ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The final day of Georgia’s legislative session will likely turn into a late Friday night for lawmakers as they work to pass last-minute bills and the fiscal year 2026 budget.

Friday is “Sine Die,” which means any bills that don’t pass by the end of the day are officially dead. Sponsors would have to start over on those bills next year.

In the past 40 days, lawmakers have passed some high-profile bills, holding early meetings and late-night votes in the process.

“I tell people all the time, don’t look at the national, look at your state, because the state actually gets things done,” Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones said. “I’m not always satisfied with what we get done, but we actually do things and make things better.”

Some of the bills passed include numerous school safety measures, as well as controversial actions like banning transgender girls from playing in girls’ sports.

Kemp also signed the closely watched Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) into law Friday morning.

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SB36, Kemp said, closely mirrors the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed in 1993. It gives more weight to arguments of faith in a courtroom, but some opponents say it may also be used as a veil for discrimination.

However, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp had this message just moments after signing the bill Friday morning:

“Despite signing that legislation today, Georgia still remains a state that is a state that there is no place for hate, and I can assure all Georgians of that today,” he said.

A similar bill was vetoed in 2016 by then-governor Nathan Deal over concerns from the business and LGBTQ community. Kemp said on Friday that the RFRA act doesn’t exempt people from laws, so he doesn’t anticipate it’ll be an excuse for discrimination, either.

“I don’t buy that. I don’t think we’ve seen that in other states,” he said. “I think it’s a commonsense piece of legislation that mirrors what the vast majority of the other states in the United States have done.”

His opponents strongly disagreed. State Rep. Esther Panitch, a Democrat from Sandy Springs and the state’s only Jewish lawmaker, said it would allow people to refuse services under the guise of religious freedom.

“State-sponsored discrimination, that’s what this is,” she said.

Panitch also pointed out that, unlike the federal RFRA law, the state version does not include an anti-discrimination clause, which would bar people from claiming religious freedom in circumstances where civil rights would be infringed upon.

“You just have to ask yourself, why won’t they incorporate anti-discrimination provisions if they say that they’re not going to discriminate?” said Panitch.

Another major component of Sine Die is that both the House and Senate still need to finalize the budget, which legally must be passed by the end of the day.

This is a developing story. Check back with Atlanta News First as we learn more.

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