I don’t personally watch Downton Abbey, but I hear it’s the popular new political analogy.
Yesterday saw the House Insurance Committee pass out Senate Bill 98 by Senator Judson Hill, which is aimed at preventing taxpayer-funded abortions in Georgia. Assuming the bill makes it to the House floor, we can expect some theatrics from members of the Democratic Caucus.
House Bill 875, this year’s GOP attempt to expand gun rights lost its Campus Carry provision, partly to appease the University System, partly to attempt to force a vote by the full Senate on gun rights.
Senator William Ligon (R-Brunswick) is set to hold a Press Conference today criticizing the House version of his own bill, SB 167. We suspected something would happen when two House Education Committee members generally thought to be critical of this particular anti-Common Core bill announced in a Senate Committee hearing that they could live with SB 167. Now we know they had plans for it once it reached their side of the Capitol.
Two monumental bills on the floor of the Senate today would place new statues on the Capitol Grounds – one would include the Ten Commandments and the Preambles to the Georgia and U.S. Constitution, and the other would feature Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. We are glad to see bipartisan support for the measure to honor King.
Finally, the Medical Cannabis bill that passed the House and led to accusations of hostage-taking by a Senator, will be presented to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. The House sponsor, Rep. Allen Peake, has admitted the bill’s shortcomings in terms of providing a workable solution to supplying the non-intoxicating CBD oil, and we expect to see a Committee Substitute pass out that is designed to address that shortcoming.
Ava’s bill, the Autism bill by Senator Renee Unterman, has not yet been scheduled for a House Committee hearing, and that fact may be mentioned in today’s HHS meeting.
Stay tuned. As the last days of the 2014 Session develop and incumbents head into Primary elections, we can expect some fireworks.
