e-Legislative Update

January 28, 2005          A review of current developments from the Georgia Bankers Association

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General Assembly Returns

The 2005 session of the Georgia General Assembly resumed this week after a 10-day recess to work on the budget and to get settled into their new offices.  Both the House and Senate continued to meet briefly in formal sessions to conduct routine business.  Most committees held organizational meetings.  The exception was the Senate Judiciary Committee which undertook the high-profile issue of civil justice reform discussed in more detail below.

House Banks and Banking Committee Holds Organizational Meeting

House Banks and Banking Committee Chairman, James Mills, chaired the organizational meeting for their committee on Wednesday.  The committee adopted the rules by which they will operate throughout the session.  He encouraged members to use legislation as a last resort to problems they are trying to address.  He asked the members to alert the Department of Banking and Finance to any alleged abuses they are hearing from their constituents and request the Department’s help in investigating complaints.  He recognized former chairman Johnny Floyd and said he would chair the committee in the same upright and fair manner which Rep. Floyd used to conduct meetings.  Much of the committee work will be done in the following subcommittees:  Financial Institutions and Services, Rep. Calvin Hill, Chair; Regulations and Oversight, Rep. Mike Coan, Chair; Technology, Rep. Johnny Floyd, Chair; Special, Rep. Earl Ehrhart, Chair.


Rep. Mills

Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee Meets

The Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee, chaired by Sen. Bill Hamrick held their organizational committee meeting this week.  The committee adopted their rules and will work as a full committee rather than have subcommittees since the number of members on the committee is so small. Chairman Hamrick encouraged each of the members to be actively involved in all committee meetings.


Sen. Hamrick

Civil Justice Reform Bill Clears Hurdle

The GBA has been participating in a coalition of business interests supporting changes to Georgia’s civil justice system to bring about positive changes in our court systems and give Georgians more insurance options, provide a more competitive business climate, and bring stability to the insurance market.  The coalition is coordinated by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.  This week, the reform legislation, S.B. 3, was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee after three days of intense debate.  Our thanks to Sen. Preston Smith for his leadership of this important committee.


Sen. Smith

Gift Card Disclosure GBA staff met this week with Sen. Chip Rogers to continue discussing his legislation, S.B. 13, that would require the disclosure of the expiration date and certain fees associated with the cards to be shown on the cards. The author has been extremely cooperative in understanding our concerns and has also met with the Banking Department to add additional language. You may remember legislation was debated last year that would have prohibited fees altogether, and it seems that there will be more emphasis on disclosure this year.


Sen. Rogers

Banking Department Housekeeping Bill

 The Department’s annual housekeeping bill, S.B. 82,  was dropped into the hopper this week by Sen. Bill Hamrick.  At press time, a number had not yet been assigned.  The Department discussed the bill with the GBA Board recently and we are supporting their efforts.  Of special interest to state-chartered banks is a provision that adds parity language to the Georgia Code giving the Department the authority to preempt state laws that have been preempted by federal law for nationally-chartered institutions. This language is similar in construction to the parity language included in the Georgia Fair Lending Act that was preempted by the Comptroller of the Currency.

Credit Unions Seek Additional Parity For the last two weeks, GBA staff has been meeting with representatives from the Georgia Credit Union Affiliates to discuss their interest in some additional housekeeping and parity issues for state chartered credit unions.  Most of what they are seeking is non-controversial and would ordinarily be in the Banking Department’s housekeeping bill.  However, there were several provisions that were objectionable and we have asked that these provisions be removed or modified in the draft bill.  We will keep you informed of these discussions as they move forward.

Judicial vs. Non-judicial Foreclosure

 The Atlanta Constitution is slated to run a series of four articles beginning Sunday discussing Georgia’s  laws that apply to lenders and borrowers.  The reporters have been working over a year on the stories and we understand they will focus on our non-judicial foreclosure statute, the title pawn industry, the small loan companies and credit insurance.  In discussing the issue with the reporters, we expect the stories and recommendations from their editorial board to suggest radical changes in how our current laws are written.  There has been some discussion to eliminate or substantially reduce the non-judicial foreclosure laws in Georgia. The concept is being pushed by some of the same advocates for the old version of the Georgia Fair Lending Act. GBA has already taken a position in support of retaining the current non-judicial foreclosure laws in Georgia. Judicial foreclosure is already required on loans made under the revised GFLA which addresses the need.

Meth Lab Cleanup

We met this week with authors of several bills that would create rules and liability for cleaning up houses, vehicles and other places that have been quarantined by law enforcement as meth labs.  The original legislation was to include liability for lienholders to be among those with clean up responsibility.  We understand after talking with the authors that this particular provision will not be in the bills when they are introduced, but the committees may want to include some liability for clean up. Our concern with this legislation is similar to the concerns we have had over the years with other environmental contaminations that the lender might have been forced to clean up but with which the lender had no role in creating.

GBA Keeps You Informed

GBA’s Legislative Update is intended to keep you apprised of the bills that the GBA is tracking on the industry’s behalf and is sent on Fridays during the session.  On Fridays when the Update is not mailed, it will be sent electronically to those who have provided us with their email addresses.  The ‘State Issues’ section of GBA Online, GBA’s home page, is linked to the website maintained by the General Assembly and assures that you will have the latest version of any bill being tracked by the GBA.

GBA Lobbyists

GBA is represented this year every day at the Capitol by our three lobbyists:  Joe Brannen, Elizabeth Chandler and Don Browne.  Give them a call if you have questions about any legislation.  Don’t forget to check the 2005 State Issues link on GBA’s website for up-to-the-minute status of bills being followed this session.

Joe Brannen, Direct phone, (404) 420-2026
 Elizabeth Chandler, Direct phone, (404) 420-2027
 Don Browne, Direct phone, (404) 522-1501

The electronic version of GBA's Legislative Update will be published regularly during the 2005 session of the Georgia General Assembly.  Let GBA's Lydia Thomas know of others you would like to add to our distribution list.

State Legislative Issues l Georgia General Assembly