TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Aug 4, 2021

A new report shows how many floor votes were missed by members of the Tennessee General Assembly during the last legislative session, the Tennessee Journal reports. According to the scorecard assembled by the Club for Growth Foundation, the average representative missed 8% of the vote, while the average senator missed 6%. Sen. Katrina Robinson, D-Memphis, who is set to stand trial in September on charges of fraud and money laundering, missed 40% of the Senate votes, the most among her colleagues. Rep. David Byrd, R-Waynesboro, missed 100% of the votes due to being hospitalized after contracting the COVID-19 virus. Months after voting for a resolution saying the news media had "sensationalized the reporting on COVID-19 in the service of political agendas,” Byrd spent 55 days on a ventilator, received a liver transplant and spent a total of eight months in the hospital and rehab. The Tennessean reports that Byrd is now back home and encouraging people to consider getting vaccinated.