Committees in the state Legislature are where the bills are hashed out, debated, and passed, or end their journey without moving forward. The chairmen of these committees set the agendas, and while there have been some notable changes in both the House and Senate chairmanships, the two banking committees have the continuation of the two chairmen, Sen. William Ligon (R-Brunswick) and Rep. Greg Morris (R-Vidalia), to lead these key committees for credit unions. And while there are 67 official committees that require monitoring for potential issues, a few key chairman changes of note to credit unions include:
- House Judiciary is now chaired by Rep. Barry Fleming (R-Harlem); this committee has historically tackled lending bills, business and board member liability, as well as foreclosure statutes.
- House Ways and Means is now chaired by Rep. Brett Harrell (R-Snellville); this committee is where tax bills should be assigned, and where the wire transfer fee issue was stopped in the past two years. This committee always has a large workload as tax bills must originate in the House (and not the Senate).
- House Motor Vehicles is now chaired by Rep. John Corbett (R-Lake Park); this committee addresses any type of bill that touches motor vehicles, including the towing notification bills that GCUA has been engaged on in past sessions.
- House Rules is now chaired by Rep. Jay Powell (R-Camilla); this committee is powerful as it sets the agenda for the full House. A bill could pass its committee (like Banking, Motor Vehicles), but if it doesn’t pass Rules, it’s dead.
There’re several other changes in the Senate and the House, and with the 40 new legislators some growing pains this session are to be anticipated. Stay tuned!
