Last Minute Maneuvers
As millions of people took to the streets across the country for “No Kings” rallies, the Georgia legislature is busy putting the finishing touches on the 2026 legislative session. What now hangs in the balance at the Gold Dome has the potential to impact many lives across the state — and the integrity of our 2026 elections.
There are only two days left — 39 & 40. The Senate “Rules” Committee meets Monday morning at 10:30 to set the final floor calendar. If a bill doesn’t make the calendar, the only strategic maneuver left to become law is Senate floor amendments. And there will be many!
Since most major negotiations at this point happen behind closed doors, hallway rumors are rampant. Even as a legislator, it’s hard to tell fact from fiction.
“This Bill Used to Be (fill-in-the-blank)”
In my Democratic Caucus meeting Monday morning, I kept hearing, “This bill used to be . . . “ An ambulance bill became a proposal to end daylight savings time. A food truck bill became a bill to force metro-area district attorney and county commission elections to be non-partisan.
This maneuver is called “hijacking” a bill. The original bill is stripped and a new bill is substituted. The really horrible thing from a legislator’s perspective is that if one of your bills gets hijacked, it can leave your name associated with something that you very much don’t support.
HB 960 Election Overhaul: Just ask Rep. Jasmine Clark, who is running for Congress in the 13th district, and whose HB 960 (which originally added a superior court judge to the Gwinnett Judicial Circuit) became an irresponsible election overhaul that requires an entirely new system of handmarked paper ballots to be implemented before the November elections — something Rep. Clark would never support! (Don’t worry, she’s got a plan to deal with it).
A Package Deal
In the face of Congress’s dysfunction, complex policy issues get pushed down to the state level, making it feel like Georgia has outgrown its part-time legislature. This was demonstrated in the Senate Higher Education Committee this week.
HB 1413 DREAM Scholarship: This bill is the enabling legislation for Georgia’s first ever needs-based scholarship and it was scheduled for a Committee vote. Also up for votes were three other bills: HB 419, making Narcan available on college campuses; HB 1113, excluding part-time student workers from the state retirement plan; and HB 962 raising the caps for contributions to 529 college savings plans.
After hearing presentations of all four bills, the Committee chairman whipped out a massive “committee substitute” bill that rolled all four bills into one. While this was done to more efficiently move these bills through the remaining steps, the Committee Chairman also pre-emptively removed a controversial section from HB 962, bypassing the committee’s role in amending bills. In this case, committee members were supportive of the change, but you can see how easily this can, and does, get abused.
Last-Minute Wins in Georgia’s Budget
Disabilities Funding: The Senate’s version of the 2027 budget included significant funding to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, an issue I’ve worked on for a couple of decades. In 2021, I co-chaired a Senate Study Committee that mapped out an action plan to eliminate the Medicaid Home & Community Services waiting list of over 7000 families. The Senate put in $20 million to fund 1,217 of Georgia’s highest need families. This is a huge step in the right direction.
State Retiree Funding: Back in 2009, the state broke its promise to Georgia retirees following the 2008 Great Recession, when they eliminated their annual cost-of-living adjustments. Since then, these benefits have been eroded by rising inflation. The Senate version of the budget allocates $100 million to restore these benefits. I credit Sen. Nan Orrock for her years of advocacy on this issue.
Literacy Coaches: The $70+ million proposal is a priority of Speaker Jon Burns to place a literacy coach in every K-3 school.
Now House and Senate leaders are negotiating their differences in a Conference Committee. I hear things are tense, and that there’s a chance disagreements might not get resolved by Thursday’s Sine Die. But maybe that’s just a rumor?
Fighting Big Money Power Plays
Folic Acid Fortification
For those of you who have been following SB 278, (my effort to fortify corn flour with folic acid to lower the number of Latino babies born with spina bfida), you’ll know I’m fighting to the end. My bill was not called up by the Lt. Governor on Crossover Day, so this week I officially attached it in Committee as an amendment to HB 1138, an access-to-contraceptives bill. (This maneuver is called “finding a vehicle.”)
I’ve been up against Frito-Lay’s lobbyist on this bill all session. It’s clear their priority is protecting their bottom line, not helping out society by preventing birth defects. I had it out with this lobbyist at the Senate ropes this week, and he had it out with me.
Wheat flour has been fortified with folic acid since the late 1990s, and doing so didn’t put companies out of business. But it HAS reduced the number of babies born with spina bifida. Experts have been trying to get corn flour fortified with folic acid (voluntarily or federally) for a decade now, with no success. The industry’s continued opposition requires a state-by-state legislative approach, which is now what the industry says they don’t want. Stay tuned.
Chatbot Regulation
I’ve been working to strengthen SB 540, a bill regulating companion chatbots to protect kids online.
From the start, it was clear the original bill was written by the industry — full of weak and sneaky language. Behind the scenes, I’ve been working to strengthen the bill.
Last weekend, I worked with the House Technology Committee Chairman to make even more changes. But just after the Committee meeting, I discovered language that exempted chatbots embedded in social media platforms—the exact loophole we had already removed on the Senate floor.
Fortunately, the House ultimately tightened age verification, data privacy protections and removed the exemption for social media platforms. What started as a weak bill turned into a pretty strong one. Usually it’s the other way around!
The bill passed the House unanimously, and the Senate agreed 44–1. The only nay vote happens to be married to Meta’s lobbyist. It’s now headed to the Governor’s desk.
What’s Next
Monday I’ll be attending the funeral of the spouse of one of my colleagues, Sen. Freddie Powell Sims from Albany, Georgia. When you work with people as closely as you do in the Senate, you build strong personal ties.
Committee work is done, but we’ll be on the floor Tuesday and Sine Die will hopefully be Thursday. Long days—and long nights—lie ahead.
No matter what happens at the Gold Dome, it still feels like everyone who’s there actually wants to be there. As you pass people in the halls, they almost always smile, and I smile back.
Call to Action
HB 960: (ridiculous election overhaul) — Call House members and tell them to disagree with the Senate’s version of HB 360 since there’s not enough time to implement changes before November elections.
HB 369: (metro area nonpartisan elections) — Call the Governor’s office (404) 656-1776 and tell him it’s unconstitutional to only force metro Atlanta elections to be nonpartisan while leaving non-metro elections partisan.