Issue Campaign Toolkit · Rhonna-Rose
How a Bill Moves in Georgia
A field guide for new advocates who care about the issue and need to understand the process. Read it, research as you go, and hand it back as a completed brief.
The Structure: What You Are Working With
Georgia has a bicameral legislature called the General Assembly. It is one of the largest state legislatures in the country with 236 total members. It meets annually, which is different from Arkansas, but the 40 legislative day cap and Crossover Day create real urgency inside each session.
56 senators. Two-year terms. Republicans hold a 33-23 majority as of 2025, which is a majority but not a supermajority. The Lieutenant Governor serves as president of the Senate and has unusual power over committee chair appointments. Find members at legis.ga.gov
180 representatives. Two-year terms. Republicans hold a 100-80 majority as of 2025. The Speaker of the House appoints committee chairs and controls floor scheduling. Find members at legis.ga.gov
In Georgia's Senate, committee chairs are appointed by a Committee on Assignments, which is chaired by the Lieutenant Governor. This is different from most states and from the House, where the Speaker appoints chairs directly. It means the Lieutenant Governor has significant influence over which senators lead which committees, and therefore over which issues get heard. Know who the Lieutenant Governor is and what their priorities are before you assume a committee chair is a friend or an obstacle.
Is there already a bill introduced related to your issue? If so, what is the bill number, which chamber introduced it, and what is its current status?
The Path: How a Bill Actually Becomes Law
Georgia's bill path has a step that most states do not have: a Rules Committee vote after the standing committee passes a bill. This is a second gatekeeper, and it is one of the most important things to understand about how Georgia works.
After a bill passes out of its standing committee, it does not automatically go to a floor vote. In both chambers, the Rules Committee decides which bills get scheduled for a floor vote and when. In the House, the Rules Committee meets early each morning and its decisions are largely controlled by the Speaker. In the Senate, it meets after each legislative day. A bill that passes committee but never gets scheduled by Rules never gets a floor vote. You need to track both gates: the standing committee and the Rules Committee.
Around Day 28 of the 40-day session, Crossover Day occurs. After this date, no new bills can be introduced and bills that have not passed at least one chamber cannot move forward. Bills that pass one chamber by Crossover Day cross over to the other chamber for consideration. Bills that miss Crossover Day are dead for that session and must be reintroduced the following year. Your real deadline is not the end of session. It is Crossover Day. Find out the date for the current session on the first day it opens and count backwards from there.
Georgia has two gatekeepers: the standing committee chair who decides whether your bill gets a hearing, and the Rules Committee that decides whether it gets a floor vote. You have to clear both. Know who runs both before you make your first call.
What is Crossover Day for the current session? How many legislative days are left before it? Check legis.ga.gov for the session calendar.
What committee has your bill been assigned to, or what committee would logically handle your issue?
Who chairs the Rules Committee in the chamber where your bill lives and what do you know about their relationship to your issue?
Finding the Right Committee
Georgia has 29 standing Senate committees and 44 standing House committees as of the 2025 session, with no joint committees between the two chambers. That means there are more committees here than in most states, and your bill will be assigned to one of them. Here is how to find it and understand who controls it.
Go to the official committee list
The Georgia General Assembly's full committee directory lives at legis.ga.gov/committees. You can filter by House or Senate. Each committee page shows the chair, vice chair, all members, and any referred bills. This is your starting point for every committee-related question.
Committee name most relevant to your issue:
Chamber (House or Senate):
Find the chair and understand how they got there
In the House, the Speaker appoints committee chairs. In the Senate, the Committee on Assignments chaired by the Lieutenant Governor makes appointments. This means the path to a committee chair is different in each chamber. A House chair owes their appointment to the Speaker. A Senate chair owes it to the Lieutenant Governor and the Committee on Assignments. Knowing who put them in that seat tells you who they are accountable to.
Committee chair name and party:
Vice chair name and party:
All other committee members (name and party):
Count the votes and assess the majority margin
Republicans hold majorities in both chambers but do not have a supermajority in either, which is meaningfully different from Arkansas. A simple majority is enough for most legislation. That means you have more potential persuadable votes to work with, but you still need Republicans to move anything. Identify which Republicans on your target committee have any history of crossing party lines or represent competitive districts.
Total committee members and votes needed to pass:
Republican members who represent competitive districts or have crossed party lines:
Finding Each Member: What You Need to Know
Georgia is a large and geographically diverse state. What moves a legislator from a metro Atlanta district is different from what moves one from rural South Georgia. District context is especially important here.
Find their official profile and district
Every member has a profile at legis.ga.gov/members. You can search by name or filter by chamber. Profiles include contact information, committee assignments, and district information. Use the district finder at legis.ga.gov/districts to look up who represents any given address.
Look up their voting history on similar bills
The Georgia General Assembly's bill search and vote history is at legis.ga.gov/legislation. Search for bills from previous sessions on your issue area. Look at committee votes as well as floor votes. Committee votes are often where you see members' real positions before public pressure shapes the floor vote.
Check campaign finance and lobbyist disclosure
Georgia's State Ethics Commission handles campaign finance and lobbyist disclosures. Campaign contribution records are searchable at ethics.ga.gov. Lobbyists must file reports monthly during session, so you can also see which industries and organizations are actively lobbying your target members while session is open. This is live intelligence during a session, not just background research.
Watch the committee hearings live
All full committee meetings and floor sessions are live-streamed and archived at legis.ga.gov. Watching how a member engages in committee, what questions they ask, and where they push back tells you more about their real position than any public statement. If you cannot be in Atlanta, watch online and take notes.
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Who to Contact First: The Elected Official or the Staff?
Georgia's General Assembly is a part-time legislature. Most members have day jobs and manage lean offices. Staff resources are limited compared to full-time legislatures. This makes your preparation more important, not less, because staff have even less time to educate advocates on the basics.
Georgia legislators have day jobs. Their staff are managing more than they have time to do well. The advocate who walks in with a clear ask, a one-page brief, and a specific connection to the member's district gets a meeting. Everyone else gets noted and forgotten.
| Who | What they do | When to contact them first | How to find them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legislative Aide or Chief of Staff | In a part-time legislature with lean offices, many Georgia members have one primary staff person who handles everything: policy, scheduling, constituent services, and communications. This person briefs the member and controls access. They are your most important contact. | Always first. Before you try to reach the member directly. Before you send anything to a general inbox. Find this person's name before you call. | Call the member's office at the Capitol and ask directly. Staff listings are sometimes on member profile pages at legis.ga.gov. The House clerk's office at 404-656-5015 and the Senate secretary's office at 404-656-5040 can also help you locate contacts. |
| Committee Clerk or Staff | Manages the committee's schedule, agendas, and records. Knows when hearings are planned before they are publicly posted. Essential contact for tracking when and whether your bill is being scheduled. | When you want to know if a hearing is being considered. A polite inquiry to the committee staff asking about the schedule is appropriate. Hearing notices are posted on a bulletin board outside each committee office and on monitors in the Legislative Office Building, but calling ahead gives you earlier intelligence. | Contact information is on the committee's page at legis.ga.gov/committees. Committee meeting notices can also be found through the House clerk's office and the Senate secretary's office. |
| Rules Committee Staff | Tracks which bills have been cleared by their standing committee and are eligible for floor scheduling. In the House, the Rules Committee meets early each morning and its schedule is largely set by the Speaker's priorities. | After your bill has passed standing committee and you need to understand whether it will be scheduled for a floor vote before Crossover Day or before the end of session. Do not wait until after committee passage to start tracking Rules. | Through the House Rules Committee page at legis.ga.gov/committees and through the Speaker's office. For the Senate, through the Senate Rules Committee page. |
| Governor's Floor Leaders | Members appointed by the Governor to introduce bills on the Governor's behalf and advance the Governor's legislative priorities. If your issue has executive branch support, these members are allies with direct access to leadership in both chambers. | When your issue aligns with the Governor's stated priorities and you want to understand whether the executive branch can help move your bill. Floor leaders have access and relationships that most members do not. | The Governor's office at gov.georgia.gov announces floor leader appointments at the start of each session. |
| The Elected Official | The vote. The decision-maker. In a part-time legislature, members spend significant time in their districts and at their day jobs when not in session. During session, access is concentrated at the Capitol. | After staff engagement. At public committee hearings where testimony is open. At constituent town halls during the interim. Or when a trusted community member or coalition partner makes the introduction directly. | Committee hearings are open and live-streamed. The Capitol hallways on the third floor are where advocates traditionally connect with members between floor sessions. The velvet rope areas outside the chambers are designated contact zones. |
For each priority legislator, find and record their primary staff contact name, phone, and email:
How to Actually Make Contact
In a 40 legislative day session where Crossover Day falls around Day 28, speed and precision matter. You do not have the luxury of a slow relationship-building process during session. You need to have built the relationships during the interim and be ready to activate them the moment session opens.
Do your relationship building during the interim, not during session
Georgia legislators are much more accessible between sessions when they are in their districts. The interim is the time to introduce yourself, meet with staff, attend town halls, and build the relationships you will need when session opens. An advocate who walks into session with an existing relationship with a member's staff is in a fundamentally different position than one starting from zero in January.
Have your one-page brief ready before session opens
Your one-pager should state: what the issue is in plain language, what specific action you are asking the member to take, why it matters to their district, and who in the district is affected. Have it ready before the session starts, not after. Send it to key staff contacts the week before session opens so it is already in their hands when the 40-day clock starts.
We are asking [member name] to [specific action] [bill name or number] because [one sentence on why it matters to their district].
Know the Capitol geography
The Georgia State Capitol is a working building during session. Third floor hallways outside the chambers are where advocates traditionally connect with members between floor sessions. Committee hearing rooms are in the Legislative Office Building (the Coverdell Building). Committee notices are posted on bulletin boards outside each committee office. Know where you are going before you arrive.
Track every contact in writing
Log every call, meeting, and email. In a compressed session where things move fast, undocumented contacts become gaps in your intelligence. Your campaign director needs the full picture to make good decisions about where to put energy next.
Hearings, Testimony, and the Public Record
Committee hearings in Georgia are open to the public and live-streamed. Members of the public can sign in to speak during committee meetings. Both in-person and written testimony become part of the public record and shape what legislators and staff know about your issue.
Committee hearing notices are posted on bulletin boards outside each committee office at the Capitol and on monitors in the Coverdell Legislative Office Building. Meeting calendars are also posted at legis.ga.gov. Hearings can be called with very short notice during session. Call the committee clerk regularly to ask about the schedule. Do not rely only on the website during an active session.
For archived video: House meetings are at legis.ga.gov/house/media-services and Senate meetings are at legis.ga.gov/senate/press-office under video resources.
Constituents from inside the district of a persuadable committee member carry the most weight. Experts from outside Georgia carry the least. Lead with people directly affected by the issue who can speak to their lived experience, especially if they live in a competitive district or the district of a Republican you are trying to move. Written testimony is accepted even if you cannot appear in person and becomes part of the permanent committee record.
Has a hearing been scheduled for your bill? If so, when, where, and which committee?
Who in your coalition should testify? Do they live in the district of a persuadable committee member?
Your Completed Research Brief
This is what you hand back. Fill in everything you have found. Your campaign director uses this to build strategy. Note anything you still need to find and how you plan to find it.
| Item | What you found | Source or URL | Still need? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crossover Day date this session | |||
| Legislative days remaining before Crossover | |||
| Bill number and sponsor | |||
| Chamber it started in | |||
| Standing committee assigned to | |||
| Committee chair name and party | |||
| Chair's staff contact name and email | |||
| Votes needed to pass committee | |||
| Confirmed yes votes on committee | |||
| Persuadable committee members | |||
| Rules Committee chair for this chamber | |||
| Hearing scheduled (date and room) | |||
| Companion bill in other chamber | |||
| Governor's known position |
Based on your research, what should the first move be? Who should be contacted first and by whom? What is the biggest obstacle? Given Crossover Day, what has to happen in the next two weeks?
Georgia's most distinctive features are Crossover Day, the Rules Committee as a second gatekeeper, and the Lieutenant Governor's unusual role in Senate committee appointments. Most states do not have all three. When adapting this guide for another state, check whether it has a crossover date, how the Rules or Calendar committee works, and who controls committee chair appointments in each chamber.
The National Conference of State Legislatures at ncsl.org has a directory of every state legislature with links to official sites. The questions and research fields in this guide work everywhere, even when the specific rules differ.
A Note on Doing This Work in Georgia
Georgia is a state where the margin matters. Republicans hold majorities but not supermajorities, which means persuadable votes exist in both chambers if you know where to look and who to ask. The window is short, the session moves fast, and the advocates who do the relationship-building work in the interim are the ones who are ready when the clock starts in January.
The people closest to your issue are your most powerful testimony. Bring them in. The legislature streams everything. Use it. And know your Crossover Day before you know anything else.
Nothing skipped. Nothing assumed. Nothing wasted.
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