The Joint Transportation Committee voted to accept the Georgia Freight & Logistics Commission's final report and moved two measures implementing its recommendations forward in the legislative process.

Committee cochairs summarized the commission's key recommendations, which the report lists as workforce development (addressing a shortage of commercial truck drivers), truck parking to comply with electronic-log mandates, greater use of rail to relieve highway freight pressure, and actions to close a funding gap for freight corridors. The cochairs said they will seek to extend the Freight & Logistics Commission for an additional year to develop specific solutions.

The committee approved a motion to accept the commission's report and agreed to place the report in the public record. Committee members then considered House Resolution 935, a one-year extension of the Freight & Logistics Commission; the committee voted to pass the resolution to the House floor.

The committee also advanced a rail-related bill (previously discussed as SB89). The text before the committee would create a rail enhancement fund with three subprograms: a rail enhancement capital program for large projects supporting safety and economic development; a rail preservation fund for small maintenance projects to preserve short-line rail service; and a rail industrial access fund to connect industry to existing rail lines. The chair clarified the placeholder does not itself appropriate state funds; any spending would be subject to the governor's budget and legislative appropriations. Representatives of the rail industry said the mechanism provides a useful "landing spot" for future investments and that the language had been worked on over multiple sessions.

A motion was made and seconded to move the rail placeholder forward, and the committee voted to send it to rules. Committee members signaled interest in refining details about how state dollars could be used with private railroads under existing state guidelines before appropriation decisions were made.

Next steps: the resolution to extend the commission and the rail placeholder will proceed through rules and the respective chambers for further consideration.