Bills targeting the LGBTQ community and increasing immigration enforcement were the subject of much protest and debate at the Tennessee State Capitol this week — along with bills putting an emphasis on Christianity in public schools.
As this year’s session begins to wind down, here’s this week’s recap of happenings at the Tennessee General Assembly.
Immigration Enforcement Legislation Advances
Several bills aligned with Republicans’ proposed immigration package advanced this week. These include legislation requiring local law enforcement to comply with court orders regarding illegal sanctuary city policies. This bill would require local governments to enter into 287(g) agreements, permitting law enforcement to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under the proposed law, governments that don’t comply could be financially penalized by the state.
Another bill to require a memorandum of understanding between law enforcement and federal immigration officials regarding the enforcement of immigration laws also advanced in committee.
Legislation that would make certain immigration records confidential passed in the House and is now en route to the governor’s desk. The bill will shield the names, contact information, addresses and other identifying information of officers participating in immigration enforcement activities in Tennessee from being made public.
Also headed to the governor’s desk is a bill to establish an office of homeland security within the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. The office will be largely exempt from the Tennessee Public Records Act.
‘No Pride Flag or Month Act’ Dies in Senate Committee
A similar bill failed in 2024; Bulso teases return of bill next year if he's reelected
A bill that would have banned displaying Pride flags and other LGBTQ symbols in government buildings died in a Senate committee on Tuesday after several Republicans declined to support the effort. Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) sponsored the legislation, but it was principally championed by Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood), who told Scene sister publication the Williamson Scene he may reintroduce similar legislation next year if he is reelected.
Bulso previously said he sponsored the bill after some Williamson County parents complained about teachers and staff displaying Pride flags and other symbols of LGBTQ inclusivity on their desks, doors or other work areas in schools. LGBTQ activists have faced off with Bulso for years at the state Capitol, sounding the alarm over numerous bills by Bulso and others that target LGBTQ rights and visibility. In 2024, a similar bill — also sponsored by Bulso and Hensley — passed the House floor but died on the Senate floor.
Anti-Transgender Legislation Advances
Sponsor Faison calls gender-affirming care ‘as dumb as frontal lobotomies’
The House this week passed a bill that would require health care providers and insurance companies to hand over data on transgender patients, raising alarms about the use of that data among the trans community. Bill sponsor Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby) called gender-affirming care “as dumb as frontal lobotomies” in a press conference. Meanwhile, the Senate OK’d a bill to let patients sue their doctors for “coercing” them into gender-affirming surgeries.
Lawmakers Pass Health Care Policy
A bill passed the Senate this week that would offer looser restrictions on proceeds from a government-owned public benefit hospital — something that was introduced on behalf of the Williamson County Board of Commissioners as Williamson Health eyes a sale.
A bill from Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) that would guarantee emergency medical care for pregnant women is headed to the House floor next week after passing the Senate earlier in the session.
Under the “Stopping Health Insurers from Excluding Legal Decisions Act,” insurance providers cannot withhold incentive payments or reduce a provider’s reimbursement rates because patients are not vaccinated. That bill passed the Senate this week and is headed to the House floor. Last year, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill that requires physicians accepting TennCare to treat patients regardless of their vaccination status.
A bill that would create a $10,000 civil penalty for providing abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) and a $1 million penalty if that person “suffers bodily injury or death” is on its way to the governor’s desk. The bill was amended to exempt mail carriers, pharmacists and physicians.
Senate Passes Bill Creating Trust Funds for Influencer Kids
Children featured in content also have the right to ask for old videos to be removed
Children featured in online content will have the right to get that content removed as adults, as well as access to a percentage of the funds their parents earn from family content, under a bill that passed the Senate last week. It is now headed to the House floor.
Religion-in-Schools Bills Move Forward
Two bills relating to religion in public schools advanced in committee this week.
The "Protecting Religious Liberty and Expression in Public Schools Act” passed in the Senate Judiciary Committee and will soon head to the Senate floor for consideration. The bill would require public schools to teach students the Bible as literature, including the “age-appropriate history of Israel, the stories and the moral and ethical teachings of the Old and New Testaments, the life of Jesus, the history of the early Christian church and the Bible's influence on western civilization.”
Another piece of legislation advanced in committee that would allow public K-12 schools and higher-education institutions to teach the “positive impacts of religion on American history” during U.S. history instruction. The bill will be debated on the House floor on March 30.
Lawmakers and staff enjoy a sunny day on the Cordell Hull State Office Building balcony, March 24, 2026
Democrats Call for Gas, Diesel Tax Holiday
This week, House Democrats proposed a statewide gas and diesel tax holiday amid rising national fuel costs. State Reps. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) and Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville) held a March 24 news conference calling on Gov. Bill Lee and Republican lawmakers to set aside state budget funding in order to offset a gas and diesel tax holiday.
“It's time to give Tennessee families, working families and small businesses a break at the pump,” Clemmons said. “The best option here is for this state to issue a gas and diesel tax holiday for the benefit of Tennessee families.”
Gas prices have quickly risen across the country following the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran, with the national average closing in on $4 per gallon. Clemmons and Mitchell argue that the state’s Republican supermajority, which is attempting to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the state’s school voucher program, could spend the money elsewhere.
Democratic state Reps. Bo Mitchell (left) and John Ray Clemmons
“We've got plenty of money here to move around in multiple ways,” Clemmons said. “Give us at least two months of tax break, if we would focus on Tennessee families, and tax relief that would benefit every single Tennessean in every single community, rather than an uncapped welfare program that only benefits a select few.”
Gov. Lee’s office did not return a request for comment, but House Transportation Chairman Rep. Dan Howell (R-Cleveland) pushed back against the effort in a statement to the Scene.
"Once again, Tennessee Democrats repackage their same tired ideas, showing they have little understanding of our state's economic or infrastructure realities,” Howell said. “Eliminating the gas tax does nothing to benefit consumers and it is completely unenforceable. The Democrats know this. Gas station owners set their own prices, so there’s no guarantee any savings would be passed on.”
Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson speaks during a Senate committee, March 24, 2026
NES Representation Bill Dies, Effort Could Be Revived
A bill to give Williamson County and other municipalities representation on the Nashville Electric Service board failed to advance in a House committee this week. But the legislation’s Senate sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), says the effort could be revived this session.
An amended version of House Bill 2418, sponsored by Rep. Clark Boyd (R-Lebanon), failed in Wednesday’s House State and Local Government Committee in a 9-9 vote, with three members voting present.
The bill would have allowed counties with more than 3,500 ratepayers who are part of a municipally owned local power company, but don’t reside in that municipality, to have a seat on the company’s board. That board member would be appointed by the county mayor and have to be approved by the county commission, if the county mayor chooses to appoint a representative.
NES services 10,866 customers in Williamson County, who reside in portions of Brentwood.
