Democracy, housing and labor: What bills will become Georgia law?

It wasn’t the usual late-night lawmaking frenzy under the Gold Dome for Sine Die on Friday. 

The Georgia legislature passed the state’s annual budget — $38 billion this year —  in the morning and adjourned relatively early on April 5, the last day of the 2025 legislative session. The Senate wrapped up around 9:15 p.m., and the House concluded just over an hour later.

Since the start of the session, Atlanta Civic Circle has been tracking bills related to democracy, housing, and labor. Here’s a look at what will and won’t make it to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature into law. The governor can choose to veto any of those bills within 40 days of the session’s April 5 conclusion.  

As a reminder, 2025 marks the first year of a two-year session, so bills that stalled in the House or Senate (without receiving an actual “no” vote) can always be taken up next year. 

Speech and civil liberties 

Senate Bill 36: Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act

STATUS:  SIGNED INTO LAW APRIL 5. ( HOUSE 96-70 / SENATE 32-23 )

This Republican-backed bill restricts state and local governments’ ability to “burden a person’s exercise of religion.” Democrats opposed the measure, because they say it opens the door for a business to discriminate on the basis of religion. A previous attempt to pass the law in 2016 was vetoed by then-Gov. Nathan Deal.

Senate Bill 12: Public records law changes

STATUS: PASSED APRIL 4. AWAITS GOVERNOR’S SIGNATURE. (HOUSE 167-1 / SENATE 33-1) 

This bill adds an extra step to the rules for obtaining public records from a private entity, such as a nonprofit or government contractor, that is subject to the Georgia Open Records Act. The law applies to non-governmental organizations that do work on behalf of or in service of a government agency. 

The key change is that members of the public can no longer make public records requests directly to the private entity. Instead they must direct their requests to a designated “custodian” at a relevant government agency. That intermediary will solicit the records from the private entity. 

Government transparency advocates say that adding the middle-man intermediary will inhibit access to public records from private entities and make it harder to verify compliance with the state’s open records law. 

Senate Bill 74: Criminalizes librarians for distributing “harmful materials” to minors

STATUS: STALLED. 

Libraries and librarians are currently exempt from criminal penalties in a 2024 state law against distributing materials to minors that the legislature deems harmful. SB 74 would make any knowing violation by librarians a “high and aggravated misdemeanor,” with a $5,000 fine and up to a year in jail. It provides a legal defense for librarians who make good-faith efforts to remove such materials. 

Senate Bill 1: Bans transgender women from female sports teams, restricts bathroom access

STATUS: PASSED MARCH 31. AWAITS GOVERNOR’S SIGNATURE. (HOUSE 100-64 / SENATE 32-20)

The “Fair and Safe Athletic Opportunities Act” bans transgender students (middle school through college) from playing on sports teams that align with their gender orientation. For instance, transgender female students can’t play on female sports teams. It also requires schools to designate teams and athletic-facility bathrooms based on gender. 

Democratic legislators questioned the need for the law, pointing out that there is no recorded instance of any transgender girl or woman participating on female sports teams in Georgia. The bill also defines female gender statewide  as “an individual who has, had, will have, or, but for a developmental  or genetic anomaly or historical accident, would have the reproductive system capable of producing human ovum.” It does the same for male gender, replacing “ovum” with “sperm.” SB 1 took a rocky journey through the legislature. It underwent multiple amendments before finally passing the Senate and then the House. In fact, the House’s modifications were so extensive that SB 1 had to return to the Senate for two final rounds of agree-disagree votes.

Elections and governance

House Bill 397: Withdraws Georgia from ERIC, plus makes changes to State Election Board and early voting

STATUS: STALLED. 

This House bill originally spelled out how municipalities could opt in or opt out of advance voting on Saturdays. However, lawmakers in the Senate turned it into a franken-bill of MAGA elections law wish-list items. The overhauled elections bill passed the Senate, but with such extensive changes that it had to go back to the House for an agree-disagree vote. That vote didn’t happen before Sine Die. Among the provisions were: 

• withdrawing Georgia from a multi-state compact, Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), that shares real-time voter-registration updates.
• 24/7 video monitoring of ballot drop boxes.
• Increasing the powers of the controversial State Election Board.

Senate Bill 175: Substitute omnibus election bill, similar to HB 397

STATUS: STALLED. 

This Senate bill was originally written as a ban on using ranked-choice voting for any Georgia election. But once it reached the House, all of that language got stripped out and it turned into a pared-down version of HB 397. It never reached a full House vote. 

House Bill 147: AI regulation for state and local governments

STATUS: STALLED. 

This bipartisan bill would create Georgia’s first-ever state body to set best practices for how state and local governments use artificial intelligence (AI). It also would set disclosure requirements so the public understands how, when, and why local governments are using AI. Although HB 147 incorporated elements of another AI transparency bill, Senate Bill 37, that fizzled out, the House bill didn’t make it to a floor vote in the Senate.

Housing

House Bill 92: Adds barriers for local governments trying to avoid Georgia’s new homestead-exemption tax cap

Status: SIGNED INTO LAW APRIL 1. (HOUSE 165-0 / SENATE: 52-2)

This new law makes it harder for local governments that opted out of the state’s new homestead property-tax exemption to stay opted out. Cities, counties, and school boards that successfully exited before the one-time March 1, 2025 deadline now must continue opting out annually. 

Georgia’s new constitutional amendment permanently caps any increases in the assessed value of someone’s primary residence at the annual inflation rate statewide for property-tax purposes. However, many localities, such as the city of Atlanta, have preemptively opted out, saying they prefer to maintain local control over property taxes and tailor their own homestead exemptions.

House Bill 399: Big landlords must have in-state staff

Status: PASSED APRIL 4.  AWAITS GOVERNOR’S SIGNATURE. (HOUSE 159-5 / SENATE 41-9) 

A bill requiring many out-of-state landlords to employ at least one Georgia staffer to handle tenant complaints is bound for Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk. It’s a minor win for affordable housing advocates, who celebrated the increased landlord accountability, but cautioned that it could lead to retaliation against lower-income tenants who raise concerns about living conditions.   

HB 399 is the only legislation to regulate institutional investors buying up residential housing across Georgia that passed this year.  Here’s our full story.

House Bill 61: Anti-squatter legislation targeting motel residents

Status: STALLED. 

House legislation that would make it easier for hotel managers to evict long-term guests failed to get a Senate vote — but lawmakers are likely to try again with House Bill 61 next year.

Another franken-bill, HB 61 initially authorized the state to issue special license plates for hearses and ambulances.  Republican senators gutted that language in March and implanted provisions from the failed House Bill 183, a measure to bolster innkeepers’ power over the length of guest stays.

The overhauled HB 61 said that anyone committing the misdemeanor of “unlawful squatting” — living in a house, apartment, hotel, or vehicle without express permission — “shall be subject to removal” by law enforcement within 10 days of being notified via legal affidavit by the property owner, legal occupant, or landlord.