Religious freedom bill signed into law as Ga. lawmakers rush to finish work
ATLANTA, Ga. - The final day of the legislative session in Georgia will likely turn into a late Friday night for lawmakers as they work to push through last minute bills and pass the fiscal year 2026 budget.
Any bills that don’t pass by the end of the day are officially dead. Sponsors would have to start over on those bills next year.
“Working with the General Assembly this year, we’ve done a lot this legislative session,” said Gov. Brian Kemp.
For the past 40 days, lawmakers have passed some high-profile bills with some early morning meetings and late-night votes in the process.
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“I tell people all the time, don’t look at the national, look at your state because the state actually gets things done. I’m not always satisfied with what we get done, but we actually do things and make things better,” said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones.
Some of the bills passed include numerous school safety measures, as well as controversial measures like banning transgender girls from playing in girls sports.
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Kemp signed the closely watched Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law Friday morning.
The RFRA law would offer stronger protections to religious Georgians from the state and from local governments, allowing them more room to express their religious beliefs, said the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Ed Setzler (R-Acworth).
It’s a piece of legislation that some Democrats, like Jones, say they have concerns over.
“It would actually allow a person to actually discriminate potentially against persons, especially LGBTQ persons,” he said.
However, Kemp had this message just moments after signing the bill Friday morning.
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“Despite signing that legislation today, Georgia still remains a state that is a state that there is no place for hate, and I can assure all Georgians of that today,” he said.
Another major component of Sine Die is that both the House and Senate still need to finalize the budget. They’re going to have to battle it out until they come to an agreement because that is one thing that, by law, must be passed by the end of the day.
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