Thursday March 6 was crossover day, a critical milestone in the legislative session. We gaveled out at 10:55 pm.

It’s always a long day and this time the House voted on some 75 pieces of legislation as we rushed to keep bills alive.

In theory, a bill is dead if it has not passed from one chamber to the other (or “crossed over”) by crossover day. That’s so there are opportunities to fully vet the bill through the committee process in both chambers and improve it. At least that’s the idea.

But in real life, that is not necessarily the case because there are many opportunities to merge seemingly dead legislation with bills that have crossed over.

One method of reviving dead bills is to strip a bill that has crossed over of its language and replace it with the language of a bill or bills that died. There's a couple different names for this — frankenstein bill, zombie bill, vehicle; but what’s always true is it’s a particularly non-transparent way to get seemingly dead bills across the line before the last day of session, Sine Die, on April 4.

Want to know more? Join me and my colleagues for a town hall next week, on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, where we will discuss crossover madness from the House and Senate perspective.

In this Edition of the Draper Paper

• Democrats’ Voices Suppressed

• GOP Ignores Gun Safety

• Fiscal Responsibility and Tax Cuts

• Cell Phones in Schools

• Highlights from this Week at the Capitol

The House passed 221 bills by crossover day. Of those, just 16 were sponsored by Democrats– a little over 7%. These are our meager numbers even though we represent over 6.5 million constituents across Georgia, and even more Democrats across the state. Those 16 bills will now narrow further as they try their chances in the Senate and then compete for the Governor’s signature.

As the minority party, our positions and our voices are thoroughly suppressed in the Georgia legislature.  We are dealing with opposition that does not care about the wants and needs of Democrats’ constituents. Things won’t be different until we capture control of one chamber of the legislature or elect a Democratic governor.

I love this instagram post by my colleague Rep. Lisa Campbell, featuring many of our women legislators, because it offers a vision of what could be if Democrats’ ideas were given fair and equal consideration.

Republicans use precious time to pass laws to make cornbread the official bread of Georgia, and the marsh tacky horse the official Georgia heritage horse breed, but when it comes to our thoughts and ideas, there’s “no time.”

It’s a tough environment in which to work. One where you have little power and the other side is willing to give nothing unless it’s for something in return. 

Democrats, including myself, have had success in passing legislation by working it into already existing legislation sponsored by Republicans. We are also effective in making Republican legislation better– when they are willing to work with us. But there’s always a tradeoff that comes with these successes. Sometimes we are asked to stand down on certain issues or not  speak against certain bills. Sometimes we owe a favor later.  And if we ever become too “difficult,” they won’t work with us anymore.

I’m constantly evaluating the balance of the value of “successes” with the value of what I must give up in order to achieve those successes. Is it worth it?

But tallies like this crossover day’s tally – 205 Republican bills vs 16 Democratic bills – are a somber reminder that our successes are mere crumbs in the big scheme of things. Winning more seats is required to get the kinds of policy changes the majority of Georgians seek. Policy changes like common sense gun safety, for instance. Read on.

On Crossover day, the House passed what they call a “comprehensive” school safety bill in response to the most deadly school shooting in Georgia’s history, the shooting at Barrow County’s Apalachee High School last September. The 14-year-old gunman took the lives of two 14-year-old students and two teachers.

The word “gun” is nowhere in the bill. 

HB 268 would do several things. It would:

• require schools to have safety plans if there is an active shooter.

• give schools five days to share information when one of their students transfers to another school.

• require a social worker to visit the home of a student who suddenly stops coming to school without explanation.

• establish an anonymous platform for reporting students who may pose a threat to school, staff, classmates or themselves.

• assign schools mental health coordinators, who could connect students to support services and behavioral health treatment.

Republican Speaker Jon Burns argued that HB 268 would save lives, and that it’s a “common sense” approach to keeping kids safe from school shooters. The Speaker called HB 268 the “most important bill” the House would consider this session. 

But in 60+ pages, it does not address access to guns.

I don’t say this lightly: it is offensive to me that the GOP would purport to address school safety when they refuse to even acknowledge that common sense gun safety laws are a critical component to any kind of comprehensive school security package. 

They are making a cold hard calculus: it is better to sacrifice children than expose GOP members to primaries supported by extremist gun nuts.

But the GOP has a problem. Because they see the polls just like we do that say the majority of Georgians want common sense gun safety reforms. 

So what have they done to insulate themselves? They’ve passed a half measure (if you can even call it that). Basically a bill that does close to nothing and that won’t trigger the ire of the gun nuts, but is something they can point to in moderate districts as evidence they’ve done something on guns. 

That bill was HB 79, another bill passed on crossover day. It allows a state tax credit up to $300 to anyone who buys a gun locker or some other way to safely store a gun. 

It’s a fine bill, but it is not sufficient. 

HB 79– which was originally developed and filed by Democratic representative Dr. Michelle Au– was meant to accompany another bill, the Pediatric Health Safe Storage Act, which mandates that gun owners store guns securely when they share a home with a minor child. The tax incentive was the carrot, and the mandate was the stick– the two work in tandem. 

Passing just HB 79 is like offering a tax credit to parents of newborns for using an infant car seat, rather than requiring the use of the car seat. It’s not enough incentive to do the right thing, and the result of not going far enough means children will be injured and killed.

On crossover day and on the other side of the rotunda, Senate Republicans approved a bill that would let citizens sue public officials for up to $50,000 if local governments required them to safely store their guns.

What?

The sponsor of Senate Bill 163, Republican Sen. Colton Moore of Trenton, argued he was just trying to protect Georgians’ Second Amendment rights.

At least he was honest about his agenda.

We will see what happens to both HB 268 and HB 79 when they get to the Senate. Regardless, when House Republicans inevitably try to take credit for dealing with school security, school shootings, and gun safety, you’ll know the truth– they abdicated their responsibility and are leaving our children in danger rather than stand up to the gun lobby.

HB 111 was another measure we took up on crossover day.  It was a bill pushed by the Governor that cuts income tax rates. While the top 20% of Georgians would get a $500 million handout, most Georgians would get back less than $100.

I took to the House floor to oppose the bill, not out of opposition to tax relief, but in the name of fiscal responsibility. Why? Because HB 111 is a workaround to another bill we passed last year, HB 1015. HB 1015 said we would reduce the income tax rate in 2025 only if we hit certain financial benchmarks. 

But we didn’t hit those benchmarks. So what did the GOP do? Did they abide by their own standards and delay the income tax rate cuts? No– they forced through HB 111 so Governor Kemp can campaign on lowering taxes in Georgia anyway. 

If we didn’t think it was a good idea to cut the tax rate under certain conditions last year, it’s not a good idea now.

Catch my speech here.

The House voted to prohibit students in kindergarten through the eighth grade from having their cell phones during school hours. This prohibition also applies to other personal electronic devices like smartwatches, tablets and headphones.

It will be up to the school systems to decide how to enforce the ban outlined in House Bill 340, which the House sent to the Senate a few days ago.

The suggestions for school systems complying with HB 340, should it become law, include buying cell phone pouches that can only be unlocked by staff, leaving cell phone lockers in classrooms, or designating a place at school to leave phones that students cannot access.

The Distraction-Free Education Act gives school systems the option of expanding the ban to high schools.

Several schools in Georgia have experimented with this – 10 in DeKalb County and more in Atlanta, Marietta, and Liberty County.

So far, it’s been well-received by teachers and parents. They report students are more engaged and there are fewer disciplinary problems.

What do you think?

It was another busy week in the Capitol. I enjoyed seeing many constituents and stakeholders.

Yours in service,