by Dave Williams | Apr 28, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp signed three workforce development bills Monday during a leadership summit sponsored by the Technical College System of Georgia.
“As the No.-1 state for business, Georgia has seen record-breaking jobs and investment come to communities in every part of the state,” Kemp said. “With the bills I signed today, we’re taking further steps to prepare Georgians to walk through those open doors.”
The General Assembly passed all three workforce bills overwhelmingly during this year’s legislative session with little fanfare, unlike several higher-profile education measures Kemp also signed Monday during a separate ceremony at the state Capitol.
House Bill 217 will extend a pilot program that allows technical college students to qualify for a high-school diploma for an additional five years, for a total of 10. The legislation also authorizes the Georgia Student Finance Commission to use data compiled by the state Department of Revenue to verify income eligibility for applicants for Georgia’s new private-school vouchers program.
Senate Bill 180 will allow sponsors to apprenticeship programs to participate in funding the state’s High Demand Apprenticeship Program. Currently, the program is limited to employer sponsors.
Senate Bill 193 establishes an adult workforce high school diploma program within the technical college system for students between the ages of 21 and 40.
by Ty Tagami | Apr 28, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Transgender students born male can no longer participate on female teams in Georgia’s schools and colleges now that Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a ban passed by the General Assembly.
On Monday, Kemp inked his signature on seven bills, including the Riley Gaines Act of 2025. It is named after a Kentucky college swimmer who lost to a transgender competitor at an NCAA competition held at Georgia Tech three years ago.
“This commonsense legislation is about what is fair and safe for our children,” Kemp said.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said the issue is not partisan. Rather, he said, “it’s about right and wrong.”
The House of Representatives backed a similar bill, but Senate Bill 1 emerged as the final version. Burns and the top Republican on the Senate side, Lieutenant Gov. Burt Jones, made it a top priority. Jones, a potential candidate for governor, did not attend the bill signing ceremony, but said in a written statement that Georgia lawmakers had kept a promise to female athletes, “Just like President Trump is delivering on promises made in D.C.”
In early February, Trump signed an executive order affecting schools and transgender athletes. His “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order withholds federal funding from schools that do not “oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports … as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
Critics contend Georgia’s Senate and House measures were overkill, a massive effort against rare instances of transgender participation in sports. But proponents, including Frontline Policy Action, a fundamentalist Christian advocacy group that helped draft them, argued that allowing transgender students born male to compete against females was both unfair and dangerous, given the variance in physical strength.
Despite hours of testimony, no evidence was presented of instances in Georgia’s elementary or high schools where a significant problem was caused by transgender participation. Critics noted that lawmakers named their legislation after a college athlete from another state.
Georgia now joins more than two dozen states with a similar prohibition.
The law applies to any competitions that involve public schools and colleges and includes participating private schools and colleges. It allows the state to financially punish institutions that willfully fail to comply, including withholding direct funding as well as funds for scholarships, loans and grants. It also allows lawsuits and monetary damages against such institutions.
The law also prohibits transgender athletes born female from participating on male teams, though there was no significant testimony about problems caused by their participation in sport.
Kemp also signed House Bill 268, a sweeping school safety measure that requires that routinely updated digital campus maps be shared with first responders, that schools equip staff with mobile panic alerts and that student records be transferred within five business days of a student’s change of schools. It would also allow children ages 13-17 accused of committing a terroristic act on campus to be tried as an adult, with potential prison time and convictions that would go on their records for life.
Kemp also signed House Bill 81, to enter an interstate compact on licensing school psychologists; House Bill 235, to give school staff time off to donate organs; House Bill 307, for screeners and support plans for students with dyslexia; Senate Bill 82, to encourage school districts to authorize charter schools, and Senate Bill 123, to address chronic absenteeism.
by Dave Williams | Apr 28, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is forming an exploratory committee ahead of a potential run for governor next year.
“I am honored by the encouragement I have received as I considered running for governor,” Bottoms wrote in a prepared statement released Monday.
“I am taking an important administrative step in this journey by filing necessary paperwork to establish a campaign committee. I look forward to making an announcement in the coming weeks.”
Bottoms was elected mayor of Atlanta in 2017 but decided not to seek reelection four years later. Instead, the Democrat joined the administration of then-President Joe Biden in 2022 as a senior advisor.
Reports surfaced soon after Republican President Donald Trump took office in January that he had fired Bottoms. She responded that the president couldn’t fire her from a job that she had already quit.
Bottoms joins state Sen. Jason Esteves of Atlanta in the 2026 gubernatorial race on the Democratic side. Multiple news outlets have reported that former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams of Atlanta, a two-time Democratic nominee for governor, also is considering mounting a third bid for the state’s highest office.
The only announced Republican candidate thus far is state Attorney General Chris Carr. Other potential candidates to succeed Kemp include Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
by Dave Williams | Apr 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Shareholders of The Chemours Company are urging the chemical producer to assess the impacts on ecologically sensitive areas before plunging into a mining project, a move aimed largely at plans to mine titanium near the Okefenokee Swamp.
Green Century, an environmentally responsible mutual fund, and the Felician Sisters of North America filed a resolution that received 6.4% of the vote at Chemours’ annual shareholder meeting this week. While that might seem a low number, it was enough to qualify the sponsors to re-file the resolution next year and is being seen as a victory.
“Chemours should more thoroughly assess biodiversity risks before they can’t turn back the clock,” Green Century Funds President Leslie Samuelrich said. “Since Chemours mines near ecological gems such as the Okefenokee Swamp, taking extra care to prevent irreversible damage to nature is a no-brainer.”
The shareholder resolution came during the same week groups of conservationists, religious leaders, and students wrote separate letters asking Chemours’ Board of Directors to make permanent the company’s 2022 pledge not to engage in titanium mining adjacent to the largest blackwater swamp in North America, either directly or through subsidiaries.
“Students have historically been a key force behind legislative action,” said Lily Mason, a senior at Georgia Tech and a leader of the Georgia Student Swamp Coalition. “Our hope is that by building awareness across Georgia’s college campuses, we can help secure protections for the swamp for future generations.”
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has released draft mining permits to Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals for the 700-plus-acre first phase of a proposed titanium mine. Eventual plans call for opening an 8,000-acre strip mine along Trail Ridge on the southeastern border of the Okefenokee.
While Twin Pines officials have said the project would not harm the swamp, opponents cite research showing the mine would threaten the swamp’s water levels, increase wildfire risks, harm wildlife, and release toxic contaminants into nearby surface and groundwater.
Opposition to the mine has surfaced on several fronts. Members of the Georgia House of Representatives have introduced legislation during several recent General Assembly sessions – including this year – seeking to stop the mine. While more than 90 of the 180 House lawmakers have signed onto the measures, none have made it to the floor for a vote.
More than 150,000 comments opposing the project have been submitted to the EPD. Polling has shown overwhelming support for banning mining along Trail Ridge.
Other ammunition bolstering opposition to the mine includes the Okefenokee’s nomination to join UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Opponents also see a plan by the National Park Service to expand the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge as aiding their case.
Chemours signed an agreement in 2022 pledging not to engage in mining near the swamp and not to buy Twin Pines, which the Delaware-based company had been looking into acquiring. The announcement came in response to a shareholder resolution Green Century had filed the previous year.
Chemours has a history in the region, having spun off of DuPont in 2015, which proposed a strip mine during the 1990s near the swamp that failed to come to fruition amid strong public opposition.
The chemical company manufactures and sells “performance chemicals,” including titanium dioxide, a common whitener in products from toothpaste to sunscreen.
“I don’t think anyone would say that slightly whiter toothpaste is worth irreversible biodiversity loss,” said Annie Sanders, director of shareholder advocacy for Green Century. “We’ll keep pressing Chemours to ensure that it considers and protects biodiversity before mining starts. That’s what’s best for investors, customers, and the planet.”
by Ty Tagami | Apr 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A federal judge in Atlanta said she will decide by month’s end whether the government must extend the visitor status of 133 current and former college students who were suddenly revoked for no apparent reason.
Judge Victoria Marie Calvert heard oral arguments Thursday in the case involving at least 26 foreign nationals attending a Georgia college or university or doing post-graduate work. Another 106 are in other states, but the students’ lawyers argue their cases should be bundled together in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to reduce the workload on the court.
It’s a core issue that Calvert must consider before she decides on the preliminary junction sought by the students. Calvert already issued a temporary restraining order against the federal government on Friday, ordering that the students’ visitor status be restored.
But her order expires May 1, and a preliminary injunction would secure the students’ status under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program until the trial concludes.
Their lawyer, Charles Kuck, argued that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security failed to follow its own rules when it revoked his clients’ visitor status without providing a reason.
Assistant U.S. Attorney R. David Powell argued that a preliminary injunction could allow the international visitors to stay past the original expiration dates of their visitor status. He asked that any preliminary injunction be tailored to each plaintiff’s expiration date.
The case may be the largest of its kind in the country, but numerous others have been filed, including two class action lawsuits, one in Washington and another in New Hampshire.
On Wednesday, Judge Leigh Martin May, who serves in the same courthouse as Calvert, denied a temporary restraining order sought by three foreign students whose visitor status had been revoked.
But Kuck said the trend favors students. He said judges nationwide have issued 17 temporary restraining orders in similar cases.
Powell acknowledged the impact, saying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been busy restoring students’ status.
“More orders are coming out every week and every day,” he said. “Sometimes multiple per day.”
Kuck said after the hearing that he hopes the government backs down, but he said he doubts President Donald Trump will allow that to happen. He said he is prepared for a fight that could go on for “a long time.”
The immigration attorney said his office has been bombarded with calls and emails from nearly 700 students nationwide whose visitor status has been revoked.
“We’re going to file a class action (lawsuit),” he said. “This is a disaster.”
