DARREL EALUM: Georgia Legislature nears end of session

We only have a few legislative days left, and Sine Die, our 40th and last session day will be Thursday. By law, without a special or emergency situation, we cannot remain in session more than 40 legislative days. Last week, our parliamentary pace picked up quickly, and we appropriated $4.98 million in the FY 2018 Budget for our Carlton Construction Academy (Phase II). Our Chaplain of the Day on March 13th was my personal guest, Minister Peggy Lyons. We also passed several interesting pieces of legislation.

Passing a budget is our only constitutional requirement in the General Assembly, and we fulfilled that obligation by passing HB 44, the FY 2018 Budget. Most importantly, the budget funded $4.98 million for Phase II of our Carlton Construction Academy, which is a critically significant delegation accomplishment. With five major projects already funded over the past two legislative sessions, our delegation knew, getting another major project funded this year would require a colossal, concerted and coordinated effort. Collectively, our delegation made the Carlton project our No. 1 priority. The January storms caused horrendous damage throughout Southwest Georgia, especially at home in Dougherty County. Albany Technical College President Dr. Anthony Parker shared with me that completion of Carlton Phase II would promptly position ATC to offer construction classes and courses to teach the construction skills we need to rebuild. After session, Gov. Deal will sign HB 44 and we will have an official 2018 budget.

Working promptly at the start of session, we coordinated with Wendy Howell, executive director of marketing at ATC, and she expeditiously designed and developed an eight-page brochure that vividly depicts the tremendous damage and destruction caused by the two storms. With few words and penetrating images of destruction, her pictorial pamphlet graphically tells our catastrophic story. Most enlightening was her piercing eight-word line, “Of 95,000 residents in Albany (Dougherty County), one-third of homes damaged.” Using her illustrative brochure in conjunction with personal letters, private conversations, closed-door meetings, and handwritten notes to all decision-makers from Gov. Deal down, our delegation accomplished what some folks felt impossible, funding for the Carlton Construction Academy.

On a personal note, getting to introduce the Rev. Peggy Lyons on March 13 to our People’s House, as our Chaplain of the Day was extremely gratifying. Rev. Lyons is an author, local radio talk show host and minister of the Gospel. Considering she is the only woman to serve as chaplain during this session and definitely the only African-American woman to serve, she made a little history. Her sermon on love was wonderful, and her words are permanently recorded in the House archives for Legislative Day 32. Her husband of almost 50 years, George Lyons, also joined us on the House floor.

Georgia’s growing craft brewery and distillery industries are expanding across the state, and we are directly experiencing that growth through the Pretoria Fields brewery under construction downtown. We passed Senate Bill 85, and if signed by the governor, SB 85 would directly impact our downtown revitalization through the Pretoria Fields brewery on Pine Avenue near riverfront. This Bill would allow craft breweries and spirit distilleries to sell limited amounts of their products directly to their visitors. Currently, breweries and distilleries are only permitted to distribute their products to customers through facility tours, but SB 85 would remove this requirement and allow them to sell their products for consumption both on and off the brewery premises. Georgia would join the other 49 states that already allow direct sales from breweries.

Senate Bill 47 would provide a licensure exemption to allow certain visiting, out-of-state medical practitioners to legally provide services while they are in Georgia. Visiting physicians, physician assistants and athletic trainers traveling with their sports team could provide care for their athletes and coaching staff during their Georgia sporting events.

We also passed Senate Bill 96, a measure designed to improve lives by expediting the organ donation process. SB 96 would expand the list of non-physician medical personnel authorized to determine or pronounce death if it appears the patient died of natural causes. This legislation would authorize registered professional nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants to pronounce the death of a patient in a nursing home or hospice care facility in the absence of a physician, regardless of the patient’s organ donor status. Physicians are currently the only health care providers permitted under law that can make a determination or pronouncement of a registered organ donor’s death in a nursing home or in hospice care. Successful organ donation is time sensitive, especially for cornea donations, which are oftentimes the only organs nursing home and hospice patients are able to give; therefore, a timely organ donation process increases the likelihood that a deceased patient’s organs will be viable for transplant. One organ donor can save as many as eight lives, and through eye and tissue donations, the same donor can save or improve as many as 50 lives

Finally, Adjutant Gen. Joe Jarrard and Brig. Gen. Thomas Carden were on the House Floor during National Guard Day. Both shared their disappointment with me about the Jan. 22 storm damage to the future National Guard maintenance facility onboard the Marine Base. They feel the repairs and renovations are going well, and we should be able to officially open the facility in early summer.

Darrel Ealum, D-Albany, represents Georgia House District 153 in the General Assembly. Contact him at (404) 656-0116 or email [email protected] or [email protected].