As the clock

ticks down on the 2001 session of the Georgia General Assembly today,

Fayette's Sen. Greg Hecht is engaged in a last-minute flurry of activity

in hopes of getting some more of his bills passed.

Senate Bill

217, his measure aimed at increasing competition among natural gas suppliers,

has passed both houses and awaits only the governor's signature to become

law. The bill would allow customers to switch suppliers once a month.

Also passed

order in domestic violence cases.

Hecht said

this week he is also working to get a House version of the natural gas

bill through the Senate.

Having passed

the Senate, SB 34 one of several anticrime measures sponsored by Hecht

was approved by the House Monday, but one provision was cut from the House

version and Hecht said Tuesday he will try to force a conference committee

to restore the provision.

Cut by the

House was a provision calling for confiscation of a person's property

if it's used to help entice children into prostitution. "I don't

have a handle on why they did that," Hecht said.

The Crime Prevention

Act also increases the penalty for escape, changes the definition of pandering

and provides for forfeiture of a motor vehicle or home used in the commission

of pandering. It provides that those who use their cars or homes in pimping

to turn children into prostitutes will lose them, and the crime will be

a felony.

The escape

provision sets a new one- to five-year penalty for prisoners who escape

before they are convicted of a crime. Current law provides one to ten

years, but only for convicted felons who escape.

"Again,

a lot of these drug dealers consider that a cost of business," said

Hecht. Penalties for some drug crimes are very high, whereas "It's

just 12 months if they run," he said.

Also, persons

will be charged with pandering if they solicit anyone under 18. Current

law says the person solicited must be under 17.

SB 66, which

requires that sex crime first offenders and those who plead nolo contendere

be included on the sex offense registry, was bottled up in the House Rules

Committee, Hecht said, adding that he was trying to get the measure on

the calendar for debate today.

"I'll

find out tomorrow if it's on the calendar," he said Tuesday.

Another Hecht

bill, a measure requiring that insurance companies pay for treatment that

they have precertified, has been attached to an unrelated House bill and

he's hoping that bill will make it through the session as well.

Today will

be a barn-burner, Hecht predicted. "It's going to be a midnight ending,

just like all the other sessions," he said.

But 2001 has

been a fairly smooth session overall, he said, with less hostility and

contentiousness. "I think it has something to do with the fact that

reapportionment is coming up," he said. "Nobody wants to get

anybody too mad."

Senate and

House district lines, along with Congressional district lines, will be

redrawn this summer in a special session, to adjust for the 2000 U.S.

Census.