by Ty Tagami | Feb 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
Drones would be subject to more restrictions under a couple of pieces of legislation that passed the Georgia House of Representatives Friday.
House Bill 58 would prohibit flights over public gatherings. It would require that drones stay at least 400 feet from the airspace of ticketed entertainment events, unless they are being used for an authorized official purpose.
House Bill 205 seeks to address national security by banning official use of certain drones due to concerns about data security. The measure is aimed at China.
Rep. David Clark, R-Buford, said nine out of 10 drones are manufactured by two companies in that nation and that those companies must share any data they acquire with the Chinese government.
“This legislation does not ban drones outright,” he said. “Instead, it ensures that drones used by our government agencies can be rendered safe from foreign interference. And the key requirement is simple: drones must not be capable of transmitting data to unauthorized parties.”
Fellow lawmakers spoke favorably of the bill. Among their concerns were the risk of using drones to spy on military bases absent this proposed regulation.
Local and state governments would be encouraged to acquire drones from a list that the state would develop, based on Federal Aviation Administration standards and clearance by the U.S. Department of Defense.
But the compliance would cease to be voluntary in three years, which, Clark said, is the average lifespan of a drone.
Starting Jan. 1, 2028, officials in Georgia would have to acquire drones only on the state’s safe list, which would be updated semiannually.
Both bills passed with bipartisan support, with only four votes against HB 58 and one against HB 205. They now head to the state Senate.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
The Georgia General Assembly has adopted its first bill of this year’s legislative session, a measure that allows bail bond businesspeople to hold more elective offices.
The state House of Representatives passed the legislation 159-6 Friday, following Senate passage of the measure 51-2 in early February.
A mostly forgotten state law says people in that business can only serve on a local school board. Senate Bill 16 expands that to any local office as long as it is not in a county where the person does business.
On Friday, Rep. David Huddleston, R-Roopville, said deleting the prohibition would help attract good candidates for elective office in rural areas, where he said they are hard to find.
No one spoke against the measure on the House floor, though one representative asked if SB 16 was being pushed by a bail bondsmen association. No, Huddleston responded.
The bill by Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan — the Senate’s majority caucus vice chair — came about after a candidate who had won an election in Heard County discovered the old law and chose not to take office. Huddleston said lawmakers subsequently learned of instances where people in the bail bond business had held office in violation of the 1980s law without realizing it.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, prefaced the brief debate on the measure with a slight nudge to his colleagues in the other wing of the Gold Dome to get things moving. The session ends in less than two months, just before the Masters Tournament in Augusta, as is customary.
“We’re taking up a Senate Bill,” Burns said. “We hope they’ll do same for us in the Senate.”
The bill now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
by Dave Williams | Feb 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A sharply divided Georgia Senate passed a comprehensive tort reform bill Friday that is Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s top priority for the 2025 General Assembly session.
Senate Bill 68, which the Senate’s GOP majority passed 33-21 primarily along party lines, is aimed at reining in huge jury awards in civil lawsuits Kemp and his legislative allies say are raising insurance premiums, forcing businesses to lay off workers or close their doors and reducing access to health care by driving physicians out of Georgia and shuttering hospitals.
“This legislation is not about protecting corporate profits. It’s not about caving in to the demands of insurance companies or denying Georgians their ability to be fully and fairly compensated when they need to go to court,” said Senate President Pro Tempore John Kennedy, R-Macon, the bill’s chief sponsor, responding to criticism of the measure leveled by Democrats and trial lawyers. “Instead, it’s about stabilizing costs and putting all Georgians, no matter where your zip code is, first.”
The wide-ranging bill contains a number of provisions, including:
- prohibiting plaintiff lawyers in a civil lawsuit from asking a jury for a specific amount of damages until closing arguments.
- requiring judges to rule on motions to dismiss a case filed by defense lawyers before the start of what tends to be an expensive discovery process.
- prohibiting plaintiff lawyers from filing motions to dismiss a case and refiling a lawsuit after the jury has been seated and opening statements have taken place. Refiling at such a late stage forces defendants to spend money unnecessarily.
- prohibits lawyers for either side from seeking double recoveries of attorney fees from the other side.
- allows defense lawyers to introduce into evidence whether a plaintiff injured in an auto accident was wearing a seat belt.
- establishes “premises liability” guidelines for when plaintiffs can sue business owners for negligence due to injuries suffered from criminal acts committed by a third party outside of the defendant’s control.
- allows plaintiffs to seek economic damages based only on the actual costs of the medical care they receive.
- requires liability in a civil suit to be determined before the jury considers damages if either the plaintiff or defendant requests such “bifurcation” of trials.
Senators unanimously passed an amendment submitted on the floor Friday with the governor’s backing that would allow deliberating juries to ask the judge whether a plaintiff has health insurance, the amount of the injured party’s medical bill, and how much of the claim the insurance company paid.
The amendment would strike a balance between the interests of business owners bombarded with skyrocketing insurance premiums and the constitutional rights of injured Georgians seeking compensation, said Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, a plaintiff lawyer by trade and the amendment’s sponsor.
“No one wants to be crushed by baseless claims,” Hatchett said. “At the same time, I believe no one wants corporations operating unchecked.”
After Hatchett’s amendment passed, the Senate defeated a second amendment brought by Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, D-Duluth, that would have prohibited insurance companies from raising premiums faster than the annual rate of inflation. Her amendment died by the same 33-21 margin.
“Nothing in this bill requires a single penny of premium reduction,” Islam Parkes said of Kennedy’s underlying legislation. “What this bill does is hand more power to the insurance industry.”
Senate Democrats also introduced alternative tort reform legislation Thursday aimed specifically at the premises liability issue. Senate Bill 223 would shield business owners from any negligence lawsuit brought simply because their business is located in a high-crime area. Business owners who take reasonable steps to ensure customers’ safety such as installing security cameras and adequate lighting would have a “rebuttable presumption” against liability.
In closing Friday’s debate, Kennedy acknowledged there are no guarantees that his bill will result in lower insurance premiums. But he said other states that have enacted similar tort reform measures have started to see lower rates.
“If we don’t pass Senate Bill 68, your insurance premiums, my insurance premiums, and rest of Georgia’s insurance premiums will go up,” he said.
Senate Bill 68 now heads to the state House of Representatives.
by Dave Williams | Feb 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Supporters of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge are taking another crack at protecting the environmentally fragile swamp from mining.
Two bills introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives Thursday call for prohibiting mining along Trail Ridge, the Okefenokee’s eastern hydrologic boundary, where Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals is seeking state permits to open a titanium mine. One bill would place a five-year moratorium on mining, while the other would prohibit future mining altogether.
Both bills are sponsored by state Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville, who has introduced legislation during the last several years to prohibit mining adjacent to the Okefenokee. Thus far, none of those measures has reached the House floor for a vote despite dozens of lawmakers signing on as cosponsors.
The House did pass a bill late in last year’s legislative session calling for a three-year moratorium on mining along Trail Ridge, but the Georgia Senate didn’t take it up before the General Assembly adjourned for the year.
“Both of these bills provide the opportunity for all the legislators and leadership to respond to their constituents to save the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge from mining that would harm the swamp and swamp tourism upon which the economies of the local communities depend,” said Rena Peck, executive director of the nonprofit Georgia Rivers.
Twin Pines officials say the demonstration mine they’re planning along Trail Ridge would not threaten the Okefenokee and that the native vegetation would be restored after mining activity is completed. But scientific studies have concluded the project would significantly damage one of the largest intact freshwater wetlands in North America by drawing down its water level and increasing the risk of drought and fires.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
Legislation that would enhance the criminal penalties for trafficking fentanyl cleared a state Senate committee Thursday.
People who manufacture, deliver, possess or sell traditional drugs, such as morphine, opium or heroin can be sentenced to between five and 25 years in prison depending upon the quantity.
Senate Bill 79 would lift the penalties for fentanyl to 10 to 35 years, with longer sentences for smaller quantities than with traditional drugs.
Fentanyl needs to be targeted due to its enhanced potency and resulting lethality, said Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell, the chief sponsor of SB 79.
The sentence for four grams of a traditional drug is a minimum of five years in prison, but SB 79 seeks to double that for fentanyl.
Goodman said at a hearing on his bill that just 250 milligrams can kill 120 people.
Maj. Walter Jones, in charge of drug enforcement for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, expanded on that, saying 1.3 pounds would kill everyone in his county, and 48 pounds would kill everyone in Georgia.
“I don’t call them drug dealers,” Jones said. “I call them death dealers.”
A woman testified about how her brother died after taking what he thought was Xanex, an anti-depressant. It was fentanyl.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to send the measure to the Senate Rules Committee, which could then put it before the full Senate for a vote.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
Republican state senators voted Thursday to advance a bill that would expose banking institutions to lawsuits if they deny services to customers because of the way they exercised their rights under the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The measure applies to the purveyors of essential services, including utilities. But Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, the chief sponsor of Senate Bill 57, said it should be called the “Georgia ban on de-banking act” rather than “The Freedom of Speech and Belief Act,” as it is formally titled.
The bill targets banks with $1 billion or more in assets that drop customers due to “cancel culture,” Tillery said at a hearing on the bill Thursday.
Tillery had the leader of Daniel Defense testifying for the measure alongside him.
The Georgia-based firearms manufacturer became a target of criticism after one of its rifles was used in the 2022 mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Founder and chairman Marty Daniel told the senators that two banks in a row dropped his company, forcing him to spend $1 million each time on lawyers and fees to find a new source of loans.
“This is about banks discriminating against legal businesses,” Daniel said.
Representatives of the banking and credit union industries testified against the measure, saying it would invite costly frivolous lawsuits.
Rhodes McLanahan, CEO of Athens-based First American Bank & Trust, said banks are prohibited by federal law from disclosing why they won’t engage with customers if it’s due to concerns like money laundering.
Thus, they would be unable to explain why they were refusing to do business with someone, opening the door to a lawsuit under SB 57, he said.
“We will get sued,” he said. “There’s no question.”
Tillery responded to the industry’s concerns by saying he is trying to address a clear and growing problem. To illustrate his point, he referred to an exchange last week between U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisianna Republican, and Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve.
During Senate testimony, Kennedy asked Powell about “de-banking” due to reputational risk.
Powell acknowledged a possible trend and said he wanted to learn more about it.
“I, too, am troubled by the quantity of these reports,” he said.
During Thursday’s hearing, Democrats expressed concerns about SB 57, as did Georgia state Sen. John F. Kennedy, a Republican from Macon.
As Senate president pro tem, Kennedy is just below Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the Senate hierarchy. The Senate leadership is backing a push by Gov. Brian Kemp, a fellow Republican, to limit payouts in lawsuits, Kennedy noted, adding that it was difficult to square SB 57 with that goal.
The bill would encourage lawsuits against banks, resulting in an “unfair windfall” for plaintiffs, he said.
Kennedy and at least one other Republican joined Democrats in voting against SB 57, but it still passed out of the committee on a 7-5 vote. It now heads to the Senate Rules Committee, which will decide whether to let it go to the full Senate.
