'Lawmakers' Day 36: House debates criminalizing AI videos in elections, Senate OKs access to IVF

On Thursday at the Capitol, both chambers stayed busy as the countdown until Sine Die is on.

In the House was a surprise visit from the House Speaker's chief of staff, Terry England.

England was injured in a farming accident earlier this session and has been recovering at the Shepherd Center.

Members then unanimously passed Senate Bill 72, which would allow terminally ill patients to access experimental treatments.

They also approved SB 85, which will create a scholarship grant program for Georgia youth in foster care.

"These young individuals often find themselves at a disadvantage," Sen. Billy Hickman (R-Statesboro) said. "However, this bill gives us the chance to change that narrative."

After a lunch break, the House took up SB 233, which would add individuals with firsthand experience with addiction to the Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission.

"The additions to the commission as set forth in 233 are recognizing the very strong contributions — necessary contributions — from the addiction community across Georgia," Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) said. "This has always been a mental health and addiction commission effort, and the addition of additional addiction-related professionals and addiction-related family members is strong."

Members also debated Senate Bill 9, which would criminalize artificial intelligence videos designed to interfere with elections.

"I would argue with you, the most important thing we can do for our constituents is to ensure that when they go into that box, when they are saying to themselves, I'm going to cast the ballot for this individual or for this referendum, the important thing we can for them is make sure that we have given them accurate information," Rep. Todd Jones (R-South Forsyth) said. "We cannot live in a world where our constituents, 10.7 million Georgians, almost 6 million voters, are asking themselves, 'What I just saw, is it real or is it not real?' At that point, the integrity of the election, no matter if you fall on paper ballots or machine ballot, is gone."

It passed 152 to 12.

The other tort reform bill also made it to the floor on Thursday. Senate Bill 69 would set regulations around third parties financing lawsuits, such as banning foreign entities from being litigation financiers.

"Currently, there are no provisions whatsoever that outline regulations on litigation financing. Nowhere in the code will you find it," Rep. James Burchett (R-Waycross) said. "So, what this bill seeks to do is put some guardrails and regulation on the industry."

The bill passed 98 to 69.

The House unanimously approved SB 105, which would allow veterinarians to give "tele-advice" to pet owners.

The Senate took up House Bill 428, which would codify into law access to in vitro fertilization.

The bill was crafted after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created with IVF should be treated as children, and banned the procedure until a similar bill was passed there.

Democratic Sen. Josh McLaurin (D-Sandy Springs) said that not only did he support the bill, but he also had a personal connection to it.

"I myself am a donor-conceived person," he said. "The technology was new around the time that this happened for me in the late '80s. But it's been a long journey and it's a really important realization for all of us to have when talking about this issue, that many of our families are affected by this — are uplifted this."

House Bill 86 would give pay raises to state judges, including state Supreme Court justices, but an amendment offered by Sen. John Albers (R-Roswell) added pay increases for all of the state's executive officers, including Gov. Brian Kemp, raising his pay to $250,000.

"The mayor of our capital city, which represents about a half a million people, makes $236,000," Albers said. "The governor, who represents 11 million people makes $61,000 less. Think about that for just a moment. That is just not right. We shouldn't have people be paid so far out of balance, even though knowing that in the private marketplace without a doubt, it would get paid multiples more.

"I think this strikes a nice balance and gets us on the right path, tying it to a percentage in the future."

Despite some pushback, the amendment was passed, as well as the bill 45 to 10.

The bill now returns to the House for final passage.

House Bill 307 would increase resources at schools to diagnose and help students with dyslexia.

The bill would also remove the three cueing systems as the primary instruction for teaching reading.

"We learned that 1 in 5 people — children — experience some form of dyslexia," Sen. Billy Hickman (R-Statesboro) said. "We didn't know that in the past. But this mandates that we also have, not only does the child identify as not proficient in reading, but it also has dyslexia. This also mandates that there be an intervention program set in place to help that child get proficient."

Senate Resolution 292 would form a Republican-led Senate Investigative Committee to look into the new Georgia Project's illegal campaign contributions to its former founding member, Stacey Abrams, during her 2018 gubernatorial campaign.

"What this bill is going to do is let us investigate these types of activities and see what type of amendments or changes or new campaign finance laws or ethics laws we might need to kind of create more transparency and prohibit this illegal use of dark money in our campaigns," Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) said.

Democrats say the investigation is unnecessary and more political theater.

"In Washington, D.C., they spend a lot of time investigating political opponents while wasting taxpayer dollars without providing any benefit to the American people," Sen. Jason Esteves (D-Atlanta) said. "But for those politicians in D.C., it does get them headlines, it does get them media coverage. This bill is no different."

The resolution was passed 33 to 21 along party lines.

The House and Senate will convene Friday when the House is expected to vote on a bill that would crack down on fentanyl trafficking and give final approval to protections for IVF.

Watch the previous week of Lawmakers here.