The sports betting legislation is now in the Georgia House of Representatives after the Georgia Senate advanced sports betting by way of a Constitutional Amendment, which requires two pieces of legislation. Senate Bill 386 details how the legislation will operate (licensing, taxing, enforcement, etc.), but it does not become law unless SR 579 is enacted. Senate Resolution 579 is the companion piece of legislation which allows for the voters of Georgia to change our state constitution to allow sports betting. Because it is a Constitutional Amendment, it must pass by a 2/3 majority in both the House and Senate, and then get approved by Georgia voters. Status: SB 386 passed the full Senate on Feb. 1 and had a hearing only (no vote) in the House Higher Education Committee on March 12, 2024. SR 579 passed the Senate on Feb. 27, 2024 and had a hearing only (no vote) in the House Higher Education Committee on March 18.

Please contact your state House member (and state senator) and ask for a “NO” vote on sports betting (and all other gambling legislation).

We created the video below to explain our position on gambling (not just SB 386).

The following information is also good to share with your legislators.

**Please use these resources to help fight against the expansion of state-sponsored gambling:

• Fact Sheet – bad bet on expanding sports gambling
• Gambling – You Pay Whether or Not You Play
• Costs of Gambling
• The ABCs of Gambling
• Helpful article on how gambling targets our children – “Online betting comes for kids“

Other bills we are tracking, including the religious liberty bill (listed at the bottom to include resources):

• Senate Bill 88 — Parents and Children Protection Act of 2023 — Prohibits an adult who is acting “in place of parents” (e.g., teachers, counselors, social workers) from discussing “information of a sensitive nature” (e.g., sex education, a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity) with a minor without the written permission of parents. Although it is well-intentioned and seeks to protect parents and students, we are opposing this bill because it would apply to private schools. The government should not have a say in what our private schools teach. Status: Passed Senate committee on Feb. 15, 2024 with the next step a full vote in the Senate.
• Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act (SB 351) is a good effort to protect children from addictive behavior on social media, requiring parental consent on social media accounts for children under 16. Status: Passed the Senate on Feb. 26, 2024 and and favorably reported our of the House Education Committee on March 18.
• Senate Bill 394 — Restricting Explicit and Adult-designated Educational Resources (READER) Act — This legislation would require the State Board of Education and local school boards to work together to keep books that contain material defined as “sexually explicit,” “restricted materials,” or “harmful to minors” out of public school libraries. Status: Passed committee in the Senate on Feb. 22, 2024 with the next step a full vote in the Senate.
• SB 466 is an important bill which updates the laws restricting child pornography to allow law enforcement to prosecute those who use digitally altered images, including CGI and AI, to create images that would otherwise be illegal. Status: Passed Senate committee on Feb. 22, 2024 but did not get a vote in the full Senate by Crossover Day.
• HB 1361 prohibits the distribution of computer generated images which obscenely depict children. Status: Passed the House on Feb. 29, 2024 and was favorably reported our of the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 18.
• HB 910 requires websites with obscene images to implement age-verification technology or face the possibility of civil penalties. Status: Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 13, 2024 with the next step a full vote in the Senate.

School Choice Bills

• House Bill 101 — Qualified Education Tax Credit — The bill would increased the annual aggregate cap on available tax credits by ten million dollars (from $120 million to $130 million). Status: Passed the House in 2023 and is now in the Senate Finance Committee.
• Senate Bill 233 — The Georgia Promise Scholarship Act — Creates an “Educational Savings Account” for parents to access up to $6,500.00 for their child’s qualified education expenses (e.g., private school tuition, tutoring services, curriculum). Current private school and home-school students are not eligible. Eligible students would be those in a “failing” public school (meaning the lowest-performing 25% in the state). We were able to strengthen the bill’s religious freedom language in 2023. Status: Passed the House on March 14, 2024 and must now go back to the Senate to approve the changes that have been made.
  • Here are some of the changes in the bill (per the AJC):
    • Private schools would test their ESA students and submit the results to the state.
    • It would prioritize families earning less than 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $120,000 for a family of four, putting them first in line for funding.
    • The program would end in 2035, absent an extension by lawmakers.

We created the video below to explain school choice and how SB 233 would affect Georgia students:

Religious Freedom Bills

• The PRAISE Act (HB 925) requires the government to treat houses of worship equitably during states of emergency. Status: Passed the House on Feb. 13, 2024 and favorably reported our of the Senate Committee on Government Oversight on March 18.
• Senate Bill 180 — Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act — This bill mirrors the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Put simply, this law would give Georgians their “day in court” to challenge the government if their local or state government infringed on their religious beliefs. Status: Passed the Senate on Feb. 29, 2024 and is now being considered in the House Judiciary committee.

Here are Talking Points for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act:

• The Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) protects ordinary people from unfair state and local government intrusion by exactly mirroring the bipartisan federal RFRA law that protects people from unfair federal government intrusion.
• After the federal RFRA law was passed almost unanimously in 1993, the US Supreme Court ruled that federal RFRA only protected people from unfair federal government intrusion – and would not protect people from unfair state or local government intrusion.
• Since then, 34 of 50 states have adopted their own state RFRA laws or seen their courts adopt state RFRA protections by judicial ruling to protect people from overreach by state and local governments.
• In 2017, our Georgia Attorney General confirmed that without a state RFRA law Georgians do not have true religious protections – allowing state and local governments to infringe on people’s faith for any “rational basis”.
• In 2021, Montana and South Dakota became the 33rd and 34th states to adopt a state RFRA that closely mirrored federal RFRA.
• RFRA puts the 1st Amendment right of free exercise on the same level as the 1st Amendment right of freedom of speech, assembly or press by creating a balancing test to weigh a person’s right to practice their faith versus the government’s power to limit their actions.
• Under RFRA, before the government can force a person to violate their faith, it must first show a “compelling government interest” and that it must accomplish its goal in the “least restrictive means possible.”