It’s decision day at the Georgia Capitol as lawmakers decide whether to ban school speed cameras, change election laws and prohibit promoting diversity in schools.
Friday is the 40th and last day of this year’s legislative session, the deadline for bills to pass or fail.
Votes on dozens of bills are planned late into the night. Pending measures also include Georgia’s $37.7 billion state budget, school vouchers for foster children and criminalizing cockfighting.
Scroll down for the latest updates, and stay with this page throughout the day.
The Georgia House has adjourned for the year, closing out the 40-day legislative session.
The House wrapped up at 10:37 p.m.
That was more than an hour after the state Senate called it quits at 9:11 p.m.
The final day of the session — or Sine Die — typically lasts until midnight, or later.
But instead both chambers called it an early night, leaving a slew of bills in limbo until next year.
State Rep. Alan Powell was discussing a bill that would rein in school speeding zone cameras when he learned that, across the rotunda, the Georgia Senate had called it quits.
The Senate still needed to sign off on the legislation so the vote in the House was now meaningless.
"This did nothing," the Hartwell Republican said.
Eventually, Powell and state Rep. Dale Washburn of Macon, who also authored a speeding zone bill, voted in favor as the bill passed.
"When the press asks questions, it wasn't us," Powell.
Appearing irritated, House Speaker Jon Burns said the state House would continue to work, even though the state Senate had already adjourned for the year.
"We're working for the people of Georgia. You can go home if you want to," he said. "The other side can adjourn, but this House is going to attend to the people's business because this is the people's House."
Seemingly out of nowhere, the Senate has adjourned, ending the chamber's business for the year.
The time: 9:11 p.m.
Typically, the lieutenant governor and House speaker jump on the phone to coordinate the end of the legislative session, dropping the gavel for the last time nearly in sync — and often at or after midnight.
This year, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Senate President Pro Tem John Kennedy and Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch chatted with staff before Gooch made the motion to adjourn.
Gooch told members of the press that the Senate had finished its work for this year.
"We got the majority of the work done that needed to be done and didn't have anything else that we felt like needed to be passed that we hadn't got to yet," he said.
Asked if he was concerned the House would stop passing Senate bills now that the upper chamber had adjourned, Gooch said there was always next year.
The state Senate gave final approval to a proposal that would revise the Georgia Open Records Act – without the major changes proposed by the House that would have restricted some access.
Senate Bill 12 would clarify that public records in the hands of private entities must be requested through a public agency. The Senate approved the measure by a vote of 53 to 1.
That came after the House Rules Committee proposed – and later revoked – a much broader proposal that would have expanded open records exemptions for state lawmakers. The plan would have shielded legislative communication with state agencies and also made it harder to obtain information in police incident reports.
Stocks have shed more than $6 trillion in the two days since President Donald Trump announced his plan for global tariffs. But Georgia's top House Republican leaders say they're not particularly worried about the state's economy, for now.
"President Trump certainly is a very successful businessman in the private sector, and he has a lot of folks around him that are very established and understand what it takes," said Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington.
Burns is a timber farmer himself and said Trump was right to do something to "level the playing field" in trade with other countries. "We should give them the opportunity for things to work," Burns said.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Matt Hatchett said the state budget has $12 billion in reserves, so it is in a good place for the future if there is a downturn.
"We're watching. We're cognizant," he said. "I think we may be starting to experience a correction, so let's see how the world reacts."
A bill that established Brunswick stew as the “official stew” of Georgia passed the House in a 113-51 vote.
But it picked up some "added ingredients" along the way, according to its sponsor, Rep. Rick Townsend, R-Brunswick.
The bill would now also create a National Sugarcane Syrup Day in Georgia and establish cornbread as the official state bread.
It now includes language that would prohibit state agencies from contracting or purchasing goods and services from foreign adversaries, such as China.
That left some Democrats scratching their heads.
“I don’t know what cornbread and Brunswick stew have to do with foreign adversaries,” said Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, D-Smyrna.
The bill now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
The session may not end for another few hours, but Gov. Brian Kemp took a victory lap.
The Republican thanked lawmakers for backing his budget and tax priorities – and securing a vast overhaul of Georgia’s legal system to limit certain lawsuits and bring down jury awards.
“You all know that fight was hard, and the debates were fierce,” Kemp told House lawmakers. “But it’s my belief at the end of the day we have a commonsense, comprehensive piece of legislation that will keep our state moving in the right direction.”
The governor exerted enormous political pressure to pass the measure, which cleared the House last month by the barest of margins.
He threatened to back primary challenges against Republicans who opposed the overhaul and warned lawmakers he’d force a special session if they ignored his demand. He pointedly brought up the latter threat to nervous laughs in the House.
“And while tort reform may have been controversial, and some people may have been for it, and others have been may have been against it, one thing we can all agree on is nobody wanted a special session.”
For every moment the Georgia General Assembly has been in session the last 40 days, the 17 House doorkeepers and their counterparts in the state Senate have been there too.
As lawmakers work into the night, the doorkeepers will be working along with them, on duty until the gavel drops.
We spoke to the doorkeepers about their backgrounds, their hobbies and how they came to their unique jobs at the state Capitol. "I call it democracy at its finest,” doorkeeper Willie Jones said.
House Speaker Jon Burns didn’t sound enthusiastic about two of the most controversial Senate-backed measures still pending on the last day of the legislative session.
Asked at a news conference Friday about bills to ban diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in Georgia public schools and restrict puberty blockers for transgender youth, Burns made clear they weren’t his priority.
“I’m not sure we’ll get to those bills this year or not, but they’re always out there,” he said.
House Republicans have long pushed back on more contentious Senate measures, but this year they have embraced many base-pleasing measures.