Trump’s legal fees, religious liberty and DEI: What made the cut with Georgia lawmakers

The partisan protest reflected deepening political friction as the 40-day session hurtles toward its end.

State lawmakers debated dozens of bills late into the night on Thursday. And while some top legislation on the GOP agenda has reached Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk others still remain in flux.

With time running out, each chamber’s leaders are negotiating to get their bills on the floor before the session ends Friday. Some may make the cut. Some might have to wait until next year — or longer.

Read more about the religious liberty bill HERE.

Read more about the transgender bill HERE.

Here is a look at some of the other key legislation:

Diversity, equity and inclusion:

Just before midnight on Wednesday, the Georgia Senate passed legislation that aims to ban public K-12 schools and colleges from promoting or discussing topics Republican lawmakers say fall under the umbrella of “diversity, equity and inclusion.”

House Bill 127 passed on a party-line vote of 33-21, with Republicans supporting the measure.

Democrats used every procedural tool at their disposal to delay the vote, including filing 20 amendments.

Republicans countered with procedural tools of their own to keep from debating the amendments, which included one that ensured that schools would still be allowed to say that the Holocaust occurred to another that would stop schools and colleges from recognizing all Major League Baseball players who played prior to the sport being integrated.

The bill now goes back to the House for its consideration. It’s unclear what the House will do since the Senate tacked the DEI measures on to a House bill that would have increased teachers’ sick leave.

Investigations and subpoenas

The House of Representatives late Wednesday approved a bill that would authorize legislative committees to issue subpoenas and conduct investigations.

Senate Bill 255 also would allow committees to require people to testify under oath and grant the committees the authority to enforce subpoenas in court.

If someone refused to comply with the subpoena, they could be held in contempt of court.

The move comes as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has challenged the authority of the Senate Special Committee on Investigations, which is investigating her conduct in the election interference case. The Senate also has authorized the committee to investigate prominent Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams.

SB 255 passed the House 91 to 67. It now returns to the Senate, which earlier passed a different version of the bill.

Government secrecy

Georgia representatives are seeking to make their work less transparent to the public under a measure that would exempt more state records from public disclosure.

A bill rewritten by lawmakers late Wednesday would keep secret all communications between members of the General Assembly and government agencies. The Georgia Open Records Act already exempts legislators from having to provide their own records.

Senate Bill 12 would prevent state agencies from releasing any communication with lawmakers, as well as any information or data shared with them.

The measure also would narrow initial information on police reports shared with the public.

Under current law, initial arrest reports and incident reports are open to the public even if an investigation of the incident is still pending. SB 12 would restrict disclosable information to only the first incident report written by police on a standard form.

The House did not take up the bill Wednesday. It remained in the Rules Committee, which determines which bills get a vote by the full House, and could be voted on Friday.

Trump attorney fees and wrongful convictions

President Donald Trump could be able to collect millions of dollars in attorney fees from Fulton County under a bill that passed the Georgia House of Representatives Wednesday.

Senate Bill 244 would allow defendants in criminal cases to collect attorney fees and reasonable costs if the prosecutor in the case is disqualified for misconduct and the case is dismissed. Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, the bill’s sponsor, has said he was inspired by District Attorney Fani Willis’ prosecution of Trump and 15 other remaining defendants in the Fulton County election interference case.

The Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis from the case in December, saying her romantic relationship with a top deputy prosecutor posed “an appearance of impropriety.” Willis has appealed that ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

Lawmakers also added language to the bill that aims to standardize the way the state handles compensating those who have been wrongfully convicted. A bipartisan group of House members have unsuccessfully spent the past several years trying to change the process.

“Allowing criminal defendants to be compensated when their prosecutor is disqualified by court of law is very important,” said state Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, during a Senate hearing earlier this week. “I can believe compensation for a wrongful prosecution that results in a conviction and years behind bars is at least as worthy of a cause.”

SB 244 passed the House by a vote of 103 to 61. It now goes back to the Senate, which approved a different version last month.

Elections overhaul

The Senate voted along party lines to advance a broad elections bill banning in-person absentee ballot drop-off the weekend before election day and withdrawing Georgia from a voter registration accuracy organization.

House Bill 397 cleared the Senate 33-23. It still needs a final vote in the House.

Democrats opposed limiting in-person absentee return options, saying it would reduce voting opportunities amid slow postal delivery.

“You know who this affects most? Seniors, people with disabilities, people with families — the very people we should be making it easier to vote,” said state Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, a Democrat from Duluth.

State Sen. Max Burns, a Republican from Sylvania, said the bill won’t prevent voting access.

“If you’re home on that weekend, you simply hand that ballot to a relative or a parent, and they can deliver that ballot for you (on a weekday),” Burns said.

The bill would also require Georgia to quit a 24-state partnership that identifies outdated voter registrations, a proposal by Republicans who say the Electronic Registration Information Center isn’t effective enough.

The Senate also approved another elections measure, Senate Bill 214, which would eventually replace Georgia’s touchscreen voting system with paper ballots filled out by hand. Since it emerged just days ago, it can’t reach a House vote until next year.

‘America First’ license plate

The House approved a license plate that would display Trump’s “America First” campaign theme on a state license plate.

The measure passed in a 95-68 largely party line vote with only one Republican, state Rep. Deborah Silcox of Sandy Springs, opposing it and Democrat state Rep. Michael Smith of Marietta supporting.

Credit: Screenshot, Georgia Senate

Credit: Screenshot, Georgia Senate

“This bill is about putting America first but not in a partisan way, not in a divisive way, but in a way that should unite us all under the great red, white and blue,” said state Rep. Martin Momtahan, a Republican from Dallas, who sponsored the measure in the House chamber.

He and other Republicans spoke about Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s pride in America. However, several Democrats — especially Black members — said the America First slogan traces back to the early 20th century when an America First party promoted isolationism during World War II while millions of Jewish people died in the Holocaust.

“You don’t get to invoke our heroes with quotes that please your agenda and not take in the comprehensive movement. We are here. We are human. We are worthy of respect,” said state Rep. Inga Willis, a Democrat from Atlanta.

SB 291 now heads to the governor for his signature.

Booting regulation

The Georgia Senate agreed to a measure that would regulate how the booting industry operates in the state.

House Bill 551 would prevent private property owners from getting monetary incentives for allowing booting companies to operate on their property. The booting companies install immobilization devices on cars for people who don’t pay or overstay paid parking time, forcing motorists to pay on the spot to have them removed.

The bill would also require booting companies to include contact information for someone to call when they have been booted to get the device removed. The full legal name of a company conducting the booting must also be included in the booting notice, as well as the amount of money it costs to get a boot removed. The legislation is similar to ordinances in Atlanta and other local jurisdictions where booting is already regulated.

“To my knowledge, this would be the first statewide regulation of booting that has ever existed in state law. This is an important step forward in holding predatory booting companies accountable,” state Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Democrat from Sandy Springs who authored the changes to the bill, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

It passed 50-3 and now heads to Kemp’s desk.

Mental health legislation

The House passed Senate Bill 131, which aims to improve mental health parity — the requirement that insurers cover mental health at equivalent levels to physical health.

Sponsored by Republican Rep. Katie Dempsey of Rome, the legislation would add the insurance and safety fire commissioner to the Behavioral Health Coordinating Council, which is in charge of overseeing parity.

It would also establish a parity compliance review panel of 10 people because “there is great concern that reports (on parity) are not reaching the place that we need them to be,” Dempsey said.

The bill passed 166-3. It heads to back to the Senate where senators will be asked to agree to changes in the bill.

Georgia House members also approved legislation to shorten the time for which someone accused of committing a crime is given a mental health evaluation to determine if they can stand trial.

Those deemed incompetent are given treatment so they can return to court, but Georgia has been facing a backlog in these evaluations, said state Rep. Tyler Paul Smith, a Republican from Bremen who sponsored the bill in the House.

State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, a Democrat from Decatur encouraged lawmakers to support the bill, saying it would “make our system (for evaluation) more efficient and less costly.”

The bill now goes back for the Senate to approve changes made in the House.

Film tax credits

A measure to reinstate a tax credit for postproduction expenditures for film and television projects is on it’s way to the governor’s desk after it cleared the Senate and the House.

House Bill 129 increases the cap on the amount a production company can receive to $10 million annually and extends the expiration date for the credit. It had sunset in 2022.

Postproduction describes all tasks completed after a movie, television show or other media finishes shooting, such as editing, color grading, audio mixing and visual effects. The film industry today is incentives-driven, and Georgia has become a powerhouse for production thanks to the state’s generous film tax credit.

But Georgia’s film industry has experienced a decline in production over the past year and hasn’t fully recovered from the Hollywood labor strikes in 2023. This past fiscal year, production companies spent $2.6 billion in the state, a steep decline from $4.4 billion in 2022.

The Senate approved the bill by a vote of 44-9 and the House by a margin of 149-13.

Staff writers Mark Niesse and Savannah Sicurella contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to indicate that Senate Bill 131 has moved back to the Senate for a final vote on passage.