Meanwhile, life goes on and so does the Tennessee General Assembly, which has reached what could be called the stretch drive of its race to conclude its annual session. The bills that are going to be run through this last-chance wringer include the good, the bad, and the ugly. Here are a couple that were scheduled for a significant look-see this week:
HB 577/SB 139 — Slated for the Senate regular calendar on Monday night was this brainchild of Rep. John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge) and Sen. Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma). The bill is seemingly intended as some sort of counter to the urges of horny adolescents as well as a shield against liberal attempts at family-life curricula. Essentially, it is aimed at halting or limiting minors’ access to “contraceptive procedures, supplies, and materials.”
It “prohibits distribution of contraception on school property,” “requires the Textbook and Instructional Material Quality Commission to approve all medically acceptable contraceptive information distributed at public schools or public charter schools,” and requires parental permission for a minor to access any contraceptive materials that might possibly be referred by public schools or public charter schools. Bearing down on its central point, it prohibits instruction in a “family life curriculum” that does not emphasize the primacy of abstinence. An omission from the bill, perhaps an oversight, is the lack of any requirement involving cold showers for affected adolescents.
Oh, and language in the bill does warn that “passage of the proposed legislation could jeopardize federal Title X funding in FY21-22 and subsequent years to the Department of Health, received for providing comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services.”
• Adults come in for their fair share of regulation, as well. On the calendar for floor action in the House on Monday night of this week is HB 532/SB 406, by Rep. Ron Gant (R-Rossville) and Sen. Page Walley (R-Bolivar). The bill’s abstract advertises its purpose: “revises exemption that authorizes municipalities having a population of 10,000 or less to enforce traffic laws on a contiguous portion of an interstate highway within the boundaries of the municipality if there are at least two entrance ramps and two exit ramps so that the contiguous portion no longer needs to be solely within the boundaries of the municipality.”
Got that? No? Here is HB 532/SB 406 described a tad more purposively: “This is a bill for Piperton, a small town on the Fayette-Shelby line that’s known in the area as a speed trap. The bill gives the town the ability to catch speeders on a 1.5 mile stretch of I-269. Designed to help enhance the coffers of small towns that have extended their lines to include portions of interstates.”
Go back to the use of the word “solely” in the bill’s official abstract. The situation faced by officials of Piperton (pop: 2,142) is that, as I-269 transects Piperton, only the northbound section of it lies within the town limits, while the southbound part goes through neighboring Collierville.
This mischance threatens at least half of the town’s potential revenue from speeding tickets and other moving citations on that small stretch of interstate. This bill allows the town’s constabulary to hit up the other side of the interstate as well, with the likelihood of doubling receipts.
State Rep. Dwayne Thompson, who was the only naysayer to the bill on its way through the House Transportation Committee, planned to renew his objections during floor discussions and hoped to be joined by more than a few of the colleagues who may have to encounter the turf in question with some regularity.