It was not the usual late -evening legislator under the gold dome for Sinusster on Friday.
In the morning, the legislator of Georgia passed the state's annual budget – 38 billion US dollars – and was on April 5, the last day of the legislative period 2025, relative at the beginning of April. The Senate ended around 9:15 p.m. and the house closed a little more than an hour later.
Since the beginning of the session, Atlanta Civic Circle has been pursuing legislation in connection with democracy, living space and work. Here is a look at what it creates governor Brian Kemp's desk for his signature in the law. The governor can take a veto a veto within 40 days of completing the meeting on April 5.
As a reminder, in 2025 the first year of a two -year session marked, so that in the house or the Senate (without an actual “no” voice) can always be recorded next year.
Language and bourgeois freedoms
Senate Bill 36: Georgia religious freedom restoration act
STATUS: Signed in the law on April 5 (house 96-70 / Senate 32-23)
This legislation, supported by Republicans, limits the ability of state and local governments to “put a strain on religious practice by a person”. The Democrats rejected the measure because they say that they open the door for a company to discriminate against religion. An earlier attempt to adopt the law in 2016 was filed by the GOV at the time. Nathan deal.
Senate Bill 12: Laws changes in public records
STATUS: Adopted on April 4. Wait the governor's signature. (House 167-1 / Senate 33-1)
This draft law adds an additional step to the rules in order to obtain public records from a private institution such as a non -profit or state contractor who is subject to the law of Georgia Open Records. The law applies to non -governmental organizations that work in the name or in the service of a government agency.
The main change is that members of the public can no longer put public records directly to the private unit. Instead, you must send your inquiries to a proven “custodian bank” in a relevant government agency. This intermediary will request the records of the private unit.
Proponents of the transparency of the government that adding the average mediator of the average change will inhibit access to public records of private companies and will make it more difficult to check compliance with the state's law on open records of the state.
Senate Bill 74: Criminalizes librarians to distribute “harmful materials” to minors
STATUS: Get into the stall.
Libraries and librarians are currently excluded from criminal sanctions in a state law of 2024 against the distribution of materials to minors that the legislator considers harmful. SB 74 would make any violation of librarians a “high and severe offense” with a fine of 5,000 US dollars and up to one year in prison. It offers librarians a legal defense that strives to remove such materials.
Senate Bill 1: Prohibitions of transgender women from female sports teams, limit the access of the bathroom
STATUS: Adopted on March 31. Wait the governor's signature. (House 100-64 / Senate 32-20)
The “Fair and Safe Athletic Opportunity Act” prohibits transgender students (middle school through College) to play in sports teams that match their gender -specific orientation. For example, transgender students cannot play in sports teams. Schools and sports baths also have to be identified based on gender based on gender.
The democratic legislature questioned the need for the law and pointed out that there is no instance of transgender girls or women who participate in female sports teams in Georgia. The law also defines the female gender nationwide as “a person who, or for development -related or genetic anomaly or a historical accident that would be able to produce human egg cells”. It does the same for male gender and replaces “egg cell” with “sperm”. SB 1 undertook a rocky journey through legislation. Several changes were subjected to before it finally passed the Senate and then the house. In fact, the modifications of the house were so extensive that SB 1 had to return to the Senate for two last rounds with agreed votes.
Elections and governance
House bill 397: Events Georgia from Eric and changes changes to the state election committee and the early vote
STATUS: Get into the stall.
In this house bill, it was originally shown how the municipalities could decide on the vote on Saturdays or decide. However, legislators in the Senate converted it into a Franken-Bill of Maga's description of the choice. The revised electoral laws passed the Senate, but with such extensive changes that it had to return to the house for an agreed coordination. This voice did not happen before Sinus dies. The provisions included:
- Standing off Georgia from a multi-state compact, electronic registration information center (ERIC), which shares real-time updates of the voter registration.
- 24/7 video surveillance of ballot -drop boxes.
- Increasing the powers of the controversial state election committee.
Senate Bill 175: Replacement omnibus electoral law, similar to HB 397
STATUS: Get into the stall.
This legislation of the Senate was originally written as a ban on the use of ranking election for every choice in Georgia. But when it reached the house, all this language was sought and became a diluted version of HB 397.
House bill 147: AI regulation for state and local governments
STATUS: Get into the stall.
This cross -party law would create the first state corporation in Georgia to determine best practices for how state and local governments use artificial intelligence (AI). It would also determine disclosure requirements so that the public understand how, when and why local administrations use AI. Although HB has built 147 elements of a further law on AI transparency, Senate Bill 37, which failed, the house law did not create a vote in the Senate.
Housing
House bill 92: Adds obstacles to local governments that try to avoid the new tax on the endurance of Georgia
Status: Signed in the law on April 1 (house 165-0 / Senate: 52-2)
This new law makes it difficult for the local governments that have exchanged information from the new liberation of the state's homestead real estate agency to report. Cities, counties and school authorities, which were successfully triggered before the unique period on March 1, 2025, must continue to decide annually.
The new constitutional change in Georgia permanently limits an increase in the estimated value of a primary place of residence of a person in the annual inflation rate nationwide for real estate tax purposes. However, many places, such as the city of Atlanta, have prevented themselves preventively and said that they prefer to maintain local control over property taxes and to have tailored their own exceptions for homestead.
House bill 399: Large landlords must have employees in the state
Status: Adopted on April 4. Wait the governor's signature. (House 159-5 / Senate 41-9)
A legislative template that many landlords outside the state requires at least one employee of Georgia to work on tenant complaints is for the Governor Brian Kemp. It is a minor victory for lawyers for affordable housing buildings that celebrated the increased accountability of the landlords, but warned that this could lead to retaliation against tenants with lower incomes that raise concerns about living conditions.
HB 399 is the only legislation that regulates institutional investors who shop in Georgia, which have been adopted this year. Here is our whole story.
House bill 61: Anti-squatter legislation on the residents of Motel
Status: Get into the stall.
House legislation that would make it easier for hotel managers to pass long-term guests no longer have voted with the Senate-but the legislators will probably try again with House Bill 61 next year.
Another Franconia Bill, HB 61, initially authorized the state to issue special license plates for hearing and ambulance. Republican senators caught this language in March and implanted provisions from the failed house bill 183 in order to strengthen the power of innkeepers over the duration of the guest stays.
The revised HB 61 said that anyone who commits the offense of the “illegal crouch” – in a house, an apartment, a hotel or in a vehicle without express permission – “is called up by the law enforcement by the law enforcement authorities after they have been communicated by the proper affidavit by the owner, the right -wing inhabitant or the land of the fundamental.
