Friday Facts: July 17, 2026

In recent years, it’s fair to say that Congress only acts once an issue has become truly urgent.

But recent years have strained even historical levels of inaction.

According to GovTrack, the current Congress (the 119th) has enacted only 104 bills since convening on January 3, 2025. This is on track to be the lowest number of bills passed since GovTrack began its analysis with the 93rd Congress in 1973–1974 (the current low point is 274 bills enacted, a mark set by the preceding 118th Congress).

That brings us to the bill Congress recently passed to tackle housing affordability. Despite the bill’s overwhelming bipartisan support, legitimate concerns remain about how much it will actually move the needle.

We take a look at this in this week’s commentary.

– Kyle Wingfield

Friday’s Freshest 🗞️

Rising insurance premiums for home and auto have long been attributed to the cost of Georgia’s legal landscape. For years, those bills kept climbing, and Georgia frequently ranked among the worst states for lawsuit abuse and excessive tort costs—until lawmakers decided to act.

The Declaration of Independence was the most revolutionary act of our revolutionary generation. Not because the document’s signers risked everything by doing so, though they did. Not because it opened a new epoch, though it did. But rather, because it sparked a change in human thought, behavior and expectations that continues to unfold 250 years later.

In the ongoing debate over why homeownership remains out of reach for so many Georgia families, we have the usual explanations: higher interest rates, institutional investors buying up homes, global supply chain disruptions and the rising cost of labor. But an updated study from the National Association of Home Builders puts a new dollar figure on the cost of government regulations nationwide.

Frédéric Bastiat famously distinguished between “what is seen and what is not seen,” arguing that the mark of a good economist is attention to the unseen.Yet, the U.S. Social Security system takes one of the largest financial commitments of an American’s life and renders its true cost hidden by design.

Peach Picks 🍑

Georgia’s labor force reached an all-time high in June, but the number of jobs declined, according to the Department of Labor. Nearly 5.5 million workers were in the labor pool, an increase of 7,179, a record number of workers, according to the department. The labor force set new records for the past six months and increased by 69,446 over the year.

Gov. Kemp announced that Highline Warren, an American vertically integrated distributor of automotive aftermarket and cleaning products, is investing $170 million in a new logistics and operations center in McDonough. The multi-year investment will create 160 new jobs.

Here’s how hotels, short-term rentals in Atlanta fared during the World Cup.Thousands of visitors, both international and from around the country, descended upon Atlanta for in-person matches and watch parties. Not all of them booked places to stay.

Gov. Kemp highlighted two major enhancements to Georgia’s Path2College 529 Plan designed to help families save more effectively for future education costs.SB 556, signed by Gov. Kemp in May, raises the maximum account balance for Path2College 529 Plan accounts from $235,000 to $550,000.

A nonprofit recently purchased both Northlake Mall and Emory Healthcare’s offices attached to the property, a large transaction that will result in the healthcare organization leasing nearly the entire mall. The Centurion Foundation, which manages real estate and development for universities and hospitals, paid $95 million to acquire the Tucker mall and the Emory Healthcare offices, which took the place of a former Sears location.

In the Media 🎤

For years, Georgia’s school districts rode a wave of rising revenues, padding reserves and expanding payrolls even as enrollment stagnated — but that era of easy spending is coming to an end as property tax growth flattens and student numbers decline. Foundation President and CEO Kyle Wingfield was interviewed for this Georgia Recorder piece, explaining that districts “weren’t only piling the money up, they were adding staff in a lot of cases.”

Featured Video 🎥

In this video, the Georgia Public Policy Foundation examines housing data across metro Atlanta to better understand the role of institutional investors in the housing market. While large investors do participate in the market and receive significant attention in the media, the data reveals a more complicated story.

Quote of the Week 🌟

In his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson described “a wise and frugal Government” as one that “shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.” He called it “the sum of good government” — not a program or promise, but restraint.

Two centuries later, Georgia is proving the principle still works. By accelerating the state income tax cut to 4.99% this year, with a path toward 3.99%, lawmakers chose to let working Georgians keep more of what they earn. The results speak for themselves: record employment, a growing labor force and a state that businesses and families keep choosing.

Frugal government isn’t stingy. It’s government that knows its limits — it trusts the farmer, the nurse and the small business owner to spend their own earnings better than any bureaucracy can.

Jefferson would recognize the formula. Georgia should keep following it.

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