Georgia lawmakers' sudden exit came as some Senate measures languished in the House

ATLANTA (AP) — Here’s how a Georgia legislative session is supposed to end:

After a last-minute rush of negotiations, lawmakers jam through final agreements on a few more bills as the clock ticks past midnight.

Legislative staffers crowd into chambers as leaders thank employees against a soundtrack of paper being ripped into pieces.

Finally, the presiding officer recognizes the climactic motion to adjourn “sine die,” a Latin phrase that means to leave without a day to return.

Then everyone tosses shredded paper into the air and cheers.

Friday, though, Georgia’s state Senate just left.

The motion to adjourn by Republican Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch of Dahlonega came shortly after 9 p.m. with none of the usual buildup. There was no thanks to the staff. Senators hadn’t even torn up much paper.

Georgia lawmakers can pick up bills in 2026 where they left off Friday, the second year of a two-year session, but they left plenty on the table.

Among items that didn’t pass were proposals to force Georgia to leave a multistate election group, a push by Jones to establish more legislative control over rules enacted by state agencies, an effort to ban diversity programs in public schools and colleges and a bill to let people sue local governments for not cooperating with federal immigration officials.

The sudden departure came after it became increasingly clear some Senate measures were languishing in the House and that Senate leaders had lost their appetite to bargain. It was possible to leave early because lawmakers had already agreed on a budget and other highest-priority legislation including tax cuts, a school safety bill, new limits on lawsuits and banning transgender girls and women from participating in women’s sports.

The collision was reminiscent of the 2023 legislative session, the first year Burns and Jones led their chambers. Many big issues didn’t pass after the chambers got into a standoff over the budget and licensing rules for hospitals. Then, it appeared Jones was trying to force his will on the House, a reversal of the traditional dynamic in Georgia, where the House has often had its way.

Ultimately, many issues derailed in 2023 ended up passing in 2024, including loosening hospital permitting requirements, imposing basic protections for renters and creating a voucher program to pay for private school and home-schooling.

As senators cheered their departure Friday, veteran state Rep. Alan Powell was at the microphone in the House proposing changes to a hotly debated bill to regulate automated speed detection cameras in school zones.

Suddenly, there was no reason for the Hartwell Republican to continue, as there were no senators left to agree to amendments.

Republican House Speaker Jon Burns of Newington and his staff exchanged bewildered glances as House lawmakers murmured.

“It appears that the Senate has checked all their priorities, all their political priorities, and decided to end their night early instead of finishing their work on behalf of the people we represent,” Burns told the House. “Of course, they’re free to do as they please, but this chamber puts policy over politics."

Many longtime lawmakers were baffled. House Rules Committee Chairman Butch Parrish, a Swainsboro Republican who has served since the 1980s, said senators “broke new ground.”

Representatives approved a few more bills that didn't need further Senate action, and then also went home early.

Jones downplayed any conflict.

“What do you mean what happened?” Jones said afterward. “We ended session.”

Jones said senators had achieved their goals and he had been bucking for an early adjournment all day.

“We got a lot of things done,” he said. “And so there was no need to stay here until midnight.”

Some minority Democrats were ecstatic because bills they opposed didn't become law. “Victory!” shouted Atlanta Democrat Shea Roberts as she left the Capitol.

“The reality is that a lot of this session was spent on political messaging bills and on politics instead of focusing on Georgian families,” said state Sen. Jason Esteves, an Atlanta Democrat considering a run for governor in 2026.

Both Jones and Burns said there are no hard feelings over how things ended Friday, although Burns said he would have liked to clinch an agreement on school zone speed cameras.

House Majority Whip James Burchett, a Waycross Republican, said that while House members may have held off on passing Senate proposals to “fully vet” them, the chambers have no choice but to work together.

“The Senate needs the House and the House needs the Senate,” Burchett said. "It would do no good if anyone were to hold some sort of grudge for this."

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This story corrects that James Burchett is from Waycross, not Valdosta.

A teenaged page carries paper to toss into the air to celebrate the end of the 2025 legislative session on Friday, April 4, 2025 at the state Capitol in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)

Georgia House members toss paper into the air to celebrate the end of the 2025 legislative session on Friday, April 4, 2025 at the state Capitol in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)

Paper lies strewn in the Georgia Senate chamber after lawmakers tossed it into the air to celebrate the end of the 2025 legislative session on Friday, April 4, 2025 at the state Capitol in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Donald Trump's nominee to oversee an agency that manages a quarter-billion acres of public land has withdrawn her nomination following revelations that she criticized the Republican president in 2021 for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The withdrawal of Kathleen Sgamma to lead the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management was announced Thursday morning at the start of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

David Bernhardt, who served as interior secretary in Trump’s first term, said on X that Sgamma’s withdrawal was “self-inflicted” and he included a link to a website that posted her 2021 comments. He suggested that people whose views don’t align with Trump’s should not seek political appointments in his administration.

“I am disgusted by the violence witnessed yesterday and President Trump’s role in spreading misinformation that incited it,” Sgamma said in the comments earlier reported by Documented, which describes itself as a watchdog journalism project.

Sgamma confirmed her withdrawal on LinkedIn and said it was an honor to have been nominated.

“I remain committed to President Trump and his unleashing American energy agenda and ensuring multiple-use access for all,” said Sgamma. Since 2006 she's been with the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, an oil industry trade group, and has been a vocal critic of the energy policies of Democratic administrations.

The longtime oil and gas industry representative appeared well-poised to carry out Trump's plans to roll back restrictions on energy development, including in Western states where the land bureau has vast holdings. The agency also oversees mining, grazing and recreation.

Sgamma's withdrawal underscored the Trump administration's creation of a “loyalty test” to weed out subordinates who are out of step with him, said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the left-leaning Center for Western Priorities.

“That’s the world we're in — if that’s what happened — where being sane and acknowledging reality with the White House is enough to sink a nomination,” he said.

Trump has been testing how far Republicans are willing to go in supporting his supercharged “Make America Great Again” agenda. Few Republicans have criticized Trump after his sweeping pardons of supporters, including violent rioters, charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Most congressional Republicans have played down the potential negative impact of Trump’s actions, including widespread tariffs on U.S. allies, and have stressed the importance of uniting behind him.

The Bureau of Land Management plays a central role in a long-running debate over the best use of government-owned lands, and its policies have swung sharply as control of the White House has shifted between Republicans and Democrats. Under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, it curbed oil drilling and coal mining on federal lands while expanding renewable power. The agency under Biden also moved to put conservation on more equal footing with oil drilling and other extractive industries in a bid to address climate change.

Trump is reversing the land bureau's course yet again.

On Thursday, officials announced that they will not comprehensively analyze environmental impacts from oil and gas leases on a combined 5,500 square miles (14,100 square kilometers) of bureau land in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. The leases were sold to companies between 2015 and 2020 but have been tied up by legal challenges.

Also this week, Trump signed an executive order aimed at boosting coal production. That will end the Biden administration's ban on new federal coal sales on bureau lands in Wyoming and Montana, the nation's largest coal fields.

The land bureau had about 10,000 employees at the start of Trump’s second term, but at least 800 employees have been laid off or resigned amid efforts by the Trump administration to downsize the federal workforce.

It went four years without a confirmed director during Trump's first term. Trump also moved the agency’s headquarters to Colorado before it was returned to Washington, D.C., under Biden.

Sgamma's withdrawal was announced by Senate energy committee Chairman Mike Lee of Utah. The Republican said he would work with the administration to find a new nominee for the bureau.

"Its work directly impacts millions of Americans — especially in the West — and its leadership matters," Lee said.

Utah officials last year launched a legal effort to wrest control of Bureau of Land Management property from the federal government and put it under state control. They were turned down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Daly reported from Washington, D.C.

FILE - Kathleen Sgamma, President, Western Energy Alliance, speaks during a House Committee on Natural Resources hearing on America's Energy and Mineral potential, Feb. 8, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)