Legislative Update February 25 2023

Tennessee General Assembly information, click HERE. For information on State Senators, including phone numbers and email addresses, click HERE; for House members, click HERE. For information on legislation, click HERE.
Don't forget that you can now watch the Senate committee meetings and floor sessions online by going HERE; House committee meetings and floor sessions online HERE.
Phone calls can go to the legislative Switchboard at 615-741-3011 or to the Toll Free number 1-800-449-8366+1 last four digits of office phone number (available online).
 

Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and His redeeming love, for moral faces everywhere, for our national leaders.  Let prayer be our passion.  Let prayer be our practice.  Robert E. Lee, 1863

 

FOR YOUR PRAYER LIST:
Former, long-time serving state legislator, and now a special advisor to Education Commissioner Penny Scwinn, Bill Dunn, unexpectedly lost his brother, Paul Dunn III, this week. Bill was always a good friend of Eagle Forum. Please be in prayer for this family and their loss.  It was so good to see Rep. Ron Gant back at the capitol this week.  He is working really hard to regain his health after that horrific wreck in October.

ANDREW'S CORNER:
As we get rolling into the session, our job only gets busier. This week was good but took a lot of energy. The momentum is picking up and the train is getting faster.

 

Do you share our Legislative Updates with others or encourage them to go to our WEBSITE and click on REGISTER and get connected?  It seems that not a week goes by when someone doesn't thank me for what TN Eagle Forum does and how much they appreciate it. Let's make our numbers grow!!

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
PROHIBITING PROCEDURES RELATED TO GENDER IDENTITY BILL 
was fully reported on yesterday.

 

PROPOSED CHANGES TO TENNESSEE'S PRO-LIFE LAW:
SB 0745 by *Briggs - HB 0883 by *Helton-Haynes , RUDDER, HAZLEWOOD, FARMER, MOON, WHITE, MARSH, WHITSON, TRAVIS, CARR, VAUGHAN
Abortion - As introduced, requires the state capitol commission to be responsible through funds appropriated to the commission, after funds from the construction and placement have been exhausted, for the upkeep and maintenance of a monument on the capitol campus that is in memory of the victims of abortion.
STATUS:  The 'caption bill', HB883, was in the Population Health Subcommittee on Tuesday, where it was dramatically re-written. 
There had been some agreement that a few adjustments to the language of the 'Trigger' bill would be acceptable, but, among a few other things, the new language of HB883 contains a lot of undefined phrases and terms that could be interpreted in a number of different ways.

SB745-HB883 has been re-written AGAIN, and interestingly enough, the house bill has lost some co-sponsors. If I counted right, in the last two pages, there are 12 places that present TCA Code sections are DELEATED without any way of knowing what is being deleted unless one looks up each reference.  

HB883 was in the Health Committee on Wednesday, but they didn't get to it prior to adjourning. . It was moved to March 1.
SB745  is scheduled in Senate Judiciary on Tuesday.
While we were open to making some clarifications to The Human Life Protection Act, we think this has gotten completely out of hand and that it cannot be reformatted, into a sound bill that continues to effectively protect unborn children in our state. 

ACTION:  Please contact these members  and urge them to VOTE NO:

Sen. Dawn White sen.dawn.white@capitol.tn.gov
 Sen. Paul Rose sen.paul.rose@capitol.tn.gov, 
Sen. Jon Lundberg sen.jon.lundberg@capitol.tn.gov
Sen. Kerry Roberts sen.kerry.roberts@capitol.tn.gov 
Sen. John Stevens sen.john.stevens@capitol.tn.gov 
Sen. Brent Taylor sen.brent.taylor@capitol.tn.gov

NOTE: There are several other 'abortion' bills on the calendar that day. The only one we are fully supporting SB600 below.  You can ask members to also support this one.

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS PROHIBITED FROM ABORTION FUNDING:
SB 0600 by *Hensley - HB 0090 by *Moody , LAMBERTH, BULSO, LEATHERWOOD
Local Government, General - As introduced, prohibits local governments from expending funds for the purposes of assisting a person in obtaining an abortion

 

LEGALIZING ‘MEDICAL’ MARIJUANA:
SB 1104 by *Bowling - HB 1441 by *Rudder
Health Care - As introduced, enacts the "Tennessee Medical Cannabis Act," which establishes a medical cannabis program to be administered by the medical cannabis commission.

5 Problems with Medical Marijuana .

Medical marijuana may trigger substance abuse .

“There have been many claims about the benefits of medical marijuana … without sound scientific evidence to support them.”
— Jodi Gilman, Center for Addiction Medicine at MGH.

The hype over medical marijuana for treating health problems may be exaggerated, researchers find.

Legalizing 'medical' marijuana is also recognized as a step toward decriminalization then legalization. EVERY state that took those two additional steps started with "medical' marijuana.
STATUS:  SB1104 was rolled this week but is scheduled in Senate Judiciary Tuesday. 
ACTION: Please contact these senators and ask them to please OPPOSE this legislation.

Sen. Todd Gardenhire sen.todd.gardenhire@capitol.tn.gov
Sen. Dawn White sen.dawn.white@capitol.tn.gov
Sen. Paul Rose sen.paul.rose@capitol.tn.gov
Sen. Jon  Lundberg sen.jon.lundberg@capitol.tn.gov
Sen. Kerry Roberts sen.kerry.roberts@capitol.tn.gov 
Sen. John Stevens sen.john.stevens@capitol.tn.gov 
Sen. Brent Taylor sen.brent.taylor@capitol.tn.gov

 

PARENTAL CONSENT REQUIRED:

SB 1111 by *Bowling - HB 1380 by *Ragan , FRITTS
Public Health - As introduced, enacts the "Mature Minor Doctrine Clarification Act.
This bill prohibits a healthcare provider from providing a vaccination to a minor unless the healthcare provider first receives written informed consent from a parent or legal guardian of the minor. This bill requires the healthcare provider to document receipt of, and include in the minor's medical record proof of, such consent
STATUS: HB1380 is in Health Subcommittee on Tuesday
ACTION:  Please contact these members and urge them to support this very important bill:
Rep. David Hawk rep.david.hawk@capitol.tn.gov 
Rep. Tim Hicks rep.tim.hicks@capitol.tn.gov
Rep. Tom Leatherwood rep.tom.leatherwood@capitol.tn.gov
Rep. Brock Martin  rep.brock.martin@capitol.tn.gov
Rep. Paul Sherrell rep.paul.sherrell@capitol.tn.gov
Rep. Bryan Terry rep.bryan.terry@capitol.tn.gov  
Rep. Ryan Williams rep.ryan.williams@capitol.tn.gov

 

INSTITUTING ARTIFICIAL TERM LIMITS:
Both Eagle Forum at the federal level and the state level have been opposed to ARTIFICIAL term limits since the idea arose a number of years ago for the Congressional level.
We have 'term limits' -- they are called ELECTIONS every two, four and six years.
This Resolution and Bill deal with local government term limits. 

Artificial term limits can transfer power and influence to others who are NOT accountable to the voters.

LOCAL TERM LIMITS?
SB 0580 by *Pody - HB 0118 by *Richey
Local Government, General - As introduced, establishes a referendum process by which the electorate of a local government in this state may vote to establish 16-year term limits for the public officials of the local government.
STATUS: Thankfully,HB118 FAILED in Elections & Campaign Finance Subcommittee this week 

 

CONTROLLING ACCESS TO ADULT PERFORMANCES:
SB 0003 by *Johnson , Crowe, Bowling, Haile,  Yager, Bailey, Jackson 
HB 0009 by *Todd, RICHEY, MCCALMON, CEPICKY, MOON, BARRETT, BULSO, Raper, Howell, Hawk, Vital, Moody, Davis, Sherrell, Gant, Fritts
Obscenity and Pornography - As introduced, creates an offense for a person who engages in an adult cabaret performance on public property or in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult.

STATUS: IT HAS PASSED BOTH HOUSES: 

B0003 by Johnson - SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE:
Recommended for passage with amendment/s, refer to Senate Calendar Committee Ayes 7, Nays 1 PNV 0 1/31/2023
Passed
         Ayes................................................7
         Noes................................................1

         Senators voting aye were: Gardenhire, Lundberg, Roberts, Rose, Stevens, Taylor, White   -- 7. Senators voting no were: Lamar -- 1.

SB0003 by Johnson - FLOOR VOTE: REGULAR CALENDAR AS AMENDED PASSAGE ON THIRD CONSIDERATION 2/23/2023
Passed
         Ayes...............................................74
         Noes...............................................19

         Representatives voting aye were: Alexander, Barrett, Baum, Boyd, Bricken, Bulso, Burkhart, Butler, Campbell S, Capley, Carringer, Cepicky, Cochran, Crawford, Darby, Davis, Doggett, Eldridge, Faison, Farmer, Fritts, Gant, Garrett, Gillespie, Grills, Hale, Haston, Hawk, Hazlewood, Helton-Haynes, Hicks G, Hicks T, Holsclaw, Howell, Hulsey, Hurt, Johnson C, Keisling, Kumar, Lafferty, Lamberth, Leatherwood, Littleton, Lynn, Marsh, Martin B, Martin G, McCalmon, Moody, Moon, Powers, Ragan, Raper, Reedy, Richey, Rudd, Rudder, Russell, Sherrell, Slater, Sparks, Stevens, Terry, Todd, Travis, Vaughan, Vital, Warner, White, Whitson, Williams, Wright, Zachary, Mr. Speaker Sexton -- 74.
         Representatives voting no were: Chism, Clemmons, Dixie, Freeman, Glynn, Hakeem, Hardaway, Harris, Hemmer, Jernigan, Johnson G, Jones, McKenzie, Miller, Mitchell, Parkinson, Powell, Shaw, Thompson -- 19.

 

ACLU Promises Legal Action Against Bill Banning Sex-Change Operations for Minors If Signed into Law