Georgia House clears slate of bills on rules calendar, including measures on taxes, education and campus Narcan
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Summary
After opening with prayer and ceremonial recognitions, the Georgia House passed a batch of bills on Feb. 18, 2026, approving statutory corrections, tax parity for volunteer fire departments, expanded tuition grants for nursing education, a foster-child autism screening pilot, and a requirement for opioid antagonists on university campuses.
ATLANTA — The Georgia House of Representatives passed a series of bills on Thursday during a lengthy rules-calendar session that covered corrections to statutory references, taxation parity for volunteer fire services, new measures for student and public health, and other procedural motions.
Representative Corbett presented a narrow fix to a cross-reference in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to the Georgia Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Advisory Board and described the measure as "a simple bill" to correct a scrivener's error; the House approved the measure by recorded vote (yays 164, nays 0).
Representative Chaz Cannon urged the House to treat independently contracted volunteer fire departments the same as municipal departments for ad valorem taxation. "Both are performing the same service for the public," Cannon said, introducing House Bill 964, which passed after debate on fiscal impact (yays 164, nays 4).
The chamber approved several public-health and education measures brought from committee. Representative Shirley Darlene Taylor described a Department of Public Health bill intended to help retain county public-health employees who move into state positions by allowing transfer of accrued leave; the bill passed unanimously.
House Bill 943, sponsored by Chairlady Silcox, would establish a five-year pilot aimed at screening foster children under Department of Children and Families supervision for autism and training DCH workers. Silcox cited research from Dr. Michelle Zena at Georgia Southern University and said the proposal could "save Georgia millions of dollars" by reducing the number of placements for children who receive early diagnosis and support; the House passed the bill (yays 165, nays 2).
A measure to expand the Tuition Equalization Grant to include a narrowly defined BSN-only private nursing college was presented by Representative Dempsey as a targeted step to bolster the state's nursing pipeline. Dempsey described the proposal as tightly drawn to avoid opening the grant to unrelated institutions and said the sponsor expects it to complement existing programs rather than compete with them; the bill passed by recorded vote.
On campus safety, Chairman Hawkins presented House Bill 419 to require opioid-antagonist dispensers (such as naloxone) to be placed in University System buildings (near AEDs where present) and to provide immunity for institutions and administrators administering the drug; Hawkins said community funding will cover the dispensers and that the bill carries no fiscal impact for universities. The measure was approved (yays 165, nays 0).
Several other bills and committee reassignments were considered and agreed to without recorded opposition, and the House adopted a number of committee reports on bills across agriculture, utilities, education and judiciary. Representative Montahan moved and the House ordered the recommitment of House Bill 12-96 from Public Safety & Homeland Security to Defense and Veterans Affairs with the chairs in agreement.
The House concluded the day's business with routine announcements, reminders of committee schedules and leadership's motion to adjourn until Feb. 19, 2026 at 10 a.m.
Votes at a glance (as recorded in the House): House Bill 1202 (scrivener's correction) — passed; House Bill 1182 (soil amendment rules) — passed; House Bill 1096 (public health leave retention) — passed; House Bill 964 (tax parity for independent fire departments) — passed (164–4); House Bill 970 (preparticipation cardiovascular screenings for high school athletes) — passed; House Bill 943 (foster-child autism screening pilot) — passed (165–2); House Bill 541 (TEG nursing eligibility expansion) — passed; House Bill 419 (campus opioid antagonist access) — passed. Where the transcript recorded vote tallies, those counts are included.
The House adjourned with leadership scheduling committee work and local-legislation deadlines ahead of the next legislative day.
