Today, “the second Monday in January,” is the first day of the 2007 Legislative Session of the Georgia General Assembly.  The first of our 40 days will be taken up with ceremonies, procedural matters and not much controversy.  Each house of the General Assembly will organize itself by electing officers, adopting rules and making notifications.

Bob Ewing, Secretary of the Senate, will call the Session to order at 10:00 a.m. by reading the certification of elections.  Superior Court Judge C. Andrew Fuller of Hall County will then administer the oath of office to the 56 newly elected and re-elected Senators.

We will then proceed to the election of officers.  Senator Eric Johnson, who was nominated for another term as President Pro Tempore by the Senate Republican Caucus last month, will be re-elected.  “Pro tempore,” by the way, is a Latin phrase meaning “for the time being.”  It is popularly abbreviated as “pro tem.”  Senator Johnson will temporarily preside over the Senate this morning because the new Lieutenant Governor will not take the oath of office until this afternoon.  We will also re-elect Bob Ewing as Secretary of the Senate and Lorenzo Wallace as Sergeant At Arms.

Next we will take up several resolutions.  Senate Resolution 1 will instruct the Secretary of the Senate to notify the House of Representatives that the Senate has convened and is ready for business.  Senate Resolution 2 is a joint resolution authorizing the appointment of a committee to notify the Governor that the General Assembly is now in session. 

Not to stray too far off topic, but I once had the opportunity to serve on the committee that gives the gubernatorial notification.  Upon adjournment, my fellow committee members and I marched down to Room 203 of the State Capitol where we were quickly ushered into the Governor’s Office.  One of us spoke up, “We are here to notify you that the General Assembly is now in session.”  The Governor then thanked us for this information and shook hands all around.  The experience, both memorable and anticlimatic, harkened back to an earlier time before the Internet, live video fees or even telephones. 

The next item of business will be adoption of the Rules of the Senate.  I was privileged to serve with Senators Eric Johnson, Chip Pearson, Chip Rogers and Tommie Williams as a member of the Senate Transition Committee appointed by Lieutenant Governor-Elect Casey Cagle immediately after the election.  We were tasked with preparing the Rules, and we have worked diligently on this task for the last two months. 

The Rules that will be submitted today in the form of Senate Resolution 3 move the power of committee appointment and bill assignment back to the Lieutenant Governor.  The powerful Committee on Assignments has been retained, but will be expanded to include three additional members appointed by the Lieutenant Governor.  The other changes are minor.

We will then take up Senate Resolution 8, a housekeeping resolution dealing with the administration of the Senate, and Senate Resolution 9 calling a joint session of the General Assembly this afternoon to swear in the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and other constitutional officers.  Except for our attendance at the joint session this afternoon, the work of the first day of our 40 day session will then be done. 

You can watch the proceedings live, today and every day that we are in session, at the Georgia General Assembly website.

[UPDATE] As I was uploading this message from the floor of the Senate, Andre Walker came over to my desk and introduced himself.  Andre is a young Democratic activist and has been given press credentials for his blog, Georgia Politics Unfiltered.

[UPDATE]  For reasons not entirely clear to me, ten Democrats — fewer than half their number — voted against the proposed Rules.  Two Democrats voted against the housekeeping resolution, again for unclear reasons.  Otherwise, today’s business was conducted without a hitch.

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