Lawmakers vow compromise in final 10 days of Georgia Legislature

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Georgia’s General Assembly is now in the busiest part of the legislative session. To see where particular pieces of legislation stand, check out The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Legislative Navigator at http://legislativenavigator.myajc.com/.

With Crossover Day behind them, Georgia lawmakers brace themselves this week for the final 10 days of the 2015 legislative session, the time when the hardest work and the true negotiations begin.

Lawmakers on all sides now know the stakes and which bills are most important. Major proposals dealing with transportation funding, medical marijuana and the governor's plan for failing schools have swapped chambers and thus are subject to horse trading between the House and the Senate.

Both chambers seem to have made an effort not to repeat last year's chaotic final weeks, when several high-profile bills were ripped apart and patched together with new parts, a pattern that coined a new phrase: Frankenbills.

House Bill 170, a bipartisan plan supporters hope will raise $1 billion a year in new funding for transportation, could reach the Senate floor this week. A Senate panel has already made major changes to it, but House leaders pledge to find common ground, not gridlock.

"Once they get whatever they're going to pass out passed out, after that we can all come together and have a conversation," said the bill's sponsor, House Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Roberts, R-Ocilla. "They believe the need is there as well, it's just a matter of a difference of opinion on how we get to that point."

Lest anyone think differently, Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday made clear he’s paying close attention to the process.

“If we go through this big enterprise, which we’ve done now for months, then we ought to be able to come up with something that serves the needs of today and anticipates the needs of tomorrow,” Deal told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The governor said he’s not concerned, however, whether the Senate approves its own plan and both chambers end up in conference committee to negotiate a final deal.

“That’s the nature of the process,” Deal said.

The transportation debate is new this year. But several issues that were waylaid by 2014’s end-of-session meltdown are back on the docket. Among them: an autism insurance mandate wanted by the Senate and a House-favored medical marijuana proposal.

The difference now, according to one of the lawmakers behind last year’s cutting and pasting, is that leaders on both sides are not looking for a repeat.

"That is absolutely not our objective," said Senate Health and Human Services Chairwoman Renee Unterman, R-Buford.

Unterman will release Thursday what she hopes will be a compromise between the Senate and House Bill 1, Rep. Allen Peake's broader medical marijuana legislation. Unterman has pledged no shenanigans with the House version.

“Every session is a different set of issues,” she said. “Our goal is not to combine this bill with any other bills this year.”

Peake, a Macon Republican, also expressed optimism but said Senate Bill 185, sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-Marietta, and Unterman, will not cut it. SB 185 would only allow children with epilepsy to participate in clinical trials of cannabis oil. Peake's bill would legalize the possession of the oil by patients of any age who suffer from a wide range of disorders.

“SB 185 excludes thousands of our citizens who suffer from medical conditions beyond epilepsy and could benefit from cannabis oil,” Peake said.

Still, he said, he’s “hopeful that our chambers can reach an agreement on this issue and get a bill to the governor as soon as possible.”

But, with the session's final day set for April 2, the House Insurance Committee has yet to act on SB 1, the Senate's autism bill, even though it passed that chamber unanimously on Jan. 29.

Although she isn’t the sponsor this year, Unterman is passionate about the autism bill and it was Unterman who in 2014 attached autism to the medical marijuana bill. Once the House refused to budge on autism and Unterman insisted the two proposals’ fates were tied together, both ultimately died.