Tennessee Bar Association leaders are in Washington, D.C., this week to participate in the 2018 ABA Day on the Hill. Over two days they are meeting with the members of the House and Senate from Tennessee to discuss issues of importance to lawyers across the state.

House Majority Whip and Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise is in critical condition following surgery for a gunshot wound suffered at a congressional baseball practice earlier today, the Associated Press reports. Tennessee’s Rep. Chuck Fleischmann was at the field finishing practice with the rest of the team when the gunman began shooting. The Ooltewah Republican was not hit. “It’s just a madhouse here,” he said during a phone call from the scene. “It’s horrible. I’ve never experienced anything like that.” Read more of Fleischmann's account from The Tennessean.

This week Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced the “Browser Act,” a bill that would reapply internet privacy rules to internet service providers (ISPs), as well as to search engines, social networks and other websites. It would put millions of websites in a position to have to ask consumers for the right to sell their data, turning what traditionally has been an opt-out mechanism into an opt-in mechanism. The bill would also prevent states from passing their own privacy rules. Earlier this year, the passage of legislation targeted at revoking Federal Communications Commission oversight on online privacy for ISPs drew a major outcry from online observers. AssociationsNow.com has the story.

For a second day, the issue of racism was at the center of the confirmation hearing for attorney general designate Jeff Sessions, UPI reports. After questioning Sessions for more than 10 hours yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee today turned its attention to testimony from others – including three black lawmakers who all recommended against his confirmation. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga., and Cedric Richmond, D-La., questioned Sessions’ past views on race and whether he would aggressively pursue civil rights, equal rights and justice for all citizens. Representing a different perspective, Sessions’ former chief counsel, who also is black, told the committee, “I have not seen the slightest hint of racism because it does not exist.”

Attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions went before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today and mounted a full-scale response to what he has described as character attacks against him and false charges about his past. The hearing, which was interrupted from time to time by protestors, covered a range of “hot button” issues including civil rights, immigration, a border wall, same-sex marriage and abortion, with Sessions saying he will uphold the law even if he does not agree with it. Sessions also said he would recuse himself from any investigation of Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation given his past comments on those issues. The hearing continues tomorrow with unprecedented testimony by one sitting senator, Illinois’ Cory Booker, against another. Read Sessions’ opening statement.

The Tennessee congressional delegation re-filed legislation Monday to name the new federal courthouse in Nashville after former Sen. Fred Thompson, Knoxnews reports. A similar bill was approved by the House of Representatives last year but the congressional term ended before the Senate considered it. The Tennessean had that story. The new $194 million structure would be known as the Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and United States Courthouse under the proposed legislation. Thompson, who died in 2015 at age 73, represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate from 1994 to 2003.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer says he is prepared to block President-elect Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee if he or she is not in the “mainstream.” In an interview yesterday, Schumer said it is “hard for me to imagine a nominee that Donald Trump would choose that would get Republican support that we could support.” Asked if he would do his best to hold the seat open, Schumer responded, “Absolutely.” Schumer also said Democrats will push for a mainstream nominee, according to Roll Call.

U.S. Rep. Diane Black was named interim chair of the powerful House Budget Committee yesterday, placing her at the crux of the fight to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the Tennessean reports. The interim title reportedly is necessary until Rep. Tom Price, the outgoing chair, is confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Black has represented Tennessee’s Sixth Congressional District since 2010. She is the first woman to serve as chair of the committee.

U.S. Rep. Diane Black of Gallatin is the leading candidate to take the gavel of the powerful House Budget Committee, the Tennessean reports. If selected, the move would make her the fourth Tennessee lawmaker to chair a congressional committee and put her on the front lines of the battle to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Black’s name surfaced earlier this week in reports by Politico that she could move ahead of several federal lawmakers with more seniority.