Gold Dome Digest – Through Legislative Day 33

With ‘Crossover day’ behind us, the pace of action has slowed considerably; both in terms of significant bills making progress and the number of legislative days per week. Committees are still meeting outside of legislative days, however the atmosphere is less frantic without floor sessions.

The few significant bills that did move:
HB316 – (Fleming, R-Harlem) is a large bill concerning voting and elections, and would provide for electronic ballot marking devices as opposed to paper ballots. Passed on Senate floor.

SB1 (Parent, D-Decatur) from the House Judiciary Committee, this bill would make it a “crime of serious injury by vehicle” for drivers who cause an accident that results in bodily harm, and then leaves the scene of the accident. This would be a felony punishable by imprisonment between one and ten years.

HB481 (Setzler, R-Acworth) was debated in the Senate Science and Technology Committe, it would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. The bill passed out of Senate Science and Technology Committee early on Monday and has yet to return to the House floor.

The final ajourment of session, Sine Die, which is Latin for “without day [to reconvene]” falls on April 2nd this year, leaving 7 legislative days over approximately the next 3 weeks – plenty of time for lawmakers to politik before the end.