Trina Morris, wildlife biologist at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, introduces the Gold Dome Report team to a gopher tortoise during Keeping Georgia Wild Day at the State Capitol on Wednesday.

Wednesday marked “Keeping Georgia Wild Day” at the State Capitol, and while the moniker might elicit a variety of memories from lawmakers and lobbyists of shenanigans under the Gold Dome, the day’s festivities were focused on recognizing Georgia’s rich and diverse wildlife and natural resources. Among the wildlife stepping out of the forests and fields and onto the marble floors was a gopher tortoise, which served as a fitting symbol of the first days of any new legislative session. It’s a slow start, but we’ll ultimately finish the race.

Keeping with that expectation, neither the House nor the Senate took up substantive business on Wednesday. However, both chambers did recognize the Atlanta Football Host Committee for attracting and hosting the upcoming 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship and invited members to the rostrum for photos with the 2025 championship trophy. Atlanta first hosted the game in 2018 and will welcome more than 125,000 fans back to Atlanta for the 2025 National Championship game on Monday.

Governor Kemp closed out the day with a press conference highlighting his administration’s policy and budget accomplishments to make quality healthcare more accessible and affordable for hardworking Georgians. More details on his remarks in this #GoldDomeReport.

In this Report:

• Governor Kemp Touts Healthcare Successes, Plans
• New Legislation
• What’s Next

Governor Kemp Touts Healthcare Successes, Plans

Governor Brian Kemp hosted an afternoon press conference in which he highlighted his administration’s policy and budget accomplishments to make quality healthcare more accessible and affordable for hardworking Georgians. Touting the success of the Georgia Pathways and Georgia Access programs, Kemp stated that the programs have lowered costs for millions of Georgians who have private insurance and provided coverage to thousands of low-income Georgians for the first time. He shared a few statistics, noting that there are over 1.5 million active enrollees across both programs, with 216,000 enrollees in GA Access who previously did not have coverage through healthcare.gov, and that GA Access covers 200,000 more Georgians than traditional Medicaid expansion would have covered.

Governor Kemp’s two healthcare goals for this session are to lower costs by stabilizing the marketplace to bring more insurers to the state and to expand Georgia Pathways to cover parents or guardians of children under the age of six. Further, his FY2026 budget proposal includes $3 million to expand the Department of Public Health’s perinatal home visitation program to increase its reach from 50 to 75 counties and $778,000 to expand cardiovascular services in perinatal centers.

Lt. Governor Burt Jones and Speaker John Burns followed the governor by expressing support from the legislative branch. Speaker Burns stated that there is “nothing more essential to quality of life than your health,” noting further priorities in the House to increase opportunities for doctors to train in Georgia (and therefore hopefully remain in Georgia) by strengthening and expanding Graduate Medical Education partnerships throughout the state.

New Legislation

The following new legislation of interest has been introduced in the House:

The following new legislation of interest has been introduced in the Senate:

What’s Next

The General Assembly will reconvene for Legislative Day 4 on Thursday, January 16 at 10 a.m. Governor Kemp is scheduled to deliver his State of the State address on Thursday at 11 a.m.