To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: On May 10, the 2021 General Session of the Georgia General Assembly officially came to a close with the end of the governor’s 40-day window to sign or veto legislation. While Georgia’s election legislation (SB 202), which was quickly signed by Gov. Kemp after passage in March, has received the most coverage, lawmakers sent nearly 300 bills to the governor’s desk. Of those bills, all but one was signed by the governor or will become law without the governor’s signature. Veto The lone veto this year stands in contrast to the four vetoes issued in 2020 and the 14 vetoes issued in 2019 during the first year of Gov. Kemp’s administration. Following a barrage of constituent complaints over the last year regarding their difficulty in obtaining pandemic-related unemployment benefits and warnings that the Department of Labor’s failure to respond to audits in a timely manner could affect the state’s AAA Bond Rating, legislators took action. In one of the more contentious bills of the session (SB 156), lawmakers sought to create a new legislatively appointed Chief Labor Officer within the Department of Labor to address the issues where it was believed the Commissioner of Labor had failed. Among other reasons, the governor vetoed the bill as an infringement on the constitutionally granted power of the Labor Commissioner, which is one of eight constitutional officers in the state.