Georgia House adopts order of business and places dozens of bills on first reading

Speaker John Burns opened the House floor, called members to the chamber and asked for the morning presence vote before the clerk read a resolution establishing the order of business for the day. "Is there any objection to your adoption of the resolution establishing the order of business for the day?" Burns asked; hearing none, he declared the resolution adopted.

The clerk then read a lengthy slate of House bills and resolutions placed on first reading, covering a range of subjects including amendments to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated on judicial jurisdiction, education, public safety, natural resources, veterans' cemeteries, employment security and state employee health insurance. The readings did not include debate on individual measures; captions in the clerk's reading listed committee referrals for each bill.

Representative Lynn Smith, chair of the Committee on Natural Resources and Environment, reported the committee's consideration and filed a recommendation that House Resolution 1008 "do pass." The committee report was entered into the record by the clerk.

By adopting the order of business and reading bills for first consideration, the House completed routine procedural steps that place measures into committee for further action. Most of the bills read were identified by caption and committee to which they were referred; substantive hearings or votes on the bills themselves were not recorded during the session.