Tillery: Week Four Under the Gold Dome

Four weeks down; roughly eight more to go.

The Senate continued its press to advance common sense legislation. Here’s a quick update on some of the bills I’ve authored: Senate Bill 21,

which I authored to create penalties for local governments and officials who refuse to enforce Georgia’s immigration laws, passed out of the Senate Public Safety Committee and will likely be on the Senate floor on the coming days.

Senate Bill 39, my bill to ban tax state dollars from paying for transgender surgeries, passed out of the Senate Insurance Committee and will also likely be on the Senate floor by the end of this month.

My bill to stop debanking in Georgia has been assigned to the Senate Banking Committee and I hope we hear it soon.

I filed a new bill this week, Senate Bill 91, which deals with our independent pharmacists and pharmacy benefit managers (“PBM”). Bigger pharmacy chains now have the power through PBM’s to set prices low for independent pharmacies but higher for the pharmacies they own themselves for the exact same prescription. This isn’t fair and my bill goes right at the heart of these price games.

This week, the Senate also passed Senate Bill 1, the Save Girls Sports Act, which simply makes clear boys should not be participating in girls sports. 78% of Americans agree with this and I bet the percentage is even higher in Georgia.

The House passed the Amended FY 2025 budget Thursday, so now the majority of my time will flip to perfecting the State’s budget. Senate Appropriations Subcommittees begin Monday morning at 7:00 a.m.

If you have any other questions about bills or legislation, please don’t hesitate to reach out. As always, thank you for the opportunity to serve you in the Georgia Senate.

Sen. Blake Tillery serves as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. He represents the 19th Senate District, which includes Appling, Bacon, Jeff Davis, Long, Montgomery, Tattnall, Telfair, Toombs, Wayne and Wheeler counties, as well as a portion of Coffee County. He can be reached at (404) 656-5038 or by email at Blake.Tillery@senate. ga.gov.

By Sen. Blake Tillery (R-Vidalia)