Sen. Jon Ossoff sat down with The Atlanta Voice to talk about working for Georgia’s Black families

Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, in his trademark suit without the tie, walked over to a position in front of the new Ebenezer Baptist Church, where a group of people were waiting. Among the people waiting were school-aged Black children on a field trip, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, and other local and statewide civil rights leaders.

“I’m here to thank these distinguished civil rights leaders,” Ossoff said as he explained how he got the Federal Prison Oversight Bill, which he first introduced in 2022, passed. The bill was recently signed by United States President Joseph R. Biden. 

Following the press conference on Tuesday morning, Ossoff dropped by The Atlanta Voice office to speak with newspaper leadership about other moves he is making to improve the lives of millions of Black families around the state.

The Atlanta Voice: What makes you want to fight for Black families the way you continue to do in the U.S. Senate?

Sen. Jon Ossoff: When I ran for the Senate I focussed on health, jobs, and justice. When I think about the challenges faced by Georgia’s African American community, the health disparities in our state are vast, the gap in economic opportunity and empowerment are vast. The justice gap also remains vast, so I have focused legislative energy, both in terms of oversight and reform efforts and tangible deliverable resources appropriated to the state of Georgia on addressing those critical gaps.

AV: What has some of that legislative energy wrought?

JO: There’s a huge shortage of facilities and resources for Black Georgians. That’s on the southside of Atlanta, but also in rural communities across the state. That’s why I have appropriated funds for example, to Southern Regional Hospital. That’s why I appropriated funds to clinics in rural areas in Georgia, as well as to transportation services that help folks in rural and underserved areas get to their appointments, get to the pharmacy, get what they need.

AV: There is a huge gap between Black and white women in maternal services in Georgia. What’s up with that?

JO: The maternal health gap in Georgia, the racial divide is so extreme. Georgia has been at the bottom of the national rankings, basically last or second to last, in maternal health overall for over a decade. By some measures in recent years, maternal mortality for Black women in Georgia has been higher than maternal mortality in Iraq, a country that has been in a state of active conflict for more than two decades.

Editor’s note: Ossoff recently held a senatorial hearing highlighting the testimony of OBGYN’s and maternal health doctors from Georgia. During the hearing Georgia’s six-week abortion ban was the main topic of discussion.

JO: We heard testimony about women who were miscarrying, who were unable to get health care until they became sicker, sicker, and sicker. We heard testimony about a Georgia woman who had to leave the state, fly to Massachusetts to get healthcare, lost the pregnancy while traveling, and then upon arriving in Massachusetts went into sepsis. The extreme laws in Georgia are criminalizing the practice of obstetric medicine and worsening our shortage of OB GYN doctors in Georgia, who provide that vital prenatal care.

AV: Medicaid is very important to millions of American families, and particularly to the state’s Black families, so why do you think it’s not as equally important to some of Georgia’s leaders?

JO: Georgians pay the same federal taxes as residents of every other state in the country, but we are one of just 12 who refuse to get those resources back to help working families access health care. It doesn’t just deprive working families of healthcare, it deprives our hospitals of revenue. Because of there being insured patients coming through the door, there are uninsured patients coming through and the hospitals have to foot the bill. 

AV: That might be why hospitals like Atlanta Medical Center were so easy to close?

JO: They don’t have an insured patient population, because the state still refuses to expand Medicaid. And really, the only reason is that the underline legislation was advanced by former United States President Obama. There are still those lingering petty political grievances over the Affordable Care Act from more than a decade ago. So we have to think about health and in particular maternal health and the health of Black women. 

AV: Part of that health is eating right, correct? There are so many counties in this state that aren’t as fortunate to have supermarkets and farmers markets within minutes like we do in Atlanta.

JO: I’m introducing legislation called the Fresh Foods Act to help incentivize grocery stores, whether they are local community family-owned grocers or big supermarkets, to open new locations in underserved areas where they will sell fresh fruits and vegetables. If you’re somewhere there’s no hospital, no health clinic, no grocery store offering fresh fruits and vegetables, the state hasn’t expanded Medicaid, so there’s a lack of access to health insurance, it’s not like it’s a mystery why health outcomes are so much worse. 

AV: Why are organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta, for example, so important for you to get federal funding?

JO: I look at my job as a legislator and I think about it in the context of an entire human life. I thought about how we can focus on mentorship to children and adolescents, so I delivered resources for the organizations that specialize in mentorship, but for organizations here [in Georgia] that are healing place mentors and mental health professionals in schools too. 

Editor’s Note: Mentorship and mental health resources, after school opportunities, community centers, and safe public parks are also things Ossoff mentioned were targets of his funding efforts. “These are all areas where I have delivered resources to upgrade facilities on the southside of town and in rural communities, and will continue to do so,” he said.

AV: Lastly, I want to talk to you about the Federal Prison Oversight Act that you helped get to the president’s desk and now into law. How important was that bill to you personally, and to Georgia’s Black families that are so oftentimes most affected? 

JO: My political upbringing and my first introduction to public life was working as a very young man for Congressman John Lewis. What’s happening behind bars across the country is a humanitarian crisis. It makes a mockery of the Eighth Amendment of our Constitution which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. 

It is an issue that I care about, it is an issue where I’ve focused oversight and investigative resources. And now with passage of the Federal Prison Oversight Act, we have passed the most significant prison transparency and inspection legislation in many, many years. 

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