The House of Representatives passed two different bills addressing higher education and environmentalism. Alongside this, two committees of the Georgia House convened to address issues of the judicial system.
First, the House passed HR 1534, also known as the Impact Act. This bill requires the Department of Energy to establish a new temporary program. This program supports the advanced production of low-emissions cement, concrete, and asphalt.
In the bill, it specifies that the program must support research, development, and commercial application of production processes. The end goal is to create low-emissions cement, concrete, and asphalt that are more cost-effective, durable, or resource-efficient.
The House then passed HR 1048, also known as the DETERRENT Act. This bill requires any institution of higher education (IHE) to disclose gifts or contracts they receive from countries of concern.
HR 1048 requires IHE’s to report this information annually to the Department of Education. Examples of countries of concern listed in the bill are China and Russia. The bill extends this disclosure to any gift equaling $50,000 or more that is not from a country of concern.
Moving on to the Georgia House, the Judiciary Non-Civil Committee began with Senate Bill (SB) 244. This bill provides the award of reasonable attorney's fees and costs in a criminal case to the defendant if the prosecuting attorney is disqualified for misconduct.
SB 244 specifies that the misconduct has to be relevant to the case. It also specifies that the defendant’s motion to disqualify the attorney has to be successful. The bill passed to the Rules Committee after a contentious vote.
The committee concluded with SB 132. This bill requires a hearing to take place before a court orders an evaluation of the mental competency of an accused person to stand trial.
The bill unifies the judicial process by requiring a hearing due to judges often deciding to not hold one. SB 132 also streamlines the process by shortening the wait time for receiving the mental evaluation. It passed to the Rules Committee.
