Rep. Martin Daniel, R-Knoxville, has asked the state comptroller office to audit the state’s healthcare plan that is administered by BlueCross Blueshield of Tennessee and Cigna, the Nashville Post reports. The request came last week, just days after both insurance companies filed lawsuits against the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration, claiming documents Martin had requested were confidential trade secrets. The comptroller’s office said it has never before conducted an audit of this extent on the state health plan and is determining whether they will act on the request.

State Rep. Bruce Griffey, a Republican from Paris, has introduced a joint resolution to change the process for selecting the state attorney general from appointment by the Tennessee Supreme Court to popular election, Fox 17 reports. The resolution, HJR 0657, also changes the term of the attorney general from eight to four years. The legislation envisions the new process would take effect with the November 2024 general election.

Republican Rusty Grills won the special election last week to fill the vacant House District 77 seat in West Tennessee, the Nashville Post reports. Grills, a Dyer County Commissioner, will be sworn in when the legislature returns in January. He will succeed Republican Bill Sanderson, who stepped down in September to focus on his family and wine business. Grills won 85% of the vote, beating Democrat Michael Smith and several independent candidates.

Stuart McWhorter, the chair of the Tennessee Capitol Commission, committed this week to hold a meeting by the end of February to discuss the process for a vote on whether to remove the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust from the Capitol, the Daily Memphian reports. The commitment came in a meeting with Memphis Democrat Rep. G.A. Hardaway, who is chair of the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators. The commission declined to remove the bust two years ago when former Gov. Bill Haslam called for it to be taken out.

State Rep. Bob Freeman has joined his father’s real estate company, Freeman Webb Co., as executive vice president, the Nashville Post reports. The younger Freeman represents Tennessee’s 56th House district, which includes parts of Davidson County. He previously was vice president of real estate investment and development at Forestar Group, an Austin-based real estate and natural resources firm. He also once served as the co-founder and president of Freeman Applegate Partners, a Nashville-based construction and development consultancy firm.

Rep. Ron Gant of Rossville, the House Republican Caucus’s assistant majority leader, says he will file legislation to change the name of the Cordell Hull state office building to that of former Gov. Winfield Dunn. Gant says the name change will honor “a hero” who established the state departments of Economic and Community Development and General Services, implemented a statewide kindergarten program and passed infrastructure legislation. Democrats called the move a “partisan” ploy and distraction from real problems, the Tennessean reports. Hull served in the Tennessee House of Representatives and both the U.S. House of Representative and Senate. He was named secretary of state by President Franklin Roosevelt and was pivotal in establishing the United Nations, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for that effort. 

Tennessee State Rep. Martin Daniel, a Knoxville Republican who chairs the Joint Government Operations Committee, is declining to hold hearings on a $4 million rural grants pool some lawmakers are calling a “slush fund," the Daily Memphian reports. In a letter released last week, Daniel said the House Finance, Ways & Means Committee, not his committee, should be the one to “determine if the funds are being used for the intended purpose.” The $3 million fund was created in part by the governor’s supplemental budget and in part by a legislative initiative to bolster the governor’s rural development executive order. Critics of the fund, however, say it was intended to reward lawmakers who voted for the governor’s education savings account bill.

State Rep. Mark White, a Republican from East Memphis, is taking a new job as director of Lipscomb University’s College of Leadership & Public Service. He will continue to live in East Memphis and retain his legislative seat in District 83, the Daily Memphian reports. White chairs the House Education Committee and with the new job will travel the state, primarily to rural areas, to develop leadership programs for public service. White earned a master of arts degree in conflict management from Lipscomb in 2018. He previously was a principal at Harding Academy in Memphis.

At the direction of new House Speaker Cameron Sexton, the House Finance, Ways & Means Committee will move its 2020-2021 budget hearings to a November-December schedule, away from the long practice of holding them during the regular session. Explaining the move, Sexton told the Daily Memphian this week that holding the hearings in February and March "logjam the committee system" but holding them before the session gives lawmakers a better understanding of the budget plan and frees them up to concentrate on legislation once the session starts.

Republican state Sen. Brian Kelsey of Germantown and Democratic state Rep. Antonio Parkinson of Memphis plan to sponsor legislation in 2020 that will allow student athletes in the state to be paid for endorsements, the Daily Memphian reports. In addition, they hope to create a grant program funded by a portion of ticket sales to help student athletes who do not go on to play for a pro team after they graduate. This past April, the state Senate unanimously passed a resolution by Kelsey encouraging universities to work with athletic conferences to end the NCAA ban on compensating athletes.