It generated hot debate, but now it’s been put on ice.
House Bill 51, a piece of legislation introduced last year that would impose new mandates on how colleges and universities report and handle sexual assault accusations, is now in committee quagmire.
State Sen. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody, announced at a joint higher education committee hearing that the legislation, known as the "campus rape" bill, will not go forward while lawmakers wait for new federal guidelines on how schools should handle sexual misconduct complaints.
“I don’t anticipate us dealing with (the bill) for the balance of the session,” Millar said.
HB 51's sponsor, state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, says it would provide the accused with due process protections, but critics say the bill would protect those accused of rape at the expense of the victims.
May the odds be in your favor … beyond this week: What are Atlanta's chances of landing Amazon's second headquarters? What day is it?
This past week, the Bovada gambling website made Atlanta the 5-1 favorite to attract the $5 billion HQ2 and the 50,000 jobs expected to come with it. Following closely behind were Washington; Nashville, Tenn.; Boston; and Austin, Texas.
Only a few days earlier, Bovada had made Nashville the odds-on pick at 8-1, followed by Washington. Atlanta was in third at that time at 12-1.
Bovada offered no explanation for why its crystal ball suddenly changed stations. But it did note Atlanta’s big advantage: Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. It also said, however, that the city’s position as “one of the South’s dominant economic and political centers” could lead to an increase in the cost of living and cut into the availability of affordable housing.
Will it fly this time? A Republican legislator also focused recently on Hartsfield-Jackson and suggested it needs to fall under state oversight.
State Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, has talked about filing legislation that would create a state board that would run the airport, much in the way the Georgia World Congress Center operates. A key responsibility for such a board, Jones said, would be selecting the airport's vendors.
Taking control of the airport from the city of Atlanta is an idea that pops up on the Legislature’s radar every few years. But then that blip usually drifts off the scope before anything of consequence happens.
What’s different this time is a federal corruption investigation — led by one of Jones’ former Republican colleagues in the Legislature, U.S. Attorney B.J. Pak — that’s focused on Atlanta’s City Hall.
Jones' potential legislation came up at a recent meeting of the city's legislative delegation, where state Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, told lawmakers they must be "ever-vigilant, armed to the teeth" to block it.
Still, Orrock and others seem to think the odds remain long that anything will occur this time either.
“Twenty-five years they’ve had this dream of taking over the airport,” Orrock said. “And it fades more and more into the distance, but they keep getting it introduced.”
Nameless vs. anonymous vs. unknown: A survey released this past week by a conservative pollster reveals an identity crisis in the Republican race for lieutenant governor, as in most people cannot identify any of the three contenders.
The poll of GOP primary voters by Alabama-based Cygnal — which has no client in the contest — shows state Sen. David Shafer with 10 percent, followed by former state Rep. Geoff Duncan at 9 percent and former state Sen. Rick Jeffares at 6 percent. That means people who aren't running — it could be you, for example — are only 10 points behind the leader, if "leader" is the correct term under these conditions.
With less than four months to go until the May 22 primary, at least 60 percent of respondents said they had never heard of any of the candidates.
Something they have heard of is “religious liberty” legislation, with 62 percent of the Republican voters polled saying they would back passage of such a bill.
Religious liberty supporters say such legislation would add a layer of protection for people of faith. Critics, however, say that religious liberty bills could allow discrimination against groups such as lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.
The poll's strong numbers in favor of religious liberty could be alarming to Gov. Nathan Deal, House Speaker David Ralston and others who say that type of law might blow a hole in the state's chances of landing Amazon's HQ2. In other states where such bills passed — North Carolina's "bathroom bill" probably being the most high-profile of cases — boycotts were launched and industrial relocations were scuttled by businesses sensitive to the concerns raised by critics.
It's not all about religious liberty, though: When you're competing with 19 others for anything, it's hard to say what the deciding factor might be.
But when it comes to the contest for Amazon’s affections, opinions rise to the surface easily.
A coalition of left-leaning groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia and the Coalition of Refugee Service Agencies, says three pieces of legislation now before the General Assembly are no way for Georgia to pitch woo to the tech giant.
Immigration appears to be the theme behind the measures, which have been grouped under the easy-to-remember tag of the “Adios Amazon slate”:
- House Bill 66 would impose a new fee on money transmitted on out-of-state wire services that immigrants and refugees use to support families abroad.
- Senate Bill 161 would require new driver's licenses for noncitizens of the U.S.
- Senate Resolution 587 would require all government communication — including ballots — be conducted in English.
Opponents of the legislation say the measures would “remove Georgia’s welcome mat” for businesses and immigrants.
Possible, improbable: Republican U.S. Sen David Perdue told WGAU radio another federal shutdown could happen when the new deadline comes up Feb. 8, but he doesn't think the Democrats will pull the trigger.
“I think they learned their lesson,” Perdue said. “They overplayed their hand.”
Cards remain on the table, though, and the name of the game is still immigration.
Candidates, endorsements, etc.:
— A new name — and, in this case, a new party — has entered the race to become Georgia's next secretary of state: Libertarian J. Smythe DuVal, a U.S. Army veteran and registered nurse from Cobb County. DuVal will seek the party's nod at its convention Feb. 3. He wants to see an independent redistricting commission redraw the state's political lines, and he supports replacement of the state's voting machines with a system that leaves a paper trail.
At least three Democrats and four Republicans are already campaigning for the job.
— Actress Alyssa Milano continues to take an interest in Georgia politics. She recently tweeted out a link to the campaign site of Cindy Zeldin, a health advocate who is running as a Democrat for insurance commissioner. Last year, Milano got involved in Democrat Jon Ossof's failed bid for in the 6th Congressional District.
Capitol Recap
Here's a look at some of the news that broke this past week at Georgia's General Assembly, with some other political and government news on the side. Find more by subscribing to Politically Georgia.
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