by Ty Tagami | Oct 31, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Judges in two federal lawsuits Friday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to continue funding its food assistance program during the government shutdown, but it was unclear how quickly payments would resume to recipients, who had been warned that no more money would be coming starting Saturday.
The news created some measure of relief — but also uncertainty — for communities and organizations that were preparing to fill the gap.
The group Feeding GA Families, with more than 30 locations across Georgia, called the court decisions “a moment of hope and relief,” but said in a statement that it would carry on with enhanced operations, anticipating a disruption in funding despite the judges’ orders due to “the complexity of the current situation and the potential for appeals or delay.”
The group’s CFO, Alicia Rivera, said while driving to middle Georgia Friday evening to hand out Halloween snacks and treats, that her group would continue sourcing products for families. Earlier in the week, she had been expecting a 25% to 50% increase in food requests in November.
“We are not changing our strategy because nothing is set in stone,” she said.
In metro Atlanta, DeKalb County Commissioner Ted Terry said officials were still expecting to increase the allocation to the local food program by 50%, by adding $500,000 to its $1 million budget at an upcoming meeting.
He remained worried that federal funding for SNAP would be constrained and did not expect DeKalb to change course just yet. He said more than 50,000 households — or about 100,000 people — qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, adding that an expanded county food budget of $1.5 million would still fall far short of the need.
“It really is a drop in the bucket. I mean we’re talking about tens of millions of dollars,” Terry said. “We can only stand in the gap so much and for so long.”
The announcement last week by the Trump administration that it would not fund SNAP during the shutdown led to political finger pointing.
Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, D-Duluth, called on Gov. Brian Kemp to tap the state’s more than $14 billion in reserves to buy food for the poor, suggesting that he declare a state of emergency.
Kemp said his hands were tied. Normally, the federal government uploads money onto electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that SNAP recipients use to buy food. “There is no mechanism by which the state can replace benefits on customer cards,” his office said. Kemp’s office also said the federal government would not reimburse state funds spent on federal programs.
Yet other states were determined to intervene.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, declared a state of emergency then issued an executive order to fund EBT cards with state money.
“Due to Virginia’s prudent fiscal management we have available budget surplus to reduce disruptions in food access and ensure that Virginia’s families in need remain supported during the federal shutdown,” Youngkin’s office said Tuesday.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, announced that his state would grant $10M to food banks.
Roughly 1.4 million Georgians rely on SNAP, but a smaller group of vulnerable residents was not immediately exposed to the uncertainty with that program.
The Georgia Department of Public Health said Friday before the judges’ orders that the SNAP program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as Georgia WIC, probably had enough money to cover benefits through mid-November. That program covers pregnant women, new mothers and children up to age 5.
by Ty Tagami | Oct 30, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — While Georgia lawmakers consider new regulations for intoxicating hemp products, Attorney General Chris Carr is joining most of his peers across the country in a call for a federal law that would sweep the products from all store shelves.
Gas stations, convenience stores and other locations have been selling gummies, vapes and other products derived from the hemp plant that can get users just as high as smoking marijuana.
They can do this because of a 2018 federal law that legalized the industrial use of hemp. The problem that Carr and a bipartisan coalition of 38 other attorneys general cite in a letter to Washington lawmakers is an “inadvertent ambiguity” in that law that has been “wrongly exploited by bad actors.”
They sent their letter last week to members of Congress, including Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. It says a crackdown on the psychoactive element of hemp will not harm the industrial hemp industry.
“Importantly, the prohibition on products containing intoxicating levels of THC—of any kind and no matter how it is derived—will not inhibit the cultivation of hemp for industrial and agricultural uses since hemp does not contain intoxicating levels of THC,” the Oct. 24 letter says.
Carr announced Wednesday that he had signed the letter, saying he was alarmed that poison control centers were reporting an increase in the number of children exposed to these substances.
“The public health consequences are stark and severe,” said the announcement from Carr’s office.
Hemp-related products are a growing market in Georgia. Breweries have been turning to THC beverages as beer sales sag.
State leaders recognize concerns about dangerous products but also want to support the new industry. Lawmakers met this summer to study concerns in hopes of crafting legislation to tighten regulations.
A revised federal law would pre-empt state efforts.
Christopher Lackner, president and CEO of the Hemp Beverage Alliance, a national group that represents companies across the country, including in Georgia, called the attorneys general letter “concerning.”
The industry agrees that high-potency products packaged to look like candy and marketed to children should be prohibited, Lackner said.
“But we can do that without destroying the thriving regulated hemp beverage industry that is already in place across the country,” he said.
The industry has become mainstream in many places, including in Minnesota, which has also legalized marijuana dispensaries. The attorney general there, Keith Ellison, posted a clarification online Wednesday about his decision to sign the letter to Congress, writing that it had “generated some confusion” and that he wants the local hemp products edible industry to thrive.
He wrote that Minnesota has tight regulations, but “highly potent” THC products have been entering the state from elsewhere.
“My intent in signing the letter is to urge Congress to close that loophole,” he wrote. “This will help prevent out-of-state companies from ignoring Minnesota’s carefully crafted THC regulations and selling harmful products in our state.”
Carr’s office said Thursday that he had no clarifications of his own to offer for why he signed the letter, which says “industry actors have nefariously misinterpreted” the 2018 law to create synthetic “Frankenstein THC products that get adults high and harm and even kill children.”
by Ty Tagami | Oct 29, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The stalemate in Washington could cause gnawing hunger for more than a million Georgians starting Saturday, when federal funding for low-income food subsidies, informally referred to as food stamps, runs out.
The administration of President Donald Trump has said the government shutdown will cut off money for the program that feeds an estimated 1.4 million Georgians, many of them children.
With Gov. Brian Kemp saying he has no plans to intervene, the only backstop for empty bellies will be private philanthropy, likely to be stretched thin.
Kemp, a Republican, has resisted calls by Democrats to use the state’s more than $14 billion in reserves to offset the disruption of the federal program, which enables recipients to use government debit cards to buy groceries.
The two parties have been waging a public perception war, hoping voters will attribute the pain caused by the budget impasse to the other side.
The fighting had been focused on the federal government and on members of Congress, but now Democrats are trying to localize the brinksmanship.
State Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, D-Duluth, said she was not politicizing the issue when she held a press conference at the Georgia Capitol Wednesday to demand that Kemp call a state of emergency and deploy the state’s financial reserves to feed the poor.
“Food is not optional. This is not about politics. This is about children eating dinner,” Parkes said, before introducing her former colleague, Jason Esteves.
Esteves, who resigned from the Senate last month to focus on his Democratic campaign for governor, then reiterated Parkes’ demand.
First, he introduced himself.
“My name is Jason Esteves and I’m running to be the next governor of the state of Georgia,” he said, “because Georgians deserve better leadership than they’re getting at this critical moment.”
Esteves noted that many recipients in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are low-income workers, such as cooks and cashiers, nursing aides and farm hands.
Kemp has not changed his position from late last week, when news of the disappearing SNAP funding became public. A spokesman said the governor was “continuing to echo” a Tweet from his office on Friday, when Kemp called the federal logjam a “Schumer shutdown.”
It was a reference to Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and minority leader of the Senate who has orchestrated numerous votes to defeat a continuing resolution that would temporarily fund the federal government — and restore SNAP funding.
Republicans have been pointing to Democrats’ votes against that resolution as the reason for the lengthening shutdown.
Democrats say they would approve the resolution if Republicans would vote to renew expiring tax credits for Americans who get their health insurance through the market established by the Affordable Care Act.
Premiums are expected to skyrocket next year. Georgians are beginning to realize the personal impact with open enrollment set to begin Saturday, the same day that SNAP funding ends.
Parkes brought a food pantry CFO to speak with her at the Capitol. Alicia Rivera, of Feeding GA Families, said the East Point-based organization with 31 satellite locations across the state had seen 25% to 50% more food requests by families.
Rivera expects Thanksgiving to be difficult.
Parkes also brought Rachel Kent, an unemployed, college-educated single mother on SNAP.
Kent blasted Trump, Kemp and Republicans generally, saying people born with “sliver spoons in their mouths” cannot comprehend how dire things will soon be.
Kent said afterward that she was invited to speak after contacting Parkes’ office because she was offended by depictions of SNAP recipients on social media.
“Not everybody on food stamps is fat and lazy,” she said. “I can’t get a job. I’m trying to. It’s been hard.”
Kent predicted that America could soon resemble the country during the Great Depression in 1929, with people “starving in the streets, protesting.”
by Ty Tagami | Oct 28, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Voters in the Lawrenceville area will fill an empty seat in the Georgia House of Representatives Tuesday, in the first of several elections to address recent vacancies in the General Assembly.
The election to replace Shelly Hutchinson, the Democratic state representative from Snellville who resigned in September, features three candidates.
Two are Democrats: Muhammad Akbar Ali, a graphic designer from Lawrenceville; and Marqus A. Cole, an attorney from Snellville.
Jamie Parker, a realtor in Gwinnett County, is the only Republican in the contest.
Ali raised more than $40,000 for his campaign, according to a report filed with the state Monday. That far surpassed the $5,300 Parker reported raising in a filing Monday. Cole reported in September that his campaign had brought in $4,200, all from himself. That was the most recent report available from him.
Ali’s donors included several Democrats in office, including U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson. The minority leader in the state House, Rep. Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus, also gave him money, along with a couple other state lawmakers in Gwinnett County.
Hutchinson, who previously held the seat, also gave Ali money from her own campaign funds.
Two weeks later, voters in west Atlanta and Smyrna will pick a successor for former state Sen. Jason Esteves, who resigned last month to run for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Four Democrats, one Republican and an independent are competing in that Nov. 18 special election.
Some of the Democrats have held office before. Roger Bruce is a former state representative, and Dr. Jaha V. Howard, a dentist, served on the Cobb County school board.
A campaign finance report was available for only one of the candidates. Republican Joshua Tolbert reported raising more than $13,000, nearly all from $3,300 donations by three entrepreneurs in Alabama and Florida.
Also in the race are independent Corenza Morris and Democrats Erica Denise Solomon and John Daryl Williams.
Three weeks after that election, voters in Cherokee County will select a successor for Mandi Ballinger, a Canton Republican who died earlier this month.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Tuesday afternoon that the special election to fill her vacant seat in the House will be held Dec. 9.
Not yet scheduled is the election to select a successor for Rep. Marcus Wiedower, R-Watkinsville, who announced his resignationTuesday morning.
by Ty Tagami | Oct 28, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Another Georgia lawmaker is stepping down, bringing to four the number of vacancies in the House and Senate.
Rep. Marcus Wiedower, R-Watkinsville, announced Tuesday that he is resigning after six years in the House because the company he works for is growing rapidly. The expansion will require more travel and would take him away from the Capitol during the legislative session, he said in a statement.
“While I’m stepping away from elected office, I look forward to remaining actively involved in our community and continuing to help tackle Georgia’s most pressing challenges, especially attainable housing through my work at Hillpointe,” he said.
The real estate development and investment management firm, headquartered in Winter Park, Fla., was operating in one state six years ago, when Wiedower joined the company as the lone external affairs employee, Wiedower said. It has since expanded to 13 states, and he said he now oversees dozens of employees, consultants and contractors.
Wiedower served as chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government, among other assignments.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said a special election will be called to elect a successor for House District 121 in Clarke and Oconee counties. Voters must also appoint a successor for Shelly Hutchinson, a Democrat from Snellville, who resigned from House District 106 in September, and for Mandi Ballinger, a Canton Republican who died earlier this month, leaving House District 23 unrepresented.
The Senate also has a vacancy after Atlanta Democrat Jason Esteves resigned from Senate District 35 last month to focus on his campaign for governor.
Voters just filled another Senate vacancy, electing Jason Dickerson to succeed Republican Brandon Beach in District 21 after Beach left office to become U.S. Treasurer. Dickerson, R-Canton, swore his oath of office Oct. 14.
