SINE DIE: A Look at What Passed and What Failed in the 2021 Session
The 2021 Georgia Legislative session is officially over
The 2021 Georgia Legislative session came to an end at the stroke of midnight on Thursday morning. The last day of the 40-day session, known as Sine Die, is when a bill must pass both chambers of the Legislature in order to be signed by the Governor this year. If it does not pass both chambers, the bill is considered “dead” for the year.
Tons of bills passed this year, and we unfortunately don’t have enough time to go over all of them. But we can definitely go over some of the most important ones! Here is a rundown of the bills that passed and failed this session.
PASSED: Election restrictions
I’m sure you know by now that Georgia passed a sweeping election reform bill this session. The Republican-backed bill, which is now facing a number of lawsuits from opponents, dramatically changes the way Georgians can cast their ballots. It limits access to dropboxes, requires absentee voters to submit photo identification, halves the length of runoff campaigns and ends “jungle primaries” for special elections. It also removes the Secretary of State as a voting member of the state election board and allows the state to take over county election offices. Perhaps the most controversial part of the bill is a provision that criminalizes the act of distributing food and water to voters standing in long lines at polling places. Republicans say that the bill was necessary to restore election integrity, while Democrats argue that Republicans are trying to change the rules after bruising statewide losses in the 2020 elections. Click here to read my overview of the bill.
FAILED: Delta tax punishment
On Wednesday, the Georgia House passed a bill that would end a lucrative tax break for Delta Airlines after the company CEO, Ed Bastian, criticized the new election reform bill. Facing growing boycott calls, the leader of Georgia’s largest employer said in a statement that the bill was “unacceptable” and that it did not match his company’s values. “The entire rationale for this bill was based on a lie: that there was widespread voter fraud in Georgia in the 2020 elections,” said Bastian. “Unfortunately, that excuse is being used in states across the nation that are attempting to pass similar legislation to restrict voting rights.”
In response to Bastian’s statement, Republicans in the House moved quickly to pass a bill that would strip Delta of a multimillion dollar jet fuel tax break. The final vote was 97-73. The bill then moved across the hall to the Senate. Fortunately for Delta, the Senate did not take up the bill on Wednesday night before adjourning for the session. So Delta likely won’t be facing any type of retaliation from Republican state legislators for the rest of the year.
Gov. Brian Kemp also fired back at Bastian and other corporate CEOs who criticized the bill.
PASSED: Citizen’s Arrest Overhaul
Over a year has passed since the tragic murder of Ahmaud Arbery, which sparked a nationwide conversation about racial injustice. It also led Georgia lawmakers to pass a hate crimes bill last year. This session, they overwhelmingly passed a bill that would overhaul Georgia’s civil war era citizen’s arrest laws. The current law, which was passed in 1863, allowed any Georgian to arrest someone that they believe committed a crime. This overhaul makes Georgia the first state to get rid of its citizen’s arrest law. Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to sign the bill and praised its passage in a statement. “Our overhaul of Georgia’s citizen’s arrest statute strikes a critical balance by allowing Georgians to protect themselves and their families, while also repealing Civil War-era language in our laws that is ripe for abuse,” the Governor said.
FAILED: Raising adult criminal age from 17 to 18
Last month, the Georgia House voted 113-51 to raise Georgia’s adult criminal age from 17 to 18. Today, any 17-year-old in Georgia who is charged with a crime is tried as an adult. This bill would have moved 17-year-olds to juvenile courts. The Senate did not take any action on the bill this session.
PASSED: Permanent Daylight Saving Time
Both chambers passed a bill that would establish year-round Daylight Saving Time in Georgia, doing away with the twice-a-year “Spring Forward, Fall Back” ritual. While there is no state that observes permanent Daylight Saving Time, there are only two states — Arizona and Hawaii — that don’t observe Daylight Saving Time at all. If Gov. Kemp signs the bill, that would not be the final step: the state would then have to seek congressional approval to remain on Daylight Saving Time permanently.
FAILED: Distracted Driving Loophole
In 2018, Georgia lawmakers passed a “hands-free” bill that banned the act of holding a cell phone while behind the wheel, and it was signed into law by then-Gov. Nathan Deal. This session, though, lawmakers tried to go a step further: the House voted to end a loophole that allowed offenders to avoid fines and jailtime by bringing receipts for hands-free devices to court, which demonstrated that they intended to comply with the 2018 law. The bill passed the House 119-52, but no action was taken in the Senate.
PASSED: 2022 State Budget
Facing a midnight deadline, Georgia lawmakers managed to hash out a deal on the 2022 state budget on Wednesday. The $27.2 billion spending plan unanimously passed the Senate and overwhelmingly passed the House. The plan restores most cuts made to public education made last year during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also adds funding for mental health services and rural broadband expansion. The passage of the budget comes as Georgia is expecting to receive nearly $5 billion in federal aid from President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief package, a bill that was widely criticized by Republican state leaders as a bailout for states that remain locked down. More on what’s in the 2022 state budget can be found here.
FAILED: Sports gambling
An effort to legalize sports gambling appears to be dead this year, as the House did not bring up the bill before the midnight deadline. The bill would have put a constitutional amendment on the general election ballot in 2022. The Senate passed two sports gambling bills last month and sent them to the House for a vote, but Democrats refused to support the initiative following the passage of the Republican election restrictions bill. Some conservative Republicans also didn’t support the move because of their anti-gambling beliefs. Because this is a constitutional amendment, it requires two-thirds support in each chamber to be placed on the ballot. Republicans have a 103-77 majority in the House, but supporters of the bill did not add up to two-thirds.
PASSED: Isakson bridge renaming
State lawmakers voted this session to rename a bridge over the Port of Savannah after former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R), Georgia’s longtime senior Senator who stepped down in 2019 amid an ongoing battle with Parkinson’s disease.
“The bridge on Georgia 307 crosses over the Mason Mega Rail Yard, a $215 million project that, when completed, will give the port enough additional capacity to ship goods to cities in the nation’s Mid-South and Midwest regions.”
Lawmakers praised Isakson as "a “man of the people,” saying that he worked very hard over his decades-long career to help the people of Georgia. Isakson was first elected to the Georgia House in 1976, and was one of just 24 Republicans in the 180-member chamber at the time. He was elected to the Georgia State Senate in 1992. He succeeded Newt Gingrich in the U.S. House in 1998, and flipped the U.S. Senate seat held by Zell Miller in 2004.
FAILED: Gun rights bill
In the wake of a horrific string of shootings at Atlanta-area spas, Georgia lawmakers attempted to pass a bill that would further loosen the state’s already-lax gun restrictions. The bill would allow Georgia to recognize gun licenses from other state. It passed the Senate by a vote of 34-18, but House Speaker David Ralston did not bring the bill to the House floor for a vote. “Frankly, I thought we needed to be very, very sensitive to any gun legislation,” Ralston told reporters. “You know, we’re less than two weeks out from two major mass killings and so that heightens my level of sensitivity to that.” More of his comments can be heard here.
More bills
Click here for more information on what passed and what failed. See you all tomorrow morning for the weekly newsletter!