'Lawmakers' Day 18: Chambers discuss FEMA hurricane recovery funding cuts for Helene damage

On Tuesday, the topic of Hurricane Helene damage relief took up a large part of the deliberations in both chambers.

The day started in the Senate, with Democrats rebuffing the Trump administration for federal cuts directly impacting Georgia.

First up: large cuts of personnel at the CDC.

"People laid off include experts in infectious diseases, emergency response and public health researchers," Sen. Elena Parent (D-Atlanta) said, "many of whom have spent years building up their expertise to keep Americans safe. And let's be clear that losing all of that expertise will, in fact, end up costing taxpayers more money."

More cuts, but this time to the FEMA hurricane recovery funds.

"Instead of providing Georgia with the expected 90% federal funding match," Sen. Nikki Merritt (D-Grayson) said, "the Trump administration has slashed that number to just 75% — forcing our state to shoulder an extra financial burden we should not have to bear."

Three bills made their way through the Senate on Tuesday, one addressing the storm damage directly.

The Timberlands Recovery Exemption in Earnings Stability or TREES Act was created to help timber growers throughout the state recover from the massive damage caused by Helene.

Senate Bill 52 would allow tax relief levied on the harvest or sales of timber growers in hurricane-damaged areas.

"Because the logs are not worth anything, this adds some relief to go to the mill and keeps the government out of a cut," Sen. Colton Moore (R-Trenton) said.

"They're not having to pay taxes on — they've already lost 90% of the value of their timber," Sen. Russ Goodman (R-Cogdell) said. "They're not having to pay another tax on top of that after they've already lost 90%. As well as it helps the rural counties like mine that that depend on the timber tax to help fund local school boards and county."

The bill passed unanimously.

SB 58 will make it safer and speedier for patients to receive vital transplant organs.

"Many of you may have seen on the roads that there are organ vehicles that look very similar to either a fire response or an ambulance," Sen. John Albers (R-Roswell) said. "They have red lights and sirens on them. The very same that we do on other emergency vehicles.

"I was proud to work with our colonel of state patrol and our Commissioner of Public Safety, Billy Hitchins, to come up with a protocol that matches everything else in Georgia law to make sure that these vehicles had the same exact rules, follow the same permitting process and have the same trained and qualified personnel at the times they need to run for emergency," he added.

And finally, SB 81 would protect consumer data regarding auto sales in the state.

"The data protection piece is the most important part of this bill," Sen. Matt Brass (R-Newnan) said. "Just some of the highlights there: prevents unauthorized access sharing or selling a dealership data from their dealer management systems; prohibits third parties from limiting dealership’s ability to protect, store or use its data; permit dealers to continuously monitor or audit data access from or written to their data systems without interference."

Both of those bills also passed.

Also, Georgia Democrats pushed for a handful of Black maternal health bills that would expand access to midwives and doulas.

Legislators said increased health care access addresses two problems: Black maternal mortality rates and reproductive health care deserts.

In the House, a familiar face and former member, U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, visited the chamber to send his well-wishes to representatives.

"It's very nostalgic to come back where I got my beginning, where I understood the fundamentals of the legislative process and politics," Bishop said. "There was no better training for me than the 14 years I spent in this House and the two years over in the Senate, which really, really underscored how important the work is that you do."

The Democrat spent 14 years in the Georgia House and two years in the Georgia Senate before he was elected to U.S. Congress.

Similar to the Senate's TREES Act, the House passed House Bill 223, also addressing Helene relief. It would exclude taxes on the relief funds timber farmers receive.

"Those of you who did not experience the 2 a.m. wakeup call of destruction do not know what we in the area and in the light of this storm experienced," Rep. Matt Hatchett (R-Dublin) said. "It was scary. It made you question your life. 'Am I going to make it through this?'"

The bill passed unanimously.

HB 92 extends the period of time a municipality can opt out of the homestead exemption tax from March of this year to March of 2029.

That bill passed 173 to 1. 

Wednesday is Mental Health Parity Day at the Capitol, where mental health advocates will meet with lawmakers.

Watch Lawmakers tonight to see Sen. Billy Hickman (R-Statesboro), Rep. Chris Erwin (R-Homer), Rep. Kasey Carpenter (R-Dalton), and Rep. Marvin Lim (D-Norcross) discuss the latest on the legislative session.