The Georgia House of Representatives reconvened at the State Capitol on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, to begin the sixth week of the legislative session following the President’s Day holiday. By the end of the week, we completed Legislative Day 22-meaning we are officially more than halfway through the 2026 legislative session.
Over the course of the week, we passed numerous pieces of legislation. I have listed some of them here:
House Bill 1063 would prohibit electric utilities from passing along costs tied to building and maintaining data centers.
House Bill 419 would require institutions within the University System of Georgia and Technical College System of Georgia to make opioid antagonists, such as naloxone, readily available to students and university personnel. By expanding access to life-saving medications on our college campuses, students and staff would be able to respond more quickly and, ultimately, prevent opioid overdose deaths and save lives.
House Bill 256, legislation that would rename the “Foster Parents Bill of Rights” to the “Foster Placements Bill of Rights,” meaningfully expanding protection of foster care providers under state law. The bill would extend the same statutory rights afforded to traditional foster parents to relative caregivers.
We continued to focus on policies impacting children in foster care with the passage of House Bill 943, which would further support Georgia’s foster children, particularly those who may identify as having autism spectrum disorder.
House Bill 970 would expand the list of qualified healthcare professionals who can conduct sports physicals. This measure would increase timely access to care for student athletes, particularly those in rural and underserved communities.
We focused on improving safety on our roadways by passing House Bill 1161. This bipartisan legislation would require drivers to move as far as possible to the right-hand side of the roadway when an emergency or law enforcement vehicle approaches in an official capacity to conduct a traffic stop.
House Bill 1061, known as the Mandi Ballinger Act, in honor of our late colleague and former chair of the House Judiciary Juvenile Committee, recognizing her years of commitment advocating for juvenile justice reform. Georgia treats most 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system-one of only a few states that still does this—and this legislation would initiate a formal planning process to determine how the state could align with other states that have raised the juvenile court age to 18. Juvenile courts often focus on accountability and rehabilitation, helping young people redirect their lives before adulthood and reducing recidivism and improving long-term outcomes.
House Bill 662, would amend the definition of “rural hospital organization” to include “rural freestanding emergency department.” The organization would be required to have its primary campus in a rural county and be licensed to provide maternal and newborn services or have at least five percent of its annual net revenue categorized as indigent care, charity care, or bad debt.
House Bill 1022, would prohibit any person from operating a motor vehicle with electric tinting applied or affixed to its windshields or windows.House Bill 1086, or the “Preston Fant and Brant Chesney Firefighter Safety Act,” which would require the owner of any commercial or industrial building to post a notice that the building was constructed using light-frame truss-type construction, to ensure the safety of the first responders.
