JCRCA Offers Legislative Preview

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Atlanta will preview the legislative session and examine some significant issues that fall under the state’s purview during its annual meeting Tuesday, Jan. 19.

Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, who has served in the state Senate since 2007 after 10 terms in the House, is due to provide an overview of the session, whose 40 legislative days are expected to stretch into April. (The General Assembly tends to start slowly, which is why a meeting eight days after the opening gavel still works as a preview.)

Also scheduled to speak are Mindy Binderman, the executive director of the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, who will address early childhood education and intergenerational poverty; Shelley Rose, the senior associate director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Southeastern Region, who will talk about hate crimes legislation, something the ADL is pushing nationwide but Georgia lacks; and Harry Heiman, the health policy director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, who will discuss health care policy and Georgia’s decision not to expand Medicaid coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act.

Elizabeth Appley, the JCRCA’s immediate past president and a longtime Capitol lobbyist, will moderate the discussion.

The meeting will start at 7 p.m. at Congregation Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Road, Sandy Springs.

This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 12 to reflect a change in speakers.