Federal Legislative Agenda

2021 Federal Legislative Agenda

We support initiatives which will improve healthcare and the provision of healthcare by hospitals in the non-urban areas of our State.
We support transparency in the billing of healthcare provided by hospitals, and practices related to patient care.
We support all reasonable means of supplementing costs of medical services and support provided by South Georgia Medical Center, a major economic engine in South Georgia.
We support broadband expansion for telehealth and health information technology.

We support ensuring that training and retraining programs are aligned to the needs of employers based on accurate and timely local labor market data.
We support employer-led “earn and learn” opportunities, including apprenticeships, and that students should receive academic credit for participating in such programs.
We support financially incentivizing more effective partnerships between local educational institutions and the business sector to train an effective workforce.
We support the partnership among families, schools, and the business community to promote and prepare local students and graduates to fill the demand for a highly skilled and competitive workforce.

We support continued efforts to design, fund, and build a permanent US 84 truck by-pass route to divert truck traffic from Valdosta’s Central Downtown District thus enhancing the district’s vitality as well as the trucking industry’s safety and efficiency.
We support the funding mechanisms in the Transportation Funding Act (HB 170) that help meet Georgia’s transportation needs, oppose efforts to repeal any of TFA’s funding mechanisms, and also support investigating ways to soften the impact of the hotel/motel fee on our hospitality industry.
We support additional funding in the state budget for regional airport upgrades as well as for upgrades and repairs for short line rail infrastructure to improve freight movement across Georgia.
We support legislation funding The Arts as an economic development strategy.
We support reimplementation of the Sales Tax Holiday.
We support current and future tax credits to encourage investment in rehabilitation of historic buildings and landmarks.
We support tax credits and incentives for development of affordable workforce housing.

We support facilitating military spouse career transition through immediate universal professional licensure portability.
We support the employment of Military Spouses by local, intrastate, interstate and international companies/corporations, as a matter of priority, to provide Military Spouse career continuity when relocating with their Military Member.
We support improving the Georgia ranking in overall quality of educational outcomes in public K-12 school systems.
More specifically, we support local education improvements for military children to enhance Moody AFB ratings for new missions/weapons systems and other basing decisions.
We support efforts to expand broadband Internet Services in areas where military installations are located and where military personnel live, and we support Moody AFB transition to 5G capabilities.

We support passage of legislation to require local governments to remove burdensome landscape and signage regulation that are placed on businesses through local governmental planning and zoning departments. This greatly increases the costs to local business expansion, and threatens the productivity and survival of the business sector.
We support ta timely review by local governments for processing permits and plans submitted by individuals, real estate developers, and building contractors.