If you have not taken advantage of advance voting, please remember to vote this Tuesday in the presidential preference primary election. For more information, such as voter identification requirements and precinct locations, please visit: https://dklbweb.dekalbga.org/voter/pdf/electi onFacts08.pdf

General Assembly Reconvenes. After being in recess for a week to conduct budget hearings, the House considered several major pieces of legislation last week.

Punishing Dog-Fighting. House Bill 301, which passed on a bipartisan vote of 165-6, provides long-overdue criminal penalties for those convicted of transporting dogs for fights, training dogs to fight and attending dog fights.

Credit Freeze. Another important measure to pass the House was HB 130, which gives consumers the ability to freeze their credit reports to protect against identity theft. This measure also received overwhelming bipartisan support, passing by a margin of 167-2.

Sex-Offender Restrictions. A third House bill (HB 908), which passed the House on a vote of 141- 29, places restrictions on where convicted sex offenders can live and where they can volunteer. The bill was introduced in response to a Georgia Supreme Court decision striking down a similar law on constitutional grounds. It attempts to remedy the defect that the Court found in the earlier law, which, in requiring an existing homeowner to move, permitted the "taking" of the homeowner's property "without just and adequate compensation."

Firearms. Another measure of note was House Bill 89, which greatly expands where Georgia citizens may carry firearms. Among other rights, the bill allows licensed gun owners to carry their weapons into restaurants, places of worship, parks, historic sites, recreational and wildlife management areas as well as onto public transportation. The bill prevents employers, subject to certain limitations, from prohibiting guns in their parking lots. I believe that the provisions of this bill are overly broad and will not make average citizens safer, despite the express intentions of its supporters. For these reasons, I voted against the measure.

Committee Action. HB 896, my proposal to establish a tax holiday for the purchase of certain water-efficient products, took another step toward becoming law when it was reviewed at a House Ways & Means subcommittee hearing. At the hearing, representatives from both the Georgia Retail Association and the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District testified in support of the measure.

Transportation. The Joint Study Committee for Transportation funding released their findings last week. They have identified several areas and funding options to help alleviate our traffic woes. No legislation has been filed yet, but I will keep you updated as the session progresses.

Sponsored Legislation. Last week, I co- sponsored legislation to allow for the creation of townships. House Resolution 1079 is a constitutional amendment allowing the General Assembly to create townships. I also co-sponsored House Bill 997, the Witness Identification Accuracy Enhancement Act, to adopt procedures for enhancing the accuracy of witness identification.

If you are interested in more detail about what happened at the General Assembly this session, then please feel free to call or write me or visit the General Assembly website: www.legis.ga.gov. The website provides direct access to the text of legislation and vote tallies as well as schedules and live coverage of committee meetings.

(Another resource is offered when the General Assembly is in session by Georgia Public Broadcasting through a television program called "Lawmakers," which airs daily at 7 PM and rebroadcasts at 5:30 AM the following morning. The program covers each day's events at the Capitol.)

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