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Votes at a glance: House passes range of bills on health, education, courts and commerce
Summary
Alongside debated measures, the House approved a package of bills on patient access to experimental treatments, homeschool testing access, litigation-finance regulation, veterinary telemedicine, state indemnification payments, recyclers rules and several house bills; vote counts and key provisions listed.
The Georgia House on Thursday passed a series of bills with largely brief floor consideration. Summaries and final House votes for key bills follow.
- Senate Bill 72 ("Hope for Georgia Patients Act") — adds provisions to the state Right to Try framework for terminally ill patients to access investigational drugs and devices, with liability releases for physicians and manufacturers noted in the text. Passed the House 161–0.
- Senate Bill 63 — allows homeschooled students to take college-preparatory tests (PSAT, SAT, ACT, AP, etc.) at their locally zoned public schools; districts must publish registration information and homeschoolers pay any student fees; House passage 166–0.
- Senate Bill 69 — regulates third-party litigation financing: creates definitions, requires registration of financiers, disallows foreign adversary financiers, makes financing agreements discoverable in litigation, and exempts traditional contingency-fee arrangements. Passed 98–69.
- Senate Bill 105 — authorizes licensed Georgia veterinarians and veterinary technicians to provide veterinary tele-advice and clarifies teletriage versus diagnosis; also creates a pathway for foreign veterinary graduates to teach/practice under conditions. Passed 168–0.
- Senate Bill 56 — authorizes the Department of Administrative Services to purchase annuities for the Georgia State Indemnification Fund to pay claims and establishes a presumption of qualification for certain COVID-19 deaths for the fund; passed 165–0.
- Senate Bill 40 — updates requirements and removes a sunset on the secondary metals recycler statutes (targeting catalytic-converter and copper theft), clarifies registration fees and enforcement; passed 159–3.
- House Bill 53 — House agreed to Senate substitute to expand eligibility for burial in Georgia veteran cemeteries; House agreed 163–0.
- House Bill 58 — House agreed to Senate substitute (and adopted House amendment) clarifying local authority to restrict unmanned aircraft systems over mass public gatherings with specified owner exceptions; House agreed 162–1.
- House Bill 92 — House agreed to Senate substitute (cleanup to prior property-tax relief measures) with local opt-out and school sales-tax rebate elements; agreed 165–0.
- House Bill 475 — Senate amendment clarifies that film tax credit application fees go to the state general fund; the House agreed to the amendment 159–2.
Votes recorded on the floor match the tallies recorded in the clerk's announcements. Where bills create new programs (for example, SB63 or SB105) implementation will require agency rules or appropriation as noted in each caption; several measures were described on the floor as subject to appropriations or implementation rules.
Several other resolutions and local bills were read and assigned to committees during the session; the House recessed until 4:00 p.m. and adjourned to reconvene on March 28, 2025.
