Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2026 #5

No Man is an Island

I’ve been thinking about the word “constituent” lately. The word comes from two Latin roots that when combined mean “to establish together.” By the 17th century, the word evolved to mean someone who appoints a representative, leading to its modern usage referring to a voter. Simultaneously, the word also evolved to mean “a part of a whole.” As John Donne wrote, “No man is an island; Entire of itself; Every man is a piece of the continent; A part of the main.”

Taxes Are Part of a Whole

Thinking about constituents as “a part of the main” gave me a framework for this week’s Senate floor fight over taxes. But first, let me tell you what happened in the Senate this week:

Senate Republican Income Tax Cut Bills: Late last Friday, after most legislators had gone home, Republicans filed SB 476, which proposes to cut income taxes by dramatically raising the standard deductions, while also proposing cuts to tax credits. They also filed SB 477, which proposes to accelerate the reduction of the current state income-tax rate, eventually phasing it out entirely.

The bills were pushed through the Senate Finance Committee early this week, leaving very little time for lawmakers, staff, or the media to analyze the bills and get information out to the public. At the conclusion of a 70-minute Committee meeting, both bills passed with no time for public comment.

There were also no fiscal notes for these bills—the basic financial analysis required by Senate rules to show the impact on the state budget. Senators were told to “trust” that cuts to tax credits would offset roughly $6-9 billion in lost revenue (they won’t).

By Thursday, the bills were on the Senate floor, where debate lasted nearly six hours before the bills passed along party lines. Because the state Constitution requires tax bills to originate in the House, we ultimately voted on House bills that had been stripped and replaced with the Senate language—another procedural maneuver to skirt the rules for a quick political win.

Taxes & Affordability: Affordability has definitely become a buzz-word at the State Capitol this year. But the problem with pushing tax cuts as an affordability solution is that this does nothing to make high cost necessities more affordable for people, like healthcare and housing. Tax cuts are more like coupons you use at the grocery store — they help you keep a little more money in your pocket, but they do nothing to address systemic issues like food insecurity and hunger. Republicans are pushing a narrative that every “man is an island”; Democrats view taxes through a narrative that every person has a responsibility to contribute to the whole, because we are “part of the main.”

Constituent Conversations: Where the Real Work Happens

While the debate inside the chamber focused on gaining votes and grabbing headlines, conversations with constituents at the ropes outside the chamber reminded me why this work matters and how important it is that we stay focused on solving real-life problems.

• Surprise Ambulance Bills

A constituent from Dunwoody contacted me after being transported just three miles by ambulance during a medical emergency and later receiving a $2,500 bill his insurance didn’t cover. Ambulance services are run by for-profit companies that stay out of insurance networks so they can set their own prices, leaving patients with little choice but to pay the bill that arrives later. That’s why it mattered that the Senate Health & Human Services Committee took up SB 462, a bipartisan bill aimed at capping excessive out-of-network ambulance charges. It’s not a perfect fix, but it could have cut my constituent’s ambulance bill in half.

• A Medically Fragile Foster Baby

I also spoke with a foster parent caring for a premature infant with serious medical needs. They’ve already spent tens of thousands of their own money, paying for nursing support out-of-pocket because services weren’t approved by the state. I’m using this case to dig deeper into systemic gaps in foster care and to learn more about what could help families like theirs.

• Immigrant Families Plead for Help

The most heart-wrenching conversation of the week was with a group of immigrant constituents at the ropes, including Latino mothers and a young boy named Miguel. They were there as part of a larger Immigrant Advocacy Day at the Capitol. They spoke about fear of family separation, their children missing school, and the daily stress of uncertainty. Miguel told me he was scared his mother would be taken away, and that his family could be sent to the wrong country. I listened to their stories and promised to keep fighting for them. I also told them that we’re working with community partners and volunteers to provide practical day-to-day support where we can.

Filling Holes, But Falling Short

What’s Happening in the House: One bright spot this week: the House passed the amended 2026 budget, the mid-year adjustment to our current budget. It includes funding to help fill the $85 million shortfall in our foster care system and additional resources to expand mental health services. These investments will help avoid severe cuts for foster care services and begin to reduce the waiting list of roughly 800 Georgians who need crisis mental health care.

But at a time when families are struggling with rising premiums and medical bills, the budget stopped short of doing anything to help Georgians afford healthcare. We cannot seriously address the affordability crisis without addressing healthcare costs.

If you want to learn more about the House’s bipartisan bills on housing affordability, please see the DeKalb Dem’s weekly newsletter, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” written by Dunwoody resident Micahel Greenwald.

Fighting Big Tech

Keeping Kids Safe Online: Last fall, I co-chaired the Senate Study Committee on Protecting Georgia’s Children Online, and this session I’m working with fellow committee members to roll out several bills based on our recommendations.

My signature bill, SB 495, regulates the addictive design features built into many social media and gaming platforms used by minors.

Earlier this session, I worked with a Republican colleague—a father of four—who was interested in this issue. He had a bill to ban social media for kids scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Children and Families Committee but agreed that regulating addictive design was a better approach. He offered to substitute my bill into his so it could receive a hearing.

But just before the meeting, the Lieutenant Governor’s office replaced my 21-page proposal with a three-page substitute full of loopholes that would have made it largely ineffective.

Even so, my bill was discussed in Committee, which helped educate the members about addictive design. I’ve now sponsored SB 495 on my own with 40 co-signers, including 25 Republicans, demonstrating very strong bipartisan support. Moving forward, I’ll work with my Senate colleague and the Lt. Governor’s office to come to a consensus on a version of SB 495 we can all support.

What’s Next

Due to President’s Day, it’s another four-day week at the Capitol. We’re in session Tuesday through Friday. Those extra days off help me recharge and suit up for another week of battle in the State Senate.

 

/by

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2026 #4

Despair Breeds Hope, and Hope brings Action

This week I was reminded of the work of Cesar Chavez during the 1966 Delano Grape Strike, when 100 farmworkers marched 300 miles over 25 days, arriving at the State Capitol in Sacramento on Easter Sunday to present their list of demands. By the end of the march, their numbers had grown to 10,000. Four years later, major growers were signing union contracts.

With the announcement of the opening of an ICE office in College Park, and plans released to build a 10,000-person detention center in Social Circle, a small town of 5,000, we have tough times ahead of us. As Chavez said, “We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.”

I witnessed this kind of resolve this week during Latino Day at the Capitol when a young high school student from my district told me his story of coming here on asylum from a South American country. Instead of letting despair overwhelm him, he came to the Capitol to share his ideas about how our K-12 schools can do a better job teaching immigrants English so that students like him can continue their studies without interruption. This young man was acting on hope.

A Visit with Sen. Jon Ossoff

Early Monday morning, Senator Jon Ossoff met with the Senate Democratic Caucus and spoke candidly about the situation our country is in, describing it as “dire” and even “grim” — hard words to hear. Had Sen. Ossoff stopped there, he would have left a trail of despair. But instead, he sat down with us in an unhurried way, offering constructive ideas about how federal and state elected officials can coordinate messaging leading into the November elections. Sen. Ossoff gave me hope that the direness of our situation is helping us to reinvent our strategies.

Georgia Elections in Peril

A New Voting System? It’s easy to drown in the feeling of despair. I felt this way even before the week started, when I was alerted Sunday night that a committee substitute to SB 214 was suddenly scheduled for a House committee hearing the very next day.

The new bill version was a sweeping, confusing, and potentially costly overhaul of Georgia’s election system. Republicans are under pressure to comply with SB 189, a 2024 law requiring Georgia to phase out QR codes on ballots and move to a system that counts votes from human-readable text. But this proposal went far beyond that, reviving old fears of voter confusion, long lines, and administrative chaos.

Hope arrived on Monday afternoon when people filled the room to speak against the bill. The hearing was abruptly canceled. This issue will be back, but it was a powerful reminder that public engagement still works, and that democracy depends on people showing up.

Voter Data Privacy

Last week, I wrote about SR 563, a GOP authored resolution urging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to turn over private voter data to the Trump administration. This week they brought the resolution to the Senate floor for a vote, sparking a long and difficult debate.

The resolution passed along party lines — leaving a familiar pit in my stomach. When you’re in the minority party, it’s a challenge to find the right balance between speaking truth to power and trying to build relationships with Republicans so you can get something done. Ultimately, you have to do both, but by mid-week, that balance was clearly off, and I was certain the Lt. Governor would punish us by killing our initiatives. Fortunately for us (and unfortunately for Burt Jones), we got a short-term reprieve when billionaire Rick Jackson jumped into the Governor’s race, handing Burt bigger worries.

Property Tax Caps vs. Local Control

Remember the constitutional amendment on your 2024 ballot creating a Statewide Homestead Exemption that freezes property taxes to the rate of inflation? Well, after all the thought you put into your vote on this issue, the Georgia Senate Republicans are trying to change how the exemption works — WITHOUT getting another vote from you.

The only way the legislature could pass the underlying legislation in 2024 was to include an opt-out provision for local governments. It turns out 65% of local governments chose to opt-out, for various reasons. So on Tuesday, the Senate passed SB 382, which forces local governments to opt-in.

It was discouraging to see a bill move forward that rewrites what both lawmakers and voters previously approved. Its impact on local funding, especially school funding, is unknown.

My Legislative Agenda: Progress and Pitfalls

Online Safety for Kids: Last year, a Chamblee mother came to me after her nine-year-old interacted with an AI-generated companion chatbot posing as a fictional character from a children’s book. Within minutes, the chatbot conversation turned sexually explicit.

This year, I noticed that SB 398, a bill making it a crime to use generative AI to create obscene images of a real person without consent, was scheduled for a hearing. I approached the Republican author about accepting an amendment addressing chatbots, and he agreed — inviting me to present it with him in committee. Just hours later, we were in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the bill with my amendment passed!

The Corn Bill: Last year, I introduced SB 278, a bill to require folic-acid fortification of corn masa products to help prevent spina bifida, a birth defect of the spine. Because federal law requires folic acid in wheat flour but not corn masa, Hispanic families face more than double the rate of spina bifida.

In January, we hit a hurdle when Frito-Lay sought an exemption for snack foods, arguing that fortification would be costly.

This week, we were able to present a different perspective. I invited executives from Mission Foods, the world’s largest tortilla producer, to the Capitol and they flew in from Texas to meet with the Senate Agriculture Committee Chair. Mission Foods already fortifies their corn tortillas with folic acid. Along with experts from the Food Fortification Initiative, they answered technical questions and helped move the conversation forward.

Take Action:

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Russ Goodman is supportive but has not called the bill up for a vote. He’s heard from the experts; now he needs to hear from you. Please call or

Government Can Still Work

Compromises take hours and hours to work out, and often legislators (even Republican legislators) take time away from their day jobs between legislative sessions to do this work. The following compromise bills give me hope!

Dry Needling & Acupuncture: For the last couple of years, I’ve spent time talking with groups of very worried acupuncturists lobbying against bills that threaten to take their livelihoods away. Fortunately this week, the Health Committee passed a bill (SB 411) that ironed out all the issues and all parties agreed. There are no longer angry acupuncturists in the hallways!

Foreign-Trained Doctors: The Health Committee also passed a bill this week (SB 427) that creates a pathway for internationally trained doctors to become licensed in Georgia, an issue I’ve also heard about for years. The bill requires service in rural and underserved areas to help alleviate physician shortages.

Foster Care: Our foster care system is broken and legislators want to fix it. Funding was added Friday by the House to address the Division of Family & Children Services $82 million deficit. SB 431 prevents delays in school enrollment for foster kids, and SB 622 creates a Joint House & Senate Study Committee (SR 622) to meet this coming year prior to the 2027 legislative session.

More Action:

Volunteers for ICE-Out: My office is coordinating with local groups that support immigrants and their families — many of which need volunteers to observe ICE, provide legal counsel, and deliver meals. If you’d like to help, please contact my Chief of Staff, Amy Swygert, at amy@sallyharrell.org for more information.

Dunwoody Apartment Fire: Recently, there was a terrible apartment fire in Dunwoody and eight families lost everything. If you would like to donate to their recovery, the Kingswood Church in Dunwoody is organizing efforts: Donate online at https://onrealm.org/KingswoodUnited/-/form/give/now. Choose Mission Appeals from the top menu and then select Fire Victims (under memo). Donations will be used to directly support families impacted by the fire as they begin to rebuild

What’s Ahead: We return to session Monday through Thursday next week, and the pace is already accelerating as we move closer to Crossover Day (March 6), the deadline for bills to pass out of their chamber of origin. The pressure builds quickly this time of year — and in a short session like this one, every day counts.

What’s It Matter To You – Healthcare

 

/by

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2026 #3

Outside In and Inside Out

Typically, actions taken inside the Capitol are meant to impact people outside the Capitol. But this week things felt backwards. Events happening outside the Capitol drove the action inside the Senate chamber.

Outside In

Murder in Minnesota: I wish you could have heard all the speeches made on the Senate floor this week by members of the Senate Democratic Caucus. For two days, we hammered our Republican colleagues. We poked at their souls, we begged them to rise and speak up with us, we called out their hypocrisy and their cruel indolence. In this patchwork of voices, I heard the spirits of my colleagues emerge, all shaped by their own unique life experiences and the communities they represent. It was real, it was authentic, and it was raw.

It’s unusual for Republicans to actually sit in their seats listening to speeches delivered by Democrats. But this time they did. Few rose to take the microphone themselves, but those who did were angry.

They called our speeches “chatter.” They told us that we had no right to speak about events in Minnesota because we weren’t there. They accused us of reacting to viral videos and rhetoric. They scolded us, telling us that what happens in Minnesota does not concern us, and that we should stay in our lanes.

Every act of intimidation in Minnesota has only strengthened the resolve of Minnesotans. Hearing the resolve of my colleagues this week gave me hope that the resolve of the American spirit will prevail over tyranny and our democracy will survive.

The FBI in Fulton County: By late Wednesday afternoon we were all pretty exhausted. That’s when we found out the FBI was raiding Fulton County’s elections offices, seizing roughly 700 boxes of ballots and records from the 2020 election. We would need to write more speeches (a task most of us must do ourselves, or with the help of committed volunteers, since we don’t have money to hire professional speech-writing staff).

Voter Rolls Showdown: In the midst of the tragic events in Minnesota, a group of Republican senators busied themselves by pushing through Senate Resolution 563, urging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to turn over sensitive, private voter data to the Trump administration in response to a DOJ lawsuit. Raffensperger has refused, rightly pointing out that Georgia law protects voters’ private information.

So Thursday morning we got busy writing even more speeches. Arguments were lined up. But before the resolution came to the floor, Senate leadership abruptly adjourned. After a morning spent forcefully condemning the FBI raid, leadership knew we were prepared to fight this next front as well. For now, the resolution is stalled — and we’ll take the win.

Take Action

A new ICE office has opened in College Park, and we may see increased ICE activity in the Atlanta area. In DeKalb, the immigrant communities in Clarkston and the Buford Highway corridor could be at risk. This week, my office began coordinating with local groups that support immigrants and their families — many of which need volunteers to observe ICE, provide legal counsel, and deliver meals. If you’d like to help, please contact my Chief of Staff, Amy Swygert, at amy@sallyharrell.org for more information.

Also, I recommend you sign up for emails from Galvanize Georgia (click here). These emails are written by one of my Brookhaven supporters, Rich Levy, and they are very good on local and state issues. He’s following ICE issues closely, in addition to many other current events that will help you stay informed in our ever changing landscape.

Lastly, because we’re in the second year of the legislative cycle, bills that have gotten stalled along the way are often tacked onto bills that have moved. While that can help in a short session, it also means parts of a bill may skip the usual committee process — limiting vetting, transparency, and public input. So you have to be careful. When advocating, talk about issues rather than bill numbers.

Inside Out

This week I had the pleasure of spending time with some of the younger members of the Georgia House at a reception for the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators. We were sharing how the nuts-and-bolt work we are doing inside the Capitol seems so trivialized by what’s happening outside the Capitol. One of the newer House members responded, “Yes, but it’s important that we keep doing it.” He’s so right. Here are a few of the issues I voted on this week on the floor and in committees.

Bills on the Floor: We voted on several bills this week, including SB 148, a catch-all education bill that allows schools to offer hunting safety courses, launches a pilot program for outdoor learning spaces, requires schools to have an automated external defibrillator (AED) and an emergency response plan, and increases teachers’ personal leave days from three to five (four bills merged into one).

Committee Work That Counts: I’m thrilled to have some good committee assignments back this term, after having been kicked off of several committees when the new Lt. Governor took the gavel in 2023. I’m serving on Children and Families, Health and Human Services, Higher Education, and State Institutions & Properties. The Standing Committee schedule was finally published this week, and several committees have begun their work. Here’s what my committee work looked like this week:

Children and Families

  • Improving Child Fatality Review Boards: SB 383 ensures every child death is reviewed promptly, focuses the work on prevention, and improves transparency for the public.
  • Autism Pilot Program for Foster Kids: SB 402 expands a pilot program to provide autism screenings and evaluations for children in foster care. The program will start in select regions and expand statewide, with training and support for caregivers and professionals and regular reporting to state leaders. Children with autism are disproportionately represented in the foster care system, and early screening and intervention can make a real difference — for children and for the families caring for them.

Health and Human Services

  • Fixing Georgia’s medical cannabis program: SB 395 ensures doctors certifying patients for medical cannabis have a real doctor–patient relationship, simplifies reporting, and allows limited information-sharing — with strong privacy protections — so regulators can stop bad actors.

As always, thank you for staying engaged, even when it isn’t easy. Next week, we’ll be in session Monday through Friday for legislative days 10 – 14. I certainly hope for a return to relative calm, but if not, we will raise our voices again to bring attention once more to the reality that we are not living through normal times.

 

/by

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2026 #2

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2026 #2

Budget Week — Rhetoric vs. Reality

The second week of Georgia’s legislative session is reserved for what we colloquially call “budget hearings.” Officially, these are Joint Committee meetings of the House & Senate Appropriations Committees. The “hearings” give agency heads the opportunity to pitch their budget proposals to legislators.

Most agency heads are appointed by the Governor, so they tend to be Republicans, and many have served as legislators or Governor’s staff prior to their appointment. During my years in the Senate, I’ve noticed a pattern. Many of these legislators – turned agency heads – change their tune as they change roles. As political figures they espouse rhetoric about bloated government and the need for tax cuts; as executive leaders, they plead the reality of underfunded government. It’s like they learn on the job that what their department does actually matters to real people and they become champions for their cause.

Where’s the Beef?

While the Governor wants to further reduce Georgia’s income tax, Lt. Governor Burt Jones and Senate Republicans have been talking about eliminating the income tax — but they haven’t come up with a plan for how to make up for the lost revenue.

Without a plan, they are forced to rely on budget surpluses, and this week the state’s own economist, Dr. Robert Buschman, made clear that’s a risky assumption. He warned lawmakers that Georgia’s economic growth is slowing, job and income growth are weakening, and wages are not keeping up with inflation. While he didn’t predict an immediate recession, he was clear that slow growth and lingering inflation are likely to continue, and that both consumers and businesses are increasingly pessimistic about the outlook.

Georgia’s recent surpluses are a result of the Governor repeatedly underestimating state revenues, allowing excess collections to pile up year after year. That’s not a long-term funding strategy. Governor Kemp is in his final year, future governors will budget differently, and the current $10 billion surplus will be spent down quickly if it’s used to backfill income tax cuts. Even the Wall Street Journal, owned by the same family that owns Fox News, said this week that the Burt Jones’ tax plan would fail the state.

Affordability Talk, Healthcare Silence

Republicans are talking about affordability — but when it comes to healthcare, there’s a deafening silence.

Hundreds of thousands of Georgians are at risk of losing coverage. Hospitals are warning of serious financial strain. Communities across the state are bracing for cuts in care. Leadership seems to believe that if they don’t talk about it, people will forget what’s coming.

But Georgians won’t forget because they’re going to feel it personally — when coverage disappears, when hospitals cut services, and when emergency rooms become the only option left. If affordability doesn’t include healthcare, it’s not good policy. What’s left is just an election year talking point.

Democrats, meanwhile, are actually offering solutions. The Senate Democratic Caucus filed SB 380 to expand Medicaid and SB 379, the Health Insurance Affordability and Consumer Protection Act, to lower costs and strengthen consumer protections in the private insurance market. I also filed SB 360, a public option that would allow any Georgian to buy into the state’s Medicaid program — driving down insurance costs for families and small businesses. But it’s doubtful that Republicans will allow these measures to move forward.

Where the Rubber Hits the Road

If political speeches tell you what leaders want you to hear, Budget Week tells you what’s actually happening.

As agency heads testified before the Joint Appropriations Committee, it became clear Governor Kemp’s incremental income tax cuts have left major parts of state government stretched to the breaking point. The most troubling to me is what I heard about Georgia’s child welfare system — children who are placed in the state’s care because the state has determined they are not safe in their own home:

  • Child welfare on the brink: There’s an old African proverb that says a child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth. I remember a training exercise I did at the University of Georgia when I was a new legislator. Assigned to bi-partisan working groups, we were asked to solve difficult policy issues using a structured set of values. Our group was tasked with figuring out how to strengthen our child welfare system. Democrat and Republican, we understood the urgency and how kids who are not cared for can become a liability to everyone’s safety.

But now the reality is that the Department of Human Services is facing an $85 million shortfall in out-of-home care funding, which is forcing it to terminate contracts and change authorization rules, drastically cutting services for vulnerable children and foster families. Why are we talking about tax refunds and income tax cuts when we can’t even protect kids in our own state’s care? And why are we not using our reserve funds? I blame this solely on Governor Kemp, who hoards reserve funds while he watches Georgians suffer. It’s pathological.

  • Mental health and public safety strain: Despite recent progress in expanding Georgia’s mental health capacity, we still face a shortage of 232 forensic hospital beds, with more than 800 people waiting for placement, many stuck in emergency rooms, out-of-state hospitals, and local jails unequipped to treat them. I stay in regular contact with a mother whose son, who has complex medical and behavioral challenges, has been sent to Texas because Georgia cannot meet his needs. In an 11-Alive interview, she says, “There’s a level of sadness, and just pressure, and just pain, that you feel from not being close to your loved one.” There’s only so much the Commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities can do within the limits of the Governor’s merciless budget restrictions.
  • Unemployment system unprepared: According to Labor Commissioner Barbara Rivera Holmes, Georgia’s unemployment insurance trust fund remains $1.5 billion below federal solvency standards after it was depleted during the pandemic. Georgia’s UI trust fund is currently $1.98 billion. The US Department of Labor’s standard to weather a recession is $3.48 billion. This leaves the state exposed when the next downturn hits. There’s a plan to address it, but it’s going to take some work.
  • Disaster recovery delays: With 98% of GEMA funding coming from the federal government, Washington red tape has slowed reimbursements. Nearly $400 million in Hurricane Helene funds are still owed to local governments, creating serious cash-flow challenges for cities and counties.
  • Workforce crisis across state government: Severe staffing shortages and turnover threaten core functions. Chief Justice Nels Peterson testified that both the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals have experienced roughly 75% staff attorney turnover over the past five to six years — calling it “catastrophic” and “unsustainable.” Similar turnover and staffing shortages exist at the GBI, Public Health, and the Department of Agriculture.

These aren’t abstract concerns. They are immediate threats to public safety, child welfare, economic stability, disaster recovery, and the basic functioning of state government.

What’s Next

Due to the weather and many legislators having to come to Atlanta from all over the state, the legislature will gavel in on Monday with no one in the chambers, burning a day on the legislative calendar. Regular business will resume as soon as the weather allows.

What’s It Matter to You?

Speaking of affordability, I’ve resumed my “What’s It Matter to You?” video series, focused on helping young people understand how state government decisions affect their lives. My latest video encourages young people to pay attention this year to who offers the best solutions for affordability. This November, every statewide officeholder and every legislator will be on the ballot, and voters will get to decide who’s in charge at the Capitol. View the video here.

 

/by

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2026 #1

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2026 #1

 

First of Session Jitters

I get the jitters before the start of every new legislative session. When I reflect on the years I’ve been in the Senate, there’s reason to be anxious! My first year, the abortion ban was slammed through. The next year we shut down early due to the pandemic, only to come back to a heavily guarded Capitol following January 6th. Each year the volume of horrid bills that pass increases. So yes, there’s a reason for the lump in my gut.

Monday, as I walked from the parking garage to the Capitol, those jitters started to fall away, replaced by a sense of stability — a realization that no matter how crazy times get, some things at the Capitol never change. That’s about the time I saw Phil Lunney, standing at the steps as he always does, enthusiastically greeting passersby.

Phil is a North Fulton Democrat. I first met him in 2017 when I launched my congressional campaign for Georgia’s 6th district. Trump had just been elected President for the first time, and Democrats were figuring out how to organize. Phil stood out to me because I liked his progressive outlook.

I decided to ask Phil why he stands there at the steps every morning — no matter how hard it’s raining, or how biting cold the wind is — greeting everyone who passes by. He said it’s because he’s a cheerleader for those of us who are serving as part of the minority party — he knows how hard our work is and he just wants to support us.

Phil helped my jitters go away this first week so I could get to work.

Changing Senate Players

Since the close of the 2025 legislative session, ten senators (including three Democrats) have announced runs for higher office. Another Senator left to be Trump’s U.S. Treasurer (you can look for former Sen. Brandon Beach’s name on freshly minted dollar bills). That means lots of change in leadership and several newly called special elections.

 

On the Democratic side, we welcome newly-elected Sen. Jaha Howard to our Senate Democratic Caucus, who replaced former Sen. Jason Esteves. By the way, if you haven’t personally met Jason Esteves, who is running for Governor, please try to do so. I have endorsed Jason because I believe he is the smartest candidate, as well as the most capable and personable.

 

Flip the Georgia Senate! Senate District 18, centered around Macon, was held by Senator John F. Kennedy (yes, that’s really his name, but he’s a Republican) who resigned to run for Lieutenant Governor, triggering a January 20 jungle primary with five Republicans and one Democrat. That lone Democrat is LeMario Brown, Mayor Pro-Tem of Fort Valley and a respected local leader with deep roots in the district. Saturday, U.S. Senator Mark Kelly joined LaMario to canvas the district!

Sen. Colton Moore, who was kicked out of the Senate Republican Caucus for inciting a civil war, resigned from the Senate this week to run for the congressional seat vacated by Marjorie Taylor Greene. The date of this election is March 10.

Narrowing Republican Senate Majority: Until these seats are filled, Republicans hold just 31 Senate seats — their smallest margin over Democrats in 20 years. In the Senate, it takes 29 votes to pass a bill. Republicans will need to stay in their seats this session to pass their bills!

New Committee Assignment!

Turnover brought a handful of new committee assignments, and I am thrilled to have been appointed to the Family & Children Committee, which oversees the health and wellbeing of children in state custody and support for foster parents. As a social worker — and someone who has spent years fighting for kids and families — this assignment is a natural fit and I am excited to get to work.

Republican Gun Policy — Abolish Local Control

For our only floor vote this week, Sen. Colton Moore was given the chance to move one of his bills forward before resigning to run for Marjorie Taylor Greene’s seat. It was a doozy.

SB 204 expands Georgia’s firearms preemption law by prohibiting local governments from regulating gun storage — directly targeting ordinances like Savannah’s, which made it a crime to leave a firearm in an unlocked vehicle. SB 204 passed along party lines. So much for Republicans being for local control.d

What’s Up with Governor Kemp’s Lame Duck Session?

Wednesday morning I dragged myself out of bed at 4:30am to catch a 6am MARTA bus from the Capitol to the Mercedes Benz Stadium for the Annual Georgia Chamber of Commerce Eggs & Issues breakfast, where we heard previews from the Speaker, the Lt. Governor and the Governor. No one knew what Governor Kemp had planned for his last legislative session as Governor, so I was very curious to find out what he had up his sleeve. Not much, actually. And sadly, no mention of Georgia’s pending healthcare crisis.

The next day Governor Kemp took the spotlight again for his Annual State-of-the-State address. There were a couple of surprises — $2000 raises for state employees and $325 million to establish an endowment for a Need-Based scholarship for higher education — something Sen. Nan Orrock and I have been advocating for the last several years. In Georgia, we take our wins when we turn Democratic ideas into Republican initiatives.

Affordability: Same Finish Line, Different Lanes

Speaking of wins, affordability is now the GOP’s new 2026 catch-phrase! Georgia Senate Democrats have long focused on how to utilize state government to make life more affordable for Georgians.

But the Senate Republicans are marketing tax cuts as affordability. Lt. Governor Burt Jones wants to eliminate the income tax and the Speaker of the House Jon Burns wants to lower property taxes. And it’s no surprise that neither has presented a plan for making up for lost revenue, except perhaps by utilizing Governor Kemp’s $10 billion stash in state reserves.

Tuesday morning, the Senate Democratic Caucus was briefed on the impact of these tax plans by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. I will do a deep dive analysis in a future Snapshot when more details are available, but I’ll say for now that income tax cuts for people struggling to make ends meet actually won’t help them much, and they could end up with a higher tax bill.

Drafting Kids’ Online Safety Bills

With a light floor schedule, I was able to begin laying the groundwork for my legislative agenda. This fall, I co-chaired the Senate Study Committee on Online Safety for Kids, and I’m now translating those recommendations into a series of bills. Unfortunately, in December President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO)  threatening to punish states who regulate AI. I’ve spent time this week with attorneys trying to understand how they think the EO exposes Georgia to risks should we regulate AI companion chatbot products. They seem to be missing the bigger picture — that we are putting an entire generation of children at risk. I’ll keep fighting for kids and families.

GPB Lawmakers

Tuesday night I was invited to be a guest on GPB’s  “Lawmakers” with Donna Lowry to address the work of my Study Committee on “Keeping Kids Safe Online.” Link here for the interview. Appearing on Lawmakers on the second day of session is quite an honor. Taking on the monied interests of Big Tech has put me in the spotlight of Georgia politics. Reporters are beginning to ask me daily how those bills are coming!

Starting on a Sad Note (Anne Isenhower)

After I got over my beginning-of-session jitters, I took to the well to deliver a Point of Personal Privilege honoring my dear friend Anne Isenhower. On January 1st, our community suffered the heartbreaking loss of our beloved neighbor, supporter, and friend, following the death of her son, Max, last month. This week, I paid tribute to Anne and Max on the Senate floor and asked my colleagues to join me in honoring her with a moment of silence. We carry them with us.

What Can We Do About ICE?

Heavy news hung over the Capitol this week following the tragic killing of Minnesota mom Renee Good. Against that backdrop, Senate Democrats announced three bills aimed at transparency, due process, and constitutional accountability when ICE operates in Georgia:

  • SB 389 — Unmask ICE: Requires ICE agents to remove masks and clearly display badges during enforcement actions.
  • SB 391 — Protect Safe Spaces: Requires a judicial warrant before ICE agents may enter schools, libraries, hospitals, houses of worship, or domestic violence shelters.
  • SB 397 — Civil Accountability: Gives Georgians a clear cause of action to sue ICE agents who violate constitutional rights.

Mark Your Calendars

The Senate and House must agree on a legislative calendar and pass a calendar resolution. Fortunately, this happened on Monday. I actually first saw the proposed calendar last Sunday the same way the public did — from a reporter on X. Crossover Day is scheduled for March 6 and Sine Die is April 2. Anyone wanting to be on the ballot for the upcoming election cycle must sign-up, or “qualify” the week of March 2 – 6. By the end of session, primary elections will be in full swing.

My 2026 Staff

Once again, Amy Swygert is serving as my Chief-of-Staff. Amy has been with me since I joined the Senate in 2019. Kathlene Dorking is still my administrative assistant, and this is her third legislative session. In addition, we have an intern from Georgia Gwinnett College, Ru Ferguson.

  • Amy Swygert: amysenate40@gmail.com
  • Kathlene Dorking: kathlene.dorking@senate.ga.gov
  • Sally’s Personal Email: sally@sallyharrell.org

On the Horizon

Please feel free to share this Snapshot with friends. Anyone can sign up to receive it at sallyharrell.org.

Next week is Budget Week. While we won’t be in session, Governor Kemp, the State Economist, and every state agency head will present their budgets to the joint House and Senate Appropriations Committees. If you want to see how well our state government is — and isn’t — working, this is where you find out. You can watch all presentations on the Georgia General Assembly website.

Stay tuned until next week when we bring a summary to you of these hearings in my 2nd Snapshot of 2026!

/by

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2025 #11

Capitol Chaos: Peak Mayhem Mode

It’s that time — the wild, whiplash-inducing final days of session. Bills are getting gutted, stuffed, and pushed through faster than you can say “committee substitute.” Thank goodness for our hardworking Senate Democratic Caucus staff, including our team of externs, that help us keep track of it all.

Staying Focused in the Frenzy

While everything around us is morphing by the minute, I grounded myself in my legislative agenda. I don’t like it when the legislative process is bypassed, but this year Republicans are only letting a handful of Democratic bills move forward so I’ve concluded that in order to do good, I must play by a different strategy.

Chatbots + Kids = Accountability Now (HB 171): Last week, I worked with the author of HB 171, a bill that criminalizes AI-generated sexualized images of children, to add a key amendment: chatbot websites targeting kids could face criminal penalties for sexually-explicit content. The notoriously tough Senate Judiciary Committee tweaked the base bill (to the author’s dismay), but my amendment survived. The bill passed the Committee. Let’s hope it’s on the Senate floor next week.

Corn + Folic Acid = Health Babies (SB 278): SB 278, my bill to require folic acid in corn masa products to prevent spina bifida, got a rare dedicated hearing in the Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee this week. Spina bifida prevention seems like a no-brainer, but we brought in a range of expert witnesses to testify to the costs of spina bifida to patients, their families and the state, the success of food fortification on public health, and the process of how food is fortified. The Ag Chair is very interested in this issue, but cautiously watching for opposition — and potentially for other states to act first.

New Bills: Salvos in the Storm

Amidst the chaos, I filed these bills this week.

Raising the Bar on Voter Challenges (HB 357): It’s time to do away with frivolous voter challenges. My bill requires actual evidence. After bringing the Chair of the DeKalb Election Board to meet with the Senate Ethics Chair to share how much time county elections staff spend on these challenges, the Committee Chair is now a co-sponsor — a huge win! I’m very hopeful he’ll help me push it forward next year.

A Public Health Insurance Option, Georgia-Style (SB 360): If Biden-era enhanced federal Affordable Care Act subsidies expire later this year, insurance costs will skyrocket and over a million Georgians could lose coverage. My bill offers a potential fix: a state-regulated, lower-cost Medicaid public option modeled on Nevada’s successful plan to leverage the state’s purchasing power by requiring insurance companies that bid on the state’s very lucrative Medicaid contracts to offer a public option plan.

Good Faith Grant Study Committee (SR 474): For the last two years, I’ve been working with a small bipartisan group of my colleagues to launch Georgia’s first needs-based college scholarship. We are working diligently to put the funding pieces together. In the meantime, I signed on to a resolution to create a Senate Study Committee — with the Higher Ed Committee Chair’s signature — to keep the momentum going.

Surprise! Bills Popping Up in Committees

The Voting Frankenstein (HB 397): This bill started out in the House as a simple bill about weekend voting in municipal elections and it snowballed into another sweeping elections bill. We heard over the weekend that it contained a provision to limit early voting sites to one per county, but it disappeared before it reached the Senate Ethics Committee. Sadly, bad provisions including limiting absentee ballot drop off on last weekend of early voting, giving more power and independence to the controversial State Elections Board, and nudging Georgia out of the Electronic Registration Information Center (aka ERIC), a data-sharing partnership with other states, despite the Secretary of State’s objections. It passed in a party-line vote and will likely be on the Senate floor next week.

The DEI Disguise (HB 127): SB 120, the ban on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs in schools, didn’t make it to the Senate floor by Crossover Day. But surprise! It’s back, reborn as HB 127, a bill that originally sought to increase teacher sick leave. Republicans passed it out of the Senate Education and Youth Committee this week. Until now, we avoided a Senate floor debate on this issue, but it’s likely to happen next week.

On the Senate Floor: The Good, the Bad, and the Backroom Deals

Distraction-Free Education (HB 340): I went to the well to speak to this bill to limit cell phone use in K–8 classrooms. When my kids were in school, having cell phones was new. My husband and I struggled to limit their use but teachers required the use of apps for homework assignments, making it difficult to enforce rules at home. This bill lets local districts decide how to implement it, which gives parents a way to advocate for policies that work best for their kids.

Surprise Pay Raises (HB 86): What started as a bill to change how some judges are paid turned into a fast-tracked Republican amendment proposing to raise the salaries of the Governor and other statewide officials. The media quickly pointed out that paying our Governor $250,000 (up from $175,000) would tie our Governor’s salary with the NY Governor for the highest Gubernatorial salary in the country. However, I recently looked up how much our Chancellor of the University System of Georgia gets paid — $524,000!

The next day, some Democrats tried to amend another judicial salary bill with a pay raise for legislators, a topic that comes up almost every session. Legislators currently make $22,000 plus a daily per diem while in session. As usual, that amendment failed.

We probably need a Study Committee on the salaries of elected officials.

The Budget Battle (HB 68): We had heard for weeks that there were major points of contention between the House and Senate versions of the FY 2026 budget. Those differences were revealed when the Senate version of the $37.7 billion budget hit the floor this week. The Senate jacked up Georgia’s new school voucher program funding (from $45M to $141M) while slashing direct help for low-income schools ($28 million) that the House added. Senate Republicans also want to tap into Georgia’s massive budget reserves instead of using bonds for construction projects. These differences will be worked out in a Conference Committee next week and the final versions will hit both chambers next week.

The Final Countdown: Take Action!

We’re down to three more crazy legislative days: Monday, Wednesday, and Sine Die Friday. In between? Strategizing, regrouping, and bracing for impact.

Several bad bills passed Committees this week.

Call or email the Speaker Jon Burn’s office and ask him to keep the following bills off the House floor. jon.burns@house.ga.gov, 404-656-5052

Religious Freedom Bill (SB 36): offers a license to discriminate based on religious views.

Anti-Transgender Legislation (SB 30 & 39): One bans treatment for trans youth, another bans coverage on state plans.

Call the Lt. Governor Burt Jone’s Office and ask him to keep the following bills off the Senate floor. https://ltgov.georgia.gov/contact-lt-governor, 404-656-5030

Elections Bill (HB 397): Bans the use of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) for that helps keep voter registration lists up-to-date, and limits absentee ballot drop-off the weekend prior to Election Day.

Bans Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) programs in schools (HB 127): Bans school clubs & resource centers that offer specialized support for various groups.

Call the Chairman of Senate Appropriations, Chairman Blake Tillery, to ask him to fund direct support for low-income schools rather than school vouchers. https://www.legis.ga.gov/members/senate/4908/contact, 404-656-5038

Stay alert, stay loud, and buckle up for the final lap.

Paws, Policy & Protection Day
This week I took a break from voting to get some dog-time and some sunshine at Paws, Policy & Protection Day, sponsored by Humane World for Animals. It was great to get to know Jerry Hansand of Cumming, Georgia, and his dog, Polka!
/by

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2025 #10

Bugs in the System

The germs circulating at the Capitol finally found me. I stayed home sick the early part of the week, but got busy as a bee later in the week keeping my legislative agenda moving.

Bitten by the Trump Bug

I was glad to be cocooned at home Tuesday when the Senate spent more than 90 minutes debating a resolution commending President Donald Trump for his first three months in office. While our POTUS spins a web of chaos, creating a roller-coaster in the market and great uncertainty and fear among Americans, Senate Republicans chose to spend time glorifying him.

Democrats pushed back with amendments calling for the President to protect Social Security and Medicaid and safeguarding veterans from unjust firings. These amendments failed. The resolution put on display a political system that refuses to debug itself.

The Tax Buzz

We spent a lot of time this week on various tax bills — some of which I supported and some I didn’t.

Hurricane Helene Tax Relief (HB 223) — 37% of Georgia’s timberland was damaged or destroyed in Hurricane Helene. HB 223 offers tax relief for the timber industry and other agriculture producers that suffered hurricane damage. This bill passed 50-1. It’s nice to know that unlike Congress, the Georgia Senate can still come together to do important things for farmers and people in need.

Income Tax Reduction (HB 111) — Georgia’s income tax had been set at 6% since the 1930s. But since just before Governor Kemp took office, Republicans have chipped away at it every year. HB 111 drops the rate from 5.39% to 5.19%, with plans to hit 4.99% in two years. Meanwhile, every year, state agency heads report severe understaffing, our courts are chronically backlogged, and we regularly hear from constituents who can’t get basic services. With deep federal cuts on the horizon, Democrats raised concerns that we could soon feel the sting of a state budget crisis.

One-time Tax Credit (HB 112) — While Democrats didn’t support an ongoing tax cut, we joined Republicans to approve this one-time tax credit for all taxpayers that filed returns in 2023 and 2024. HB 112 gives single filers a $250 tax credit, head of households a $350 credit, and a $500 credit for married couples that filed jointly.

Motor Fuel Suspension (HR 42) — I was the fly in the ointment—the lone “no” vote in the Senate — on a resolution ratifying Governor Kemp’s suspension of the motor fuel tax after Hurricane Helene. This tax is a user fee, paid by those who drive on Georgia’s roads through a gas tax, including those who drive through the state, including truckers. When it’s suspended, funding for road projects and repairs dries up, and the general fund picks up the tab—shifting the burden to people who may not even drive, like seniors. When I explained my reasoning to some Republican colleagues, they got it.

A Bee in My Bonnet: Protecting Kids Online

Last week, I shared how two moms asked for help keeping sexually explicit AI content away from kids on chatbot websites. This week, my mission was to amend SB 9—a bill about online harms to children already passed by the Senate—to tackle the issue. But some kinks in the system made it tougher than expected.

First, I lined up a fellow Dem on the House Technology and Infrastructure Innovation Committee, where SB 9 was scheduled to be heard, to carry the amendment. But a last-minute scheduling conflict knocked him out. I asked another Democrat to step in at the last minute, but when the bill came up, it had been gutted and rewritten entirely as an election bill. These kinds of backroom moves take the transparency out of the process and make it impossible for citizens to participate. Even the media didn’t catch what happened and continues to report that the original SB 9 passed.

Still, I wasn’t giving up. The next day, I found out the content of SB 9 had been duplicated in HB 171—a similar bill that protects kids from AI harm. I tracked down the sponsor, pitched the amendment, and he was all in. The bill’s up next Wednesday. I’m grateful for a second shot to make a real difference this year on one of my top priorities.

Other bills I filed this week: A Study Committee Resolution to examine the online harms of social media and AI to children, a bill to prevent AI companies from using people’s identities without permission, a bill to allow county Elections Boards to meet virtually, and another Study Committee Resolution to study the benefits of providing higher education programs in Georgia prisons.

Other Bills to Bee Aware of

IVF (HB 428) — This week, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee unanimously passed HB 428 to protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Georgia. The bill’s sponsor shared his own infertility journey—and the good news: he and his wife are expecting their first child thanks to IVF. The House already passed the bill unanimously. Here’s hoping the Senate follows with a win for families in Georgia who are trying to conceive.

Religious Freedom Restoration Act (SB 36) — Some good news — the Religious Liberty, aka RFRA, bill that passed the Senate faced a major roadblock in the House Judiciary Committee this week. After a 4-hour hearing, a Republican member who represents a Sandy Springs swing district tried to amend the bill to include civil rights protections against discrimination. After that amendment failed, two Republican Committee members joined with the Democrats to vote against the bill. It failed 7-5, but a motion to reconsider the bill passed before the meeting ended. It will likely come up again in Committee next week.

Bee Aggressive! It’s Time to Take Action on SB 36: Georgia Equality is asking Gwinnett county residents to call or email Rep. Matt Reeves, a key player on the House Judiciary Committee, 770-236-9768, matt.reeves@house.ga.gov) with the following message:

“As a Gwinnett County resident, I support the Non-Discrimination Ordinance that passed last year. Now that RFRA has been exposed as a bill intended to create a license to discriminate, please vote no on SB 36.”

You can also contact Representative Deborah Silcox, 404-657-1803, (deborah.silcox@house.ga.gov) and House Judiciary Chairman Stan Gunter, 404-656-5125, (stan.gunter@house.ga.gov) to thank them for their no votes on SB 36 and encourage them to stand strong against the bill.

What’s Buzzing on the Horizon?

We’ll be back in session Tuesday for Day 35 so the end is in sight. Wednesday, I’ll make a beeline for the Senate Judiciary Committee to make sure my bill amendment on HB 171 passes, and the Senate Agriculture Committee to present my Corn Fortification Bill (SB 278) that fortifies corn products with folic acid to help prevent birth defects. I have an entire team of experts ready to present!

It’s that time when anything can happen, so Bee sure keep your antennae up!

Discussing the problem of excessive and unsubstantiated challenges to individual voter registrations with Senate Ethics Chairman Sam Watson
Discussing the problem of excessive and unsubstantiated challenges to individual voter registrations with Senate Ethics Chairman Sam Watson

Interview with Parker Short

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with Dunwoody resident Parker Short. Parker has earned national fame as a political organizer. He graduated from the University of Michigan and is currently completing a Masters degree at Duke University. Parker and I decided to record a short interview (What I’m for and against), for his Instagram account, where he has 55,000 followers!

Part 1

https://youtube.com/shorts/q9RwO-GbyCo

Part 2

https://youtube.com/shorts/JKwfjw0oPXQ

/by

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2025 #9

Rising Up at the Capitol

Rising Tensions Over Tort Reform

Governor Kemp’s blood pressure must have been rising this week as the heat turned up on SB 68, his signature tort reform bill.

The week kicked off with a bombshell article landing on our desks in the House and Senate chambers, revealing that Florida’s Republican House Speaker had ordered an investigation into a previously hidden state report. The report exposed how insurance companies manipulated their books, crying financial hardship while raking in and hiding massive profits—all to justify tort reform that slashed their litigation costs. Sound familiar? It’s the same playbook insurers are using in Georgia.

That same afternoon, sex trafficking survivors flooded the House Rules Committee, slamming SB 68 for shielding businesses—like hotels—that knowingly allow crimes on their property. The backlash creates an awkward dilemma for the Kemps with First Lady Marty Kemp leading Georgia’s GRACE Commission to fight human trafficking.

The uprising didn’t stop there. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) joined the fight, condemning SB 68’s potential to limit pain and suffering damages by prohibiting attorneys from suggesting awards, leaving juries rudderless in awarding fair compensation. With tensions rising, one question looms large — who really wins if SB 68 passes?

Bills Rising Through the Ranks

Post-Crossover Day, we temporarily have fewer bills on the Senate floor, but more moving through Committees. With a quieter week, I was able to refocus on some of my priorities.

Rising Momentum for People Living with Disabilities

Governor Kemp’s 2025/26 budget proposal drastically cut funding that helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Over the last few years, I have worked to quadruple this funding, in addition to raising salaries for caretakers. Last week, I found out that the House only restored a tiny amount of that funding, a major step backward. Refusing to lose ground, I wrote to the Senate Appropriations Chair pushing for the remainder of the funding. Then I hit the floor, rallying support by playing up the traditional Senate vs. House rivalry, encouraging my colleagues to “shame” the House into offering more. It worked! I got 42 signatures — 23 Republicans, 19 Democrats. I could have gotten more, but several legislators were out of the chamber. The letter is now with the Senate Appropriations Chair.

Rising Threats: AI and Child Safety

This week, I met with two concerned moms—one whose 9-year-old son was lured into an on-line chatbot conversation with “Katniss Everdeen,” the main character of the Hunger Games books. The chat eventually turned explicitly sexual. The other mom is an AI expert who explained how these AI Chatbot tools are powered by big players like Google to process the AI on the backend.

I took my constituents to Legislative Counsel to explore adding protections to an AI harms bill the Senate already passed. I’m hopeful that the bill sponsor will work with me on a House substitute. Next week, I’ll file my own bill to ban AI companies from using a person’s likeness without consent, and a Senate Study Committee resolution to examine AI and social media’s impact on kids. The risks are growing—so must our response. Never underestimate the power of moms to protect their kids!

Rising to Attention: My Corn Bill

This week, I was caught off guard—but thrilled—when the Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee Chair asked when I wanted to present SB 278, my bill to fortify corn products with folic acid to prevent birth defects, specifically spina bifida. We’ve long fortified wheat, but Latino communities, with corn-based diets, face higher rates of birth defects as a result. This bill will also help mothers who can’t eat wheat due to Celiac disease or a gluten intolerance.

The Chair offered a hearing the next day, but I needed time to finalize changes and gather expert testimony. We look forward to having a full hearing on this bill.

Rising Young Leaders

Mentoring young leaders is one of my favorite parts of this job, and this week, I spent time with two from Dunwoody.

At the Women’s Legislative Caucus Yellow Rose Ceremony, I honored Sarah Menis, founder of Front Porch Food Drive, which has collected over 3,000 pounds of food for families in need by going door to door in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs. At just 18 years old, she was the youngest recipient of the Nikki T. Randal Servant Leader Award. It was such a meaningful moment watching her be honored alongside such accomplished women from around the state.

I also caught up with Parker Short, a rising political force. From founding Dunwoody High’s Young Democrats to interning for Senator Ossoff, leading Georgia Young Dems, and now earning a Master’s in Public Policy at Duke, Parker’s impact keeps growing. Last year, he went viral dancing to Kendrick Lamar at a Kamala Harris rally—this week, he stopped by on spring break to film a two-part video series with me to educate his followers about state government and boost my social media at the same time. Rising leaders like these give me hope for the future. We’ll debut our video on Instagram next week!

Time for You to Rise Up — Take Action!

Across the country, Americans are rising up—packing town halls, organizing protests, and speaking out against the destructive policies of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Our members of Congress need to feel the pressure from all of us. This week, members of Congress are home for in-district time—make sure they hear your voice. Grab a friend and visit their offices — in person. Or call and share your concerns. Now’s the time.

Sen. Jon Ossoff’s Local Office

271 17th Street NW
Suite 1510, Atlanta, GA 30363
470-786-7800

Sen. Raphael Warnock’s Local Office

201 17th Street NW
Suite 530
Atlanta, GA 30363
770-694-7828

Join the movement: Necessary Trouble and Indivisible are hosting a virtual town hall with Senator Jon Ossoff this Sunday at 4 PM (register here). Next weekend, he’s kicking off his campaign with a “Rally for Our Republic” —sign up and show up!

Next Week Rises

The legislature returns for Day 32 of the legislative session on Tuesday. Governor Kemp has threatened to use his political warchest to primary those who do not support his tort reform efforts, and a special session if it does not pass. Also, budget negotiations have gotten intense between the House and the Senate, so temperatures will for sure be rising throughout the weeks leading up to Sine Die, which is scheduled for April 4th — a very long three weeks away! Stay tuned.

 

Yellow Rose Award
It was my pleasure to award my constituent Sarah Menis the Women’s Legislative Caucus Yellow Rose Servant Leader Award. Sarah was the youngest Yellow Award recipient and she got big applause for her work! Congratulations, Sarah!

What’s It Matter to You?

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/YyOEksRyn5A

 

/by

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2025 #8

Opposing Forces

Those of us working at the State Capitol this week felt wedged between a clash of forces.

Inside the Senate chamber, 33 Republicans forced through their Trump-aligned agenda while the 23 members of the Democratic Caucus pulled out every tool we had to fight back.

Outside the chamber, crowds of people poured into the Capitol to protest cruel bills. They stood on the Capitol steps showcasing their hand drawn signs, collectively raising their voices from time to time to let out pent-up emotions. Republicans, on their way to the House and Senate chambers, could not escape these voices as they ascended the stairs alongside the crowd, using a narrow aisle marked off for them by red tape. The message to the Republican legislators who passed by — “We are here, and what you are doing is not okay.”

This week’s trophy, however, goes to the students who showed up, many for the first time, to protest SB 120 — which seeks to end all diversity, equity & inclusion efforts in our educational institutions. High school and college students shared inspiring stories about how these supportive programs have helped them to become their best selves. To find out how their efforts paid off, read on.

Pushing Back Against Bad Bills

Democrats don’t have the votes to stop these bills, but we smartly use parliamentary maneuvers, designed to preserve the voice of the minority, to get our message out.

Minority Reports: Formal Opposition in Action

Official Minority Reports allow us to formally file our opposition to a bill after a committee vote to get dedicated time on the floor to argue our case. When I first joined the Senate, we only filed one or two of these reports a year. This week alone we filed seven! Here are just a few:

• Religious Freedom Act (SB 36): Republicans say we need this to protect religious practices. But without comprehensive civil rights protections, this bill invites discrimination against LGBTQ+ and religious minority groups. Meanwhile, Republican leaders block our civil rights bills every year.

• Transgender Therapy Ban for Minors (SB 30): This bill strips parents and doctors of their ability to make their own medical decisions.

• Criminalization of Librarians (SB 74): This bill criminalizes librarians who allow kids to check out “harmful materials.” But who decides what’s “harmful?” With groups like Moms for Liberty targeting classics like To Kill a Mockingbird, SB 74 bill puts librarians at unfair risk.

• Banning Ranked Choice Voting (SB 175): Republicans have spent four years rewriting our election laws to their advantage and it has worked well for them. Why would they want to change that? They don’t, and they want to ban any other options. Alaska implemented ranked choice voting and my colleagues there tell me this system has made elections “nicer” because instead of beating up their opponents, candidates behave better to preserve a second place win.

Fighting Back with Amendments

Whenever possible, we pushed amendments to make bad bills less harmful or advance Democratic priorities. While it’s not often that these amendments actually gain Republican votes and pass, they do use up time and force Republicans to think through the consequences of their bills:

• Banning Transgender Care for Inmates (SB 185): Democrats fought to allow inmates already receiving hormone therapy to continue treatment. With four anti-trans Senate bills this session, I took to the well to remind my colleagues that this issue should not be used as a political football because it hurts real people.

• Firearms Cause of Action (SB 163): Senator Elena Parent seized the moment to amend this bill that gives standing to firearms carriers to sue state and local governments for infringing on their rights, with her bill requiring gun owners to lock up firearms when kids are present.

Advocacy Works!

These bills now move to the House. Remember those students who shared their stories with legislators in the Committee hearing and at the ropes outside the Senate chamber? SB 120, the DEI ban, was not brought to a vote on the Senate floor, and the win is theirs! But it could resurface before Sine Die, the last day of the session, or even next year. Stay engaged—keep calling, showing up, and making your voices heard.

Pushing Good Bills Forward

It wasn’t all bad — there were lots of bills Democrats and Republicans came together on. I kept tabs of my votes on Crossover Day. Out of the 47 bills that were brought up for votes, I voted “yes” 45 times and “no” 16 (including amendments).

• Dignity in Pay Act (SB 55): Championed by our friends at the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities, SB 55 ends subminimum wages for workers with disabilities.

• Ridge’s Law (SB 259): The result of a heartbreaking story of a family falsely accused of child abuse after seeking medical attention for unexplained injuries on their baby son, Ridge. It took the family a long, costly legal battle and 15 months to regain custody. SB 259 give falsely accused parents better legal recourse in child abuse investigations.

Democratic Wins—Even in Republican Bills

In the current environment, it’s still possible to pass good bills by talking a Republican into carrying it for you:

• Behavioral Health Commission Expansion (SB 233): Carried by the Senate Rules Chair, SB 233 adds a subcommittee on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) to the already existing Behavioral Health Health Commission and revises the Commission membership to include experts from the IDD community. I orchestrated this compromise to elevate IDD issues going forward.

• Anti-Doxxing Protections (SB 27): Originally a Democratic bill, this bill is now moving under Republican leadership. It enhances penalties for publishing personal contact information on the Internet without permission. Several of my colleagues were doxxed at the beginning of last session.

• Outdoor Learning Pilot Program (SB 148): This bill was recommended by a Democratic Study Committee several years ago. It will promote outdoor education and recreation.

Democratic Bills That Moved

After being held hostage by Tort Reform (SB 68), Democratic bills finally started being heard in Committee on February 24, the 22nd legislative day. Eight of these bills passed the Senate on Crossover Day. Here are a few that will move to the House:

• Insurance Protection for Active Duty Military (SB 109): This bill prohibits group insurance companies from denying benefits to active service members unless killed while serving. This bill came about when an insurance company denied benefits to the family of an active National Guard member who was killed in a car accident due to a hidden clause in his policy.

• Georgia Early Childhood Literacy Act (SB 93): This bill strengthens reading instruction in Georgia by eliminating the 3-cue method that relies on visual memory and guessing to teach reading. The bill required evidence-based methods to be used instead.

• Interagency Council for the Homeless (SB 170): Brings state agencies that work with the homeless population to work together to better address homelessness.

Action!! Congress Needs to Hear your Voice Too!

Our U.S. Senators and Representatives are not here to see the crowds at the State Capitol, and they need to hear how upset people are.

The week of March 17 – 21, both the U.S. Senate and House will be on recess and back in their districts. Grab a friend or two and visit their local office. Make sure they know you are watching them and expecting them to lead.

Also, Senator Warnock is having a Virtual Town Hall this Tuesday, March 11 at 6pm. It will stream on Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter and BlueSky. Use this form (https://www.warnock.senate.gov/contact/contact-form/) to submit a question, or ask your question on the social media platform during streaming. To my knowledge, no registration is required. Just look for the event on your favored social media platform.

Stay loud. Stay engaged. Change happens when we fight for it.

What’s Next?

The State Senate will turn its attention to the House bills that passed before or on Crossover Day. Democrats will keep pushing for their bills to be heard in Committee so they can pass them next year.

*Oops. Some of you told me last week the phone number for the Lt. Governor’s office was disconnected. That’s because I accidentally switched two numbers. The Lt. Governor makes major decisions about which bills get votes and which don’t, so keep this number handy: 404-656-5030.

We’re Showing Up!

Rally on Crossover Day
This week the Senate & House Democratic Caucuses planned a huge Rally on Crossover Day, just in time for the evening news. Lots of our local people showed up!
Student at the Capitol
Earlier in the week, students showed up to tell their stories about how diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at their schools helped them feel more confident and become their best selves. The anti-DEI bill did not come up for a vote on Crossover Day.

What’s It Matter to You?

This week’s video focuses on high electric bills and the role of the Public Service Commission. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fRYmBlQKFWo

/by

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2025 #7

Congestion around the Capitol

In January of 2000, I was serving my first term as a Georgia State Representative. I had also just become a new mother. Prior to the start of session, I received a phone call from Speaker of the House Tom Murphy. “What are you planning to do with that baby during session?” he asked. I took a deep breath and calmly told him I would need to bring my baby with me because he was only a few weeks old — too young for daycare. He told me other legislators had issues with that. I calmly asked him what the issues were. He said, “Well, quite frankly, it’s germs.”

Nasal congestion: The Capitol is a germy place. It seems like everywhere I turned this week, someone had the sniffles. Very few people take COVID tests anymore (though some did and they tested positive). There are almost no masks. I figure at some point it’s going to get me, but I’m grateful it hasn’t yet.

Crossover congestion: The legislative process is congested too, with bills piling up in Committees as legislators push to get their bills to the Senate floor for a vote by the Crossover deadline, which is this Thursday. Crossover Day is the last day for a bill to pass one chamber and still get to the other chamber to possibly become law this year. Committee meetings start at 7am and go late into the evening, superseding any dinner plans and evening events on legislators’ calendars. This week I missed making remarks on behalf of the Georgia-Japan Caucus, which I co-chair, for the birthday celebration of Emperor Naruhito at the residence of our Consulate General of Japan, Mio Maeda.

Democratic Bills Face Gridlock

For 21 days, Republican leadership blocked Democratic bills in an attempt to strong-arm votes for the Governor’s controversial Tort Reform bill, SB 68. Now, with that fight in the rearview, a few Democratic bills began moving through the Committee process this week.

According to The Current, almost a quarter of the votes cast by legislators in a given year are cast on two days — Crossover and Sine Die. This causes Committee logjams prior to these two days.

 

This week, I tried to get “Donna’s Law” heard in Committee — a bill that allows people with mental health challenges to voluntarily sign up for a “do not sell” firearms registry. Despite having gained a good deal of Republican support, I was told that the Committee was “already full.”

Voter Challenges — Nothing to Sneeze At

Legislative terms are two years long, and it often takes an entire year to craft strong policy and have the right conversations to pave the way forward.

Georgia law allows citizens to challenge other citizens’ voter registration. This is designed for situations where the challenger has personal knowledge that leads to the questioning of the validity of someone’s registration. But since 2020, certain national organizations have challenged thousands of registrations by analyzing inaccurate on-line databases. There is no burden of proof for the person filing a challenge. These baseless challenges clog up the works for our election boards.

This week, I brought the DeKalb Elections Board Chair to meet with the Senate Ethics Chairman (who oversees election laws) to discuss a bill I filed last year to raise the burden of proof for voter challenges. In large counties like DeKalb, mass voter challenges bog down elections staff, and slow real administration. Our conversation was encouraging, and I plan to work more on this issue moving forward.

Bumper-to-Bumper Bills

A few bills that hit the Senate floor this week:

• The Georgia “DOGE” Bill: (But Not Really) SB 28: While Republicans claim that this is a government efficiency bill, in reality, it creates another level of bureaucracy on already underfunded and understaffed state agencies. It allows Senate leadership to request small business analysis for any legislation, requires economic impact analyses for rules that may cost more than $1 million to implement and forces agencies to review rules every four years, including holding two public hearings. Without more resources, agencies will struggle to meet this demand.

• The “Skinny Budget”: (Midyear Amended Budget, $40.5B): Two hurricanes, one tornado, three torrential rain events and a 40-day drought in-between wreaked havoc in South and East Georgia in 2024. The midyear budget includes $700M in relief for the agriculture industry, infrastructure repairs, and direct aid for home repairs. It also boosts funding for our embattled Corrections System, adding a new correction facility, 300 correctional officers, and new training resources.

• Tort Reform part 2 (SB 69): Unlike last week’s partisan fight over SB 68, the Senate unanimously passed SB 69, placing guardrails on third-party lawsuit financing to prevent foreign and bad-faith actors from exploiting litigation.

Bills to Watch

Here are a few major bills that have come through Committees this week:

• Behavioral Health Commission Renewal (SB 233): With the Governor in no mood to approve any new Commissions, I compromised and pushed for an Intellectual & Developmental Disability sub-committee under the already existing Behavioral Health Commission that’s up for renewal this year. With looming Medicaid cuts, this subcommittee is more critical than ever. This bill is on its way to the House.

• Anti-DEI Bill (SB 120): A heartbreaking Higher Education hearing brought students and professors to testify against SB 120, a bill that would ban diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in public and post secondary schools. All spoke so eloquently about how DEI programs help boost confidence and their chance of success, while no one spoke in favor of the bill. I had hoped it would stall in Committee, but a vote is now set for 7 AM Monday. A GOP bill will be presented that defines DEI very broadly, and will result in the termination of special “clubs” and even degree majors. Even the Spanish Club could be cut!

• Religious Freedom (SB 36): Republicans are again pushing a so-called “religious liberty” bill that could open the door to discrimination. Senate Democrats call it the Hateful Heart Bill. Instead, we’ve introduced a comprehensive civil rights bill to ensure equal treatment for all. With Trump back in office and 2026 statewide elections around the corner, there’s a real chance that SB 36 could pass this year.

Take ACTION!!!

Once bills get passed out of Committee, it’s up to the Rules Committee and the Lt. Governor’s office to decide what comes to the Senate floor for a vote.

We tend to focus on the Committee process to stop bad bills, but through the years the Committee process has become less deliberative. At the same time, the Lt. Governor’s office has become more powerful. Unlike the Speaker of the House, the Lt. Governor is not elected by the Senate body — he is elected by the people of the state. Therefore, it is imperative that voters engage with his office. I don’t think this currently happens much, but you can change that!

There are two ways to contact the Lt. Governor’s office. Either fill out an online form or call 404-656-3050 and leave a message. Select from the list below of good and bad bills that are likely to come up on Crossover Day to personalize your message.

Make some noise!

Bad Bills Coming to the Senate Floor
  • SB 120: Removes DEI programs from post-secondary institutions (see above)
  • SB 36: Religious Freedom that will lead to discrimination (see above)
  • SB 30: Bans the use of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoric youth
  • SB 185: Bans treatment for gender dysphoria for prisoners
  • SB 74: Criminalized librarians for allowing harmful materials to youth (harmful materials not defined)
  • SB 163: Allows citizens to sue local governments that implement gun regulations
  • SB 175: Bans ranked choice voting
  • SB 177: Anti-protest bill
  • SB 244: Award of attorneys fees & litigation costs when a person successfully disqualifies a prosecuting attorney
  • SB 291: America First license plate
Good Bills Coming to the Senate Floor
  • SB 34: Make data centers pay their fair share of utility costs
  • SB 94: Consumer utility counsel to represent all consumers before the Public Service Commission on Georgia Power rate hikes

(on the above two bills, 34 & 94, also contact GOP Senators if you live in a Republican district)

  • SB 89: Child Tax Credit
  • SB 170 (Dem bill): Creates an Inter-agency Council Homelessness to streamline services and interventions.
  • SB 126: Helps high school dropouts earn diplomas
  • SB 119: Helps rural Georgians purchase mobile homes at chapter rates
  • SB 182 (Dem bill): Creates a Georgia Music Office
  • SB 147 (Dem bill): Helps released inmates find work
  • SB 109 (Dem bill): Guarantees active duty service members get life insurance payouts for non-combat related deaths

WABE has a good resource with more details about some of these bills.

Around the Corner

This will be a busy week. The road ahead is still packed, but we’re pushing forward—one fight at a time.

/by