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'Lawmakers' Day 22: House OKs health bills for women, kids; Senate eases bureaucracy from small biz
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On Monday, the Senate voted on a controversial bill that promises to reduce bureaucracy for small businesses, and the House approved health bills for women and children.
The Red Tape Rollback Act was debated in the Senate.
Championed by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Senate Bill 28 is supposed to reduce rules and regulations that impact small businesses and allow the Legislature to have a say in any new rules that state agencies may want to implement.
"This bill really comes from the recognition that we do have a need at all levels of government to look at our rulemaking processes, to look at the rules that are on the books, and to ensure that the rules that are on the books are still meeting their intended purposes," Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming) said.
"And very often, rules get layered on top of rules, and the original intent of the rule gets lost," he said. "And so this bill is a really a five-part bill to ensure that Georgia remains the No. 1 state for business."
The bill would also require agencies to do an economic impact study of all of its rules every four years, and an analysis on any rule costing Georgians more than $1 million during the first five years of its implementation.
"Part of the problem we have, senators, is we're part of the problem," Sen. Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega) said. "So far this year, we've introduced almost 250 pieces of legislation in this chamber. We are creating more and more legislation that creates more and more government regulations every day. We're in this building for 40 days. That doesn't include the hundreds of bills that are coming over from the House.
"I would expect before we leave here this session, there will be more than a thousand pieces of legislation that'll get passed by both chambers," he added. "And then the governor has to scrub all of these bills and then decide, does he want to veto these bills or let them become law?"
Democrats say the bill is unnecessary, a power grab, and will hinder state agencies that are already understaffed.
"It is not their rules; it is because they are chronically underfunded and understaffed," Sen. Kim Jackson of Stone Mountain said. "Asking our agencies to add another task — another burden — every four years does not help them or our people. We cannot take power away from our agencies and burden them even more, and expect the Georgians to be better off."
"This is a power grab; plain and simple," Decatur Sen. Emanuel Jones said. "This is DOGE coming to Georgia, and the consequences of this bill could be far, far outreaching, long after we've left this General Assembly and we left this body. Folks, this isn't about efficiency. And I thought the Republican Party stood for efficiency. Not just in federal government, but state government as well.
"As a matter of fact, I think this extra step in the process would create, as my colleague has already said, a lot more inefficiency in state government."
The bill was passed 33 to 21 along party lines.
In the House, members voted on two health-related bills.
House Bill 124 would require health insurance to cover Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome.
The bill is personal for Cartersville Rep. Mitchell Scoggins (R) and his granddaughter.
"My granddaughter started getting sick about two years ago, and we couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, and every two weeks she would get sick with either a stomach bug, COVID — anything like that," he said. "She would get sick and we couldn't figure it out. She would come home with a fever with no reason, and then she would have periods where she would just throw up constantly and we couldn't figure out what was causing it. But we finally got her diagnosed with PANS disease.
"It's tough. It's really is. It's tough to see your grandkids suffer. And so as we dug into this issue, we found out that insurance didn't cover this, and so that's the reason for this bill today."
The bill passed unanimously.
HB 352 would provide continuous glucose monitors for gestational diabetes patients on Medicaid.
A continuous glucose monitor provides real time data that helps expecting mothers maintain stable glucose coast levels, reducing the risk of emergency interventions and costly complications.
That bill passed 169 to 2.
After the floor session, House Democrats held a press conference to advocate for more protections for warehouse workers with HB 16.
The bill would require proper ventilation in warehouses, paid rest breaks and fair productivity quotas.
"It's about creating a safe and healthy workplace for working Georgians," Rep. Devan Seabaugh (R-Marietta) said. "Do we not all want that?"
Lawmakers are working in committees Tuesday and will return for Legislative Day 23 on Wednesday.
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