Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Good morning! We start today with a scheduled debate in the Georgia House of Representatives over whether to join the state Senate in approving a plan to erect a statue or some other monument to U.S. Supreme Court Justice — and Pin Point native — Clarence Thomas. We then look at the always messy final days of the current legislative session in Atlanta and recent statements by the 1st District’s representative in Congress on a proposed federal rule to protect the North Atlantic right whale. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com.
Honoring Pin Point’s own
Lawmakers in the Georgia House of Representatives are set to take up a proposal today to honor U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the state Capitol.
Rep. Jesse Petrea (R-Savannah) will shepherd the attempt to win approval of a statue or other monument to the conservative icon inside the Capitol or on its grounds. The measure, led by Sen. Ben Watson (R-Savannah), passed the state Senate in 2022 and again last year but has never received a vote in House.
Thomas was born in Pin Point, 11 miles south of downtown Savannah, and remained in Chatham County through high school. Last week, Watson defended the proposal to commemorate the second Black American to take a seat on the nation’s highest court.
“I’m from Savannah. Clarence Thomas is from Savannah. His mother I know really well, family well. Good family. Well-respected in our community. I think this is well-deserved,” he told the House Special Rules Committee, chaired by Rep. Steven Sainz (R-St. Marys).
The tone of today’s debate about memorializing Justice Thomas is unlikely to be so down-home, The Current’s Craig Nelson reports.
‘Not an option’
Thursday marks the end of the second session of the 157th Georgia General Assembly.
With it will come the usual last-minute efforts by lawmakers to jam through legislation, an undertaking that currently favors Republicans, who hold a nine-seat majority in the 56-member Senate and a 23-seat majority in the 180-member House.
The legislative process is often likened to sausage-making, a task that no sensible person is keen to observe up close lest they be appalled by what goes into the vat. When it comes to transparency and accountability in the waning days of a legislative session in Atlanta, that comparison may be unfair — to the sausage factory.
Just ask Omari Crawford.
The first-term Democratic representative from Decatur went before a Senate committee last week to make the case for that chamber to approve his first piece of legislation, a bill calling for mental health and suicide-prevention information to be made available to high school athletes across the state.
But just as freshman Rep. Leesa Hagan (R-Lyons) and her bill to make the Southeast Georgia Soap Box Derby the state’s official sports box derby became, in the waning days of last year’s session, the vehicle for a last-ditch attempt to keep the possibility of sports betting alive in Georgia, so did Crawford’s bill become legislative cannon fodder.
In a matter of 58 minutes, Crawford’s measure became a bill banning transgender students from bathrooms, requiring schools to notify parents every time their child checks out a book from the school library, stopping transgender kids from participating in girls’ sports and banning sex education before sixth grade.
When the process of co-opting Crawford’s bill was complete, committee chairman Sen. Clint Dixon (R-Gwinnett) acknowledged to the crestfallen freshman representative that he hadn’t been forewarned about what was going to happen to his bill and asked him if he wanted his original language in it.
Still reeling, Crawford agreed but added: “I would like everything else to be stripped out, but I don’t think that’s an option.”
Of course, the line between savvy legislating and intentionally circumventing the scrutiny and deliberation required to produce good law is blurry. Whatever the case, as the current session of the legislature enters its final hours, stay tuned for more of the same.
Whales and jobs
In a hearing of the Budget Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives last week, 1st District Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter of St. Simons repeated false or misleading claims about a proposed federal rule to help protect the threatened North Atlantic right whale population, which he opposes.
In urging Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to examine of economic costs of the proposed rule, which would limit the speeds of vessels between 35 and 65 feet to 10 miles per hour, Carter said the regulation would “crush recreational fishing and have a negative impact on our ports.”
Carter went on: “It’s going to impact in my district alone — 27,000 direct jobs. Nationwide, that number is up to 340,000. It will have an economic impact of $84 billion.”
The Current’s environment reporter, Mary Landers, examined the 27,000 figure last summer. It’s about 8 times more than the total number of full and part-time jobs supported by Georgia’s saltwater recreational fishing industry, according to a 2023 report prepared for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
This year, two right whale calves have been struck and killed off Georgia’s Coast.
4 things for your radar
Digging deeper: Gov. Brian Kemp traveled to Savannah yesterday to host the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Sam Graves (R-Missouri). Joining him were Georgia Representatives Buddy Carter (R-St. Simons) and Mike Collins (R-Jackson). Their discussion, one assumes, was over federal funds to deepen the shipping channel.
Parking spots: On the agenda of Thursday’s meeting of the Savannah City Council is a discussion — a vote? — over a plan that would see the city join with local developers in building a 450-space underground parking lot on the southwest edge of Forsyth Park, writes Eric Curl of Savannah Agenda. The proposed lot would be lodged under a multistory private office complex.
Retreating: Savannah Mayor Van Johnson and eight other members of the city council convene today on the third floor of the Civic Center for the second of two “visioning sessions.” The sessions, the first of which was all day Monday, are “designed to establish priorities for the Mayor and Aldermen, with professional facilitation by Ruth Demeter Consulting,” according to a public notice.
Correction: In last week’s Soundings, we listed Rick Townsend (R-Brunswick) as voting against SB 233, the school voucher bill. That was incorrect. Rep. Townsend voted in favor of the bill. We apologize for the error.
We want to meet your friends! If you like this newsletter be sure to share it.
Lawmakers take up proposal to honor Clarence Thomas in state Capitol
Georgia lawmakers consider a proposal to honor U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the state Capitol.
Georgia lawmakers could still tinker with elections
Election bills that could be passed ahead of the Legislature’s adjournment Thursday would add watermark security requirements to paper ballots, require the secretary of state develop an online system for the public to inspect ballots after elections and also require that text portions of ballots be used to tabulate votes instead of QR codes.
Medicaid expansion chances dim again this year as key health care proposal passes without it
Close vote signals end of health care initiative for this year in order, lawmakers said, to give Kemp’s limited plan time to work.
Georgia State University pulls the plug on prison education
Officials cited the administrative challenges of securing federal financial aid, as well as a $24 million budget shortfall, as factors leading to the university’s decision to halt classes at three correctional facilities.
Georgia Senate passes bill to punish local governments with loose immigration policies
The legislation gives any state resident the right to sue local governments for not enforcing the state’s ban on so-called sanctuary laws that’s been in place since 2009.
We want to meet your friends! If you like this newsletter be sure to share it.
Support independent, solutions-based investigative journalism without bias, fear or favor on issues affecting Savannah and Coastal Georgia.
You must be logged in to post a comment.