The U.S. House vote Wednesday on legislation that could lead to a TikTok ban provided a glaring example of the “strange bedfellows” adage about politics.
The bill passed overwhelmingly and in bipartisan fashion with 352 in favor and 65 opposed. But take a look at the only members of Georgia’s delegation who voted against the bill: Rep. Nikema Williams, a liberal Democrat from Atlanta, and essentially her political opposite, far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome.
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
In speaking against the measure, Greene cited her frustrations over being banned on social media. She said she and many other Americans don’t trust that the U.S. government has good intentions in its proposed ban of TikTok if its China-based parent company, Byte Dance, doesn’t sell off its stake.
Williams said in a statement that targeting just TikTok was unfair to the millions of people who use it daily. Another problem — protecting users’ personal data — is much more universal, she said.
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
The delegation’s other progressive, Rep. Hank Johnson, voted in favor of the bill. The Lithonia Democrat is generally considered a champion of creators and artistic expression and said he was prepared to vote against the bill until he attended a classified briefing on TikTok.
“After being briefed, I understood why the bill was voted out of committee unanimously,” Johnson said in a statement. “I voted with the overwhelming majority of my colleagues to protect Americans from an imminent national security threat.”
TikTokers shouldn’t panic yet. Members of the Senate have raised concerns about singling out one company and there is no certainty the measure will move forward in that chamber.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., issued a noncommittal statement, promising only that he would review the House bill.
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
NEW LIFE FOR AMC? A sweeping plan to roll back hospital regulations on the state Senate floor today could also pave the way for Morehouse School of Medicine to open a new teaching hospital.
Republican state Sen. Bill Cowsert of Athens said it would “help fill the void” created by the collapse of Atlanta Medical Center, the intown hospital serving mostly low-income patients shuttered by Wellstar Health System in 2022.
It’s unclear where the hospital would be located, but Lt. Gov. Burt Jones said at a news conference Wednesday the measure would give Morehouse the “ability to take over the Atlanta Medical Center.”
“When that center closed, we lost one of only two trauma centers that we have here in the city,” he said. “Atlanta is too big of a city to have just one.”
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC
State Sen. Sonya Halpern, the Atlanta Democrat who leads a Senate study committee on innovation at historically Black colleges and universities, said, “I’m not sure that it’s exactly ‘taking over AMC,’ but what the bill does allow is for a teaching hospital to be exempted from (certificate of need requirements) in an area within a number of miles from where a hospital has closed. So it opens the door for Morehouse School of Medicine to fill that void.”
Halpern said the legislation would allow Morehouse to partner with a hospital operator in the same way other academic institutions in the state partner to run teaching hospitals.
The language would be a significant addition to the House-passed certificate of need bill. That and any other differences would need to be hammered out in a conference committee, with just five days left in the legislative session.
City officials have tossed around various ideas for AMC’s 25-acre campus, at one point even considering transforming the empty building into an equity center or using part of the facility for a homeless shelter.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who condemned Wellstar for closing AMC, placed a moratorium to prevent Wellstar or a buyer from redeveloping the property until there’s a replacement for health services.
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Credit: Casey Sykes for the AJC
Credit: Casey Sykes for the AJC
UNDER THE GOLD DOME, Legislative Day 35:
- 8 a.m.: Committee meetings begin.
- 8:30 a.m.: Watch for your breaking news alerts as the AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu announces the results of this year’s “best dressed lawmaker” contest.
- 10 a.m.: The House convenes.
- 10 a.m.: The Senate gavels in.
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
PROSECUTOR OVERSIGHT SIGNED. For the second time in two years, Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill Wednesday to greenlight a state-appointed commission to discipline or remove locally elected district attorneys.
Maya T. Prabhu reports the Prosecuting Attorneys Oversight Commission had been delayed after the state Supreme Court ruled that it did not have the authority to approve the rules governing the panel.
By signing Senate Bill 332, Kemp eliminates the court’s role and allows the commission to begin its work. Athens District Attorney Deborah Gonzales, a Democrat, is among the DAs considered the targets of the bill, even before the slaying of nursing student Laken Riley in Athens. Likewise, Republican state senators have already filed a complaint with the commission over Fulton County DA Fani Willis, another Democrat.
“When out-of-touch prosecutors put politics over public safety the community suffers and people and property are put at risk,” Kemp said before he signed the bill.
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Credit: Bob Andres/AJC
Credit: Bob Andres/AJC
REMEMBERING RALSTON. Today would have been the late House Speaker David Ralston’s 70th birthday. To mark the occasion, Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, will unveil a portrait of Ralston to be placed directly outside the House chamber.
Members will now walk onto the floor with a portrait of Ralston on one side and the legendary late House Speaker Tom Murphy on the other.
An emotional Burns told members Wednesday that family and friends of Ralston’s have been invited to the House for the occasion. “It will be a special day,” he said.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
MOMS SPEAK OUT. Two politically active Georgia mothers crafted an opinion column published Tuesday that chastises the chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee for a “backroom deal” that could ban puberty blockers and deny minors’ hormone replacement therapy in Georgia.
State Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, on Monday amended a House bill that would expand accessibility of medications that reverse opioid overdoses to include the anti-transgender language. Elizabeth C. Wagner and Deirdre D. Fruh classified Watson’s maneuver as “cloak and dagger tactics.”
More from the piece:
By throwing his support behind the HB 1170 substitute, Watson — a doctor himself — threw his fellow clinicians under the bus. This is puzzling because what doctor would ever agree to move, let alone author, a bill that lets unqualified legislators tell qualified physicians how to practice (or not practice) medicine?
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Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC
LISTEN UP. State Rep. James Beverly, the House Democratic leader from Macon who recently announced his retirement, joins the Thursday edition of the “Politically Georgia” radio show.
Later, Josh McKoon, chair of the Georgia Republican Party, weighs in on the presidential contest and other races on the ballot this year.
Listen live at 10 a.m. on 90.1 FM, at AJC.com and at WABE.org.
In case you missed it, Columbus TV reporter Chuck Williams of WRBL and political science professor Audrey Haynes provided primary night analysis on Wednesday’s show. And AJC business reporter Zachary Hansen said the site of the now-on-hold Rivian plant could one day be put up for sale and taken over by another company, but not anytime soon.
Find that episode and other previous editions of “Politically Georgia” on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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LAKEN RILEY ACT. Two Republican U.S. senators have introduced the Laken Riley Act in their chamber, but it is unclear if the Senate’s Democratic leaders have any interest in bringing it to a vote.
The bill is named after the nursing student killed in Athens last month and would require federal immigration agents to lock up people who are in the country illegally and have been accused of theft or shoplifting. It would also allow states to sue the federal government for refusing to enforce immigration policies. Authorities have charged a Venezuelan man who entered the U.S. illegally with Riley’s slaying.
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
Republicans have championed the legislation as an effort to control crimes committed by people in the country illegally and a tribute to Riley, whose family members are said to have given the effort their blessing.
“Make no mistake — Laken Riley’s heartbreaking murder was a direct, preventable consequence of willful open border policies by President (Joe) Biden and his administration,” Alabama Sen. Katie Britt said in a statement about joining with Sen. Ted Budd of North Carolina to introduce the bill.
The bill passed the House last week with a bipartisan vote. But the vast majority of Democrats were opposed.
They accused Republicans of playing politics with Riley’s murder. Weeks prior to her death, House conservatives refused to allow a vote on a bipartisan border security package negotiated and approved in the Senate.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr led a group of 26 GOP attorneys general in writing a letter encouraging the Senate to bring the Laken Riley Act to a vote.
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
RETELLING JAN. 6. U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s re-investigation of Jan. 6 hasn’t uncovered many new details. But his efforts have earned him praise from former President Donald Trump, Jamie Dupree tells us in his latest column for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Loudermilk, R-Cassville, this week produced an 81-page report, the latest product of his special committee reinvestigating the riot at the Capitol. Dupree writes that Loudermilk tried to undercut the findings of the bipartisan Jan. 6 Committee appointed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and as a result received praise from Trump for doing “fantastic work.”
Loudermilk said the report is part of his effort to reveal the truth about what happened that day “without political bias.” But according to Dupree, there has been no smoking gun to truly shift the narrative.
Dupree writes: “Loudermilk’s new report didn’t change anything fundamental about that day, and it reads more like a GOP airing of grievances about the Jan. 6 committee, with damning conclusions like, ‘They refused to adopt rules.’”
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Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
MEDICAID MATTERS. U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Atlanta, and Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, are demanding Gov. Brian Kemp provide “detailed information” about the hundreds of thousands of Georgians, including nearly 150,000 children, who have been disenrolled from Medicaid. State officials have been re-certifying Medicaid eligibility for Georgia residents since the expiration of a COVID-19 pandemic related expansion of the program.
Mismanagement, understaffing, and poor administrative execution are driving the failure to re-enroll Georgians in health coverage, the lawmakers say, citing AJC reporting. “It is unacceptable that children and other vulnerable Georgians have lost access to comprehensive health care through no fault of their own,” they wrote.
Gov. Brian Kemp pushed back on the letter, saying that Ossoff and McBath were spreading misinformation about Georgia’s Medicaid program.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden travels to Saginaw, Michigan, for a campaign event.
- Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., delivers a major address focused on Israel’s war with Hamas and a possible two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
- The Senate votes on the nomination of the ambassador to Haiti.
- The House is done for the week while Republicans gather for a retreat in West Virginia.
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Credit: Bita Honarvar for the AJC
Credit: Bita Honarvar for the AJC
PROTESTS FOLLOW DICKENS. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens traveled to Austin, Texas, this week to speak at the annual South by Southwest, or SXSW, conference and festival. Even far from home, Dickens encountered opponents to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, a facility now under construction in DeKalb County.
Protesters disrupted a Dickens’ panel appearance Monday, shouting at Dickens and unfurling a banner that accused him of being a “GOP stooge.” The interruption led to the temporary suspension of the discussion about how local elected officials relate to state leaders, such as governors and legislators, from other political parties.
As security removed the protestors from the venue, Dickens left as well.
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Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
DOG OF THE DAY. Calling all dogs! Send us your pets of any political persuasion to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us at @MurphyAJC.
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AS ALWAYS, Politically Georgia readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com.
