General Assembly 2025 preview: trans sports, budget, prisons
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Civil lawsuit reform, trans youth in sports and how to spend a $16.5 billion rainy day fund will top lawmakers' agendas this legislative session starting Monday at the Capitol.
Why it matters: The Republican-controlled Georgia General Assembly has 40 days to decide major issues affecting the health, finances, freedoms and happiness of Georgia's 11 million residents.
Here are some of the state senators and representatives' top 2025 issues:
Reproductive health: Georgia lawmakers could consider codifying into law the right to in vitro fertilization, House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington) told reporters this past week.
- The House passed a resolution supporting the procedure in 2024, but reproductive rights advocates have called for stronger protections after an Alabama Supreme Court decision raised concerns IVF could be outlawed.
Prisons: Georgia's prison system has systemic issues including violence and unsafe conditions, according to an AJC investigative series.
- State senators have spent the past year studying policies, including better pay for guards, and Gov. Brian Kemp has proposed $600 million for repairs and improvements.
Sports participation: House and Senate leaders want to revisit measures to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in sports that don't match the gender listed on their birth certificate.
Civil lawsuits: Gov. Brian Kemp and Republican lawmakers are giving efforts to curtail civil lawsuits another go, claiming the lawsuits are contributing to higher insurance rates, the AP reports.
Money, money, money: Georgia is sitting on $16.5 billion — that's with a big ole b — in rainy day and reserve funding, some of which could fund a state aid program for Hurricane Helene victims.
- "It's going to be disaster relief, disaster relief, disaster relief," state Sen. Blake Tillery (R-Vidalia), who chairs the Senate's Appropriations Committee, told the AJC.
- A relief package is also a priority for Gov. Brian Kemp.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R-Jackson) is pushing tax credits for Georgians to help parents pay kids' day care costs, and House Democrats are calling for increased spending on free breakfast and lunches for K-12 students, the AJC reports.
- Caveat: Gov. Brian Kemp and other state lawmakers have already called for $1 billion in income tax refunds.
School safety: Lawmakers are bound to explore new measures after the Sept. 2024 fatal shootings at Apalachee High School shooting in Barrow County.
- In recent years, GOP state lawmakers have supported increasing school resource officers and so-called "hardening" — more locks and metal detectors.