---
type: "Bill"
title: "Mental Health; authorizing licensed professional counselor to perform certain acts; revise sunset prov.; repeal in its entirety June 30, 2018"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend an Act relating to mental health and authorizing a licensed professional counselor to perform certain acts, Act No. 546, approved April 21, 2014 (Ga L. 2014, p. 347), so as to revise a sunset provision; to provide for an effective date; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2015_16"
identifier: "SB 53"
citation: "Georgia SB 53 (2015_16)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ben Watson", "Chuck Hufstetler", "Dean Burke", "Fran Millar", "Greg Kirk", "Jesse Stone", "Nan Orrock", "Renee Unterman", "Tyler Harper", "William Ligon, Jr."]
version_count: 3
action_count: 17
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2015-01-26"
last_action: "2015-03-10"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/9faee79d-7bdf-4e64-aa96-697b3e2b9000"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "6d3f0dac54797770b7e12ea09471afac2362f1d9935e389b14ef797dc5f98022"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia SB 53 (2015_16) — Mental Health; authorizing licensed professional counselor to perform certain acts; revise sunset prov.; repeal in its entirety June 30, 2018

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend an Act relating to mental health and authorizing a licensed professional counselor to perform certain acts, Act No. 546, approved April 21, 2014 (Ga L. 2014, p. 347), so as to revise a sunset provision; to provide for an effective date; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **As introduced LC 37 1867** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/145728.pdf)
2. **As passed Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/147109.pdf)
3. **SB 53/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/149555.pdf)

## Votes

- MOTION TO REMOVE FROM THE TABLE — **31–21** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Ben Watson — primary (person)
- Chuck Hufstetler — primary (person)
- Dean Burke — primary (person)
- Fran Millar — primary (person)
- Greg Kirk — primary (person)
- Jesse Stone — primary (person)
- Nan Orrock — primary (person)
- Renee Unterman — primary (person)
- Tyler Harper — primary (person)
- William Ligon, Jr. — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2015-01-26** Senate Hopper
- **2015-01-27** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2015-02-02** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2015-02-03** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2015-02-04** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2015-02-04** Senate Tabled
- **2015-02-09** Senate Taken from Table
- **2015-02-09** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2015-02-10** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2015-02-11** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2015-02-19** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2015-02-25** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2015-02-25** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2015-03-06** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2015-03-10** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2015-03-10** Act 8 `executive-signature`
- **2015-03-10** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/9faee79d-7bdf-4e64-aa96-697b3e2b9000`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).