by Ty Tagami | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Republicans in charge of Georgia’s state Senate say they plan to focus on a host of consistent conservative issues this year, from tax cuts to transgender athletes.
During this legislative session, their attention will also be absorbed by something that paid no heed to partisan lines: the massive hurricane that wreaked havoc on the state last fall.
“The families that have been devastated by Hurricane Helene have suffered generational losses and they need help,” Senate President Pro Tem John Kennedy, said Monday. “We’re going to do all that we can, and we’re going to be creative.”
Kennedy praised the recovery funding that Gov. Brian Kemp placed in the budgets for the rest of this year and next. “But the truth is, there’s simply communities that are not going to recover if we don’t provide help,” the Macon Republican said.
Senate Republicans also expressed support for Kemp’s initiative to reduce payouts in lawsuits, known as tort reform.
Other priorities include Senate Bill 1, which would prohibit students from competing on teams or using locker rooms that do not match the sex on their birth certificates. It has already passed a legislative committee.
Steve Gooch, the Senate majority leader, placed that topic under a category of legislation he summed up as security-related.
Also under that umbrella: tax cuts (economic security), rejecting “woke” views (emotional security), and intercepting criminals and drugs that cross the U.S. border (physical security).
Gooch, R-Dahlonega, placed fentanyl in that last category.
He cited a new bill that would enhance penalties for trafficking the deadly drug.
It was introduced by Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell.
Goodman said a person caught trafficking 4 grams of fentanyl currently faces the same criminal penalty as someone trafficking cocaine.
The two shouldn’t be treated equally, he said. “I don’t think 4 grams of cocaine will kill 2,000 people, but 4 grams of fentanyl will.”
