On February 19, 2025, the following Georgia House of Representatives committees met to discuss bills to potentially advance:
- Agriculture and Consumer Affairs voted on HB 158, HB 398, HB 424, and HB 495 and heard HB 331 and HB 413
- Ways and Means voted on HB 52, HB 79, HB 134, HB 136, HB 141, HB 153, and HB 169
- Higher Education voted on HB 150 and HB 172
- State Properties voted on HB 254
- Public Safety and Homeland Security voted on HB 295, HB 309, HB 315, HB 350, and HB 423
- Banks and Banking voted on HB 240, HB 241, and HB 377
- Health voted on HB 227, HB 329, HB 322, and HB 154
- Governmental Affairs voted on HB 318 and HB 414 and heard HB 387
- Judiciary Non-Civic voted on HB 123, HB 171, HB 176, HB 222, and HB 460 and heard HB 390
Select the associated links to read each bill in full.
Agriculture and Consumer Affairs
HB 158
This bill, previously discussed (see HERE) seeks to streamline the process of doing business in Georgia by changing the organization in which companies register trade names. After an individual creates a business or a trade name in their county, this information will go to the Georgia Superior Court Clerk’s corporate authority so that all of this information from Georgia’s 159 counties will be in one single, searchable place.
The bill passed committee.
HB 331
This bill aims to ban people from selling dogs, cats, and rabbits in parking lots. Most of these animals are brought from out of state or deplorable situations and are sold with very little background knowledge; contacting the seller if there is an issue later is oftentimes impossible. This bill will allow animals to be sold from homes, businesses, a vet’s office, the sheriff’s department, and the police station but will ban the sale of animals in parking lots, on the side of the road, and in popup flea markets unless the seller has a license through the Department of Agriculture. Animals may be given away for free at these locations but not in exchange for money.
The bill was only heard and will return to the committee at a later date.
HB 398
This bill allows cottage food operators to expand their small businesses. These individuals must currently get a license through the Department of Agriculture and can only sell their products to the consumer directly. This bill seeks to open an avenue to allow these cottage food operators to sell to a third party vendor so that the vendor can sell to retail stores, grocery stores, or restaurants.
The bill passed committee.
HB 413
This bill seeks to amend the definition of a portable sawmill in the current code that prevents local governments from regulating agricultural practices such as crop management and livestock animal husbandry. Portable sawmills will be labeled as agricultural rather than industrial. This bill will affect urban agriculture regarding lumber and will open another revenue stream for small farmers in urban spaces zoned for agriculture.
The bill was only heard and will return to the committee at a later date.
HB 424
This bill concerns the tools used by the agricultural industry in Georgia and the regulations being put on those tools, specifically tools for producing the most abundant, most affordable, and safest food supplies. This bill will allow glyphosate-based products to be sold as long as they clearly display a label that the products abide by the regulations put forth by the Environment Protection Agency. Currently, these products must also include a label warning that the product is known to cause cancer. This bill seeks to remove that requirement.
The bill passed committee.
HB 495
Tifton has been home to a Rural Prosperity and Innovation Center for six years. This bill seeks to move this center from the University System of Georgia to the Department of Agriculture and to have the funding go through this department.
This bill passed committee.
Ways and Means
HB 52
This bill provides clarifying language regarding the Homestead Exemption for unremarried spouses of disabled veterans and their minor children. If they move from county to county, that homestead exemption will travel with them
The bill passed committee.
HB 79
This bill provides a tax credit for purchasing firearms secure handling and storage.
The bill passed committee.
HB 134
This bill aims to provide a 50% tax credit on manufactured homes once the owner files it as a permanent home on a property.
The bill passed committee.
HB 136
This bill aims to assist foster children after they age out of the foster care program by providing funding for tuition, transportation, nutrition, and mentoring. The bill includes guardrails for appropriations, such as ensuring 87.5% of the money goes directly to the needs of the student instead of overhead or operating costs.
The bill passed committee.
HB 141
This bill seeks to protect the financial privacy of businesses while insurance and local governments continue to receive the revenue they need to function effectively. Businesses are currently required to submit detailed financial records to their local jurisdictions, a requirement that has raised concerns for small business owners. This bill would provide an alternative by allowing businesses to submit an affidavit from a CPA certifying their gross receipts rather than submitting extensive financial documentation.
The bill passed committee.
HB 153
This bill ensures concrete trucks are included in the manufacturing tax credit and extends the sunset period from June 30, 2026, to 2031.
The bill passed committee.
HB 169
This bill removes the exemption for solar panels but recognizes and honors the current Kua contract and current solar lease options for landowners. This is to protect land owners who are considering converting some of their land to solar panels. The committee voted on an amendment to delay this exemption by one year, as many forestry landowners are facing hardships due to the hurricane.
The bill passed committee.
Higher Education
HB 150
This bill, previously discussed (see HERE), creates transparency regarding funding to Georgia’s higher education institutions, particularly from any country whose government is deemed a foreign adversary by the United States Secretary of Commerce. The university system will be required to report any funding from these countries quarterly to the General Assembly, to the Governor, and to the chairs of the Higher Education Committees in the Georgia House and Senate.
With a new amendment, this does not include payments less than $50,000. The institutions must report the type of funding, its source, its amount, and its purpose. The bill does not prohibit the university system from taking this funding.
The bill passed committee.
HB 172
This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), relates to a tuition-reimbursement program for large food animal industry veterinarians in Georgia. This bill was substituted to allow these veterinarians to apply every four years and receive $22,500 each year but was sent back from the Rules Committee to the original bill (see HERE) to reduce the time frame back to three years.
The bill passed committee.
State Properties
SB 254
This bill allows for the placement of a Revolutionary War Patriots marker upon the grounds of the State Capitol building and upon the grounds of the State Archives building in honor of the 250 year anniversary of America earning independence.
The bill passed committee.
Public Safety and Homeland Security
HB 295
This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), aims to ensure that local government municipalities enforce the law. If the local government authority is found not to be enforcing the law, this bill requires the citizens to be reimbursed either for the security costs they have had to incur or for their diminished property value.
The district attorneys must publicize why certain arrests were not charged.
The bill passed committee.
HB 309
To create a police force, citizens have to vote on it; this bill creates the same process for if a city wants to abolish its police force. The same way a police force is created is the same way it is abolished: by vote. This concerns county police departments specifically.
The bill passed committee.
HB 315
This bill provides a jurisdictional basis for federal officials to cooperate with local law enforcement to fight sex trafficking, drug smuggling, and other such offenses.
The bill passed committee.
HB 350
This bill authorizes the placement of newborn safety devices in Georgia where newborns can be dropped off without the parents facing punishment. The bill also allows certain entities to have ambulance services and medical facilities. These boxes are medical and will alert the facility to a baby’s presence in the box.
The bill passed committee.
HB 423
This bill amends the duties and responsibilities of the Georgia Emergency Communication Authority to include procuring, implementing, and overseeing what is called Next Gen 911, which is designed to address the struggles Georgia communities face with the outdated or dysfunctional 911 system that needs modernizing. This bill adds representatives from Information Technology, Cybersecurity, and Geographic Information Systems agencies to the Board of Directors to ensure all of these agencies have crossover communication.
Next Gen 911 should help with response times by pinpointing a caller’s exact location by using the same technology that companies such as Uber use to locate customers.
HB 423 also requires the governor to appoint someone with a background in cybersecurity to ensure the infrastructure and risks are accounted for.
The bill passed committee.
Banks and Banking
HB 240
This bill is designed to protect consumers from trigger leads when a lender pulls a consumer credit card report for a mortgage application. Typically, consumers start receiving messages from solicitors and could be deceived into believing this solicitor is with their chosen lender when that could not be the case. This can lead to privacy invasion and the capture of personal information.
HB 240 bans trigger leads.
The bill passed committee.
HB 241
This bill provides regulatory clarity for certain types of earned wage access (EWA) in Georgia and enhances consumer protection. EWA allows workers to access their pay while they earn it rather than waiting until payday. As EWA currently lacks guidelines in Georgia, HB 241 aims to create these guidelines for EWA providers that offer their services as loans, allowing these providers to fall under the existing lending statutes and ensuring these providers comply with established law. The bill permits a convenience fee of up to $5.
The bill passed committee.
HB 377
This bill concerns manufactured housing. These homes typically have a certificate of title issued by the state like a motor vehicle to show ownership; any lien holder is also included on this certificate because these homes can be moved. The law is unclear whether these homes become real estate when placed on land. This bill allows these owners to surrender their certificate of title and record a certificate of permanent location in the real estate records to be deemed real estate. Any lien will remain.
The bill passed committee.
Health
HB 227
Of the southeastern states, Georgia has the lowest number of patients using medical cannabis. This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), aims to increase that. It changes the name of low THC oil to medical cannabis to align it with the Medical Cannabis Commission. The bill also seeks to raise public awareness while still remaining subject to the rules and regulations of the existing commission as well as to remove the end-stage requirement for the qualifying illnesses listed in the bill.
The bill passed committee.
HB 329
This bill will expand access to fertility care in Georgia by allowing advanced practice providers such as Nurse Practitioners and Physicians Assistants to perform inseminations. This will increase provider availability and decrease the financial burden and wait times on Georgia families.
The bill passed committee.
HB 322
This bill would allow the Dental College of Georgia to increase options for hiring faculty to educate and train the next generation of dentists in the state of Georgia. Individuals trained outside of the United States would be allowed to work as clinical faculty. This would offer a recruitment tool to combat the shortage.
The bill passed committee.
HB 154
This bill makes EMS an essential service. EMS workers are the only emergency public safety employees of the state who are not considered essential although they regularly work alongside firefighters and law enforcement. This bill seeks to change that and designate public and private providers of emergency pre-hospital services as essential critical support by the state of Georgia, thereby removing red tape for funding.
The bill passed committee.
Governmental Affairs
HB 318
This is a zoning bill designed to address the language for permits that are not zoning decisions. An administrative officer can approve zoning permits if the request is not a rezoning issue; for instance, a food truck proprietor may request a permit that does not rezone the land and is instead only a permit for a short-term land use. This bill remedies some confusion that has slowed down permits and construction in the past few years.
The bill passed committee.
HB 387
This bill concerns annexation disputes between city and county governments. One county that has seen much of this is Cherokee County, in which the county government and city government were consistently going to court fighting over the annexation cases. Four years ago, the city and the county developed a growth boundary agreement that requires a conversation on annexation. This bill takes this growth boundary agreement and uses it as part of a service delivery strategy for the next 10 years, motivating city and county governments to work together upfront to help the citizens.
This bill is not up for a vote and is instead designed to start a conversation to get this legislation written in the next few years.
HB 414
The intent of this bill is to ensure there is a level playing field for all actors in our elections. As the internet has proliferated, many people are involved in elections as consultants and mail houses and through social media. People outside of Georgia are not beholden to the Georgia Ethics Commission (GEC).
This bill defines a non-resident as an individual outside of Georgia who has a nexus into the state through business—in this case, elections business. Under HB 414, this individual is now subject to Georgia code.
It also clarifies what the GEC can do in terms of power and investigations so that the GEC can investigate non-residents conducting business in Georgia.
Additionally, the bill defines venue so that the GEC will take action in Fulton County if action must be taken.
The bill passed committee.
Judiciary Non-Civil
HB 123
This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), changes the standard of proof of intellectual disabilities from beyond a reasonable doubt to a preponderance of evidence, which aligns with regulations of every other state that practices capital punishment. The bill also determines the issue of intellectual disability before the trial in a separate hearing because capital punishment cases are usually very long and very gruesome, which leaves juries biased. This bill does not allow any changes to the prisoners currently on death row and would only change the process for individuals going forward.
The bill passed committee.
HB 171
This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), to address the distribution of computer-generated obscene material depicting children and enhanced sentencing of crimes using artificial intelligence (AI). The bill also prohibits the use of AI for stalking, exploiting vulnerable individuals, enticing children for indecent purposes, and committing fraudulent election interference.
The bill passed committee.
HB 176
This bill ensures the meaningful access to request a post-conviction review from the court and untangle language around a withdrawal of a guilty plea. An individual may withdraw a guilty plea within the term of the court or 30 days, whichever comes last, allowing people a clear opportunity to withdraw a guilty plea.
The bill passed committee.
HB 222
This bill aims to enhance communication between the courts and individuals regarding their bonds.
The bill passed committee.
HB 390
This bill aims to place a 25 ft safety buffer for public safety personnel while they are on an active scene of an emergency. Spectators will receive a verbal warning to stay back 25 feet and will be arrested if their behavior continues. They will be charged with a misdemeanor.
The bill will return to committee at a later date.
HB 242
There have been protests outside religious services at a synagogue in Cobb as well as other places across the nation. This bill prohibits anyone from intentionally impeding, disrupting, disturbing, or interfering with the conduct of a religious service or observance or funeral.
The bill passed committee.
HB 460
This bill prevents the recording of conversations between lawyers and clients who are in custody in a penal institution, including jails and prisons in Georgia. It is designed to ensure client-lawyer confidentiality.
The bill passed committee.
