Discarded bills litter the Georgia Senate floor after state lawmakers adjourned the 2021 legislative session “sine die” just after midnight on April 1, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Two bills aimed at helping elderly nursing home residents in Georgia were late casualties of this year’s General Assembly session.
Legislation to allow cameras for monitoring nursing home residents and let family members visit sick loved ones in hospitals and long-term care facilities during emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic fell by the wayside Wednesday night during the session’s final hours.
A measure by Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, would have given Georgia hospital patients and elderly-care residents isolated by the pandemic a limited window to meet with a legal representative or caregiver, who could be a family member.
Pitched as a cure for human contact beyond Zoom calls and iPhones, Setzler’s bill was gutted in the state Senate and ultimately shelved after last-minute wrangling in the Georgia House of Representatives sought to salvage much of its visitation permissions.
Allowing outsiders into facilities where infectious diseases pose a high risk for spreading drew hesitancy from hospital and nursing-home groups that lamented keeping families separated but worried the fast-evolving bill might run afoul of emergency federal rules.
“Our health-care system has just gone through a shock like it’s never been through,” said Sen. Dean Burke, R-Bainbridge, a physician and hospital executive who pushed an amendment that gutted Setzler’s bill. “I’m just extremely concerned that this bill needs more work.”
But top House Republicans including Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, slammed the Senate for killing the bill, saying the chamber “let down a lot of Georgia families” and that he thought allowing visitors would be “the right thing to do.”
“I thought it was really disrespectful,” Ralston said. “I was just very disappointed that they didn’t at least give it a fair debate over there.”
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, speaks with reporters after adjourning the legislative session “sine die” just after midnight on April 1, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Setzler’s visitation bill stalled around the same time another bill hit a wall in the House that was aimed at creating rules for giving elderly-care residents the ability to install cameras in their apartments, often referred to as “nanny cams” or “granny cams.”
That bill, sponsored by Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, called for long-term care facilities to let residents and their families decide whether to install surveillance cameras in the open to curb chances for elder abuse by staff or feuding relatives.
The goal was to stave off any abuse before it happens to an elderly resident by scaring off possible predators aware they could be caught on camera and the video footage used in criminal or civil court, said Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon, who carried Cooper’s bill in the Senate.
“That camera is the best tool to ensure that they do get the good care that they need,” Kennedy said. “Do you want to just focus on trying to catch people or do you want to prevent the abuse from happening in the first place?”
The bill was finally shot down in the House in the session’s closing hour after winding through both chambers several times, with opponents arguing that requiring cameras to be placed in the open and not hidden could alert abusers as to which seniors are not being monitored.
“The problem with that is then the abuser knows exactly which residents can be victimized,” said Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta. “You know anyone who doesn’t have that up, they are fair game.”
Both bills could still be revived in 2022 for the second half of the two-year legislative term.
Discarded bills litter the Georgia Senate floor after state lawmakers adjourned the 2021 legislative session “sine die” just after midnight on April 1, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
The 2021 legislative session was a mixed bag for police supporters, gun owners and criminal-justice reformers in Georgia who saw several key bills stall as the clock ran out Wednesday night.
Republicans pushed through a controversial proposal to tightly limit budget cuts for local police agencies and scored a bipartisan win by largely repealing Georgia’s Civil War-era citizen’s arrest law.
But efforts to loosen rules on interstate gun-carry permits, prosecute violent protesters and create a driver education program on how to interact with police during traffic stops all fell short of final passage amid stern opposition from Democratic leaders.
“Really good news but really surprising,” said Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta, about the stalled measure on gun permits. “Just remember it’s not over. … This one can get passed in 2022.”
The gun measure, sponsored by Rep. Mandi Ballinger, R-Canton, would have allowed anyone licensed to carry weapons in other states to bring their guns legally into Georgia and have their concealed-carry permits recognized.
It came on the heels on two mass shootings earlier this month, including one in which eight people were killed at Atlanta-area massage parlors. The timing prompted Republicans to shelve the bill in the state House of Representatives.
“We’re a week out from two mass killings,” said Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge. “That heightened my sensitivity to that.”
Meanwhile, Ralston and top Republican leaders hailed passage of a bill by Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, that blocks most city and county governments from slashing their police budgets by more than 5% over a 10-year span.
That measure, which is awaiting Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature after passing in the state legislature largely along party lines, came after Atlanta and Athens officials nearly shrunk their police budgets last year.
“While cities like Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Portland might feel comfortable slashing police budgets and compromising public safety, we won’t let that happen in Georgia,” Gaines said in a statement after the bill passed.
“Instead, we proudly stand with our men and women in blue – and call on every other state legislature to take action and ensure that the radical ‘defund the police’ movement doesn’t endanger more American lives.”
Passage of Gaines’ bill followed last summer’s nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice, which sparked calls for redirecting police funds toward other social services as well as moves by conservative leaders to shore up support for law enforcement.
But a pair of proposals favoring police officers that were filed partly in response to those protests failed to gain enough traction Wednesday to clear the General Assembly and reach the governor’s desk.
One measure, brought by Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, would have made it a felony for groups of seven people or more to cause property damage or violence and hold city and county governments liable in civil court for interfering in a police agency’s protest enforcement.
Another measure – also by Robertson, a retired Muscogee County police officer – would have required driver-training courses in Georgia to include instruction on how drivers should act when police officers pull them over during traffic stops.
Backers called it a common-sense proposal to improve interactions between police and citizens after years of high-profile deaths involving people being detained that have eroded public trust, such as the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer last May.
“This just recognizes the fact that we as a community have a responsibility to each other for our mutual safety when it comes to traffic stops and law enforcement interaction,” said Rep. Martin Momtahan, R-Dallas, who carried Robertson’s bill in the House.
Democrats and criminal-justice advocates argued it would put the burden on drivers to behave in certain ways with police while ignoring scenarios in which officers may abuse their authority during traffic stops.
“This is horribly one-sided, out of touch with reality and incredibly dangerous,” said Rep. Kimberly Alexander, D-Hiram. “When civilians do not know their own rights, it is more likely that their rights will be violated.”
Beyond all of those bills, the General Assembly also passed out crime and policing measures to toughen punishments for mail and package theft, relax hurdles for low-level offenders to end their probation early and require cash bail for additional crimes including burglary, staling and car break-ins.
Among the failed bills on criminal justice this session was a measure to create an oversight board able to punish and remove bad-actor district attorneys and solicitors general. The proposal hit a wall in the Senate amid criticism it could strip Georgia prosecutors of important tools to pick and choose cases.
Bills that failed this year could catch a second wind in 2022 for the next half of the two-year legislative term.
Coronavirus has sickened hundreds of thousands people and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Gov. Brian Kemp is rolling back restrictions on public gatherings and a shelter-in-place order for elderly-care facility residents that have been in place since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Set to take effect on April 8, the rollback marks the broadest lifting of COVID-19 safety measures since the governor ended a statewide shelter-in-place order was in place for about three weeks last April.
Going forward, restaurants, bars and other popular social spots will no longer face limits on the number of patrons, according to one of several executive orders Kemp signed Wednesday. Capacities in public spaces have been kept at 50 people or fewer for many months.
The amount of space people will have to keep apart can also be reduced from 6 feet to at least 3 feet in movie theaters and 3.5 feet for restaurant and bar seating. Group fitness classes in gyms will have to keep exercisers at least 6 feet apart.
Shelter-in-place orders for residents in Georgia long-term care facilities, which have been in place since mid-March of 2020, will be lifted starting on April 8.
Kemp’s latest order also bars local police officers from shutting down businesses that refuse to comply with the new scaled-back distancing and sanitization rules.
Additionally, the order allows state government employees and public-school teachers to take up to 8 hours off of work without using vacation or sick time in order to receive COVID-19 vaccines.
Georgia’s public health emergency, which allows Kemp to continue issuing executive orders on COVID-19, will be extended through the end of April.
The upcoming restrictions rollback comes as Georgia makes headway in vaccinating the state’s nearly 11 million residents after opening up eligibility to everyone in the state 16 years of age and older on March 25.
Nearly 3.8 million vaccines have been administered in Georgia as of Wednesday afternoon, roughly 80% of the number of doses shipped by the federal government, according to state Department of Public Health data.
Georgians can pre-register for a vaccine appointment at myvaccinegeorgia.com even if they do not yet qualify under the governor’s eligibility criteria. They will be notified once they qualify and scheduled for an appointment.
State officials have opened nine mass vaccination sites in Atlanta, Macon, Albany, Savannah, Columbus, Waycross and Bartow, Washington and Habersham counties.
Kemp has long prioritized balancing COVID-19 restrictions with keeping businesses open in Georgia, touting the state’s improved economy amid the pandemic compared to many places elsewhere in the U.S. Critics have slammed him for not taking more drastic steps to curb the virus’ spread.
The governor has also faced backlash for not imposing a statewide mask mandate, as well as moving to block local governments like Atlanta and Savannah from adopting mask requirements earlier in the pandemic. President Joe Biden’s administration has urged state officials to impose mask mandates.
More than 852,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Wednesday afternoon, with about 207,000 more reported positive antigen tests indicating likely positive results. The virus has killed 16,607 Georgians.
College student athletes in Georgia would start receiving financial compensation under legislation that cleared the General Assembly late Wednesday.
The bill, sponsored by House Higher Education Committee Chairman Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, would allow Georgia athletes to earn compensation for the use of their “name, image or likeness” by the public, private or technical colleges they attend.
It aims to prepare Georgia for the legal impacts of a future when – either by choice or a judge’s order – the NCAA starts permitting student athletes to gain financial benefits for their talents and Congress potentially approves laws on athlete compensation.
It’s only a matter of time before college athletes will be allowed to reap profits from their skills, said Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, who carried the bill in the state Senate. Other states have already started preparing to gain a recruiting edge over Georgia schools by passing similar compensation laws, he said.
“This will be allowing players and amateur athletes to be compensated when somebody’s using their name for profit,” Cowsert said on the Senate floor.
Under the bill, college athletes in Georgia would be required to take five hours of a “financial literacy and life skills workshop” to ready them for the added burdens of receiving compensation for sports performance.
Student athletes would also have to deposit their earnings in an escrow account from which they could not withdraw funds until at least one year after they graduate or leave school.
Additionally, Martin’s bill bars schools from offering cash or other incentives to high-school recruits and would require sports agents seeking to represent college athletes to obtain the same type of license needed to represent professional athletes.
The Senate passed the bill by 50-2 Wednesday with Republican Sens. Steve Gooch of Dahlonega and Blake Tillery of Vidalia voting against it. It then cleared the state House of Representatives by a 43-8 vote with some Republican lawmakers voting against, and now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
The bill comes amid a flurry of lawsuits in recent years challenging the NCAA’s authority to block student athletes from receiving compensation while also profiting from their skills through advertising and video games.
Backers of allowing college-athlete compensation contend students are treated unfairly by institutions that gain from their playing abilities but often do not cover all of their costs to attend school, including textbooks and travel, even with full scholarships.
Opponents, including the NCAA, have argued paying or otherwise incentivizing college athletes would detract from their focus on school classes and other on-campus activities, as well as trampling on colleges’ authority to set their own rules when it comes to athlete compensation.
The U.S. Supreme Court is taking up a case soon from California brought by a former college athlete, West Virginia running back Shawne Alston, who sued the NCAA and several college leagues in 2014 for not allowing compensation to pay for costs beyond what his scholarship covered.
The NCAA appealed to the Supreme Court after Alston won in lower and appellate courts. The high court heard oral arguments in the case on Wednesday.
This story has been updated to reflect Rep. Martin’s bill gained final passage late Wednesday night.
A bill requiring Georgia colleges and universities to report hazing incidents that happen in school clubs like fraternities and sororities passed in the General Assembly Wednesday.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, is a greatly stripped-down version of the original measure, which would have made it a felony with prison time and large fines for anyone who injures or contributes to killing someone through hazing, including by alcohol abuse or physical torture.
Albers, who has pushed the criminal-hazing penalties since last year, said the state House of Representatives made “substantial changes” to his bill after it passed unanimously in the state Senate in late February.
He pledged to bring back the felony proposals in next year’s legislative session.
“This bill is a down payment on the further work we’re going to do next year and the years in the future to make sure we honor Max’s legacy and keep kids safe,” Albers said from the Senate floor Wednesday.
Albers referred in his floor remarks to Max Gruver, a Louisiana State University student from Georgia who died in 2017 from alcohol poisoning after being hazed by members of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. The bill was named in honor of Gruver.
With the overhauled bill, Georgia college administrators will need to publicly disclose hazing incidents involving forced consumption of alcohol, food or otherwise harmful substances within 15 days after the school has adjudicated the matter or there has been a criminal conviction.
Schools would also have to name the organization where the hazing took place, which House lawmakers who revised Albers’ bill said recently should be enough to scare groups like fraternities, sororities and sports teams into clamping down on dangerous ritual hazing.
“They are not going to want to be on a list like this,” said Rep. Bert Reeves, R-Marietta, who helped draft the bill changes in the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee last week.
“They know that would be detrimental and that this would be something that would be very damaging for fraternities. I think it does help achieve a really good public-policy goal in that.”
Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, who also had a hand in the changes, said the revised bill is “focused on the organizational deterrents versus crime and punishment.”
The bill passed in the Senate unanimously on Wednesday and now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
Gruver, a 2017 graduate from Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in Roswell, was forced to drink liquor for failing to correctly answer fraternity-related trivia questions. His death led to the arrests of several fraternity members and a felony negligent homicide conviction of the ringleader.
