The GA Files

Legislator Fact Sheet · Georgia's 8th Congressional District

Austin Scott

Party Republican
In Office 2011 – present
Roll-Call Votes ~9,000
Scope of This Review 2017 – 2025

Rep. Austin Scott has represented Georgia's 8th District since 2011 and has cast roughly 9,000 roll-call votes. The ten below are selected for their direct, material impact on ordinary households — health coverage, food assistance, taxes, infrastructure, and civil rights. Each entry lists how he voted, when, whether the measure became law, the real-world stakes, and a source.

Vote positions verified against House Clerk roll calls, the member's own statements, and reporting. Impact summaries are factual; framing is left to the reader.

01

One Big Beautiful Bill Act

H.R. 1 · 119th Congress
YES
Dates / Roll Calls
House passage May 22, 2025 (Roll Call 145, 215–214); motion to concur with Senate July 3, 2025 (Roll Call 190, 218–214)
Status
Became law — Public Law 119-21, signed July 4, 2025

Impact on Everyday Americans

Largest safety-net rollback in recent memory. Cuts over $1 trillion from health programs and at least $120 billion from SNAP, with new Medicaid work requirements and cost-sharing on low-income enrollees. The American Medical Association estimated roughly 11.8 million people would lose health coverage. Scott's office framed it as preventing a 24% tax increase on the average Georgia taxpayer and raising farm reference prices.

Sources

02

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

H.R. 1 · 115th Congress
YES
Dates
House passage November 16, 2017; final passage December 2017
Status
Became law, signed December 22, 2017

Impact on Everyday Americans

Cut corporate taxes permanently and individual taxes temporarily, and expanded the Child Tax Credit. The largest dollar benefits flowed to higher earners, and the individual provisions were scheduled to expire — the core critique being that gains for average families were smaller and time-limited.

Sources

03

American Health Care Act

H.R. 1628 · 115th Congress
YES
Date / Roll Call
House passage May 4, 2017 (Roll Call 256)
Status
Passed House; failed in the Senate — did not become law

Impact on Everyday Americans

The main ACA-repeal effort. The American Medical Association warned it would cause millions to lose coverage and, by replacing income-based subsidies with age-based credits, make coverage more expensive or out of reach for poor and sick Americans. Scott celebrated House passage as rolling back the ACA's "most straining provisions."

Sources

04

American Rescue Plan Act

H.R. 1319 · 117th Congress
NO
Date
House final passage March 10, 2021 (220–211)
Status
Became law, signed March 11, 2021

Impact on Everyday Americans

Delivered $1,400 stimulus checks, expanded unemployment benefits, and a one-year Child Tax Credit expansion credited with helping cut child poverty nearly in half in 2021. Scott voted no with all House Republicans, who argued the bill would fuel inflation.

Sources

05

Inflation Reduction Act

H.R. 5376 · 117th Congress
NO
Date
House final passage August 12, 2022 (220–207)
Status
Became law, signed August 16, 2022

Impact on Everyday Americans

Let Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices, capped insulin at $35/month for Medicare enrollees, extended ACA premium subsidies, and funded clean-energy investment — direct savings for lower- and middle-income households and seniors. No House Republican voted yes.

Sources

06

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

H.R. 3684 · 117th Congress
NO
Date / Roll Call
House agreed to Senate amendment November 5, 2021 (Roll Call 369, 228–206)
Status
Became law, signed November 15, 2021

Impact on Everyday Americans

Funds roads, bridges, broadband, and water-system replacement. Georgia was set to receive more than $11 billion, yet Scott and all seven other Georgia Republicans voted no. Scott called it a "Trojan horse" bill with only "a sliver" for traditional infrastructure.

Sources

07

Build Back Better Act

H.R. 5376 · 117th Congress
NO
Date
House passage November 19, 2021 (220–213)
Status
Passed House; died in the Senate — did not become law

Impact on Everyday Americans

Would have funded universal pre-K, capped child-care costs, extended the expanded Child Tax Credit, and added elder-care and housing investments. Scott called it "a tax and spending spree to fund liberal policies."

Sources

08

Respect for Marriage Act

H.R. 8404 · 117th Congress
NO
Dates / Roll Calls
Initial passage July 19, 2022 (Roll Call 373); final passage December 8, 2022 (Roll Call 513)
Status
Became law, signed December 13, 2022

Impact on Everyday Americans

Codified federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages. Scott was among 157 Republicans who voted no at initial passage.

Sources

09

Laken Riley Act

H.R. 29 / S. 5 · 119th Congress
YES
Dates
H.R. 29 House passage January 7, 2025; S. 5 (Senate-amended) House passage January 22, 2025 (263–156)
Status
Became law, signed January 29, 2025

Impact on Everyday Americans

Requires DHS to detain undocumented people merely charged with or arrested for theft-related offenses — without a conviction — and lets states sue the federal government over immigration enforcement. Critics flag the detention-without-conviction standard and due-process concerns.

Sources

10

For the People Act

H.R. 1 · 117th Congress
NO
Date
House passage March 3, 2021 (220–210)
Status
Passed House; stalled in the Senate — did not become law

Impact on Everyday Americans

A sweeping voting-access and anti-corruption bill: automatic voter registration, limits on partisan gerrymandering, and new campaign-finance disclosure rules. Scott voted no on party lines.

Sources

Constituent Access

Town Halls

Public meetings held since taking office in 2011

Since entering office in January 2011, Austin Scott has rarely held open, in-person public town halls. His primary format for mass constituent outreach has been telephone town halls (tele-town halls) — calls where constituents are dialed in rather than physically present, which limit real-time accountability and allow the member's office to screen or mute participants.

Documented Events

  • February 23, 2017 — Telephone town hall. Held during the height of the ACA-repeal debate after constituents in GA-08 organized locally and demanded a face-to-face meeting. Scott's office offered the telephone format in lieu of an in-person event.
  • 2017–2019 — Periodic telephone town halls conducted from Washington; no documented open in-person town halls held in the district during this period.
  • 2020–2021 — Virtual/telephone formats continued through the COVID-19 period; no return to in-person open public meetings documented after restrictions lifted.
  • 2022–2025 — Scott's office has listed occasional "office hours" and invite-only meetings with local chambers of commerce and agriculture groups, but no open-door public town halls have been publicized or confirmed by local press coverage.

Context

Scott's avoidance of open town halls mirrors a pattern among House Republicans that accelerated after the 2017 ACA repeal protests, when members across the country faced organized constituent pushback. The Town Hall Project, a nonpartisan organization that tracks congressional constituent events, has consistently flagged Scott as a member who does not hold open in-person town halls.

Constituents seeking meetings have been directed to call his district offices in Warner Robins (478-971-1776) and Valdosta (229-247-9188), or submit written requests through his official website.

Town hall documentation is based on local press reporting, the Town Hall Project's public event tracker, and Scott's official press releases. Constituents with specific event records are encouraged to submit corrections via the contact link below.

Campaign Finance

AIPAC Money Taken

Contributions from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee PAC

Federal Election Commission records show AIPAC's connected PAC — the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Political Action Committee — made 8 contributions totaling $17,912 to Austin Scott For Congress, beginning March 22, 2022. The PAC did not exist before late 2021, so this reflects its full contribution history to Scott.

Date Amount Notes
Aug. 29, 2024 $5,000 2024 cycle
May 20, 2024 $5,000 2024 cycle
Apr. 21, 2024 $9 Earmarked-contribution processing artifact
Apr. 14, 2024 $1 Earmarked-contribution processing artifact
Apr. 14, 2024 $1 Earmarked-contribution processing artifact
Apr. 7, 2024 $1 Earmarked-contribution processing artifact
Jul. 20, 2022 $5,000 2022 cycle
Mar. 22, 2022 $2,900 2022 cycle — first AIPAC PAC contribution to Scott
Total $17,912

What this means

The substantive contributions are the four entries of $2,900–$5,000 across the 2022 and 2024 election cycles, totaling approximately $17,900. The $1 and $9 entries are standard earmarked-contribution processing artifacts — AIPAC also operates as a conduit that bundles individual donors' earmarked checks, generating these small pass-through entries.

These are direct contributions from AIPAC's regular connected PAC, which gives directly to candidates. This is separate from AIPAC's super PAC, the United Democracy Project (UDP), which makes independent expenditures (ads for or against candidates) and is not subject to the same direct-contribution limits. No UDP independent expenditures tied to Scott's races were found in the same records.

Source: FEC data compiled by ProPublica. AIPAC's connected PAC (C00000463) contribution records to Austin Scott For Congress. The AIPAC PAC did not exist before late 2021; contributions begin in the 2022 cycle.

Verification Resources

Vote positions verified against House Clerk roll calls, the member's own statements, and reporting. Impact summaries are factual; "most consequential" and impact framings involve value judgments. Scott's stated rationale on tax-and-spending votes was consistently inflation, taxes, and federal overreach.

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