Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton says he will meet with the chamber’s chief clerk and legislative leaders over Nashville Democratic Rep. Justin Jones’ unexcused absences from the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, TN Journal reports. Committee records show that Jones missed three of six Agriculture Committee meetings before the panel’s meeting on Wednesday, which he attended.

Various state House subcommittees acted on legislation under their jurisdiction this week. In the House Departments and Agencies Subcommittee, a bill that would have banned cold beer sales was amended to establish a drunken driving task force. The 12-member task force will study drunken driving trends in Tennessee over the next year and recommend ways to decrease impaired driving, repeat offenders and underage drinking. In the Higher Education Subcommittee, members rejected a bill that would have banned diversity, equity and inclusion programs at Tennessee public universities and colleges. The Tennessee Journal reports on these actions. In the Population Health Subcommittee, members defeated a bill designed to protect in vitro fertilization treatments. Bill sponsors argued the measure was needed after the Alabama Supreme Court found that fertilized embryos have similar rights to children, WKRN reports. Republicans opposed the measure saying it was more confusing than current law and could allow for “selective abortion during IVF.” State Rep. Bryan Terry, R-Murfreesboro, also said the bill was not needed because a 2022 opinion from the Tennessee Attorney General already found that the state’s Human Life Protection Act does not apply to IVF treatment.

TBA's Day on the Hill and Big Shrimp Legislative Reception will be held in Nashville on March 20. The events give Tennessee lawyers an opportunity to meet with their legislators and talk to them about issues important to the profession, including funding for indigent representation. The TBA Day on the Hill will include a luncheon and meetings with legislators in the afternoon, followed by the annual Big Shrimp reception that night. Sign up now to take part!

A group of Democratic Tennessee lawmakers is asking the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate how the state has further restricted the process for people with felony records to get their voting rights back, reports the Associated Press. The group argues that "Tennessee law permits restoration of voting rights through a straight-forward administrative procedure," but the elections office has imposed additional requirements that people get their full citizenship rights restored or secure a pardon in addition to the restoration processes that have been in place. The policy changes began last summer, halting nearly all voting rights restorations. The issue once again sparked outcries from voting rights advocates after elections officials in January made another legal interpretation that restoration of gun rights is part of the requirement. Because of those changes, coupled with existing state and federal laws for certain offenses that permanently ban someone from getting their gun rights back, critics argue the state’s new policy permanently disenfranchises tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of people from getting another chance to vote.

A bill that would require all written driver’s license tests to be given only in English will be taken up by the Senate Transportation and Safety Committee on Wednesday. According to the Nashville Post, SB1717/HB1730, sponsored by Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, and Rep. Kip Capley, R-Summertown, “prohibits use of a translation dictionary, electronic device or interpreter to assist with the examination.” Currently, Tennessee offers standard driver’s license tests in English and Spanish. Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, said, “I represent one of the most diverse districts in the state of Tennessee, probably one of the largest immigrant populations in the state ... That is a blatantly discriminatory bill designed to target specific individuals.”

The Certificate of Need Reform Working Group, made up of Republican Tennessee lawmakers, will file a bill this legislative session that will overhaul the current Certificate of Need Program (CON), according to a Feb. 26 email sent to 36 senators and representatives obtained by the Nashville Business Journal. The CON was established in 1972 by the federal government and is a permit for the establishment or modification of a health care institution, facility or service at a designated location, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. The bill will be aimed at eliminating the requirements for certain types of medical facilities and lightening restrictions for others, eliminating the CON requirements for freestanding emergency departments, intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) habitation facilities that are licensed by the Tennessee Department of IDD, burn units, neonatal intensive care units and organ transplant facilities. If the bill passes, the new requirements would go into effect on July 1, 2025, and new facilities would be required to receive accreditation within two years. 

A sales tax increase across Shelby County could pay for a new jail. The Daily Memphian reports that the news outlet obtained a draft bill in which the state would give the county permission to increase the total sales tax rate to 10.75%. The tax increase, raising the local sales tax rate to 3.75% across Shelby County, would have to be approved through a referendum. The draft bill is an amendment to a caption bill being carried by Rep. John Gillespie, R-Memphis, and Sen. Paul Rose, a Republican who represents Tipton, Lauderdale and Shelby counties.

A bill is moving through the Tennessee General Assembly that would remove the requirement that foster and adoptive families be vaccinated against flu and whooping cough. HB1726/SB2359, introduced by Rep. Ron Gant, R-Piperton, and co-sponsored by Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, will be discussed in the Civil Justice Committee on Wednesday. WSMV reports that the bill exempts an individual or member of an individual’s household from the Department of Children’s Services (DCS) immunization requirements for adopting or fostering a child if they object on the basis of religious or moral convictions. The Federal Administration for Children and Families requires caregivers of infants to have an up-to-date whooping cough and influenza vaccine.

The House today passed HB 1692 which seeks to allow records from the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development to be exempt from public records laws if the tourism commissioner and attorney general deem them “sensitive,” reports the Tennessean. The bill, proposed by the Lee administration and sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, is modeled after a similar exemption for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development that passed in 1988 and keeps records deemed sensitive secret for five years, with the possibility of an extension for a second five-year term. Rep. Andrew Farmer, R-Sevierville, presented the bill in the House and stated, "This would allow the department of tourism, in their negotiations with businesses and tourism interests with the state of Tennessee, to keep their trade secrets and proprietary information safe while the negotiations are going on.” The House passed the legislation, on a 69-14 vote. The bill has not yet been heard in a Senate committee.

TBA’s Legislative Updates podcast is new with TBA lobbyist Berkley Schwarz and Adams and Reese attorneys and TBA lobbyists, Brad Lampley and Ashley Harbin. They discuss HB1804/SB1690 which establishes a presumption of joint custody, HB2710/SB2254 the TBA conservatorship bill and HB2644/SB2633 which cleans up some current laws relating to adoption and foster parents. Legislative Updates airs each week on the TBA’s Facebook page. It is also released as a podcast on the same day and can be found on the TBA’s website or wherever you listen to podcasts.