Georgia Today: Crossover Day; CDC employee terminations rescinded; Federal Rehabilation Act lawsuit

Sofi Gratas: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. This podcast features the latest reports from the GPB News team. Send feedback or story tips to GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. Today is Thursday, March 6. I'm Sofi Gratas. On this episode: We've reached Crossover Day, an important deadline for Georgia's 2025 legislative session. Also, 180 employees at Atlanta's Center for Disease Control and Prevention are told to report back to work, and a lawsuit filed by 17 states seeks to remove gender dysphoria protections from a federal act related to schools.

Chris Carr: Our lawsuit is all about one thing: fighting the Biden-Harris administration's obsession with promoting a radical, progressive transgender ideology.

Sofi Gratas: These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Sofi Gratas: We are about halfway through the 2025 legislative session. It's Crossover Day: The day that a bill needs to pass in either the state Senate or House for it to have a chance at becoming a law. The House has over two dozen bills on their agenda as of this afternoon, including a pair that would provide a special tax refund. The Senate has nearly 60 bills on their calendar. That includes a bill that would withhold state funding from any public school that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion. Another bill that could see action today include legislation that would ask Georgia voters whether to legalize online sports betting. Voting in both chambers is expected to go late into the evening.

Story 2:

Sofi Gratas: The Georgia House did pass an income tax cut already today, speeding up already planned tax relief. Representatives approved a reduction in the state's flat income tax from 5.39% to 5.19%. Republicans, including Lawrenceville state Rep. Soo Hong, say the cut is possible thanks to a strong economy and limits on spending.

Soo Hong: We have a surplus budget and we are able to put money back into our taxpayers.

Sofi Gratas: But some Democrats, including Lawrenceville state Rep. Sam Park, say the tax cut mostly benefits the wealthy and will be small for most taxpayers.

Sam Park: Meanwhile, the bottom 60% of Georgians, those earning middle class or lower incomes, will see less than $6 a month in savings.

Sofi Gratas: The measure passed 110 to 60, mostly along party lines. Back in 2022, a law called for smaller tax cuts spread out over more years. But Gov. Brian Kemp and GOP leaders have doubled the reductions, citing the state's budget surplus.

Story 3:

Sofi Gratas: And Gov. Brian Kemp signed the 2025 fiscal mid-year budget this morning. The spending plan includes nearly $900 million for storm relief.

Brian Kemp: A budget that gives relief to Georgians devastated by Hurricane Helene, makes our schools and communities safer through strategic investments, and yet again returns hard-earned money to the taxpayers.

Sofi Gratas: The budget also includes $50 million in school safety grants.

Story 4:

Sofi Gratas: State lawmakers are considering legislation that would expand health care access to people at risk of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Public health experts say Senate Bill 195 could help stop thousands of new HIV diagnoses by allowing pharmacists to dispense medications used to prevent HIV, a practice not currently allowed in Georgia. Natalie Crawford is with the Rowland School of Public Health at Emory University. She says people at high risk of contracting HIV would also be able to get screened locally and privately.

Natalie Crawford: Pharmacies are disease-neutral. No one knows whether you're going in for a bag of chips or for a chronic disease medication, and so this is something that really increases access in ways that we haven't seen before.

Sofi Gratas: Crawford says the patient could pick up a prescription the same day as a screening.

Story 5:

Sofi Gratas: 180 employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told to report back to work on Wednesday with, quote, "apologies for the disruption." The Trump administration fired thousands of CDC employees last month. Following the firing, Gov. Kemp said he supported, quote, "rightsizing." Now, some of those CDC employees are back. They reportedly received an email stating that their termination letters were being rescinded after further review and consideration.

Story 6:

Sofi Gratas: Just next door, Emory University is freezing hiring and reducing spending because of concerns over federal research funding cuts. University president Greg Fenves has made the announcement in an email to faculty on Wednesday. The university received more than $400 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health in 2024, making it Georgia's largest recipient of NIH funding. Emory is one of many top research universities in the country scaling down amid budget cuts.

Story 7:

Sofi Gratas: For over 50 years, the Federal Rehabilitation Act has provided a way for parents to make sure schools accommodate the special needs of their kids. During the Biden administration, a piece of the act, called Section 504, was expanded to include kids with gender dysphoria. Now there's a lawsuit by 17 state attorneys general, including Georgia AG Chris Carr, aimed at removing these new protections. Some worry that might do away with the protections of Section 504 altogether. GPB's Ellen Eldridge explains.

Ellen Eldridge: Win Beeler is a junior at Maynard Jackson High School in Atlanta, she got her first 504 following surgery after she accidentally cut her hand.

Win Beeler: I think it was I think it was a pattern for sewing, but I was also watching a horror movie while I was doing it, and I just kind of jumped and cut myself with the scissors I was using.

Ellen Eldridge: That was enough under Section 504 to get her extra time to complete George's high-stakes Milestones testing. Her current 504 plan communicates to her teachers that she lives with anxiety and ADHD, so sometimes Beeler needs an extension on a project or a quiet place to take a test. Marina Delaine-Siegel is a licensed professional counselor who coordinates with schools and students to help them write 504 plans.

Marina Delaine-Siegel: The 504 is there to support the students for what their academic needs are, which may be connected to their anxiety of living in a world where people are judging them or bullying them.

Ellen Eldridge: She says 504s are also used by students with chronic conditions like Type 1 diabetes and asthma. But she's never been asked to work on a plan relating to gender dysphoria. None of this was controversial until last year, when the Biden administration finalized a new rule protecting kids with gender dysphoria. 17 Republican-led states sued the federal Department of Health and Human Services a few months later. Attorney General Chris Carr made the decision for Georgia to join.

Chris Carr: Make no mistake, our lawsuit is all about one thing: fighting the Biden-Harris administration's obsession with promoting a radical, progressive transgender ideology.

Ellen Eldridge: The problem is that their legal challenge is bigger than the final rule. Instead of trying to change the gender part, the states' attorneys claimed in their suit, quote, "The Rehabilitation Act is not constitutional" — the whole law protecting kids with diabetes, asthma or any of the other disabilities that have been covered for the last 50 years. Atlanta attorney Leighton Moore says their argument goes like this:

Leighton Moore: The argument that they make in the complaint about holding the statue, the 1973 act, unconstitutional, is that the statute was passed under what's called the spending clause of the Constitution.

Ellen Eldridge: That says that only Congress has the power to spend. That's being debated hotly right now as President Trump argues he has that power. Regardless, Moore says, when Congress spends money on the states, the money comes with strings attached.

Leighton Moore: That's why we — that's why the drinking age is 21, right? Used to be 18, then Congress passed a highway appropriations bill saying, hey, we think drunk driving is a big problem, and we think it'll be helped by bumping the drinking age up to 21. So if you want to get federal highway funds, you have to do that. You have to say the drinking age is 21.

Ellen Eldridge: Now substitute gender dysphoria for drinking age. So if states want Section 504 money, they must accommodate gender dysphoria, which Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and others don't recognize. They say if anyone threatened Section 504, it was the Biden administration.

Chris Carr: They tried to dismantle Section 504 by labeling transgender dysphoria as a disability.

Ellen Eldridge: Atlanta attorney Leighton Moore says now the suit may be pointless.

Leighton Moore: Trump could just reverse that part of it.

Ellen Eldridge: In fact, the plaintiffs recently asked the court to pause but not dismiss the case. Why? Chris Carr says because he expects President Trump to undo what President Biden did. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.

Story 8:

Sofi Gratas: Back at the state Capitol, volunteer home builders put up the frame of a house on Wednesday. They wanted to draw attention to a pressing issue. GPB's Sarah Kallis has more.

Sarah Kallis: Over 100 volunteers constructed the frame of a house at Liberty Plaza in just a few hours. Habitat for Humanity Atlanta CEO Rosalyn Merrick said that the goal of the project was to send a powerful message about the need for affordable housing.

Rosalyn Merrick: As a community, we can solve this affordable housing crisis together. We're only ever better together. And so today was a great demonstration of people from all walks of life, every corner of this great state, coming together to build the walls of a house.

Sarah Kallis: Merrick said during the build, lawmakers stopped by to share their ideas on solutions for housing affordability. Volunteers took down the frame after building it. The walls will be used in another house they will build for a first-time homeowner. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis at the state Capitol.

Story 9:

Sofi Gratas: A boy who was allegedly abducted by his mother seven years ago from Atlanta was found last month in Colorado, according to authorities in that state. During a burglary investigation, deputies determined that a woman at the scene was Rabia Khalid, who had an active warrant related to the 2017 disappearance of her son Abdul Aziz Khan, who is now 14. Khan and another child, whose identity hasn't been released, were taken into protective custody. Khalid was arrested on charges including second-degree kidnapping.

Story 10:

Sofi Gratas: Atlanta's Fulton County is telling laid off or terrified federal workers, "We just might have a job for you." County Commission Chairman Rob Pitts yesterday unveiled a new initiative aimed at recruiting federal technology professionals, engineers, attorneys and others. He says the county has more than 600 job vacancies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is among federal agencies with hundreds of Atlanta-based workers impacted by federal job cuts.

Caption

Jimmy Carter

Story 11:

Sofi Gratas: A new proposal in the Georgia Senate aims to honor the late President Jimmy Carter, from Georgia, with a statue to be placed in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.. Georgia state Sen. Jason Estévez introduced a resolution to replace the statue of a former Confederate vice president, Alexander Hamilton Stevens, with one commemorating Carter's legacy. The resolution would create a committee to oversee the statue's design, fundraising, and the relocation of the Stevens statue to a site in Georgia. Private funding would cover the costs. Carter died in December at age 100.

Story 12:

Sofi Gratas: And in Georgia sports, we found out just Wednesday where soccer fans will be able to watch televised matches of the 2025 Club World Cup — six matches of which will be played in Atlanta. Atlanta-based TNT Sports will broadcast 24 of the tournament's 63 matches on TNT, TBS and truTV in a deal with the streaming platform DAZ that has the Cup's worldwide broadcast rights from the global soccer body FIFA. FIFA released the match schedule for the Cup earlier this month. FIFA's expanded 32-team tournament will be played in the U.S. in June and July, with six matches, including one round of 16 and one quarterfinal match to be played at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Sofi Gratas: That's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. As always, thanks for listening. If you would like to learn more about these stories, visit GPB.org/news. If you haven't yet hit subscribe on this podcast, take a moment right now and keep us current in your podcast feed. If you have feedback, we would love to hear it. Email us at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Sofi Gratas. We'll see you tomorrow. 

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