Rules 2.3.26

Morning, everybody. If you will, go ahead and take seats, and we'll we'll get started. We're going to open the meeting, ask, Representative Williams, if you would, to, open us with a prayer this morning.

That about we were years, god of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far on the way. Most holy and everlasting god, again, we come thanking you, thanking you for the many blessings. We thank you, lord, for those things that we did not see that you protected us from. And now, Lord, we gather as a unit. We ask you to be with us, control us, make sure that we remember that we sit for the people of Georgia, not for each other.

For it is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thank you, sir. It's come to my attention that some of the members may not have a binder at your desk where you're sitting. Let me encourage all the members to sit toward the front, maybe on the first three rows or so. So we'll make sure that we get everybody, but we want to make sure Has everybody got one now? We should have enough, but we want to make sure everybody gets one.

Okay. If if not, let us know. We'll try to make sure we get those around for everybody. Okay. Let's go ahead and, see what we got this morning.

Representative Bonner.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I didn't realize you did this meeting just for me. I really appreciate that. It is an important bill.

I'm bringing before you House Bill nine eighty. This bill creates the Georgia Ireland Trade Commission, which is a 15 member commission composed of appointees from the House, the Senate, and the Governor's office. If, passage of this bill will join 25 other states that currently have this, and another 15 or so that have this pending. But this creates the commission that allows us to, interact and, enhance our trade relationships with the country of Ireland, which as you may know is the is currently the largest English speaking country that still is in the EU. So by, one of the benefits of this is gives us access directly to those EU markets through the country of Ireland.

We've got strong cultural and economic ties with Ireland already. They're one of our larger trading partners, and this will further enhance that effort for us. There's no cost, to the state, and all of the funds that are, utilized for this purpose are to be raised, from private, entities. So with that, mister chairman, I'll entertain any questions.

Okay. If you have any questions, Don't see any. Thanks, sir. Alright.

Thank you.

Okay. We don't have anyone else on the wall over there. Chairman Williams, you have a request, right?

Yes, sir. That should Thank yes, sir. Can you hear me? Yep. Thank you, mister chairman.

Members of the committee, I bring before you to this morning. House bill nine forty five is halfway down on your blue, on the front of the blue sheet. It's LC62031 zero S. This is the Department of Banking and Finance's annual housekeeping bill. As always, it comes with a a full support of all the regulated industries.

There's been many discussions and meetings over the off session. As we continue to streamline, improve efficiencies, and, better protect consumers of Georgia through our whole entire banking financial landscape, there's three measures in this that included this bill of a particular importance that I'd like to highlight. The first is for the first time, we're gonna, put some financial, protections for, for our elderly population where there's a suspicious activity, or if there's sufficient suspicions of financial fraud, it will allow institutions that have been trained, to spot financial fraud to be able to place a transaction hold of up to fifteen days. And, again, this would only apply to, citizens that are 65 or older, and it would, allow financial institutions institutions to request that, senior citizens, name a trusted contact on their accounts, that their financial institution could reach out to in the, in the situation where they might suspect that, grandmother or, granddaddy were was being a victim or or a parent victim of a financial fraud. We know what's going on in our society these days on that.

The second thing we're touching is first time. There are, there are kiosks, virtual ATMs that, ATMs across the state of Georgia that accept, that, you can do cryptocurrency transaction transaction zone. And right now, there's really no consumer protections for these, cryptocurrency ATMs. This bill would provide protections for the first time, user. That they would be protected.

They could only, deposit up to $2,500 on their first transaction. Subsequently, after they become a a frequent user of the ATM, the transactions could go up to $10,000 a day. But importantly, there would be clear disclosures, to the consumer, that the the transaction was irreversible. There was high risk of fraud in your in cryptocurrency subject to volatility. And the third thing is it's, adding some more, guardrails around litigation financing.

Right now, litigation financers financiers who were, approved during the tort reform legislation of last year, have to register just one time. This will require annual registration of financial, litigation, financers financiers, in case the company was sold. They just want we don't wanna know who owns, or they're not there's any criminals involved and who owns the financial litigation firm. So, that's a rather lengthy explanation. Mister chairman, happy to take any questions.

Okay. We've got a couple of questions. Sir. Cooperman, you have a question?

Yes. Yes.

Thank

you, mister chairman. It's not really a question. It's a request. As this bill, it moves forward, could you consider maybe, instead of just that one time at $2,500 maybe doing it two or three in case there's some way that they can get around them? This is the biggest area, one of the biggest areas for fraud for elderly people in the nation and they're taking hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars for people.

So thank you very much, but

It's it's a great question, chairlady. The and I fail to respond that that if if if the suspected financial abuse is reported within five days and and is is in fact financial fraud, then the kiosk operators will refund 100% of the transaction. So this this is a huge win for consumers in it all by itself. After five days, and you were able to prove it, you do get your fee back, which is right now, you don't get anything back. So it's a great step in the first, in in the right direction.

Thank you.

Okay. Quip Parks, is that yours?

Thank

you, mister chairman. Thank you for the bill. I I certainly appreciate, the safeguards to address, financial exploitation, especially of the of seniors. The one question I had was, you know, is there any recourse, to overcome this five day hold or, you know, up to fifteen additional days if it is something that, you know, an elderly person needs? You know, what if an elderly person has an emergency and needs these funds?

Is there a, you know, bypass mechanism that would address that type of situation?

Thank you. We're part of the attention question. That's what the trusted contact would be for. Obviously, no financial institution has to do this, but those that, go through training, it's all about protecting the customer. I can see your your concern.

I would have similar concerns, but you could take it up the ladder relatively quickly with management and get more eyeballs on the situation. This is just a good first step in preventing that fraud. Nobody wants to deny anybody access to their money for a legitimate purpose. We just don't want anybody to be abused. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. I don't see any other questions. Thank you, sir. Jim Chokos.

House bill seven zero four, and this bill simply, eliminates the unnecessary reporting from the Department of Audits for one report that deals with architects and engineers that do business with the state of Georgia. We do it monthly, and then they give a comprehensive one annually. The monthly one, the people that submit the information to the Department of Audits, only about 70% do it on a monthly basis, but a 100% do it on an annual basis. So the monthly reporting is inaccurate to begin with. We're not eliminating it.

We're just going from monthly to annually. And I don't have a list, but I could show you what the report looks like. I didn't prepare adequately this morning. I had another meeting. And it's just a list of architects and engineers.

And it just has the dollar amount of any contracts they do with about a 100 state agencies and and departments. That's all it does, and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Okay. I have a question. Leader Hugley, is that your

Thank you, mister chairman. To the gentleman, talk to us about why it's important to remove the subcontractors from the reporting.

I'm sorry. I don't understand that.

As part of what you're doing, you're removing the requirement for them to list their subcontractors. Explain why that's important.

I I don't I don't know how to answer that because that's not what I understand the bill does. The bill simply goes from monthly to annually, which we're already doing, but eliminates the process for monthly. That's all it does.

So let me just ask you this then. Why would you not go to a shorter interval? If you if you say a monthly is too burdensome, why would you not go to quarterly or semiannually as opposed to going from monthly to annually?

Okay. We've only got about 200 accounting personnel in the Department of Audits. And all we're trying to do is utilize their time wisely. That's all we're trying to do. It in committee, there were some off the wall questions that had no bearing whatsoever.

From what I understand, but I wasn't in the legislature at the time when this accounting was important. It was because they were afraid that the engineers in Atlanta, Georgia would monopolize the business of engineering and architecture throughout the state, and they wanted to make sure that engineers in the rural areas and architects in the rural areas would have a shot at that business. That's that's it.

Well, I understand that transparency is important, and that's why I don't understand why we would go from monthly just to an annual thing. But I If

I was if I I'm better prepared, I would have brought a copy of the of the document, and I'll give you one when we get to the chamber so you can see what I'm talking about.

K. We got a couple other questions. Whit, Michelle.

Yes,

sir. Thank you, mister Thank you, mister chairman. Thanks for bringing the bill, chairman Shokas. As as I read the the bill, on seventy and seventy one, line seventy, seventy one, it doesn't provide for any level. It says all all contracts, architect and engineering firms.

So so it's it doesn't seem to me that it'd be removing the subcontractors. It's all contracts, period, for architecture and engineering firms with the state. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Whit Park.

Thank you, mister chairman. Along the lines of what leader Hughley was asking and and how what you just stated earlier, you know, this monthly requirement was to prevent the monopolization of contracts, with the state of Georgia. My understanding is that, there's a 10% statutory limit, with respect to state contracts. How are you, you know, with this bill going to ensure that, we don't see this monopolization of state contracts since my understanding of moving from a monthly report to an annual report would potentially create a one year blind, blind spot essentially when it's retrospective as opposed to forward looking? Well, as I

said earlier, the source of the information, only 70% of the people are complying. And so the monthly reporting is not know, when they know, when they get a a contract, it's a long term situation. They've got it's like across the street in our new office building. That same architect and engineer is gonna be there throughout the project. So I and, historically, we haven't had any of that issue where one has monopolized it.

There's over 400 on the list, and I'll be happy to show you a copy of it because this passed out a committee unanimously last

year. Thank you.

K. Representative Evans, you have a question.

Thank you, mister chairman. Chairman Chokos, the I think the concern about the subcontractors comes because in lines 32 and then lines subs that are receiving, more than a certain dollar amount, that also has to be shared who those subcontractors are. That's all crossed out. And then starting at line 70 is where we're being specific about what's gonna happen going forward, and that's not there. And since the state is not contracting with subcontractors, they're only contracting with contractors, that means that information goes away.

And maybe that was inadvertent, but that's the concern. And I was wondering if you could speak to why we did decide to get rid of that subcontractor reporting.

Okay. If and as I said, I'm not completely prepared for this, and I apologize. But the way I understand it, these 100 agencies and departments do the, do the the contracts out individually. We don't have a state agency that's doing that, and it's based on the funding that we as the legislature, provide. So, you know

Okay. Leader of restoration.

Thank you, mister chairman. Chairman Chokos, is is my recollection correct that when this bill was considered in committee, the department indicated that the issue was that either reporting is not being made or when the reporting is done, the information may be inaccurate. And in order to provide actually greater transparency, there's a plan for there to be a dashboard where this information would be more accurate and readily available to Georgians who may want this information, actually providing greater transparency and greater public access.

Thank you, mister Leiter. I I appreciate you explaining it more better than I have. And going to that, on the Internet, it is on the Internet. That's how they they don't publish a book. They provide this information on the Internet every month.

It's available. And speaking to the dashboard, the dashboard is an interactive, way of reporting on the Internet. And so creating a dashboard, then the user could actually go out and, put in the parameters of what their search is on this report and find out, you know, how many contracts there were, what the amounts were, the length of time, the locations. This report doesn't provide all that information. It's just got a dollar amount and a a a date, and that's it.

Okay. Thank you, Chairman Coates. Obviously, there are several questions about this. Let me encourage the members, if you have some questions, to try to get with the author offline, and get your questions answered, so you, understand where we're going with it. Thanks, sir.

Okay. Let me tell you sort of where we are. We're not gonna set a calendar for tomorrow, Wednesday. We're gonna have judiciary come over and visit with us tomorrow, so that'll that'll take up some time. Then, it's my understanding that the Appropriations is gonna come out Thursday.

We have a committee meeting Thursday. So, what we will do as a Rules Committee is we will meet immediately upon adjournment of the Appropriations Committee, and set the calendar for Thursday, and put the budget on there, at that time. So that's where we are. There with that. So, let's go ahead and and set, a calendar for Thursday now.

It will be, legislative day 13 under the, modified structure September. Have a move in a second. Is there any opposition? It's on. So, that will be our calendar for Thursday, but, be aware that we will meet after the Appropriations finishes their meetings on, on Thursday.

Thank you.