House Regulated Industries Committee advances licensure changes, contractor technical fixes and lottery oversight measure

Members of the Georgia House Regulated Industries Committee voted by voice to advance a package of bills on professional licensure, contractor technical changes and lottery oversight, giving do-pass recommendations on House Bills 148, 232, 34, 187, 185 and 74.

The measures range from revisions to how professions are licensed and tracked to a transparency change for the Georgia Lottery’s coin-operated amusement machine (COAM) division. Committee members said the bills aim to ease workforce bottlenecks, modernize licensing rules and restore administrative oversight where it was unintentionally removed last year.

The committee’s most immediate oversight step addressed the Georgia Lottery’s COAM division. Representative Powell, presenting House Bill 74, said the bill would place the COAM division under the state Administrative Procedures Act so rules and regulatory changes would be advertised for public comment and reported back to the legislature. Powell described the change as correcting a “scrivener’s error” from last year’s rewrite tied to a 5% tax provision and cited past enforcement concerns, including an investigator’s criminal charges in Columbus that he said underscored the need for greater transparency. The committee gave HB 74 a do-pass recommendation by voice vote.

The committee also advanced legislation to modernize dietetics licensure. A sponsor introduced House Bill 185 as an update to the Georgia Dietetics Practice Act (1994), including a clarified definition of “medical nutrition therapy” and a pathway for licensed dietitians and licensed nutritionists to treat and manage disease. Robin Stegall of the Georgia Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics told the committee, “Medical nutrition therapy means the provision of any of the following nutrition care services for the treatment or management of a disease or medical…