by Dave Williams | Mar 18, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Comprehensive tort reform legislation Gov. Brian Kemp has made his top priority for the 2025 General Assembly session cleared a committee in the Georgia House of Representatives Tuesday.
The Republican-backed bill, which the state Senate passed last month largely along party lines, seeks to curb “runaway” jury awards that are threatening businesses’ bottom lines by driving up insurance premiums, Senate President Pro Tempore John Kennedy, the measure’s chief sponsor, told members of a House subcommittee formed specifically to consider Senate Bill 68. The panel held 15 hours of hearings on the legislature during the last two weeks.
“What we have done is attempt to provide stability to businesses and consumers while assuring fair compensation to those who have been wronged,” said Kennedy, R-Macon.
Among the bill’s nine sections are provisions establishing “premises liability” guidelines for when plaintiffs can sue business owners after suffering injuries during the commission of a crime by a third party outside of the owner’s control and allowing defense lawyers to introduce into evidence whether a plaintiff injured in an auto accident was wearing a seat belt.
It also would require plaintiffs to seek economic damages based only on the actual costs of the medical care they receive and provides for “bifurcation” of trials, meaning liability in a civil suit should be determined before the jury considers damages.
The bill underwent substantial changes as it made its way first through the Senate and then through the House subcommittee, based on the testimony lawmakers heard, including objections that the premises liability provision would let hotels ignore sex trafficking going on inside their walls.
Kennedy denied that going easy on hotels where sex trafficking is taking place is the intent of the bill. He noted that First Lady Marty Kemp has helped push through a series of bills cracking down on sex trafficking since her husband took office in 2019.
“The intention of Senate Bill 68 is not to harbor, enable, or turn a blind eye in any regard to this grotesque activity,” Kennedy said. “It does cause one to bristle when it’s been suggested that … Gov. Brian Kemp, who is married to Marty Kemp, would put his name on a bill that would do anything to reduce the recovery and remedies available to sex trafficking victims and human trafficking victims.”
To respond to those concerns, however, the subcommittee amended the Senate bill to carve out exceptions that would apply to sex trafficking victims. One amendment would allow victims of sex trafficking or human trafficking to avoid bifurcating their cases in order to avoid the trauma of having to testify in court on multiple occasions.
“It would be unlikely for lawyers on either side to want to press a victim of traumatic injuries multiple times,” said Rep. Rob Leverett, R-Elberton, the subcommittee’s chairman.
Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta, objected that the amendment should be broadened to include not just victims of sex and human trafficking but victims of other sexual crimes including rape.
But Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, said the subcommittee heard a lot of testimony from victims of trafficking during the course of the hearings.
“It’s getting special attention from this body because of its importance,” he said.
The subcommittee also amended the bill’s seat belt provision to give judges leeway to allow evidence related to the wearing of seat belts into a case if they deem it appropriate.
The subcommittee – and later the full House Rules Committee – defeated a package of amendments proposed by Evans before approving the bill. The legislation could reach the House floor as early as Thursday.
by Dave Williams | Mar 18, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp named a Southwest Georgia businesswoman Tuesday to serve as the state’s 11th labor commissioner.
Barbara Rivera Holmes will step down next week from her role as president and CEO of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce to succeed Bruce Thompson, who died of cancer last fall.
Holmes also is a former member of the University System of Georgia Board of Regents, which she joined after then-Gov. Nathan Deal appointed her to the post in late 2017.
“With her unique experience in economic development – especially in rural Georgia – and education, she brings unmatched knowledge and ability,” Kemp said during a news conference at the state Capitol.
“Throughout my career, I’ve been committed to creating job opportunities,” Holmes said after the governor introduced her. “As labor commissioner, I pledge to continue this work.”
Thompson, a former state senator, was elected labor commissioner in 2022. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March of last year and died last November. Louis DeBroux has been serving as interim labor commissioner since then.
When asked, Holmes didn’t indicate whether she plans to run for a full four-year term next year. However, Kemp stepped in to declare in no uncertain terms that she will run and will do so as a Republican.
She will become Georgia’s first Latina statewide elected official.
by Dave Williams | Mar 18, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A human resources company serving small and medium-sized businesses will build a new corporate center in Dunwoody, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday.
TriNet will invest $15.4 million in the 150,000-square-foot project, expected to create 750 jobs during the next five years.
“As the No.-1 state for business, one of the key drivers of our success is our metro Atlanta area that continues to attract a strong ecosystem of job creators like TriNet,” Kemp said. “TriNet’s services for small businesses will further that network while creating meaningful jobs and investment for the Dunwoody and the DeKalb County community.”
“We look forward to opening a new TriNet office in metro Atlanta and becoming a part of this vibrant and growing business community,” added Mike Simonds, TriNet’s president and CEO.
“We are excited to partner with Atlanta’s strong universities and thriving small business ecosystem as we expand our local team and establish a hub where TriNet colleagues from across the country can come together for training, development, and collaboration to better serve our customers.”
TriNet will immediately begin hiring for technology, HR consulting, client management, and sales roles, with plans to leverage its increased presence to grow its regional Atlanta and Southeast customer base.
To learn more about TriNet, including where interested individuals can apply for jobs, visit www.trinet.com/about-us/careers.
The state Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce team worked on the project in partnership with the city of Dunwoody, Decide DeKalb, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the University System of Georgia, and Georgia Power.
by Dave Williams | Mar 17, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – All 1,100 sworn officers at the Georgia Department of Public Safety (DPS) will receive training from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help identify and apprehend illegal immigrants considered a public safety risk, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday.
DPS Commissioner Billy Hitchens has submitted a Memorandum of Agreement request to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, to participate in the federal 287(g) program.
“We take the safety of Georgians and travelers to this state very seriously,” Hitchens said Monday. “This training and collaboration between agencies increases our ability to keep our communities safe.”
The 287(g) program, authorized by the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, enables ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to act under the federal agency’s direction and oversight.
Also, an executive order issued by President Donald Trump requires ICE to utilize the program in partnership with state and local law enforcement.
The DPS isn’t the first state agency taking part in the program. The Georgia Department of Corrections has a longstanding agreement with ICE to enforce the 287(g) program inside state prisons.
Last week, ICE asked the corrections agency for two additional correctional officers to assist in the deportation of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in addition to the sergeant and three correctional officers already taking part in the program.
While the Trump administration maintains the illegal immigrants it is deporting are criminals, lawyers representing some of those being deported say their clients’ only offense is being in the U.S. illegally, which under the law is a civil violation rather than a crime.
by Dave Williams | Mar 14, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s two Democratic U.S. senators voted Friday against advancing a temporary spending bill to keep the federal government open through September, charging Republicans with ramming through a harmful “continuing resolution” without consulting Democrats.
Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, however, were on the losing side, as nine Senate Democrats and one independent joined Republicans in a 62-38 vote to move forward with the bill. The measure was expected to gain final passage Friday night.
Warnock said Republicans put Democrats in an impossible position in forcing the Senate to vote on a bill that already had passed the House without a single Democratic vote.
“Instead of working together to actually improve people’s lives, craven politicians shut the door on bipartisan conversation and reemerged with an ultimatum: vote for a partisan government funding package or let the government shut down,” Warnock said.
“Make no mistake, this government funding bill is bad policy: it would spike grocery prices, cut investments in education and health care, and defund care for servicemembers exposed to burn pits.”
Ossoff suggested a better alternative for Republicans would have been to negotiate a 30-day stopgap funding bill to avoid a shutdown, giving Congress time to work out a bipartisan budget.
“The House bill … irresponsibly fails to impose any constraints on the reckless and out-of-control Trump administration,” Ossoff said. “The administration is gutting the CDC (the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the VA (Veterans Administration) while destabilizing the economy. Both parties in Congress must fulfill our constitutional obligation to check the president.”
Senate Democrats who voted to advance the bill – spearheaded by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York – argued that a government shutdown would have played into President Donald Trump’s hands by allowing the president and advisor Elon Musk even freer rein to further dismantle federal government agencies and fire thousands of workers.
