2018 Legislative Session is Over!
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, March 30, 2018 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Yesterday was the last day of the 2018 legislative session, but it’ll be several days before we know the status of all the bills. Meanwhile, today’s topic is four bills that passed early enough for me to tell you about them today.
It’s sad, but culture had become so bad 16 years ago, that the legislature passed the Safe Place for Newborns Act of 2002 that authorizesmothers to drop off their newborns at a fire station or police station with no questions asked and no strings attached. It was enacted to prevent the injury or death of newborns whose mothers abandon them.
That law was amended in 2008 to specify medical facilities and sheriff’s offices as additional legal drop-off locations. This year, H.B. 513 passed to amend it again. The new language requires the Department of Human Services to develop a standard sign to be posted at all authorized drop-off facilities. DHS will decide the size and type of the signs and where they should be posted. Unless it’s vetoed, H.B. 513 becomes law on July 1st.S.R. 718 is one of three resolutions that passed concerning the nation of Israel. It reaffirms the friendship and cooperation between Georgia and Israel and commemorates Israel’s seventieth anniversary that occurs April 19, 2018. Not only is the State of Israel an outgrowth of the Kingdom of Israel established 3,000 years ago in the city of Jerusalem in the land of Israel, it is the only democracy in the Middle East and the greatest friend and ally the United States has in the Middle East.
Two Israeli cities are Sister Cities with Atlanta, and Sandy Springs is Sister City to Western Galilee. More than 40 Israeli companies have national or regional headquarters in Georgia.
The House adopted the other two resolutions on March 19, 2018. H.R. 1469 urges the Israeli government to maintain its Consulate General in Atlanta, which has one of the ten largest Jewish communities in North America.
H.R. 1470 recognizes Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel and urges President Trump to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as authorized in the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which declared that Jerusalem should remain an undivided city. That move is underway.
President Trump will receive a copy of H.R. 1470 and the Israeli Ambassador and Consul General will receive copies of the other two. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.