told here is authentic and has the power to elevate Georgia forever,” said David Hill, principal chief of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
“Tens of millions of private dollars have been leveraged to conserve the precious cultural and ecological resources of the Ocmulgee Corridor,” added Seth Clark, mayor pro tempore of Macon and executive director of the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative. “This bipartisan legislation allows us to continue to grow the Middle Georgia economy … and authentically preserve some of the most culturally significant sites in the country.”
by Dave Williams | Mar 26, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state Senate committee investigating Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ role in prosecuting President Donald Trump for interfering in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election is giving her until May 10 to testify before the panel.
The Senate Special Committee on Investigations’ Republican majority voted 5-2 along party lines Wednesday to set that deadline for Willis to comply with a subpoena to appear as a witness. If she fails to appear, the committee plans to ask a judge to set a deadline for her to testify.
The committee initially subpoenaed Willis last spring, but she argued the subpoena was unlawful and went to court to block it. A Fulton Superior Court judge upheld the legality of the subpoena in December.
“This has been going on for a year now,” Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the committee’s vice chairman, said Wednesday. “The district attorney has thumbed her nose at the committee. … We may need to escalate to the next step.”
Josh Belinfante, a lawyer hired by the panel, told committee members Willis’ lawyer – former Gov. Roy Barnes – has said she wouldn’t be available to testify until late next month or early in May, citing her travel and trial schedule. While lawyers for the two sides agreed March 10 that she would submit documents the commission requested, Belinfante said he has yet to receive them.
Barnes argued during a court hearing in December that Senate Republicans were conducting a vendetta to punish Willis for prosecuting Trump. A Fulton grand jury indicted Trump – then a former president – in August of 2023 on charges of participating in a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia that saw Democrat Joe Biden capture Georgia’s 16 electoral votes on his way to turning then-incumbent Trump out of the White House.
Barnes further asserted that the committee lacked the authority to subpoena Willis, a power he said rests only with the full General Assembly. He also contended the subpoenas did not serve any legitimate legislative purpose.
Belinfante countered that investigating Willis’ handling of the election interference case might show existing state laws governing the hiring and compensation of district attorneys in Georgia are inadequate and need changing.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Transgender student athletes would be banned from female sports under two bills in the Georgia legislature, and the version from the state Senate has taken the lead.
A committee of the Georgia House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 1 Tuesday after it was amended to mirror some elements of the version from the House of Representatives, which awaits a Senate hearing.
Both measures passed their own chambers largely along party lines.
The Senate version now carries the same title as House Bill 267, which was named after Riley Gaines. She became a flag bearer for the movement to ban transgender athletes born male from female sports after she lost a swimming championship to a transgender athlete in 2022.
SB 1 was not amended to copy HB 267 in one very big way though: the House bill would alter most of Georgia law to read “sex” where the word “gender” is used. SB 1 would only do that in relation to school and college sports.
Proponents, including Christian groups, say a ban is needed to protect female athletes against physically stronger competitors despite testimony that very few transgender athletes exist and that transgender people are not always larger and stronger.
“We are creating a boundary around female sport,” Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the chief sponsor of SB 1, said Tuesday. The House Education Committee then passed his bill on to the House Rules Committee, paving the way for a vote by the full House. There was significant committee opposition to passage, but it was a voice vote without a public tally.
Rep. Josh Bonner, R-Fayetteville, the chief sponsor of HB 267, signaled House collaboration with the Senate when he called the new version of SB 1 a “commonsense compromise.”
Before the vote, the committee took public testimony that was consistent with what lawmakers have heard previously. A lawyer for Frontline Policy Action, a Christian advocacy group, testified that her organization helped write both the House and Senate versions of the legislation and supported SB 1, as did a representative of the Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition.
Critics testified that if SB 1 were to become law, females who look male could get accused of being transgender and become subject to bullying. The legislation empowers parents to make accusations and to sue schools and colleges — both public and private — that they believe have violated the transgender prohibition.
Opponents also said elementary school children would be affected despite the focus on adults like Gaines.
Transgender people are an exceptionally small demographic. The Williams Institute at the UCLA law school estimates there are 1.6 million transgender people ages 13 and older in the United States, including nearly 22,000 in Georgia, of whom 3,400 are minors.
“With so many Georgians struggling for things like just trying to get by and pay the bills, I really wonder why we’re focused on this,” said Rev. Kimble Sorrells, a United Church of Christ minister. “It feels like this is really just political grandstanding.”
by Ty Tagami | Mar 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Children and adolescents won’t be able to use personal cellphones in public schools starting next fall after the General Assembly overwhelmingly supported banning the devices in elementary and middle schools.
House Bill 340 passed the Georgia Senate Tuesday 54-2 after the state House of Representatives passed it with strong bipartisan support in early March.
Gov. Brian Kemp will soon decide whether to sign the measure. So kids and parents will need to mentally prepare for the technology that tethers them to each other be severed during the school day.
The “Distraction-Free Education Act” requires schools to develop policies that allow parents to reach their kids, for instance, by calling the principal’s office, and it provides exemptions for students with disabilities or medical conditions that require them to use a cellphone for learning or for health reasons, such as checking their glucose level.
But starting in July 2026 all other kids would have to hand over or lock up their device from the first bell of the school day until the final ring. The ban applies even during emergencies, when experts testified that cellphones pose a dangerous distraction, even if parents wish they could still contact their children during, say, a mass shooting.
The crackdown comes amid growing global concerns about the effect of technology and social media on children.
Documentaries such as “The Social Dilemma” have explored how social media companies target children and their attention. Books such as “Stolen Focus” by British journalist Johann Hari have described the impact of the resulting distraction on their ability to function. The new Netflix drama “Adolescence,” about a boy accused of killing a girl, prompted British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to say he was concerned about social media spreading misogyny to young males.
Last year, Australia banned social media for those under 16. Last fall, France initiated a trial ban on cellphones in schools for students ages 11-15, with a potential expansion nationwide. Denmark is talking about banning them in schools, too.
Absent action from Congress, states in America have been tackling the issue on their own, with at least a half dozen already enacting bans like the one Georgia’s legislature has passed.
They’re reporting fewer disruptions and more interaction among students.
“The evidence is clear” that cellphones are a “major” distraction in classrooms, Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, the chair of the Senate Republican Caucus, said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
“This bill isn’t just about academics,” he said. “It’s about student well-being.”
Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, the majority whip, called cellphones a “serious cancer” in classrooms.
Some Democrats said Republicans are using the phone issue to distract from the concerns about school shootings. But they unanimously supported HB 340 in the Senate, with the only “no” votes coming from two Republicans.
Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, said she and her husband struggled to place rules around phone use in their own home when their kids got them a decade ago. But schools had them doing homework on their phones, which made it difficult to enforce limits. She said she was suspicious when she read that Silicon Valley executives wouldn’t let their own kids use such devices.
“So they knew that what they were putting into kids’ hands was not good for them,” she said.
Many suggested during weeks of hearings on the bill that the cellphone ban should also include high school students.
Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, the chief sponsor of HB 340, said after Tuesday’s vote that the ban could be extended to those schools in coming years.
“Absolutely, based on the feedback that I have gotten, we do have a problem in (grades) 9 through 12, and it’s the nuance of how do we address that,” he said. “But I do imagine that in a future session we’re going to be back to think deeply about what we do in high school.”
by Dave Williams | Mar 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Port of Savannah set a record for containerized cargo traffic last month, the Georgia Ports Authority reported Tuesday.
The port moved 479,850 twenty-foot equivalent container units in February, a 6% increase over the same month last year.
Dual container moves, with drivers delivering an export and picking up an import container, accounted for 85% of Savannah’s container business last month, adding overall efficiency.
Meanwhile, Gateway Terminals, which handles operating services for the ports authority, and the local International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) chapter have agreed to further increase efficiency by adding three new start times to work cargo vessels – at 6 a.m., 3 p.m., and 9 p.m.
“This will make a big difference in turning ships around faster,” said Griff Lynch, the ports authority’s president and CEO. “With a total of eight start times and our 24-hour vessel service, crane operators and crews form the ILA will start moving containers on and off ships more quickly, reducing vessel time at dock.”
The Port of Savannah, which currently averages 35 vessels per week, will also increase vessel capacity with a new lay berth at the Ocean Terminal coming online in May. A second lay berth is due to begin operating in the middle of next year.
The Port of Savannah wasn’t the only ports authority operation to set a record in February. The authority’s intermodal team set a new record Feb. 28 with 2,246 rail lifts in a 24-hour period.
The only down side came at the Port of Brunswick, where Roll-on/Roll-off cargo last month declined by 10% – or 6,882 units -compared to February of last year
