Here's what happened in the Senate -
and what we need TODAY and Monday!
and what we need TODAY and Monday!
As many of you already know, the Beer Jobs Bill has been decimated by the Senate. Despite our attempts at a reasonable compromise working with various members of the industry, our original bill was deemed too controversial for the tastes of the Senate leadership. The Regulated Industries Committee Chairman pulled the version of SB 63 originally proposed by our advocate Senator Hunter Hill and replaced it with a version written by the Senate leadership. The new version is riddled with mistakes, bad public policy, and has stripped the bill of anything that might tempt a brewery to open in the state of Georgia. We hoped to offer amendments to this new bill inside of the Regulated Industries Committee, but no amendments were allowed. So we planned that on the Senate floor we would finally get the chance to modify the new bill and offer amendments - but unfortunately again, the Senate leadership exercised it's power and some of the most important amendments were withdrawn. As one of our supporters put it, "The new bill will do nothing for jobs and has become a protectionist piece of legislation that bear hugs the status quo and smacks free enterprise in the face."
So now we're on to the House and we have to ask them to fix the Beer Jobs Bill. With some common sense amendments this bill can underpin some of Georgia's craft breweries and give us a small amount of flexibility to show what kind of tourism our industry can provide. This bill has to be modified, at the very least, into something that doesn't actively hurt Georgia breweries. But we should go further and ask that the Republican majority in the House to stick true to it's roots - we need a bill that drives economic growth, makes Georgia's beer industry competitive, and gets our craft breweries hiring! Georgia's politicians say that we're the number one place to do business - it's time to make them prove it.
Help us take the bill the Senate leadership gave us and let's turn it back into the
Beer Jobs Bill.
Beer Jobs Bill.
Here's what we need now:
Reach out to the members of the House Regulated Industries Committee and let them know that you support common sense amendments to SB 63, the Beer Jobs Bill. You can find a list of committee members here. As before, phone calls can be better than emails, but both are well-recieved and appreciated. We believe that we'll have a hearing in front of the Alcohol Sub Committee (consisting of members of the Regulated Industries Committee) on Monday - it's important that they hear from supporters going into that meeting!
If you'd like to reach out to your local representative, you can find them here.
As always you can also help by sharing gabeerjobs.com on Facebook. Ask your friends to sign the petition. We need all of Georgia behind this. Use the button below to share now:
Finally, thank you for all of your hard work and support over the last few weeks - it's meant a lot to our cause.
Cheers,
Nancy Palmer
Executive Director, Georgia Craft Brewers Guild
Reach out to the members of the House Regulated Industries Committee and let them know that you support common sense amendments to SB 63, the Beer Jobs Bill. You can find a list of committee members here. As before, phone calls can be better than emails, but both are well-recieved and appreciated. We believe that we'll have a hearing in front of the Alcohol Sub Committee (consisting of members of the Regulated Industries Committee) on Monday - it's important that they hear from supporters going into that meeting!
If you'd like to reach out to your local representative, you can find them here.
As always you can also help by sharing gabeerjobs.com on Facebook. Ask your friends to sign the petition. We need all of Georgia behind this. Use the button below to share now:
Finally, thank you for all of your hard work and support over the last few weeks - it's meant a lot to our cause.
Cheers,
Nancy Palmer
Executive Director, Georgia Craft Brewers Guild
