Day 38 - 3/27/2006

>> Back to Week Eleven, Mar. 27 - Mar. 31

Bills Move Quickly as Legislative Session Heads to Thursday End

The General Assembly completed the 38th day of the legislative session, so two more days remain in this term.  It will be in session Tuesday, March 28th and adjourn sine die on Thursday, March 30th.

The conference committee on the budget has not completed its work and has offered no information about its decisions on particular items.

HB 1302 (street gangs) passed the Senate and goes back to the House because of differences with the House version.  The Senate gave final approval to SB 79 (elective courses in Bible study for high school students). 

The House debated SB 420 (“Care of a Grandchild Act”), then sent it back to the Rules Committee.  It passed SB 442 (requiring reports of abuse within 24 hours and preventing alteration of reports). It also passed SB 77 (“Unborn Victims of Violence Act”) allowing a person who causes the death of a pregnant woman to be prosecuted for two crimes.

The House Rules Committee substituted its own version of SB 382 (child support guidelines) which will go to the House floor Tuesday.  The Rules Committee removed an amendment by the House Judiciary Committee that would have prevented parents from going to court to change current child support simply based on the new guidelines.  Bipartisan proponents of that Judiciary amendment were concerned that current orders often have been based on negotiations about other property and assets and were a “package deal” that might not be fairly reflected by simply applying the new guidelines.  No floor amendments will be allowed when the bill is debated.  (The link above is to the Judiciary Committee version of the bill.)

A conference committee signed off on the final version of SB 529 (“Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act").  It removed the 5% wire transfer fee and a Department of Labor spot check of employers that had been tacked on in the House.  It applies Georgia’s 6 percent state income tax to wages paid to immigrants who receive a federal 1099 income tax form from their employers.  (The conference committee report is not yet online, so no link is provided here.)

Coming events:

Tuesday, March 28:

SB 382 (child support guidelines) will be considered by the full House.

The Senate considers only motions to agree or disagree and conference committee reports on the 40th day, so Tuesday is the last day for bills to pass the Senate.  It has set a long calendar for the day.  It will take up HB 847 (petition for emancipation of minors), HB 1473 (requiring legislative approval for Medicaid/PeachCare waivers), HB 1316 (high school athletics overview committee).