The 2008 session of the Georgia General Assembly began on January 14 at the State Capitol in Atlanta. Georgia’s legislative session begins during the second week of January each year and lasts 40 working days, usually ending in late March or early April.

Click here to identify your legislators at My Elected Officials.

To find out the current status of water-related legislation, go to the Georgia Water Coalition website or the Georgia Conservation Voters website. If you have a specific question about legislation or UCR’s position on a bill, please email us at info@ucriverkeeper.org.

To stay informed about environmental legislation and receive alerts, join the Georgia Environmental Action Network (GEAN) by clicking here.

Decisions on legislation directly affecting natural resources, agency budgets, and capital project funding can protect or enhance natural resources, or they can accelerate deterioration. UCR actively works to educate elected officials and policy makers at all levels about matters related to the protection and restoration of the Chattahoochee River Basin. We also conduct lobbying activities, defined as promoting or opposing the passage of legislation, which includes statutory law, local legislation (limited to particular jurisdictions), and appropriations acts. Since 1994, UCR has helped promote important river protection legislation at the state level and worked to defeat anti-environmental bills.

Contrary to popular belief, nonprofit groups can lobby. The IRS has set limits on how much lobbying a 501(c)(3) organization can undertake and on the amount of money that can be spent on direct and grassroots lobbying. Therefore, UCR is very careful not to exceed these limits in our lobbying activities, most of which take place at the State Capitol.