Today at the Capitol, another cultural celebration and a protest against President Trump. The day kicked off with another Latino celebration, this time outside the Capitol at Liberty Plaza. Advocacy groups and lawmakers celebrated contributions from the Latin American community in Georgia and used the opportunity to condemn President Trump's immigration policy.
On Tuesday, Rep. Bill Werkheiser (R-Glennville) introduced legislation to the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee that would provide pretrial proceedings in death penalty cases when the accused has an intellectual disability.
Georgia was the first state with the death penalty to ban the execution of intellectually disabled defendants. But since, Georgia has at times found itself back under public glare.
More expectant parents could qualify for home health care support, community health workers could get professional certification, and immigrant doctors could find an easier path to practicing in Georgia under proposals being considered by state legislators.
On Monday, lawmakers from both parties announced education legislation. Speaker of the House Jon Burns announced his specific plans to make schools safer at a morning press conference.
Georgia's state House speaker wants a statewide student database of disciplinary, mental health and law enforcement information to determine which students might commit violence at school. Republican Jon Burns also wants to mandate that each school system create a threat assessment team to evaluate tips about violence.
On Thursday at the Capitol, the big news of the day was the unveiling of Gov. Brian Kemp's tort reform legislation package. The legislation, which will be carried by Sen. John F. Kennedy, lays out rules for civil lawsuit proceedings.
A handful of Senate Republicans from rural Georgia have signed onto a new bipartisan attempt to fully expand Medicaid through a conservative-friendly option that gained traction last year after a decade of firm GOP resistance.
State prisons chief Tyrone Oliver asked Georgia lawmakers Monday for $10.4 million to hire an additional 330 correctional officers during this fiscal year to staff a prisons system the U.S. Justice Department harshly criticized in an audit last fall.
With last week's snowstorm, both chambers have to play catch up, pushing many of the canceled appropriations meetings from last week into this week. That meant there was little for both chambers to do. The Capitol remembered the victims of the Holocaust on Monday for International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Advocates on both sides of the fight over access to reproductive rights are gearing up for an expected debate this year over whether and how lawmakers should create new protections for access to in-vitro fertilization.
