GEORGIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Communications Office 
Room 609, Legislative Office Building Atlanta, GA 30334 404-656-0305 Phone 404-656-5639 Fax 
WEEKLY SUMMARY 
 
March 27-30, 2007 
 
Legislative Week # 9 
 
The House reconvened this Tuesday, known as "CrossOver Day," and debated bills on the rules calendar as well as 2 supplemental rules calendars. Among the many bills were discussed, were House Bill 94, the budget, House Bill 340 pertaining to the PeachCare health program, House Bill 152, House Bill 232, House Bill 279, and House Bill 332. 
 
The first motion for the House, made by the Chairman of the House Appropriation Committee Ben Harbin, was to remove his intention to reconsider the vote to approve HB 94, the amended state budget. Chairman Harbin then asked that the bill be immediately transmitted to the State Senate with a note attached reading "Urgent Attention Required." The bill was then delivered to the Secretary of the Senate. The budget includes funding for education, economic development and disaster assistance for tornado victims. 
 
House Bill 340 would make changes to the PeachCare for kids program by lowering the threshold for eligibility to the program. Instead of the thresh hold being 235% of the federal poverty level it would be lowered to 200%. However, any child on the program prior to June 1 will remain on the program. This bill also allows for the Department of Community health the option of changing the proposed threshold between 185% and 200%. Dental and vision coverage will now be made available with an additional premium. 
 
House Bill 152, address an issue concerning the HOPE scholarship. 
This bill would allow those students that have been home schooled, 
earned a GED or attended an unaccredited high school to receive the 
HOPE scholarship their freshman year in college, as long as they have academically proved themselves academically by scoring in the 85th 
 
 percentile on standardized test such as the SAT or the ACT. 
House Bill 232, addressees problems of misuse of transportation impact fees assessed on new residential commercial developments with in municipalities with more than 140,000 parcels of land. This bill would insure that local governments use the impact fees collected in areas where they are collected. 
House Bill 279 pertains to children with Spina Bifida trying to get into the Katie Beckett Program. This bill sets up additional criteria for enrollment as well as ensuring that by meeting any of the three criteria, eligibility is granted without further testing. 
House Bill 332 would give school systems more flexibility to set high school class sizes. By a vote of the local school board, high school class sizes may be set at no more than 40 percent (or 32 students) of the state mandated maximum class size. This provision does not apply to classes in mathematics, science, social studies, or language arts. 
With a busy cross over day on legislative day 30 completed, the House of Representatives debated 2 house resolutions. House Resolution 55 expresses support for programs which promote family literacy by presenting "Baby's First Book" to all babies born in Georgia hospitals and encouraging parents to read to their children. 
House Resolution 523 urges public schools to recognize Veteran's day, patriotism, and civic pride by creating a program for the sole purpose of educating our children of the importance of patriotism in our country. 
The House of Representatives also debated the first Senate bill of the session this week. Senate Bill 17 dealing with the authority of an optometrist to write a prescription for a patient relating to diagnosis and treatment of the eye with out referring a patient to an ophthalmologist. This bill passed the house as a rules substitute and must be sent back to the senate for their approval. 
House Resolution 170 urges the United States Congress and particularly 
 
 members of the Georgia Congressional delegation to collaborate together in order to reform U.S. sugar policy in the 2007 Farm Bill. 
Finishing up the week, the House passed 3 Senate bills which dealt with corrections to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Senate Bill 103, Senate Bill 104, and Senate Bill 124 all passed with no opposition. The House of Representatives will be out of session next week for Spring Break and will reconvene on April 10 at 10:00 am.