by Dave Williams | Dec 5, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The U.S. Postal Service has failed to deliver on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s pledge to restore on-time mail delivery in Georgia, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff said Thursday.
While DeJoy promised last April to fix the problem within 60 days, mail is still being delivered on time only 75% of the time, Ossoff said during a hearing held by the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
“For my constituents in Georgia, the mail being delivered on time 75% of the time is not where we need to be,” Ossoff said as he questioned DeJoy. “You have not recovered as you said you would.”
Delays in delivering mail in Georgia first surfaced last winter after the postal service opened a new regional mail distribution center in Palmetto. In April, Ossoff reported that only 36% of inbound mail handled by the center was being delivered on time.
DeJoy attributed the delays to problems starting up a postal service restructuring plan aimed at making the agency financially self-sufficient. He put the plan on hold while the postal service works to resolve the issues encountered in Georgia and assured Ossoff the problems would be fixed within about 60 days.
On Thursday, Ossoff said he is continuing to receive complaints of delays in delivering important mail.
“(This is) about whether or not seniors in Georgia are receiving prescriptions,” he said. “It’s small businesses that are not able to get products to market. … It’s death notices not delivered to family members.”
DeJoy said the postal service is continuing to work through the initial difficulties with the restructuring plan, which it must keep pursuing to ensure the agency’s long-term financial viability. The postal service lost $6.5 billion in fiscal 2023 and $9.5 billion during the last fiscal year.
“Within less than three days, people will get all of their mail and packages,” DeJoy said. “That will be the target we’re shooting for.”
Ossoff responded that three days is lowering the target for on-time mail delivery.
“Delivery in Georgia has been abysmal this year,” he told DeJoy. “You need to do better.”
by Dave Williams | Dec 5, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Three Georgia cities are recipients of the latest round of grant funding through the state’s Rural Workforce Housing Initiative, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday.
More than $5 million will go toward infrastructure development and 140 housing units in the cities of Waynesboro, Hawkinsville, and Hinesville.
“We are not resting on our laurels when it comes to supporting communities experiencing historic economic growth in building the infrastructure they need,” Kemp said. “I want to congratulate these communities on their success.”
The largest of the new grants – nearly $2.5 million – will go to Waynesboro to construct street, drainage, water, and sewer infrastructure supporting 51 new housing units on a 190-acre tract.
The city of Hawkinsville will receive almost $2.3 million for road, water, and sewer improvements needed to build 58 single-family homes.
Hinesville’s $1.1 million grant will be used to construct street, drainage, water, and sewer infrastructure to develop 31 detached townhouses.
Each city and developer will contribute matching funds toward the projects.
Kemp launched the Rural Workforce Housing Initiative early last year during his annual State of the State address to the General Assembly. The grants are overseen by the OneGeorgia Authority.
by Dave Williams | Dec 5, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – President-elect Donald Trump will nominate former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., to head the Small Business Administration.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our great economy,” Trump wrote Wednesday on his social media site. “Kelly will bring her experience in business and Washington to reduce red tape and unleash opportunity for our small businesses to grow, innovate, and thrive.”
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to the Senate in January 2020 to fill the unexpired term of retired Sen. Johnny Isakson, who died late the following year. She ran for a full term later in 2020 but lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock in a runoff at the beginning of 2021.
Loeffler, a wealthy Atlanta businesswoman, is married to Jeff Sprecher, chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange. She also was CEO of Atlanta-based Bakkt, a Bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, and was formerly a co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
Loeffler has been a staunch loyalist to Trump, backing his unsuccessful legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia that saw Trump lose to Democrat Joe Biden and calling for the resignation of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger amid unproven Republican claims of election fraud.
After the 2020 election cycle, Loeffler founded the organization Greater Georgia to recruit Republican candidates and register GOP voters.
After Trump won a second term in the White House last month, Loeffler signed up to-chair the president-elect’s inauguration committee.
Trump had briefly considered tapping Loeffler to serve in his administration as secretary of agriculture but instead turned to Brooke Rollins, an aide during his first term in office. Loeffler’s nomination is subject to confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate.
by Dave Williams | Dec 4, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – President-elect Donald Trump’s legal team asked the state Court of Appeals Wednesday to dismiss an indictment charging him with trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
In a five-page filing, three of Trump’s lawyers argued that since the U.S. Constitution already prohibits indicting and prosecuting a sitting president, the same provision should apply to a president-elect. The Republican former president was reelected to a second non-consecutive term in the White House last month and will take the oath of office on Jan. 20.
“Well before the inauguration of President Trump, this Court should inquire into its jurisdiction to continue to hear this appeal,” the lawyers wrote. “That inquiry should result in this Court deciding that both this Court and the trial court lack jurisdiction to entertain any further criminal process against President Trump as the continued indictment and prosecution of President Trump by the State of Georgia are unconstitutional.”
Trump’s lawyers went on to criticize Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, who won a grand jury indictment in August of last year charging Trump and 18 co-defendants with racketeering for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to reverse Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump in Georgia.
Biden became the first Democrat to carry the Peach State since 1992. But Trump bounced back to win Georgia’s 16 electoral votes last month, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 115,000 votes.
“There is compelling evidence of local bias and political prejudice against the President by the local prosecutor, who not only answers to a tiny segment of the American electorate but is acting in clear opposition to the will of the citizens of Georgia as reflected by the recent election results,” the lawyers wrote.
Two other federal indictments against Trump have been dismissed since last month’s election, while Trump’s lawyers also are asking a New York judge to throw out his conviction earlier this year on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money scheme.
by Dave Williams | Dec 4, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Six local development authorities have been awarded $9.3 million in grants through a new state program aimed at fostering economic development in rural communities, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday.
The OneGeorgia Authority’s Rural Site Development Initiative will enable grant recipients to identify, assess, and develop new industrial sites through such activities as site studies and land grading.
“When we talk to companies, the first question they ask is if we have the workforce. The second is if we have the sites,” Kemp said. “The Rural Site Development Initiative is just one of the ways we’re making sure Georgia remains in the pole position for economic development for years to come.”
Grants of $2 million will go to each of four grant applicants. The Liberty County Development Authority will use its grant to build an access road at the Tradeport West Business Center.
The Joint Development Authority of Peach County and the city of Warner Robins are planning to build a new entrance to the Robins International Industrial Park.
The Dodge County-Eastman Development Authority will put its $2 million grant toward water and sewer improvements at the Eastman Aerospace Park, located adjacent to the local airport and Middle Georgia State University’s School of Aviation.
The Brunswick and Glynn County Development Authority is planning road, water, sewer, and site grading improvements at the Georgia Breakbulk Logistics Site.
The other two grants in the program’s first round of funding include just more than $1 million to the Screven County Development Authority for flooring and building improvements at a speculative building within the Screven County Industrial Park.
The smallest of the grants – $31,500 – will go to the Dade Industrial Development Authority in Northwest Georgia to help cover the costs of studies and reports required to qualify the Dade Industrial Park as ready for development.
All six applicants leveraged local funding sources to match the OneGeorgia Authority grants. The grant funds must be spent within the timeframe specified in the award, typically two years.
