Protestors at the Tennessee State Capitol on April 6, when lawmakers voted to expel Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson
It’s hard now to recall that the 113th session of the Tennessee General Assembly started back in January, rather than on March 27.
That’s when a shooter entered the Covenant School in Green Hills, about seven miles from the state Capitol, and killed three 9-year-old students and three school staffers. The tragedy kicked off a month of mourning, protest and conflict at the state legislature, members of which rushed this week to conclude its business for the year and leave Nashville.
The state House and Senate met throughout the week, adjourning Friday evening after extended floor sessions and back-and-forths between the bodies. Their urgency to leave Nashville was evidenced by their willingness to meet on a Friday. The legislature, dominated in both chambers by Republicans, spent the past month hosting thousands of anti-gun protesters; declining to advance gun restrictions despite calls to do so by Republican Gov. Bill Lee, Democratic members and protesters; and expelling and then almost immediately welcoming back two Democratic members who staged an anti-gun protest on the House floor.
It might have been a year, rather than just a month, since Lt. Gov. Randy McNally weathered a caucus confidence vote in the wake of revelations that the Senate leader frequently posted supportive comments on a young gay man’s Instagram profile. That controversy quickly faded as attention turned to the House. In addition to the expulsions and subsequent return of Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, McNally’s counterpart, House Speaker Cameron Sexton, is facing a controversy of his own after a left-leaning publication reported that Sexton owned a home and sent his kid to school in Nashville, two hours from the district he represents. On Thursday, Rep. Scotty Campbell (R-Mountain City) resigned after NewsChannel5 revealed that an ethics committee determined he had repeatedly sexually harassed a 19-year-old intern; Sexton did not publicly punish Campbell in the more than three weeks since the House speaker received the report.
In the final days of the term, the House and Senate declined to consider gun restrictions, instead nodding to the possibility of a special session later this year.
"I'm here to work whenever the governor calls us back," House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) said.
Shortly after the legislature adjourned, Lee said he would call a special session because "there is broad agreement that dangerous, unstable individuals who intend to harm themselves or others should not have access to weapons."
Still, the House Republican Caucus has already said that a red-flag or extreme risk protection order law is a "non-starter" for the supermajority. The legislature did reserve time to make good on most of its promises to punish Nashville, whose Metro Council opted last year not to support a bid for the 2024 Republican National Convention, setting off a furious response from Republicans in the legislature.
One of those efforts — capping the 40-member Metro Council at 20 members — passed earlier in the session and has already been put on hold by a court. Another successful piece of legislation turns community oversight boards like the one established to independently review the Metro Nashville Police Department into advisory committees. Others give Republican leaders in state government appointments to Metro boards overseeing Nashville’s airports and sports facilities.
When the Tennessee General Assembly approved the $56.2 billion annual spending plan earlier in the week, it included several significant provisions that — relative to the Saturday Night Live jokes and national news hits that focused on other events from the past month — drew little attention. Among the line items in the budget was Lee’s signature push of the year, a roads plan aimed at partnering with private companies to build paid “choice lanes” on Tennessee highways. The budget also included $400 million for permanent corporate tax cuts and a one-time three-month grocery tax holiday and funding for teacher pay raises and hiring of school resource officers at public schools. Democrats sought, unsuccessfully, to include $13 million to expedite processing of rape test kits in Tennessee.
"It’s an immoral failure of leadership to end session without taking up gun safety legislation," Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) said in a statement. "The epidemic of gun violence is deadlier than ever, and one community is still reeling from a preventable school shooting that left six people dead, including three 9-year-olds. Even our conservative governor has said enough is enough.”
