The bill would allow electric membership cooperatives to sell internet to the customers it currently sells electricity to, providing access to some places and competition to others.
It would be a welcome bill in Cairo, where Laura Register's call dropped the first time we spoke. The quailty of her connection is spotty, and when her internet goes down, she would have to leave town to get connected.
"Thomasville would be the closest, or Tallahassee," she said. "And that would be 20 to 30 minutes to get somewhere where I could get reliable service."
But the issue of internet access is not limited to places off the beaten path in southwest Georgia.
Lawrence Saul lives in Oconee County, fewer than 20 miles south of Athens. His subdivision has about 250 families and only one choice for internet with inconsistent speeds. If that doesn't work, Saul says the closest place to publicly access wifi is about 9 miles away at a Starbucks.
Register, Saul, and other Georgians across the state could stand to benefit from HB 23 because they're in areas served by EMCs, so in places where service is nonexistent or not dependable, the EMCs could use their existing infrastructure to close the gap.
The bill is currently in the Senate committee process.
Republicans in the Senate have filed a bill that would give Gov. Brian Kemp authorization to submit a pair of waivers for the state's Medicaid and Affordable Care Act plans next year.
SB 106, also known as the Patients First Act, would provide the latitude for Kemp to submit what's known as an 1115 wavier to the Department of Health and Human Services for Medicaid and a 1332 waiver to HHS and the Treasury for the ACA by June 30 of 2020.
Given that lawmakers are in session for 40 days, a roughly $38,842 raise might be a tough sell, but that has not stopped Sen. Valencia Seay (D - 34) from proposing a bill in the state senate to give legislators a pay bump.