ATLANTA – State Representative Katie Dempsey (R-Rome) and State Senator Chuck Hufstetler (R-Rome) were recently named as co-chairs of the Joint Transparency and Open Access in Government Study Committee.
“I’m grateful to Speaker Ralston for appointing me as a co-chair of this essential joint study committee,” said Rep. Dempsey. “Georgia’s agencies house tremendous amounts of important data, from business and labor to health and public safety data. It is critical that we not only explore ways to more effectively and securely share this data across our state’s government entities, but also study ways to build trust by enhancing the public’s access to public data. I look forward to working alongside Sen. Hufstetler and the committee’s members as we strive to more efficiently serve both our state’s agencies and citizens through data delivery.”
“The Senate and House are working on ways to implement a central repository of all state departments’ data into a central identified database,” said Sen. Hufstetler. “The data analytics from a co-mingled data base have shown significant savings in the states that have already implemented this. As importantly, it has been used to resolve health care problems, solve crimes, eliminate fraud, and in one state, has been used to completely eliminate Veterans homelessness. The schools in some of these states have been the biggest beneficiaries of the information it provides. We have already made arrangements for representatives from these states to assist us in this process. It is my hope that this committee will find a Georgia solution that will save millions of dollars and improve our government services and problem solving abilities as well as improve the quality of life for our Georgia citizens.”
This study committee, which was created by Senate Resolution 130 during the 2017 legislative session, will examine ways to best share data between and within state agencies.
For more information on SR 130, please click here.
Representative Katie Dempsey represents the citizens of District 13, which includes the City of Rome and portions of Floyd County. She was elected into the House of Representatives in 2006, and currently serves as the Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Human Resources. She also serves on the Economic Development & Tourism, Energy, Utilities, & Telecommunications, Health & Human Services, Higher Education, Rules, and Transportation committees. She can be reached 404.463.2247 or via email at katie.dempsey@house.ga.gov.
Sen. Chuck Hufstetler serves as Chairman of the Finance Committee. He represents the 52nd Senate District which includes Floyd County and portions of Bartow, Chattooga and Gordon counties. He can be reached at 404.656.0034 or via email at chuck.hufstetler@senate.ga.gov.
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