| | 143rd Edition | January
13,
2023 |
| |
| State Affairs | On January 9, the Georgia 2023 Legislative session convened with one of the largest, most diverse groups of newcomers ever to assemble under the Gold Dome. The Senate will have 10 new members while the House will have 43 newcomers. Both the House and Senate will have new leadership, as well as a new Speaker of the House for the first time in 12 years.
Overall, the General Assembly will have 155 men and 81 women, 151 of whom are white and 83 of whom are people of color, including immigrants from Nigeria, the Caribbean, and Bangladesh. There will also be bipartisan Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Hispanic caucuses for the first time. The 236-member Georgia General Assembly is the third largest in the nation.
Emory’s state team, Sydney Wilkins and Emlyn Langlieb, will be at the statehouse every day the legislators are present and working. Click here for a list of key dates related to the 2023 state session.
Governor Kemp’s Inauguration
On January 12, President Fenves and Carmel Fenves attended the swearing in of Governor Brian Kemp. Below, they congratulate the new Speaker of the House, Jon Burns. |
| |
|  | | | Below are Emory leaders who attended the Inaugural Gala for Governor Brian Kemp. |
| |
|  | Federal Affairs | | Last week, it took an historical fifteen rounds of voting to determine the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the 118th Congress. Normally, these interparty discussions happen behind closed doors; however, this year, Speaker McCarthy’s very narrow majority brought the fight to the House Floor. To win the Speakership, McCarthy made a number of key concessions to the conservative Freedom Caucus: freezing spending at 2022 levels, allowing an individual member to force a “Motion to Vacate” (i.e., a vote to oust him), and giving Freedom Caucus members three of the nine Republican seats on the Rules Committee (which decides which bills and amendments are considered on the Floor). These concessions promise to make an already unruly and narrow majority even more difficult to control.
The new Speaker was able to pass a “Rules Package” this week, which was viewed as the first test of his leadership. The package codifies the concessions described above and includes other provisions, such as the creation of a Judiciary subcommittee to investigate the “weaponization of the federal government” and an agreement to hold votes on individual spending bills rather than packaging them in an omnibus. At some point later this year, the House will have to find compromise with the Democratic Senate and the White House on raising the debt ceiling and funding the government -- or risk defaulting on the national debt and a government shutdown. It is worth noting that, while the House was gripped by intra-party fighting, an extraordinary event occurred on a bridge in Kentucky. President Biden and Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell appeared together to celebrate funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law, passed last year, that will help repair a bridge connecting Kentucky to Ohio.
The contrast between the House and the Senate could not be more stark. Now, Congress and the President must figure out how to navigate this complicated political dynamic -- all while preparing for a contentious 2024 Presidential election. |
| |
| Community Affairs | | On February 22, the OGCA team is partnering with Emory University’s Human Resources Department to host a hiring fair in the City of Stonecrest. The hiring fair will be held from 10am to 3pm at Browns Mill Recreation Center. Several HR departments will be present, including the Emory Police Department, Winship Cancer Institute, School of Medicine, The Carter Center, and Emory Temporary Services. Please spread the word with your friends, family and neighbors. |
| |
|
