There has been an influx of hearings as of late in the state Senate and House, as legislators are already preparing for what will likely be a contentious session come January. These hearings include rural development issues, curbing distracted driving, improving health care access, insurance billing issues, transit funding mechanisms and medical marijuana, to name just a few. In all, there are 24 separate study committees in 2017 devoted to hearings on a specific topic in the off session, in addition to the already 67 standing committees that can call for a hearing. The most recent of interest to credit unions were:
- On October 20th GCUA engaged with the House Science and Technology Committee hearing devoted to data privacy, data security, data breaches and the overall collection of data by businesses, and began to weigh options on what the state Legislature could do to change the laws. This topic will require close monitoring and engagement, as the state could easily legislate an undesirable reaction to the Equifax breach with unintended consequences for credit unions.
- On October 23rd Interstate Cooperation Committee Chairman Matt Dollar (R-Marietta) held a hearing on his legislation from last year (H.B. 579) which seeks to regulate how governments treat short-term vacation rental property. GCUA monitored this closely to ensure that there were no implications on credit union lending procedures or additional requirements placed on the mortgage holder.
- And as of press time on October 27th GCUA is attending the Senate Special Tax Exemption Study Committee’s fourth hearing dedicated to analyzing tax breaks and exemptions in Georgia – an issue watched closely to protect credit unions and the members they serve. For details on the most recent hearing of this committee please click here, and stay tuned for more developments.
