The members of the Georgia House and Senate in Atlanta approved 99% of the legislation they saw on the floor in the 2023-2024 term.
Of nearly 1,400 votes in that term, the state House and Senate only said “no” 14 times.
Both Democrats and Republicans, by and large, reach for the green buttons on their desks to make a “yes” vote when bills are on the floor. Most bills pass with more than 90% of legislators’ agreement.
That’s in part because there’s no partisan angle to a lot of legislation. Call the topics boring obscure or minor, but most legislators agreed that, say, ungraded lumber should be OK to use on barns. Or that GBI medical examiners should get help paying off student loans, like some other in-demand physicians do.
And, about one in five bills are so minor that they apply only to a single city or county. “Local” legislation might define how to set the pay for Glynn’s state court solicitor, for example. The legislative delegation for each city or county tends to decide on these bills among themselves and their colleagues from other areas defer to the locals’ decision.
Bills do die in Atlanta, certainly. But most die long before they get to the floor, picked apart or bypassed by the committees who are assigned more bills than members have time to hear.
Legislators introduced about 2,100 bills in the 2023-2024 term. Only about one-third of those made it to the governor’s desk.
A partisan divide exists, but only on certain topics like health care and immigration. Last year’s successful bill to require local law enforcement to help identify undocumented immigrants passed the House and Senate — but only by the handful of votes that make up the shrinking Republican majorities in the chambers.
Much of what makes it to the House or Senate floor are relatively small changes to public systems that by and large, legislators broadly endorse.
