ATLANTA () — House Bill (HB) 117, which requires restaurants to disclose whether their shrimp is local or imported, almost hit a roadblock on its way to likely passage.

An amendment was added on in the Senate Rules Committee after it passed overwhelmingly in the House in February, requiring the same rule be applied to beef and chicken.

Rep. Jesse Petrea (R-Savannah), who authored the bill, said the amendment would have killed it.

“It would make it really cumbersome in managing menus and updating menus,” said Rep. Petrea, “My job is simply to get my intention passed, and that addition would have encouraged the Restaurant Association to push back strongly, and that is what I’m trying to avoid.”

The amendment has since been removed, and the bill now looks identical as it did to when it originally passed through the House with a vote of 165-7.

“My intention was to focus it on one particular item, 94% of which is imported; that is not the situation with chicken and beef,” said Petrea.

With the support of the Georgia Restaurant Association (GRA) and local shrimpers, who Petrea said are hurt by the large amount of imports, the bill is now very likely to pass all chambers and head to the governor’s desk.

“We need transparency in our restaurants, and the awareness that we’re bringing to this issue has already had a benefit to our fishery,” said Petrea.