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Senate clears a flurry of bills in final hours — consumer privacy, notaries, education and local measures
Summary
In late‑session action the Senate approved multiple House substitutes and local bills — including consumer privacy, remote notary rules, education scholarship changes, a veterans’ specialty plate measure and the Liza Jane Warner Act expanding safe‑harbor options for newborns.
The Senate processed a sequence of House substitutes and local measures during the closing hours of the session, approving a range of bills that affect local governments, regulatory practice, and social services.
Key actions included: unanimous or wide votes to agree to House substitutes on department and local bills (SB501, SB306, SB469, HB445, SB623, SB613, SB76, among others), passage of a consumer privacy substitute (SB111 as amended in the House to address rural hospital eligibility), and adoption of HB350 (the Liza Jane Warner Act) which expands locations where a mother may safely leave a newborn.
The chamber also considered and defeated some measures or failed votes on procedural grounds: for example, SB8 (remote online notary) saw closely divided floor action and an amendment vote that left one version failing on a 26–26 tally; on other items the Senate accepted House amendments or substitutes with recorded tallies recorded on the floor. Several local charter and county‑governance bills (for Henry County and others) were called up and agreed.
Sponsors and committee chairs walked senators through the substitute language before each recorded vote, and the Secretary read captions for bills before they were considered. A number of items — student scholarship (SSO) aggregate cap changes in HB328, changes to motor‑vehicle registration (specialty plates), and property‑tax cleanup measures — passed after floor explanation and recorded votes.
