LISTEN: GPB's Lawmakers host Donna Lowry speaks with Georgia legislators about post-session activity under the Gold Dome.
Spring break festivities have wrapped up, and activity has resumed under the Gold Dome.
Here's the week's roundup:
Republican legislators and business leaders surrounded Gov. Brian Kemp on April 21 as he took a victory lap by signing bills about his major priority during the session: tort reform.
The governor reflected on the challenges leading up to this achievement, noting he ultimately didn't need the special session he had threatened — because he succeeded in achieving his goal of "ensuring our business environment remains the best in the nation."
Since the legislative session ended on April 4, Kemp has signed fewer than a dozen bills — rolling out signing them over several weeks. Most are his legislative priorities. He has until May 14 to sign — or veto — any legislation remaining on his desk.
As for Democrats, they held a press conference in the Georgia Senate on April 23.
Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Elena Parent announced they will introduce immigration legislation.
The new legislation "will prohibit state and local law enforcement from participating in any wrongful deportations of American citizens or lawful residents," she said. "We must draw a line. No American should be deported on the whims of one man. No Georgian should fear being torn from their family and sent to a foreign prison, possibly for the rest of their life, without their day in court."
Also voicing concerns: the first immigrant elected to the Georgia State Senate, Democratic Sen. Sheikh Rahman of Lawrenceville.
"I am angry that those of us who work hard to contribute to this country are treated as if we are less-than," he said. "I am also angry that the promise of America, the promise that helped so many of us build a future, is being undermined."
But moving the legislation — even getting it to a committee — in a Republican-controlled legislature will prove challenging.
Last year, Republican senators led the passage of a law requiring local sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to report the immigration status of inmates.
Sen. Blake Tillery discussed the bill on the Senate floor in 2024.
"If they were to pick up someone who was in our country illegally, and that person then committed a crime — that's why they got picked up to begin with, and we're not on a search, they committed a crime, therefore, they were detained," Tillery said, "and in that detainment or process, it was identified that they were in our country illegally, those sheriffs would then send notice to ICE."
Also, just last month, the governor asked ICE to train 1,100 state law enforcement officers.
And now, changing topics: It’s the end of April, and state Rep. Deborah Silcox of Sandy Springs had hoped she would have spent time, in recent weeks, celebrating her bill designating each April as Georgia Native Plant Month.
While the House approved it, it didn't reach a vote in the Senate, which can consider it next year.
Silcox thinks the legislation would help in many areas, including those hit hard by Hurricane Helene last fall.
"We have tons of lumber in particular sitting on the ground in South Georgia," she told GPB. "If you plant native plants, among the many benefits of planting native plants, they actually can deter wildfires. And that's what I'm so concerned about this summer, is we have really hot temperatures again. We may have a problem with wildfires with all that lumber down there. But native plants, of course, they do deter wildfires, they're habitat for animals. They grow naturally; they help the ecology in our soil in Georgia to be healthier."
Silcox said native plants like azaleas and dogwoods are among her favorites — and she said she has already spent the month playing in the dirt.
