Friends,

We are moving into the final few weeks of session and there’s a lot going on.

While the focus remains on passing good legislation and blocking the bad, there’s an essential change in approach after Crossover Day. We switch from working bills that didn’t make the cutoff to keeping an extremely close eye on committee work, as this is the time of year when bills are changed, gutted, spliced and diced, and when the original bill stub may have very little, if anything, to do with the language that ends up inside.

The motto of the American Society of Anesthesiologists is VIGILANCE. Being watchful, being prepared, and always being ready to respond. I’m proud to say it is a principle that serves me well in both my jobs.

Ready to hear more about the fronts on which we defended Georgians this week? Then let’s go.

60 DAY SUSPENSION OF THE STATE GAS TAX

(Via the Georgia Recorder, click here to read full article)

On Friday Governor Kemp signed a 60-day suspension of the state motor fuel tax to combat rising prices resulting from the war in Iran. Gas prices nationwide averaged about $3.91 Friday, up from $2.93 one month ago. This pause removes roughly 33 cents per gallon on gasoline and 37 cents on diesel here in Georgia.

The suspension is estimated to cost the state roughly $200 million per month, but will be covered with the state’s budget surplus.

This action resulted from a last-minute amendment to HB 1199, a routine annual bill to bring the Georgia tax code in line with the IRS. The Governor has previously used this mechanism in 2022, 2023, and 2024 to combat surging energy prices

I was very glad to vote YES on this gas tax suspension to bring some monetary relief to the residents of this state. It will take several days for these prices to drop as gas stations adjust their pricing, and gas will still be more expensive than it was a year ago. Here are some tips from Fox 5 Atlanta on how to save on gas costs in the meantime: 

Combine trips to reduce driving. Planning errands in one outing helps cut down on total miles and fuel use. Or, use mass transit!

WHERE ARE WE ON GUN SAFETY LEGISLATION?

(Via The Atlanta Voice, click here to read full article)

One of the most common questions I get asked about our progress on gun safety.

What I usually say is this. Change is incremental, and often it is not as clear, or as gratifying, as having our priority bills being signed into law over one term. Part of the work involves changing the culture around the issue of gun safety in Georgia, and the minds and hearts we can persuade in the process. 

That said I am very familiar with the sentiment that change is happening too slowly for our taste, which makes it extra frustrating when we see our Republican legislature insisting on moving backwards on the issue.

(Click here for excerpt from presentation of SB 499)

Though we killed the House version of the gun silencer bill (HB 1324), the Senate version (SB 499) is still progressing. Seeing the lack of success its mirror bill received in the house, the groups pushing this bill introduced a new amendment that its supporters pretend addresses the concerns about community safety gun silencers pose.

Unfortunately, these amendments do no such thing. Here’s why.

The amendment enhances the penalty for people who knowingly possess a silencer if they also know they cannot legally own a gun. However, Georgia passed Governor Kemp’s permitless carry law in 2022. What this means is that someone can be openly carrying a loaded gun, with a silencer, strolling on the street next to a school, and they cannot be stopped, asked if they are a legal gun owner, nor can they be subject to that enhanced penalty until the moment they are pulling the trigger to commit a crime.

(Click here to watch full video)

A silencer in this setting means it will take longer for people to react, it will make it more difficult for bystanders to respond or flee, and complicate the ability for law enforcement to locate and apprehend the shooter.

You need to be committing a crime for the enhanced penalty to be triggered (as it were), and silencers expand the scope and damage of those crimes. The House cannot in good conscience allow this bill to pass, and I look forward to us killing the bill again, which would certainly deliver a stinging defeat to the pro-gun groups determined to make our communities less safe.

(Via Georgia Recorder, click here to read full article)

Meanwhile, one of our priority bills has been HB 79, which offers an up to $300 tax credit for purchase of safe storage equipment like gun safes. This bill has passed overwhelmingly out of the House twice in the past two terms, only to stall in the Senate.

Again, this is the time of year when bills get corrupted, and bad language–sometimes proposing precisely the opposite of what the original bill intended–is inserted into a “vehicle” piece of legislation to get it over the finish line. This is precisely what happened to HB 79 at the end of last session, when language was added to enact a sales tax holiday for purchase of guns and gun paraphernalia.

(Click here to read the most current version of HB 79)

It likely goes without saying that I am unhappy with the Senate amendment to the bill I originally drafted all the way back in the Spring of 2023. While some bills require “sweeteners” to appease the pro-gun lobby, this bill did not. This piece of policy passed nearly unanimously out of the state House over two separate terms, and my original bill was endorsed by Georgia 2A, a prominent pro-gun group in the state.

(Click here to read original 2023 press release from Georgia 2nd Amendment)

So not only was the amendment gratuitous, I view it to be counterproductive, as making guns and gun paraphernalia cheaper and encouraging people to buy more of them weakens the core goal of the bill, which is to keep kids safer from gun violence.

This bill, with the added language, is set to be voted off the Senate floor on Monday. Given that the addition of the sales tax holiday for guns was a Republican leadership priority, all indications are that it will pass out of the Senate by a simple majority vote.

However, since the bill has been altered from what passed off the House floor last year, it will need to come back to the House one more time for what we call an “Agree/Disagree” vote. What that means is that the House bill sponsor will have to call the bill back up to the House floor for one of two options.

  1. “AGREE” to the other chamber’s amendments, after which point the bill will pass and head to the Governor’s desk.
  2. “DISAGREE” to the bill as amended and either propose a further amendment or send it to a conference committee–a sort of mediation process where the two chambers can hopefully find consensus.

All this will happen over the course of the next two weeks, and will need to finish by around midnight on Sine Die, the last day of the legislative session. Stay tuned.

THE RIGHT WING FETISHIZATION OF IVERMECTIN

(Via Georgia Recorder, click here to read full article)

In a late-in-the-session twist I fully admit I did not see coming, the Republican majority also hijacked another piece of legislation–this one a very workmanlike department bill for the Department of Public Health–in order to splice in language deregulating access to ivermectin. 

Ivermectin, a decades-old antiparasitic drug previously most famous for its use in treating river blindness in the third world, has since become an object of fascination for the far right since President Trump decided it was a definitive treatment for COVID-19. As described anecdotally, many patients now avail themselves of the veterinary formulation of ivermectin for all manner of ailments, including cancer, and are now demanding that it be available to human patients without a prescription.

It’s strange to me that the argument we keep hearing over and over is: “We need to make ivermectin available without a prescription because otherwise people need to go to the feed store to eat horse paste!” 

Because if patient safety and improved health outcomes are in fact the goal, I would strongly prefer our messaging out of the Public Health committee to be: “HUMAN BEINGS SHOULD NOT EAT HORSE PASTE.”

(Click here to watch the committee hearing on the amendment to HB 440)

Generally speaking, in order to be considered by the FDA for over-the-counter availability, medications have to fulfill several requirements. One is that the clinical indications for use of the medication have to be easily identifiable. (For example, patients with headaches can take acetaminophen or ibuprofen.) The second is that the side effect profile of an over-the-counter medication must be low. Ivermectin does not clear either these bars, and is currently FDA approved only for the treatment of parasitic infections. 

If other indications are rigorously clinically established, that may change, and the story of modern medicine is that of exploration and evolution. But until that time I find it galling that, with only two weeks left in the legislative session and hundreds of good bills that never even got a committee hearing, we are spending hours of our time talking about this.

SB 440 passed out of the House Public and Community Health committee on Thursday and may reach a House floor vote as soon as this week.

FIVE YEAR COMMEMORATION OF 3/16 SHOOTINGS

(Via WSB-TV, click here to watch full video)

On March 16th, 2021, five years ago, a gunman shot and killed eight people in a barbaric rampage near Atlanta. Of these, six were Asian women. We held a commemoration of the event at the state Capitol this past week, you can watch my full remarks here.

It was an event that shocked and terrorized Georgia’s Asian community, which had already been shaken by the rise in hate, violence, and discrimination resulting from anti-AAPI immigrant rhetoric during the COVID pandemic. 

But it also uncovered a deep strength that lay just beneath the surface. We watched our community knit together. We took care of the survivors, we took care of each other. And from these dark days we saw an AAPI voter base take charge, assert its power, and turn out in ways we’d never seen before. 

Now, five years later, Georgia has among the largest AAPI Legislative Caucuses in the country. Much of that purpose, and that work, stemmed from that tragic event five years ago, and what has happened since then.

Democratic Whip Sam Park and the AAPI Legislative Caucus recognized some of those community leaders this past week with HR 1700, commending Stephanie Cho, Sonjui Kumar, Sarah Park, Victoria Huynh, and Aparna Bhattacharyya for their “extraordinary leadership following the Atlanta-area spa shootings and their ongoing commitment to justice, healing, and the safety of Asian American communities.”

We hold close the families and loved ones still grieving after the events of five years ago. The work goes on, and so do we.

THE GEORGIA DIAGNOSIS

Available on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube

Team Au is in pre-production for Season 2 of our podcast THE GEORGIA DIAGNOSIS, and we want to hear from you!

Whose stories do you want to hear, and what fascinating voices would you love to have included? Fill out our podcast survey here. Thank you for listening to and sharing our first season, and for helping us make Season 2 even better!

Catch up on Season 1 of THE GEORGIA DIAGNOSIS on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.

TEAM AU IN ACTION

Meeting with the March of Dimes

It was wonderful meeting with the March of Dimes last week as to discuss how to best support healthy moms and babies in the state of Georgia!

As tobacco smoking is a known risk factor for preterm birth, much of our conversation focused on our slate of bills to address the health costs of cigarette smoking and vaping, and policy solutions to mitigate risk. They were particularly invested in HB 83, our bill to modernize our state cigarette tax, which has sadly fallen victim to pressure from the tobacco lobby.

Change happens slowly, and then all at once. But we’re not going anywhere, and will continue to push on this issue, and we are so gratified to have such committed support from the March of Dimes.

A Visit from U.S. Senator Andy Kim

Wonderful to see our friend U.S. Senator Andy Kim from New Jersey again last weekend, and honored that he took some time from his busy schedule to meet with local AAPI leaders to share some insights from his work at the federal level.

We discussed the issue of immigration and the actions of ICE, tariffs and their impact on families and small businesses, strategies for AAPI voter outreach, and the impact so far of the war in Iran.

I am so grateful that our federal partners are recognizing Georgia as a key swing state, particularly in this upcoming midterm election, and the vital role that our growing AAPI electorate has to play in this evolution. 

Gold Dome Blood Drive

Team Au was proud to host yet another successful Gold Dome Blood Drive this past week with our partners at Life South, supplying life-saving blood to several hospitals in the metro Atlanta area!

This is especially meaningful as we continue to champion the passage of HB 334, The Sickle Cell Disease Protection Act, sponsored by our friend Rep. Omari Crawford. Georgia has among the highest number of patients with Sickle Cell Disease in the nation, and many patients with SCD require blood transfusions, particularly during painful or life-threatening crises. 

It is meaningful to be able to so directly help patients in this way, and we look forward to continuing this proud legislative tradition at the Gold Dome next year!

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It has never been more important to pay attention to the work of state legislatures. Thank you as ever for your support so that we can keep doing this most important work together.

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to our office should you need any assistance, or if you have any concerns you’d like me to address on your behalf.

It is my honor to be your voice in the Georgia House of Representatives.

In service,