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What the Georgia Legislature Passed (and Didn’t Pass) This Session

The Georgia House followed its tradition of throwing shredded paper into the air to celebrate the end of its 2025 session. Credit: Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

The 2025 legislative session ended abruptly Friday, Apr. 4 when the Senate suddenly adjourned earlier than usual, catching many people in the bustling Georgia Capitol off guard and throwing the House into disarray. 

The last day of the 40-day legislative session—when the House and Senate usually crank out legislation right up until midnight, then celebrate at the end of the night by throwing torn-up pieces of paper into the air—ended with a whimper. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones sent senators home a little after 9 p.m. Friday. Senators seemed to be taken off-guard—the floor of the chamber was littered not with the customary shreds of paper, but entire crumpled-up sheets.

“We’d already gotten all our priorities done, and I’ve been saying all day, of course, I’ve been leading up to the last two days saying we’re going to adjourn early,” Jones told reporters after the Senate gaveled out. “I actually was trying to get done earlier than now, but there were a few more priorities that we went ahead and got some agrees on and everything, but it was a good session, and we got a lot of things done.”

Not all of Jones’ top priorities were successful, including the Red Tape Rollback Act, also known as Georgia’s DOGE, aimed at cutting government bureaucracy.

The abrupt ending to Senate business seemed to surprise House lawmakers. After a break, the chamber gaveled back in to pass a few more bills and resume the ceremonial thank-yous to House staff and the throwing of the paper scraps.

Speaking to reporters after the final gavel, House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington) said the House had accomplished what it had set out to, with the exception of efforts to rein in the use of school zone speed cameras. Dozens of bills were left in limbo Friday but will still be active when lawmakers return for the second half of the biennium next January. 

Burns also lobbed a jab at the other chamber. “I just think it shows that the House is focusing on its priorities and getting the job done, and we’re not worried about moving on to some kind of higher office. We came here to do a job, and we did our job, and that’s what drives the House,” Burns said. 

Jones is widely expected to announce a run for governor in 2026, and other high-ranking senators are reportedly mulling runs for other top positions like lieutenant governor and attorney general. At least one senator, Sen. Brian Strickland (R-McDonough), who is running for attorney general, has filed his papers to run for statewide office. 

Friday night was a peculiar end to a session that had been dominated by debate over new limits on lawsuits, a slate of culture war bills largely focused on transgender Georgians and efforts to improve security on Georgia’s campuses after last year’s Apalachee High School shooting that left two students and two teachers dead. 

Economic Uncertainty

Lawmakers passed a budget for the next budget year on the final day of this year’s legislative session as economic uncertainty looms on the national level.

The $37.8 million budget notably includes spending boosts for the state’s prisons and schools, and it’s slightly larger than the one Gov. Brian Kemp unveiled when the legislation session began. The governor, who sets the spending level, added $50.4 million to next year’s revenue estimate Friday.

The budget, which takes effect July 1, was sent to the governor as the Trump administration’s historic tariffs upset the global economy, and as economic forecasters say the U.S. economy could be heading toward a recession. The S&P 500 dropped 10% over two days after Trump unveiled his tariff plan.

“Our budget is predicated on a revenue estimate, and I think it’s fair to say that since we reconvened in January, the macro-economic picture has changed pretty dramatically in just over the last few days,” Rep. Scott Holcomb (D-Atlanta) said to the House’s top budget writer, Rep. Matt Hatchett. “How comfortable are you with the probability that the revenue estimates that make this budget will hold throughout the year?”

Hatchett, a Dublin Republican, responded that if there are “huge swings,” then lawmakers would likely need to return to Atlanta for a special session to adjust the spending plan. But Hatchett and other House Republican leaders told reporters later that they do not think that is likely.

“Certainly, a good businessperson is always looking forward and trying to be ready for what’s coming next,” Burns said. “If we don’t do that, then we’re not doing our job. So, we’re conscious of those possibilities, and we’re in a very, very strong position when it comes to reserves.”

Hatchett said Friday that the state has over $12 billion in reserves. Although he said he thinks it’s unlikely that lawmakers will need to be summoned back later this year, he said he thinks a “correction” could be on the horizon.

Bipartisan Landlord Bill

A bipartisan bill intended to hold out-of-state landlords more accountable for managing single-family homes across Georgia is awaiting the governor’s signature.

Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur), the sponsor of House Bill 399, called the measure a good first step to deal with investor-owned homes that are popping up all over metro Atlanta. Under the legislation, landlords with single-family homes or duplexes have to hire Georgia brokers or other in-state management to handle tenant maintenance and other housing issues. 

Both chambers passed the bill before this year’s session ended late Friday, with the Senate passing it with a 46–9 vote. 

Advocates for housing rights point to the significant economic hit caused by fewer single-family homes available for first-time buyers. “We know that the local property owners, the local property managements, are struggling with this competition that’s coming from the hedge funds, the out-of-state investors who are impacting our market in a bad way,” Oliver said following Friday’s Senate vote on her bill. Oliver’s bill was carried in the Senate by Sen. Max Burns (R-Sylvania).

Bills Left Lingering

The first year of the two-year legislative session concluded without the final passage of one of Jones’ top priorities, a so-called red tape rollback bill as coined by Jones to be a state-level version of the Elon Musk-led federal Department of Government Efficiency.

Senate Bill 28, which cleared the chamber in February by a 33–21 vote that fell along party lines, failed to make it to the House floor for debate Friday. This is the second year Jones’ red tape rollback had not made it out of the House. 

The most significant GOP election bill for the session also failed to get a final vote Friday in the House. The House adjourned before legislators were presented with a substitute version of House Bill 397 that cleared the Senate after the addition of several proposals such as expanding State Election Board powers and banning Georgia from being a member of multi-state voter rolls sharing databases. Instead, the House passed a resolution Friday creating a study committee that will examine election rules later this year. 

A pair of firearm-related bills were also left unfinished. The House had spent more than an hour Friday debating a proposal that targets a Savannah ordinance penalizing gun owners who leave their firearms in unlocked vehicles. Under the proposal, someone facing a fine would be able to sue the city for as much as $25,000 in damages. 

And a House proposal that originally aimed to encourage safe gun storage through an income tax credit stalled after a compromise version limited the tax credit to gun safety training and spliced it with a Senate bill creating a four-day sales tax holiday for firearms, ammunition and other accessories, like scopes and magazines, as well as gun safes.

This year, lawmakers passed a ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports and signed off on another bill seeking to block inmates from receiving gender-affirming care. This also proved to be the year that legislators passed a so-called religious freedom bill, which Kemp signed Friday over concerns that it would lead to discrimination against LGBTQ people and religious minorities. 

But other controversial red meat bills were left behind for now, including a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs or policies from all state public schools and universities. Other stalled measures would have banned gender-affirming care for state workers and made it harder for minors to be treated with puberty blockers for gender dysphoria.  

‘Religious Liberty’

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp kicked off the final day of the 2025 legislative session by signing Senate Bill 36, also known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, into law, appeasing some Georgia residents who have been calling for stronger protections for free exercise of religion. 

The bill mirrors federal legislation that has been in place since 1993, and imposes new restrictions on state and local governments’ ability to “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” unless it is “in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest.” It gained final passage out of the House on Apr. 2 in a 96–70 vote that fell largely along party lines.

Democrats in particular have opposed the bill, arguing that without statewide civil rights protections, a RFRA law would allow Georgians greater leeway to discriminate against LGBTQ people and religious minorities.

Establishing new religious protections under state law has been a goal of the Georgia GOP since shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2015. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ed Setzler (R-Acworth), first introduced the legislation nearly a decade ago during the 2016 legislative session. The same year, a similar religious freedom bill passed out of the Georgia Legislature, but was ultimately vetoed by then-Governor Nathan Deal, who said he wanted to keep Georgia “a welcoming state.”

Prior to Deal’s veto, some of Georgia’s largest employers, including Coca Cola and Delta Air Lines, warned that the RFRA bill that the Legislature passed would create a law that made recruiting essential workers more difficult.

In a speech immediately after signing the bill, Kemp downplayed concerns that the bill could increase discrimination, drawing parallels between the RFRA and legislation from previous sessions aimed at combating hate crimes in the wake of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder and heightening statewide protections against antisemitism.

“Today I signed SB 36, also known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, ensuring that once again at the state level that Georgians are protected, including Georgians of faith,” he said. “I wanted to let everybody know that despite signing that legislation, Georgia still remains a state that has no place for hate, and I can assure all Georgians of that today.”

School Shootings

A bill that sets up new security protocols that are intended to prevent another school shooting in Georgia is now in the governor’s hands.

The 57-page proposal was a priority for Burns this year. When the measure came back to the House for a final vote Monday, Mar. 31, it was missing some key elements from an earlier version, such as a student database meant to help school districts communicate but that raised concerns that it would stigmatize students and hurt their future opportunities.

Burns and Jones issued a joint statement celebrating the bill’s passage. In September, a 14-year-old accused gunman killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Barrow County and injured nine others.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Holt Persinger (R-Winder), attempts to address what is seen as a communication lapse that preceded the shooting. The year before the shooting, Colt Gray was interviewed by law enforcement regarding threatening social media posts targeting another school in Jackson County—information that did not follow Gray to Barrow County. The measure would require districts to transfer a student’s records to a new district within five days, and it would set up a statewide alert system about potential threats to schools. 

Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) said the bill also attempts to target the common denominator of many of the school shootings nationwide: mental health. The proposal creates “qualified student advocacy specialists” who will focus on identifying troubled students and connecting them with mental health services, and it requires students to participate in training for suicide awareness and youth violence prevention.

The Senate also added another bill that would require all public schools to install a panic button system. Apalachee High School had issued panic buttons to its teachers a week before the shooting, and that is credited with helping law enforcement respond quickly to the campus.

The bill also increases penalties for terroristic acts, and it would treat children between ages 13–17 as adults when they face charges for terroristic acts at school, attempted murder and aggregate aggravated assault if committed with a firearm. 

“That is beyond just school safety,” said Sen. RaShaun Kemp (D-Atlanta), who voted against the bill. “So, this could capture, for example, a kid who has been wrapped up in a gang, and their lives could be drastically changed as a result of this.”

Ross Williams / Georgia Recorder A bill denying gender-­affirming care to prison inmates passed the Georgia House 100–2 after almost all Democrats walked out in protest of GOP bills targeting the LGBTQ community.

Transgender Sports 

A bill banning transgender girls from playing school sports in girls’ athletics competition is on the way to Kemp’s desk after passing both chambers on mostly party lines. If it receives Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature, Senate Bill 1 will require all schools from elementary through college to designate teams as male, female and co-ed based on sex at birth and ban those assigned male at birth from playing on female teams. It also restricts access to facilities like restrooms, locker rooms and sleeping quarters during athletic events.

“This legislation does not target individuals, it targets inequities,” said Rep. Chris Erwin (R-Homer), who chairs the House Education Committee. “It safeguards the decades of progress made in women’s athletics by reaffirming the state’s interest in promoting equal opportunity and preventing unfair advantages.”

Rep. Karen Lupton (D-Chamblee) characterized the bill as hateful and useless. “If this is a shield for girls in sports, you’d think that there’d be lots of coaches, lots of schools that run sports programs, lots of athletes coming up, storming the castle, and saying, ‘Oh my gosh, we need this now,’” Lupton said. “Instead, the people who spoke to the bill were athletes who are currently competing with and against transgender athletes. We had clergy speak against SB 1. We had parents of transgender children speak against SB 1. Not a single coach. Not a single athletic organization.”

The NCAA and Georgia High School Association already ban transgender girls from competing on girls’ teams.

Stanley Dunlap, Maya Homan, Jill Nolin and Ross Williams contributed to these articles, which originally appeared at georgiarecorder.com

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