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Legislative Watch

Georgia House of Representatives – 3.3.2025 Committee Meetings

By March 9, 2025No Comments

On March 3, 2025, the following Georgia House of Representatives committees met to discuss bills to potentially advance:

Select the associated links to read each bill in full.

Higher Education

HB 602

This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), relates to protests on student campuses. The author claims it is to discourage violent, harassing, and materially disruptive student activity by targeting individuals who use violence, vandalism, force, and harassment as a means to impose their will on others. 

The bill received much opposition from citizens. 

The bill will continue to be workshopped and will return to committee at a later date.

Agriculture and Consumer Affairs

HB 449

This bill relates to private water companies that are privately owned and have no oversight and nothing to enforce regulation and prices. Georgia is one of five states that does not regulate private water companies. This bill allows the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) to oversee any rate change equal to a 15% increase and will require a public hearing for the affected communities to determine whether the increase is just and reasonable. If the increase is deemed just and reasonable, the PSC cannot hold another hearing on this company’s increases for a period for three years. This applies only to companies with more than 2,000 customers.

The bill passed committee. 

HB 529

This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), is a consumer protection bill designed to stop predatory subscription services that raise prices significantly and make cancelling almost impossible. This bill will require subscription services to ask consumers before renewal whether they wish to renew.

The bill passed committee. 

HB 265

This bill seeks to eliminate Delta 8 in hemp products, even when the products remain below the legal THC range of .03%.

The bill was heard and will return to committee at a later date.

State Planning and Community Affairs

HB 689

This bill seeks to establish a homelessness prevention program under the direction of the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) that provides grants to local organizations throughout the state to assist with rising rent costs. This arrangement will leverage local buy-in so that organizations can use monies given by the private sector and local governments. This assistance should help prevent evictions.

The bill passed committee.

Banks and Banking

HB 159

This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), would change the aggregate cap for the Georgia Housing Finance Authority from $3 billion outstanding bonds to $6 billion. 

The bill passed committee. 

HB 439

This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), would raise vendor’s compensation on credit card fees and sales tax from 3% of the first $3,000 to 3% of the first $10,000. Beginning in January 2026, vendors would receive .05% of the collected fees after $10,000. The bill’s goal is to help struggling small businesses. Vendor compensation has not been raised in 20 years.

The bill passed.

Creative Arts and Entertainment

HB 566

This bill addresses the deep fakes that artificial intelligence (AI) can create. It will protect the voice and visual likeness of all individuals from unauthorized computer generated recreation from AI and other technologies. 

Any person or eternity who is shown to have knowledge that a video or song they post online is created via AI will be held liable if they do not remove the video or song.

The bill passed committee.

Education

HB 268

This bill requires all relevant student records, including education and disciplinary records, to be shared with a requesting school upon transfer within five days of request. It also requires schools to adopt behavioral threat assessment teams to identify and manage potential threats at the school level and requires schools to adopt the use of an anonymous reporting app that meets certain standards. This information will also be relayed to any receiving school upon a student’s transfer. 

Additionally, the bill creates qualified behavioral health coordinator positions for school systems and grants to fund those positions. Schools must also move a student to online learning and provide counseling while the behavioral threat team assesses the threat and determines whether to create an intervention plan or turn the student over to law enforcement. 

An amendment was added for children to be removed from the list after completing everything required and they are deemed no longer a threat.

The bill passed committee.

Health

HB 382

This is an annual bill to update classes of drugs as directed by the Board of Pharmacy as well as the Drugs and Narcotics Agency. It also pertains to psilocybin, which is currently being studied to deal with depression and PTSD and will likely be approved by the FDA. This bill specifies that this drug may become available to consumers as soon as it receives approval.

The bill passed committee.  

HB 629

This bill allows schools to have an automated defibrillator system on the premises without needing a licensed physician.

The bill passed committee.

HB 677

This bill addresses the issue of children with mental health issues who have been sent to crisis treatment and have no one to retrieve them after their treatment. Hospitals absorb these exorbitant costs even though the children do not belong there anymore. This bill will provide a per diem for these hospitals to continue caring for these children until a multi-agency treatment or match team can find an appropriate placement for the child.

The bill passed committee. 

HB 662

This bill seeks to prevent rural hospitals from closing by classifying these as rural emergency hospitals and allowing them to remain in the tax credit program for specific health initiatives, such as the Georgia Heart Program. 

The bill passed committee. 

Regulated Industries

HB 632

This bill exempts occupational tax and licenses for disabled veterans and updates the code regarding these exemptions to clarify confusion.

The bill passed committee.

HB 342

This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), relates to billboards advertising medical marijuana. It allows the Medical Cannabis Commission to create rules regarding this advertising. 

The bill passed committee.

HB 504

This bill creates a structured and transparent framework for vehicle value protection agreements (VPAs) to help consumers mitigate unexpected losses in vehicle value. Unlike traditional gap insurance, which only applies to financed vehicles, these VPAs can apply to both financed and cash-purchased vehicles. 

The bill passed committee. 

HB 512

This bill relates to dispute resolutions between property owners and property owners’ associations (POAs) before liens can be placed on properties. The POA/HOA must have reasonable financial demands when asking for a closing letter; closing attorneys and mortgage institutions require a closing letter from HOAs affirming that the property is free from any assessments. The HOAs can invoice the homeowner or this later and sometimes charge up to $500. This bill sets the cap at $250.

The bill passed committee. 

HB 630

This bill removes the used car division and the used parts division of the State Board of Registration of Used Motor Vehicle Dealers and Used Motor Vehicle Parts Dealers and establishes requirements and restrictions for the number of people on the board and the rules they can create; the goal is to enhance clarity and usability for applicants.

The board may establish fees for change-of-location licenses.

The bill passed committee. 

HB 635

This bill creates a State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General  Contractors consisting of 15 members appointed by the Governor for five-year terms. All applicants for contractor licensing must pass examinations approved by this board. HB 635 clarifies requirements and eligibility for licensure as residential-basic contractor, residential-light commercial contractor, or commercial general contractor.

The bill passed committee. 

Judiciary Non-Civil

HB 237

This bill looks to protect creative entities in the state by allowing them to express themselves without risk of their art being used against them in a court of law. The bill provides criteria that will determine whether specific art can be admitted into evidence.

The bill passed committee.

HB 390

Under this bill, discussed previously (see HERE), encroaching upon a 25 foot buffer space given to firefighters, law enforcement officers, and emergency medical technicians or professionals to perform their duties will be a felony.

The bill passed committee.

HB 161

This bill would expand the crimes in which the Georgia Bureau of Investigations can issue an administrative subpoena to obtain the subscriber information from a telecommunications company. The bill adds to the existing list SWATing terroristic threats, harassing phone calls, and domestic terrorism. 

The bill passed committee.

HB 430

This bill affects the sexual offender status of individuals moving to Georgia. If someone in the sex offender registry of another state is moving to Georgia, they will automatically be added to Georgia’s registry without looking at the actual circumstance. 

The bill passed committee.

HB 447

This bill establishes definitions and penalties for crimes related to gift card theft, gift card forgery, and gift card fraud. The intent of the bill is to help retailers, as they often have to reimburse the victims of the gift card crimes.

The bill passed committee.

HB 483

This bill provides protections for inspectors of code enforcement by enhancing penalties for simple assault, aggravated assault, simple battery, battery, and aggravated battery committed upon inspectors of code enforcement in certain circumstances.

The bill passed committee.

HB 533

This bill would provide compensation to those wrongfully committed in the state of Georgia. The victim would be entitled up to $75,000 a year if they were found to be innocent. Claims by victims would be evaluated by the Office of State Administrative Hearings.

The bill passed committee.

HB 535

This bill aims to fix inconsistency in how time served is calculated. If an individual’s probation is revoked, the court may order the execution of the sentence originally imposed  or of any portion thereof. Should the court order this, the time that the defendant has served under probation shall be considered as time served and shall be deducted from and considered as time the original sentence.

The bill passed committee.

HB 582

This bill would provide a mechanism for reducing the sentence of individuals in a domestic relationship who were coerced into committing a crime. This relates to if a person murdered their abuser or they were coerced into committing crimes under explicit or implied threat from their abuser. 

The bill passed committee.

HB 626

This bill increases the amount of time the state of Georgia will keep rape kits as evidence from 12 months to 30 years. 

The bill passed committee.

HB 627

This bill removes the exception for firearms from the definition of aggravated assault under the Juvenile code. This bill wants to correct inconsistency in the existing code.

The bill passed committee.

Public Safety and Homeland Security

HB 138

This bill adds de-escalation techniques and methods to the current law enforcement scenario-based training. 

An amendment was added to make this training mandatory.

The bill as amended passed committee. 

HB 433

This bill will allow the Department of Human Services to access pending charges and restricted information about an individual receiving a background check; this information relates to an individual who has been charged but whose case is not yet resolved in the courts. 

The bill passed committee. 

HB 646

This bill ensures there is only one deputy coroner in each county unless otherwise approved by the local governing authority of the county and mandates a per diem for these deputies who work as EMTs and are not hired as full time deputy coroners.

The bill passed committee. 

HB 288

This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), aims to allow law enforcement officers to defend themselves in a court of law if a prosecutor questions their credibility and adds the officer to a list of officers who will never be called to testify. The officer must be informed they have been placed on this list and must be informed of the reasoning. Law enforcement agencies cannot penalize these officers solely because they are on this list.

The bill passed committee. 

HB 691

This bill aims to create a Resilience Office and a Chief Resilience Officer position. The office will be a part of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency. The primary purpose of the office shall be to plan for and coordinate statewide resilience and disaster recovery efforts, including coordination with federal, state, and local  governmental agencies, stakeholders, and nongovernmental entities.

The bill passed committee.