Day 19 - Feb. 19, 2008

The legislature returned from a long Presidents’ Day weekend today.
 
The House took up House Bill 1054, the Children and Family Strengthening Act of 2008.  Representative Sharon Cooper carried this bill for the Governor who seeks to consolidate four child-serving agencies into two.  First, the Office of the Child Advocate would assume staffing responsibilities and administrative support for the Georgia Fatality Review Panel.  Next, the bill creates a new office, the Governor’s Office for Children and Families, which would assume the functions of both the Children’s Trust Fund and the Children and Youth Coordinating Council.  The First Lady’s Cabinet functions would also fall under the purview of the new Governor’s Office for Children and Families.
 
The debate on the bill was rather eventful as some House members attempted to attach the Human Life Amendment declaring that personhood begins at conception to the bill.  After some debate, the Speaker ruled that the amendment was not germane to the bill.
 
An amendment introduced by Rep. Cooper to strip the bill of language that had been added in committee to allow the House and Senate to support some of the members of the Board of the Governor’s Office for Children and Families passed.  Rep. Cooper explained that since the new office is an executive agency, legislators cannot appoint board members. Representative Sinkfield took the well to voice her concerns about the continued independence of the Office of the Child Advocate if functions are combined in the name of administrative efficiency.  Sixty-six of Representative Sinkfield’s colleagues joined her in voting against the bill which passed by a vote of 99 to 67.