Sen. Steve Gooch

Week seven under the Gold Dome brought us five legislative days in which we passed numerous bills and held several committee meetings. As we inch closer to Crossover Day, our days here in the Capitol have stretched longer, but are nonetheless crucial to passing comprehensive bills. As always, I am dedicated to supporting the legislation that benefits my constituents in this great state of Georgia.

One of the most important issues we tackled this session was restoring citizen’s trust in their election system and I’m proud of the work we have done in the Senate to accomplish this. This week we passed five election bills including Senate Bills 40, SB 67, SB 89, SB 184, and SB 188. SB 40 would require election workers to begin counting absentee ballots eight days before Election Day, ensuring our citizens are guaranteed speedy election results. In a continued effort to secure our election results, SB 67 would require the submission of identification with absentee ballot applications.

We also passed SB 89 which calls for a chief elections assistance officer to evaluate and intervene in low-performing county election offices. Senate Bills 184 and 188 increase transparency in our voting process. SB 184 would change the deadline from 60 days to 30 days to finalize voting records for each Georgia election. Additionally, Senate Bill 188 would require counties to withhold election results until county election officials make the number of total ballots received public information. All of these election bills help bring much needed reform to our election process and ensure that our election systems are secure and up-to-date. During our Ethics Committee meeting this week, we heard additional election bills with similar intent. I will continue to keep you updated on the status of these bills.

Throughout this session, we have seen the many ways we are committed to improving the lives of children through education. I firmly believe in supporting these measures for all students, including those who are homeschooled. This week, the Senate passed The “Dexter Mosley Act” which would allow homeschooled students in grades 6-12 to participate in extracurricular activities.

We know that sports, music and drama clubs all contribute to a well-rounded student and I am happy to support the ability for all students to participate in these programs. In another victory for education in Georgia, we passed Senate Bill 159, a measure that I sponsored, and would permit the use of vehicles other than school buses to transport students to and from school-related activities. This bill would greatly ease the burden placed on school boards to only use school buses to transport students.

On Friday, the Senate convened to pass a total of nine bills. Of note was Senate Bill 28, which would help improve the foster care system through multiple provisions. Some of these provisions include improving mandatory reporting of child abuse, adjusting training requirements for juvenile court intake officers and allowing the use of hearsay evidence in court cases regarding the foster care system. We also passed the “Max Gruver Act”, named in honor of a young gentleman who tragically lost his life due to a hazing incident. SB 85 would revise the definition of hazing and make the hazing of minors a felony in addition to punishing those who fail to respond to reported hazing incidents. The bills passed this week reflect our commitment to the children of Georgia’s safety and wellbeing.

This Friday, we learned of our schedule going forward which has reserved March 8th for Crossover Day and March 31st as Sine Dine. If you have any questions or concerns about any of the legislation we have introduced so far, please reach out to my office and we would be happy to assist you.

Sen. Steve Gooch serves as Majority Whip of the Senate Majority Caucus. He represents the 51st Senate District which includes Dawson, Fannin, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Union and White counties and portions of Forsyth and Pickens counties. He may be reached at 404.656.9221 or via email at [email protected]