On the final day of the 2021 session the Georgia Senate will vote on banning new leadership committees from collecting contributions from lobbyists and special interests during legislative sessions.
Senate Majority Whip Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, got an amendment put on House Bill 333, a measure requested by the state ethics commission, to add a provision outlawing committees or funds connected to lawmakers from raising contributions during a session.
Senate Rules Chairman Jeff Mullis, a Chickamauga Republican, initially blocked the amendment last week but late Monday supported putting it on the bill, which will come up for a vote in the Senate Wednesday.
Whether the Georgia House will agree to the provision is unclear. Wednesday is the final day of the 2021 session.
A Senate committee last week had moved to blunt some of the criticism Republicans have been receiving for creating Mullis’ new fundraising committees for legislative leaders. Mullis’ leadership committee bill - Senate Bill 221 - has passed the House and Senate and allows leaders like Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and House Speaker David Ralston to create new fundraising committees that can take money from lobbyists and special interests during legislative sessions.
Democrats opposed Mullis’ leadership bill, saying it would increase the likelihood that Statehouse lobbyists would be asked to give money at the same time they were trying to persuade lawmakers to pass or quash legislation of interest to their clients.
State lawmakers for decades have been banned from directly taking campaign contributions from lobbyists and special interests during the session. Long ago, the General Assembly said it looked bad for a lawmaker to take a check at the same time he or she is considering legislation or funding that the donor may be trying to get approved or killed.
But caucus funds that raise money to support GOP candidates, such as the House Republican Trust and its Senate counterpart, are legally allowed to take money during sessions. The Senate fund, however, in recent years stopped raising money during the session after a change in the chamber’s rules prohibited it.
The House Republican caucus has continued to raise money during the session, and House Republicans have not sought the kind of prohibition Gooch proposed.
Statewide candidates are allowed to raise about $18,000 per election cycle if they make a runoff — $7,100 in legislative races — from individual donors.
Limits on how much donors could give to the committees would not apply, nor do they for caucus trusts. So contributors — typically lobbyists, industry associations or businesses interested in legislation or state funding — can give as much as they like.
A review of campaign contribution reports last week by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed over the past five years, the House and Senate GOP caucus funds — which are controlled by House and Senate leadership — reported receiving more than $300,000 during legislative sessions, including big money from businesses and associations who had lobbyists working on bills during those sessions. The Senate trust has since discontinued the practice, and most of the $300,000 has flowed to the House Republican group.
Unless Gooch’s amendment wins final passage, the new leadership committees would likewise be able to solicit and take unlimited contributions from lobbyists and special interests during the session.
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