Bills of Interest
It has been two months since the 2016 legislative session of the General Assembly came to a close. Although session is over, legislators continue to work with the Governor’s office in hopes of getting their bills signed into law. Per Georgia law, Governor Deal was given until May 3 to either sign or veto proposed legislation. If no action by the Governor was taken by the May 3 deadline, the legislation automatically becomes law, effective on July 1, the beginning of Georgia’s fiscal year.
There were many bills passed this year and below is a quick reference list highlighting bills of interest.
House Bill 801: STEM Course Incentive; Rewards Georgia college students for taking academically rigorous STEM classes that ultimately lead to employment in a high-demand Science, Technology, Engineering & Math fields.
Senate Bill 364: Student Testing/Teacher Evaluations; Revises annual evaluation for public school teachers and administrators; Lowers the test component for administrator evaluations from 70 percent to 40 percent; Reduces the number of state mandated tests to 24 by removing social studies and science milestone tests in grades 3, 4, 6, and 7.
Senate Bill 18: Rewarding Vets in Education; requires the Technical College System of Georgia to establish policies for granting academic credit to active duty military or veteran students for college-level learning acquired prior to their enrollment.
Senate Bill 348: College/Career Academies; expands educational opportunities in Georgia by easing the process for the creation of college and career academies.
House Bill 767: Move Over Law Expanded; Adds utility service vehicles and workers in the fields of electric, natural gas, water, waste-water, cable, telephone, or telecommunication services to the list of those covered under Georgia law require drivers “move over” when vehicles are on the side of the road.
Senate Bill 331: Parental Rights Denied for Convicted Rapist; allows the termination of a father’s parental rights when, by unquestionable evidence, the father caused his child to be conceived as a result of non-consensual sexual contact.
House Bill 588: Meth Protection; Requires an electronic logging system by pharmacies to monitor consumer purchases of over-the-counter medicines containing pseudoephedrine.
House Bill 965: Jimmy Carter Cancer Treatment Act; Provides that no health plan issued in Georgia will deny coverage for an FDA-approved prescription drug for Stage 4 metastatic cancer.
Senate Bill 258: Rural Healthcare Tax Credits; Provides tax credits to individuals who donate to rural “health care organizations,” which are located in rural counties and participate in both Medicaid and Medicare.
House Bill 34: Right to Try Act; Allows terminally-ill patients faster access to experimental drugs and procedures that have passed the first of three phases in the FDA drug approval process.
House Bill 710: ABLE ACT; Creates the Georgia ABLE Program modeled after education savings plans whereby disabled individuals can save private funds in tax-exempt accounts to pay for qualified disability expenses.
If you are interested in learning more about the bills listed above, or any other legislation passed during the 2016 session please visit www.legis.ga.gov and click on the legislation tab.
Although session is adjourned for the remainder of the year, my schedule will remain hectic. Out of session I will stay busy with study committees, constituent issues, round table discussions, legislative panels and district events. The best part of being out of session is having the chance to catch up with all of you at these events!
In the coming months, I will continue to share monthly updates on major issues affecting Georgia citizens. As always, thank you for allowing me to serve you. It is an honor to work for you and our state. If you ever need anything at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me at anytime. God bless you and may God continue to bless the great state of Georgia!