The QTS data center complex under development in Fayetteville, Georgia, US, on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. QTS, the data-center developer that Blackstone bankrolls, complex is expected to consume as much electricity as about a million US households leaving utility Georgia Power rushing to build the infrastructure to meet demand. Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Georgia Public Service Commission is scheduled to begin hearing testimony later this month from Georgia Power officials about how the state’s largest utility plans to spend billions of dollars to meet its skyrocketing energy demand, primarily due to the projected growth of large data centers supporting artificial intelligence. 

State regulators have set aside multiple days for hearings on Georgia Power’s long-term 2025 Integrated Resource Plan. Company officials estimate that 80% of its projected increased energy demand over the next decade is tied to expected new data centers growth in the state. 

Georgia Power is projecting electrical load growth will increase by 8,200 megawatts by 2030, representing an increase of 2,200 megawatts compared to its forecast in the 2023 Integrated Resource Plan update. One megawatt can power about 600 homes.

The latest demonstration of the growing interest from prospective data center companies emerged last week with an application filed with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a massive data center in Troup County.

The Project West proposal is for a 513-acre data center campus comprising six industrial buildings totaling 1.5 million square feet. The centers house computer servers and typically require a large supply of electricity to run.

“Georgia’s economy is continuing to grow, which increases the need for electricity in businesses and factories,” a panel of Georgia Power executives said in March 10 testimony filed with the PSC. “The state’s population is also growing, leading to more electricity use in homes. The rise in large commercial and industrial customers, such as data centers and manufacturing plants, is contributing to the new demand. Also, the adoption of electric vehicles, both for personal and business use, is steadily driving up electricity consumption.”

Georgia Power regularly updates every three years its Integrated Resource Plan, which is the company’s 20-year comprehensive plan for meeting the needs of current and future customers. The hearings on the latest plan will being March 25. 

Georgia lawmakers, clean energy and consumer advocacy groups are concerned about state regulators signing off on Georgia Power’s repeated utility bill increases as the investor-owned utility has passed along to ratepayers new electricity base rates, overrun costs associated with building two new Vogtle nuclear power plant units, coal ash cleanup and other expenses.

All told, the average Georgia Power household is paying about $43 more per month on utility bills since the start of 2020. Georgia Power is the largest supplier of electricity in the state, with about 2.7 million customers.

A pair of major cases will be settled by the five elected members of the state regulatory commission this year, which will affect Georgia Power ratepayers’ pocketbooks as well as determine the mix of fossil fuels and renewable energy sources the company will use to generate electricity for the next few years.

During PSC proceedings, environmental organizations, consumer protection nonprofits, manufacturers, and other groups offer expert testimony and perform cross examinations of witnesses.

Earlier this month, Georgia legislation intended to protect residential consumers from rising utility costs associated with data centers failed to advance out of the House and Senate chambers ahead of the critical March 6 Crossover Day deadline. 

State senator pushes bill to protect Georgia Power customers from rate hikes fueled by data centers

The full Senate did not hold a chamber floor vote on two bills sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, a Rome Republican who says rising utility and property tax bills are the two most common complaints he hears from Georgians. 

Hufstetler said Saturday that a data center amendment likely doomed the passage of his Senate Bill 94, which would re-establish a utility consumer advocacy office that provides legal and financial resources for residential consumers and small businesses in electric rate cases and other utility matters. 

Hufstetler said he was unable to get a full Senate vote on his consumer utility counsel bill despite having 45 out of 56 senators’ support for his amendment to prevent utility companies from passing data center costs along to residential and small business customers, who have been handed six rate increases since the beginning of 2022. 

He said he plans to continue to advocate in future sessions for his bill to re-establish the consumer utility counsel that was abolished in statewide budget cuts mandated by Gov. Sonny Perdue during the 2008 recession. 

In the absence of the counsel, consumers depend on the PSC staff to represent ratepayer interests.

Hufstetler criticized Georgia Power for overbuilding in a way that allows the company’s shareholders to maximize profits and called for the commission to hold the company accountable for rising costs. 

“I did say I’ll pull the amendment if that’ll get the utility counsel but then it ran out of time so it didn’t happen,” Hufstetler said. “I’m certainly disappointed that with the majority of the senators wanting this bill that wasn’t allowed to be on the Senate floor and get passed. 

“On the other hand, we had numerous statements from both the PSC and Georgia Power that they would not pass on any of these costs to the residential and small business customers,” Hufstetler said. “At the same time, they didn’t like my bill, which said exactly that, but I think we can certainly hold them accountable for their numerous statements that they would not pass down this cost.” 

Representatives with Georgia Power and the Data Center Coalition said they opposed Senate Bill 34 because it would give the state Legislature control over a ratemaking process that is typically handled by the elected five-member PSC. 

They argued that new rules that apply to data center adopted by the PSC are sufficient to prevent residential and commercial customers from getting stuck with costs incurred to serve data centers.  

The new rules include a provision allowing Georgia Power to require data center companies to put up front-end collateral for energy costs over the lifetime of the contract. If the company abandons the project prior to the contract expiring, then Georgia Power would keep the remaining money owed.

Another utility-related bill that failed to advance by the Legislature’s Crossover Day deadline was Woodstock Republican Rep. Jordan Ridley’s House Bill 446, which would have granted discovery rights to all parties at PSC hearings, giving stakeholders new authority to request information during electric rate cases and other utility proceedings. 

Allison Kvien, Vote Solar’s Southeast regulatory director, criticized Georgia lawmakers who failed to increase transparency at a time when many people are struggling to pay higher energy bills.

“HB 446 would have allowed all stakeholders to better advocate for policies that encourage economic development and access to affordable, clean energy in commission proceedings” Kvien said. “Georgia Power shouldn’t be the only one with a seat at the table – Georgia households and businesses deserve to give informed input into decisions about their energy future.” 

Jessica Blinkhorn “Walking the DOGE” at the Georgia Capitol. Photo by David Clifton-Strawn

If a dominatrix went hunting in a Georgia forest, would she wear pink? And who would carry the bill in the Senate?

Belly up to the buffet table, folks. It’s time for another course of Gold Dome Nuggets, post-Crossover Day edition.

Walking the DOGE

If you follow Georgia politics on social media, you may have seen video of an unusual protest at the Capitol Thursday afternoon: a woman dressed in black stockings, high-heel combat boots and a studded silver face mask, in a wheelchair, “walking” leashed actors wearing Donald Trump and Elon Musk masks.

The Recorder caught up with the woman behind the act of protest, Georgia State University art instructor Jessica Blinkhorn on Friday afternoon, when she said video of the performance, titled “Walking the DOGE,” had already topped a million views and been shared tens of thousands of times across various platforms.

Blinkhorn said much of the reaction was supportive and some was less than kind, but she said she’s not bothered by negative comments.

“When you grow up a chubby, gappy-toothed disabled girl in a lower middle class family, people come after you a lot,” she said. “Some to your face and some behind your back. I have more respect for the people that do it to my face, but I have a thick skin because of that, and on top of that, I’m an artist, so I’m born to take constructive criticism, and I learned to acknowledge and absorb and accept the truths that I get from people versus discard the toxic imposed narratives that people throw at my work.”

Blinkhorn has spinal muscular atrophy type 2, a genetic condition which gradually depletes the body of voluntary and involuntary muscles. Her late brother and sister had the same condition. It has changed the way she makes art – Blinkhorn said she is trained in drawing and painting, but took up performance art as a way to continue creating.

She also uses her art to advocate for people with disabilities. She said “Walking the DOGE” grew out of an earlier piece, “Taking a B-tch for a walk,” which featured Trump but not Musk. That performance got her kicked out of the prestigious Art Basel in Miami and the cops called on her last year.

“I think the real reason that people kicked me off property at Basel is people were coming out of Basel to photograph me. I was also topless because – when in Rome – it was South Beach,” she said with a laugh.

The idea came from apprehension of what Trump’s second term could mean for people with disabilities, LGBTQ people and other vulnerable groups.

“The piece ‘Taking a B-tch for a Walk’ was very much reactionary political activism that was based off of fear and passion for putting him in his place and making him feel just as vulnerable in a submissive position as I am in my life every day and usurping that role as the dominant force,” she said.

Blinkhorn said she staged Thursday’s performance for the 35th anniversary of the Capitol Crawl, a pivotal disabilities rights event in which people with disabilities crawled the steps of the U.S. Capitol to highlight the barriers faced by people who use wheelchairs and other mobility devices. That protest and other acts of advocacy are credited with helping spur the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act a few months later.

Blinkhorn said she hopes to one day take the show on the road – she’d love to perform outside the U.S. Capitol – and to continue to grow her pack of leashed political figures.

“Me and a co-conspirator tossed around the idea of Marjorie Taylor Greene being leashed to the back of my chair – not made to walk on her hands and knees, because no woman should ever bow to a man – but definitely leashed,” she said.

To people upset that they missed Thursday’s performance, Blinkhorn said she has no intention of stopping as long as she can keep going.

“I’ve watched both my siblings die from that disability. I’ve watched multiple friends die from that disability,” she said. “Since I was young – eight years old, I lost my first friend – I’ve always been told, ‘You’re going to get weaker, you’re going to die, you have a looming death date,’ so every f—–g moment counts. I know, more than a lot of people, that every f—–g moment counts. If you die in battle, at least you f—–g die fighting for something. You made it f—–g count.”

Pink Hunting Gear, Part II

Wabbit season, duck season — silly season? That’s what came to the Georgia Senate Thursday during a debate on a bill allowing pink hunting gear for Georgia hunters.

The bill, sponsored by Lyons Republican Rep. Leesa Hagan, would allow hunters the option to wear fluorescent pink in addition to high visibility orange. Supporters say it will encourage more women to get into hunting and increase hunting license sales.

The bill was the brainchild of a Georgia student named Carly who enjoys hunting and the color pink and wrote to her legislator asking for the bill as part of a school project last year.

Democrats used the opportunity raised by the floor debate to talk about issues they’d rather focus on after Atlanta Democratic Sen. Elena Parent gave a speech in support of the bill.

“So while we’re talking about choices for hunters, I’m curious, in your opinion, would you agree that it would be important to make sure that women have choices when it comes to their reproductive rights?” asked Stone Mountain Democratic Sen. Kim Jackson.

“I do agree with that, and you know, again, it is Women’s History Month,” Parent said. “I am so glad to see this body moving forward, not just on safety, but in the recognition that there are many women who are hunters, right? And you know, we need to make progress on some of these other issues that also matter to women.”

Sandy Springs Democratic Sen. Josh McLaurin used the opportunity to talk about DEI bans.

“I certainly appreciate your passionate presentation, but are you aware that you said the word inclusion a lot during your speech?” he asked. “Are you aware that word has been banned?”

McLaurin joked that Parent might be at risk of losing federal funding.

“I am glad I’m a citizen and not a green card holder,” Parent said. “Because we are worried. I’m not worried about my free speech rights right now. Yes, I might be able to be attacked on my wallet, but I still can stand here in this well, and I am honored and privileged to be a senator and be able to speak on behalf of my constituents, and I do think that that’s what our citizens should be able to do under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

Parent was referencing Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in connection with student protests at Columbia University in opposition to Israeli actions in Gaza.

After that exchange, Savannah Democratic Sen. Derek Mallow made a non-serious amendment that would have also allowed lime green as a color that hunters could wear. Mallow said it was in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. Savannah is home to one of the country’s largest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

That was a bridge too far for Cataula Republican Sen. Randy Robertson, who demanded an immediate end to the japery.

“This is about gun safety,” he said. “This is about a young lady who wanted to be a part of the political process, and this is about a young lady who looked up to another lady who served in the House of Representatives for the state of Georgia, and this is important to that young lady, and if it makes sense to us, then let’s stop with the silly amendments, let’s stop with the silly comments and give that young lady who loves to hunt her opportunity to see legislation work in a positive way so that she can have stuff to brag about about something that she’s done and hopefully make her a stronger woman.”

The bill passed unanimously after Dallas Republican Sen. Jason Anavitarte moved to finish debate.

“I move to call the question to end this mockery to female outdoorsmen,” he said.

It’s not uncommon for senators from both parties to joke around during floor debates. In fact, Majority Leader Steve Gooch made a lighthearted reference to the menstrual cycle earlier in the debate on the same bill.

“Senator, can you tell me what the letters PMS mean to you?” he asked a pink shirt-clad Sen. Drew Echols, the Gainesville Republican carrying the bill in the Senate.

“I can,” Echols answered. “Premenstrual Syndrome.”

“No sir. PMS is called Pantone Matching System,” Gooch said. “It is a color wheel that’s used to match colors for printing materials. So senator, I’m not sure where your mind is this morning, but it’s clearly not on your bill today.”

Whose Bill is it Anyway?

A bill now making its way through the Senate proposes to no longer have magistrate court judges elected as partisan candidates in elections.

This week the Georgia Senate Ethics Committee approved House Bill 426, which would exempt probate court judges from competing in partisan elections. It’s a legislative priority of the state’s councils for magistrate judges and the judiciary, whose supporters argue it would further boost public confidence by adding a layer of impartiality in the judicial system.

After the March 6 Crossover Day deadline, legislators in both chambers begin the process of taking up measures passed by the opposite chamber leading up to the session’s April 4 finale.

A bill’s original sponsor will select a legislator from the other chamber to “carry” the bill across the finish line. And sometimes, the hand-off is less than smooth.

On Wednesday, Ethics Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Rick Williams was surprised to be in charge of presenting the bill to the Senate.

“I think (Majority Leader Steve) Gooch is going to be carrying it in the Senate, is that correct?” Williams said to Villa Rica Republican Rep. Kimberly New, who is sponsoring the bill.

“You are,” she responded as laughter erupted in the meeting room.

Williams, a Milledgeville Republican, said he must’ve misread a text message.

“Let me say this, one of us will carry it,” he said.

Cherokee rose on carpet and seats in Senate gallery. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Native plant enthusiasts have been working to bring more attention to Georgia’s indigenous flora for years.

In recent legislative sessions, advocates have pushed to change the state flower listed in Georgia code from the invasive Cherokee rose to the native sweetbay magnolia.  

The Cherokee rose, native to southern China, was brought to the United States shores during the colonial era for decorative purposes. The native sweetbay magnolia proves its usefulness by supporting the state butterfly, the Tiger Swallowtail.

Advocates who are trying to raise awareness of the importance of native plants in Georgia’s environment say making the sweetbay magnolia the state flower – officially, the state floral emblem – would help their cause. 

“If you look at the sheer number of beautiful and beneficial native flowers that we have, to even contemplate at all that we need to go get a state flower from China, is kind of mind-boggling,” said Michael Cowan, vice chair of the Georgia Native Plant Society.

Last year, Milledgeville Republican Sen. Rick Williams sponsored Senate Bill 518, a bill aimed at changing Georgia’s state flower to the sweetbay magnolia, to no avail.  This year, Sandy Springs Republican Rep. Deborah Silcox proposed House Bill 145, reviving the effort to make the switch. 

The current state flower is still beloved by some powerful legislators. Sen. Matt Brass, chairman of the influential Senate Rules Committee, is against changing a state symbol that he argues is already ingrained into Georgia’s history, as well as incorporated into the state Capitol’s public spaces. 

“You’re changing way more than just a name,” Brass said. “If you’re going to change something that’s been around for so long, there needs to be some good reason, and I haven’t heard any great reasons.”

Brass said he also has a personal connection to the Cherokee rose.

“I had a family member that at one time had the state song, named after the Cherokee Rose,” he said.

The invasive flower was chosen in 1916 by the General Assembly to represent the forced removal of the Cherokee people from Georgia through the Trail of Tears in the 1800s. 

Today, the inside of the Georgia Capitol building is decorated with symbols of the Cherokee rose. The carpet of the Senate floor, the wooden door frames of some rooms and the frames for several portraits of previous state leaders lining the halls of the building feature engravings and patterns of the Cherokee rose. 

“What it symbolized 100 years ago doesn’t mean it has to symbolize the same thing today,” Brass said. 

Tony Harris, vice president of the Georgia Cherokee Community Alliance, said the invasive rose wasn’t significant to the Cherokee nation.

“It has no relationship or history in our culture,” Harris said. “Before the Trail of Tears, they had farms. They had fruits, vegetables, orchards and animals. But what they didn’t have was the Cherokee rose.” 

Silcox said she proposed House Bill 444 after receiving pushback from lawmakers who were reluctant to change the state flower. This compromise bill sought to designate April as Georgia Native Plant Month. Williams sponsored Senate Bill 240, a bill with an identical goal. 

Williams’ version passed unanimously through the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Environment in late February, but it ultimately did not make it through by the March 6 Crossover Day deadline, when a bill must clear at least one chamber to have a smooth path to the governor’s desk. Neither did Silcox’s bill. 

With ample support from Georgians to bring awareness to the ecological importance of native plants, it’s likely the legislation will be revisited. Designating April as Georgia Native Plant Month would allow the native flora of Georgia to be recognized, without removing the Cherokee rose as the state flower, supporters of the compromise say. 

“In having this compromise, we’ll be recognizing all native plants of Georgia, not just one,” Williams said.

 Although the effort to change the state flower appears to have fallen short this year, Cowan enthusiastically supports designating a month to honor Georgia’s native plants. 

“A lot of people don’t realize that the southeast United States and Georgia in particular is really one of the most biodiverse areas in the world,” Cowan said. “All these animals, insects and plants have evolved together over millions of years to interact.” 

Cowan said that indigenous plants benefit the Georgia ecosystem in many ways, including supporting pollinators. And native plants are more resilient to destructive events like wildfires, Silcox said. 

“With all the lumber we have sitting around in south Georgia right now because of [Hurricane Helene] I think it’s more important than ever that we plant native plants to protect the land from wildfires,” Silcox said.  

For people interested in learning about Georgia’s native plants, the Cherokee Garden at Green Meadows Preserve in Cobb County features native plants used by the Cherokee people for medicinal, ceremonial and culinary purposes prior to the Trail of Tears. The garden features the sweetbay magnolia, but not the Cherokee rose. The park is open seven days a week, free of charge.

Michal Roseberry (left) said hotel employees ignored signs she was a sex trafficking victim and is arguing against legislation to limit lawsuit awards. Charles Tarbutton, a Sandersville trucking company CEO, said he speaks for the little guy who is getting hurt by large jury damage awards. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

This story was updated at 9:45 a.m. on Friday, March 14, 2025. 

With fewer than 10 legislative days to go until the gavel falls to send state lawmakers home on April 4, pressure is mounting on both sides of the fight over the future of Georgia’s civil litigation landscape.

Although Senate Bill 68, the omnibus lawsuit overhaul bill backed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, passed quickly through the state Senate, it has languished in the House Rules Subcommittee on Lawsuit Reform, a sign that the bill’s proponents in the House are still working to gain the support needed to ensure its passage. 

The special subcommittee has held four separate hearings on the bill over the past two weeks, each featuring hours of public testimony, but lawmakers adjourned Wednesday without voting on the legislation. A companion bill with more bipartisan support, Senate Bill 69, has yet to be heard in the committee.

And as the end of session draws nearer, both supporters and opponents of the bill are getting organized, sending letters to lawmakers, providing testimony in committee and holding press conferences at the Georgia Capitol in an effort to plead their case to state lawmakers.

At a Thursday morning press conference held on the north steps of the Capitol building — a prominent location usually reserved solely through the governor’s office — business executives from across Georgia gathered to trumpet their support for the bill. Representatives spanning industries like manufacturing, agriculture, health care and trucking spoke about the growing cost of doing business in Georgia, arguing that large jury settlements and baseless lawsuits were leading to inflated insurance premiums that threatened their prosperity.

“Georgia’s trucking companies are being run off of the proverbial road by Georgia’s imbalanced civil justice system,” said Charles Tarbutton, the president and CEO of the Sandersville-based trucking company B-H Transfer, adding that his company was currently facing a dozen lawsuits.

“I’ve heard many times over the last several weeks, ‘this is really about big corporations versus the little guy,’” Tarbutton continued. “I urge the members of the House to reject that fallacy. I speak on behalf of those 75,000 truck drivers in Georgia. We are the little guys.”

Kemp has previously argued that sweeping policy changes are needed to bring down insurance costs for businesses throughout the state, vowing to bring back lawmakers for a special session if he felt they came up short in delivering “meaningful, impactful” changes. A top Kemp aide also appeared on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia talk show before the bill appeared on the Senate floor, threatening to use the governor’s substantial leadership committee campaign war chest to back primary challengers for any Republicans who voted against the bill or supported “unfriendly amendments.”

But at a second press conference Thursday, held later that same day on the opposite side of the building, members of the growing opposition to SB 68 voiced their objections, arguing that the legislation would restrict survivors of sexual assault and human trafficking from being able to hold bad actors accountable. 

“Noticing and acting are two very different things,” said Michal Roseberry, a human trafficking survivor and activist who said hotel employees actively ignored the abuse she endured at the hands of her pimp. 

Hotels like the one where she was abused, she added, “were complicit, and that makes them responsible. This bill would allow these very businesses to walk away without any consequences. It would take away one of the only forms of justice survivors have left: The ability to hold these businesses that enabled our abuse accountable.”

Victims’ advocates also raised concern about a provision that would allow trials to be bifurcated, or split into multiple stages, arguing that it would be retraumatizing for survivors of violence and abuse to have to provide testimony multiple times. They also urged lawmakers to add an amendment to the bill that would carve out a few exemptions for survivors of sexual abuse and human trafficking, as well as for children and elderly plaintiffs.

Despite the uncertainty, House Speaker Jon Burns, a Newington Republican, said he expects to see a vote on the bill in a committee meeting next week.

“We’re doing exactly what we said we would do,” Burns said when asked about the delay in passing SB 68. “We do what the House does when a bill comes over from the Senate: we’re speaking to the Senate, we’re speaking to the governor. We’re ensuring that we have all the information on the table.”

Correction: Michal Roseberry’s name was spelled incorrectly in an earlier version of this story.

Shanette Williams, who is the mother of Amber Nicole Thurman, speaks outside the state Capitol on Thursday. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder

Shanette Williams is again calling on state lawmakers to repeal Georgia’s six-week abortion ban that she says led to her 28-year-old daughter’s death shortly after the law took effect in 2022. 

Williams, who is the mother of Amber Nicole Thurman, found a national platform for her message last year when she joined the campaign trail with then Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

But as Williams’ voice emanated from Liberty Plaza Thursday, it marked her first time since her daughter’s death was first reported by ProPublica last fall that Williams has brought her family’s story of loss to the doorstep of the state Capitol. When the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to terminate a pregnancy in 2022, the ruling left it to legislatures to regulate access.

“Today I am here, and I will continue to speak her name, I will continue to be wherever I need to be, so that this will not happen to another woman,” Williams said at an event organized by advocates for reproductive rights.

Williams told reporters Thursday that she is pressing lawmakers to repeal the six-week ban.

“Is it going to bring my daughter back? Nothing will bring her back. Is it going to ease the pain? Absolutely not,” she said. “We have suffered. So, to hear them say, we retract that decision. It won’t bring her back, but it’ll save other lives.”

Thurman died after attempting to terminate her pregnancy using abortion medication from a clinic in North Carolina. But when she experienced a rare complication and went to an Atlanta-area hospital for treatment, the doctors waited 20 hours to perform a dilation and curettage, or D&C, to treat sepsis that resulted from an incomplete abortion.

Thurman’s death was one of two in late 2022 that were deemed preventable by the state’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee.

The state dismissed all members from the committee in November when the Georgia Department of Public Health was unable to identify who provided the information to ProPublica, saying “confidential information provided to the Maternal Mortality Review Committee was inappropriately shared with outside individuals.” 

Williams blasted that decision Thursday. 

“For the person that said, ‘I’m going to let the journalist know that my daughter’s death was preventable,’ I will never know your name, but I say thank you,” Williams said. “And what does it say about the state of Georgia to actually fire a board because somebody leaked that information, to get an entirely new board? It makes no sense.” 

Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Marietta Republican who chairs the House Public and Community Health Committee, earlier this month defended that decision during a debate on a bill related to the committee that investigates maternal deaths in Georgia.

“Is it not true that the reason we had to have a new committee is that when you are dealing with this type of death, it is imperative that information about the death is not shared with anyone except members of that committee,” Cooper said from the House floor.

Cooper said the new review committee had recently started meeting again.

Revelations about the deaths of two Georgia women became national news and reignited the debate over the state’s abortion restrictions that took effect in 2022. Their deaths also put a new focus on an exception in the law that purports to protect mothers when their own health is imperiled. 

Rep. Robert Flournoy, a Hampton Democrat and a pastor who presided over Thurman’s funeral service, said he believes state lawmakers should at a minimum explore whether Georgia’s law needs to be clarified to prevent a similar tragedy. 

“The struggle won’t stop. We’re going to continue to make sure that we fight, continue to make sure that we speak with others to try to see what we get done for women’s rights,” the freshman lawmaker said.

There has been little appetite for revisiting Georgia’s law while it is tied up in court. The case had been set for oral arguments this month before the state Supreme Court before it was sent back to the trial court in Fulton County. 

Republicans have, however, been eager to support a proposal to protect access to in-vitro fertilization after the Alabama Supreme Court last year ruled that frozen embryos were children and parents could claim civil damages for their destruction. That bill easily cleared the House last month and is now awaiting action in the Senate. 

House lawmakers also passed two other fertility-related bills Thursday. One of them would require insurers to cover fertility preservation services for patients with cancer, sickle cell disease or lupus, and another would authorize certified nurse practitioners and physician assistants to perform artificial dissemination.

But advocates for reproductive rights are pressing state lawmakers to do more.

“There have been some bills introduced in the Legislature that seek to enshrine the right to IVF and to have insurance coverage for certain conditions for fertility preservation. These bills do not do enough,” said Agbo Ikor, policy and advocacy director at SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW. 

Georgia students living in poverty could get some extra money for their education if lawmakers decide to edit the state’s nearly-40-year-old funding formula. Ariel Skelley/Getty Images

For a long time, education advocates under the Gold Dome have lamented that Georgia is one of only six states that does not allocate specific state funds to help educate students living in poverty. That could soon be changing – kind of.

What those advocates want is a change to the Quality Basic Education formula that determines the state share of education funding distributed to local schools. The QBE formula provides weighted amounts of money per student based on things like their grade level and whether they qualify for programs like special education or gifted services.

Sending more dollars to children whose families are struggling with poverty, also known as a poverty weight, could help them chart a path toward a better life and help districts focus on teaching.

“What school districts have had to do is they’ve had to create new schedules, they’ve had to literally have health clinics in schools to provide health care. They’ve had to host job fairs for parents” said Sen. Jason Esteves, an Atlanta Democrat who previously served on the Atlanta Board of Education. “They’ve had to do all of these things to try to play catch up for some of the issues that these parents and these families are experiencing in the community, and if we want our school systems to focus on the number one thing they should be focused on, which is educating students, then we have to do what we can to remove these barriers that poverty introduces.”

Speaking before a Senate committee Thursday, Georgia Department of Education Chief Financial Officer Rusk Roam said the department estimated a poverty weight would come with a price of about $300 million.

The $37.7 billion budget that passed the House Tuesday includes $28 million in grants designated for school systems for “targeted support to economically disadvantaged students,” according to a document released by the House Budget and Research Office.

House Education Committee Chair Chris Erwin, a Homer Republican, said he hopes the $28 million will open the door to a full poverty weight in the education formula.

“Currently this is a one-time grant, but I see we’re moving towards – we’re one of six states that do not have some type of poverty weight within their formula, and this is our opportunity to look at the impact that that could have, so I would hope that we would continue to go down the road of understanding the importance of providing this to students that come in from a low wealth area,” he said.

“This is something I wish we did 15 years ago, but we are beginning that process with this, and I think it’s going to end up to be very impactful for those students and for their lives going forward,” he added.

Esteves struck a similar tone. He said he thinks the 40-year-old QBE is in serious need of an update, but he’s glad that the Legislature could be taking action to support kids living in poverty.

“The fact that we are now including a little bit of money as a poverty weight is a big deal. It’s a good first step, but there’s a long way to go to actually meet the need that we have,” he said.

Experts say meeting that need will require a great deal of work – taking into account issues like differing levels of poverty, differences between rural and urban school districts and what kind of reporting requirements there ought to be.

Ashley Young, senior education analyst for the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said she’s grateful for the prospective new funds.

“$28 million is certainly going to be useful to help students who are low-income. I do think that it could have major changes for students who do not have their basic needs met and are coming to school in these circumstances,” she said. “And so having that additional money could be helpful. This is what we feel like is a good start, but a start nonetheless. And there does need to be a more comprehensive focus in our QBE funding to address this so that it is recurring, so that it has a specific line item or a specific weight that is present within the formula to ensure that students have what they need.”

The budget is now in the Senate’s hands, where it could undergo revisions. The chambers will need to agree on a final version before the legislative session ends April 4.