Sine Die: Last Day of Legislation For Georgia Lawmakers

Today is the last day of legislation for the Georgia General Assembly, or “Sine Die.” Today’s session ends at midnight. Another session will not be held until next year.

Conference committees, which have members from both houses of the legislature, must finalize a version of a bill to be voted on by the two chambers. The rush means that the legislators often don’t have time to read the whole bill, which can sometimes cause problems.

“Sometimes you see situations where the legislators approach the governor and say, hey we messed up. Please veto what we did!” says Dr. Charles Bullock, Political Science Professor at the University of Georgia.

“That’s kind of like asking, why do students wait until the end of the semester to write their term papers”

Lawmakers will likely be working until midnight before the year’s last session ends.

By Alexander Contreras