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Governor Promises to Make Special Session Call, Sponsor Bills Amid GOP Opposition

“I will not be the sponsor,” said Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of any measures proposed by Gov. Bill Lee to pass an extreme order of protection. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Still facing challenges from Republican leaders, Gov. Bill Lee confirmed he will make an official call for a special session and sponsor several bills, including one he floated this spring dealing with extreme risk orders of protection (ERPO).

Yet just four months after a mass shooting at The Covenant School in Green Hills [in Nashville], Lee is hitting roadblocks set up by his own party and Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, who continues to say he will not support the governor’s order of protection bill.

Lee said recently he also plans to push legislation on juvenile justice, mental health, and violent crime and noted that lawmakers will back dozens of bills during the special session. He declined to give more details.

“Tennessee will be a safer state as a result of the efforts of the legislation and the legislators who are engaged in the process of this special session on public safety,” Lee said.

Johnson, who typically sponsors the governor’s bills as a result of his leadership position, reiterated his stance this week against Lee’s proposed extreme order of protection plan, even though it contains a provision for due process before an unstable person’s guns can be taken. Johnson said in a statement he does not support “red flag laws” and never has. The governor has shied away from the term “red flag law.”

“Should the governor choose to introduce an ERPO during special session, I will not be the sponsor,” Johnson said, responding to questions from the Tennessee Lookout. “Because the special session, itself, is controversial and lacks support in the Senate, this is a unique circumstance. Once the governor’s other proposals are finalized, I will review each one and consult with my Senate colleagues prior to agreeing to sponsor any administration bills.”

“I will not be the sponsor,” said Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of any measures proposed by Gov. Bill Lee to pass an extreme order of protection. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Similarly, House Speaker Cameron Sexton told the Tennessee Firearms Association last week he doesn’t think the governor’s extreme risk protection orders will make it out of committee system, though he believes bills could pass dealing with emergency commitals and “mass threats” directed at groups and locations, in addition to improving the state’s background check system for gun purchases.

Even though key Republican lawmakers have said they won’t back most gun control measures, Lee said he’s met dozens of times with more than a hundred Republican and Democratic lawmakers, in addition to pastors, students, parents, and business leaders in advance of the special session. 

The governor reportedly created a bipartisan working group that includes Democratic Sen. Raumesh Akbari and Democratic Reps. Bob Freeman and Antonio Parkinson.

Lee also said he’s confident “substantive” legislation will pass, despite statements by legislative leaders that gun-related bills will not be approved.

The Governor’s Office will keep a public comment portal open until the start of the planned August 21st special session. Thousands of responses the office has received are considered public records.

Sen. Ferrell Haile also confirmed Tuesday he plans to sponsor a bill during the special session dealing with mental health and violence. The bill’s language is not complete, but he said it is critical to note that not all mentally ill people are violent and not all violent people are mentally ill. 

“They’re just evil, full of hate,” he said of the latter group.

Meanwhile, Democrats started a series of town hall meetings Tuesday they plan to hold across the state to increase support for tighter gun laws leading up to the special session. The first was in Memphis.

Tennessee will be a safer state as a result of the efforts of the legislation and the legislators who are engaged in the process of this special session on public safety.

– Gov. Bill Lee

“Gun violence is a personal issue to the families who are impacted by this,” state Rep. John Ray Clemmons said Monday. “We want and we need to have personal conversations in their own communities.”

State Sen. Charlane Oliver, who prayed with a group of Covenant School families Monday, noted that guns are the leading cause of child deaths in Tennessee, which has some of the worst gun violence ratings in the nation. She pointed out the statistics show nothing new.

“What is new is the opportunity to turn tragedy into policy action,” Oliver said.

She urged fellow lawmakers to “have the courage not to cower” to the Tennessee Firearms Association and National Rifle Association and pointed out that Gov. Lee could sign “landmark” legislation as a result of the special session.

State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, a Chattanooga Republican, recently said he felt a group of Covenant School parents who formed nonprofit entities to work toward stricter gun laws were hypocritical and questioned why they didn’t take action when Black children in Chattanooga and Memphis were “slaughtered.”

Asked about that statement Monday, Oliver said, “Where was he? That’s the question. Where was he when little Black kids were getting slaughtered in Memphis, in Nashville, in Chattanooga?”

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

A Soft Secession

Photo: James Kirkikis | Dreamstime.com

Welcome to November. The temperatures are dropping like autumn leaves, Mariah Carey is singing to department store shoppers, and many Memphians will be heading indoors for the gatherings that make up the holiday season. So it makes sense that the Tennessee General Assembly, in another special session, last weekend voted to roll back a number of Covid restrictions across the state. The state usurping the power of local government seems like a textbook example of “government overreach” to me, but I don’t want to get hung up on pointing out instances of hypocrisy. I have my word count to think of.

To appease businesses like Ford Motor Co., after spending $728,000 on a special legislative session to debate an incentive package for Ford (a stunning display of fiscal responsibility), the bill has a number of exemptions. So what was a relatively clear-cut way of dealing with matters of public health is now a convoluted method rife with exemptions and special caveats. Time will tell what happens when the anti-mandate mandate goes up against the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate.

State Senator Jeff Yarbro said, “We’re putting every business in Tennessee in the middle of a fight where they have to choose between violating federal law or state law.” Setting aside the rampant hypocrisy on display, this is hardly a practical choice.

According to a 2021 study by WalletHub, Tennessee is the 14th-most dependent state on federal aid. That’s down a few notches from 2020, when the conservative news site The Center Square reported, “Federal grants-in-aid to Tennessee comprise 37.7 percent of the state’s general fund budget, the 11th-highest rate among the 50 states, according to a new study from the Tax Foundation.”

Maybe we should cool it on the “we don’t need no stinkin’ Feds” rhetoric. How long can we thumb our collective nose at the federal government before they cut off much-needed funds to our state? It’s as though our elected leaders are pushing for a soft secession, testing the waters before they declare the Volunteer State a sovereign entity. But aren’t these the same folks who think it’s base tyranny to have to show a vaccine record card to attend a concert? How will they react when they have to flash their passport just to cross a border and go fishing in Arkansas?

Look, these are not serious people. The Republican supermajority is out of touch with reality, pandering to a radical minority who have decided empathy is a weakness and minority rule is a healthy system of government. Consider this — last week’s Covid-edition special session was all about the freedom to not do anything. It wasn’t a special session about reducing gun violence, funding the healthcare system, or anything else people on both sides of the aisle can agree we so desperately need. So, yes, I think I’m being generous when I say they’re frivolous people, obsessed with hanging onto power and privilege. How else can I describe them?

They’re like a band on a reunion tour playing the greatest hits. When you shell out the big bucks to see The Rolling Stones, you expect to get some satisfaction. You want to hear “Paint It Black” and “Honky Tonk Women.” With these Tennessee Republicans, the hits are “Small Government (State Trumps Local Somehow),” “Gimme Tax Breaks,” “Sympathy for the White Man,” “Can’t You Hear Me Reloading (Permitless Carry),” and “Jumpin’ Caravan at the Border.”

It’s the same old set list, year after year, and nothing ever gets done. But that’s the point — they don’t need to deliver on any promises because they’ve set themselves up as the last bastion protecting simple, God-fearing Tennesseans from lawlessness, sex-crazed liberals, and science. They conjure nonexistent bogeymen to frighten voters, and smugly pat themselves on the back when they succeed in keeping these imaginary monsters at bay. At re-election time, they play the hits, ask if you still have your job (not how well it pays, though, of course), if you still have your guns or if they were confiscated by a globalist.

I don’t want to secede from the United States, nor do I want some chucklehead who represents Sweet Lips, Tennessee, to have more power over my life than, say, the Memphis City Council and Shelby County Commission. I would wager that few of my fellow Tennesseans disagree with me on these points.

So let’s raise our expectations and ask a little more from our public servants.

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News News Blog Uncategorized

Covid Bill Would Strip Local Pandemic Power

Credit: Tennessee General Assembly

Tennessee citizens are puppies over-loved by health department officials and now those citizens want nothing to do with those health department officials. 

That was part of the case made Thursday by Rep. Kevin Vaughn (R-Collierville) to justify stripping local health departments of their power during pandemics. His bill was among those before lawmakers during a special session in Nashville this week. It was the third special session called for this sitting Tennessee General Assembly, the most in history. This week’s session is dealing specifically with Covid issues. 

Vaughn’s bill would give pandemic powers to the governor and strip local health department leaders of their mandate powers — including masks and restaurant limitations — and give those decisions to local mayors. The bill would also give the governor a say-so in who gets to lead local health departments. 

Vaughn complained that health orders from Tennessee Governor Bill Lee “apply everywhere except in Shelby County.” He said he lives closer to rural Fayette County than urban parts of Shelby County. So, Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) rules on masks and more apply to him, even though his area is not densely populated and “the rules get very confusing.”

He complained that no masks are required in Fayette County restaurants, for example, but to go the 10 miles for a Collierville restaurant, masks are required.

The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) serves as the health department for 89 of Tennessee’s 95 counties. Six counties — Sullivan, Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Shelby, and Madison — have their own county health departments and can set rules that apply only to that county.  

Vaughn’s bill would strip local health powers, but only during a pandemic, which he said would be those certified by the World Health Organization (WHO). This would allow the governor to have decision-making authority for the entire state, with “all oars pulling in the same direction.” Local departments could still ask the governor for exceptions. 

Local health officials’ intentions during the pandemic have been “honorable,” Vaughn said. Sometimes, though, decision made with the best intention can have negative consequences. 

“You know how when you give a child a new puppy, a child loves that puppy more than anything in the world.”

Rep. Kevin Vaughn (R-Collierville)

“You know how when you give a child a new puppy, a child loves that puppy more than anything in the world,” Vaughn said. “He or she picks it up … and loving it to death and squeezes and squeezes and that puppy starts squealing. It gets uncomfortable and don’t want anything but be put down because it’s getting loved to death. Then, it runs from the child from there on. 

“I’m afraid that that’s some of what … we’re being overprotected in some places. We’ve seen a situation to where people are — in the name of good intentions — are creating consequences that may either create ill intent or create an environment for noncompliance, which then it undermines the entire system.”

House members from urban areas explained larger populations in cities have made Covid more transmissible than in less populous areas. Therefore, cities should have the right to make rules different than rural areas. 

“That’s why it behooves local departments to make these decisions, not just one general — as you put it — to make those calls,” said Rep. Jason Powell (D-Nashville).  “I disagreed in many ways with the way that the governor handled the outbreak, in some of the things that he did and did not do, when that was occurring. 

“I disagreed with some of the decisions that my locals made and did not make, but I think that ultimately allowing locals to have more say, and not rely on getting permission and exceptions when we’re in the midst of a global pandemic, is important.”

Vaughn said epidemic curves across the state and in counties with health departments looks basically the same, implying restrictions imposed by those independent health departments have not worked.  

Tennessee’s new cases during the pandemic.
Credit: Tennessee Department of Health
Shelby County’s new cases during the pandemic.
Credit: Tennessee Department of Health
The Upper Cumberland region’s (the state’s least populated region) new cases during the pandemic.
Credit: Tennessee Department of Health

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GOP Turns Ford Session Into Covid Battleground

Credit: state of Tennessee

Tennessee Republicans pulled a double switcheroo in Nashville Tuesday, twisting a special session on economic development into a Covid-culture war zone. 

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee called a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly to review an $884 million incentive package to bring a Ford Motor Co. manufacturing facility to the Memphis Regional Megasite in Haywood County. 

House Republicans’ first switcheroo came as they brought a bill during that session against employers from asking employees for proof of a Covid vaccine. Switcheroo number two came during the debate on that bill. After a brief recess, the GOP brought a surprise amendment to the bill to disallow school districts from mandating face masks.     

On the original bill brought to the session, Tennessee businesses can be sued if they fire an employee who refuses to show proof of a Covid-19 vaccine. That is the will of a majority of Tennessee House committee members who voted Tuesday to approve a bill giving employees this right. 

Rep. Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) introduced the legislation to the committee Tuesday, not the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rusty Grills (R-Newbern). Zachary warned of President Joseph Biden’s proposal to mandate vaccines for employees for all companies with more than 100 employees. 

Zachary said the president “weaponized the free market against us,” in a star-spangled speech draped in “rights” and “freedoms” and short on references to Covid mortality rates or pediatric case numbers.     

The original bill would have given such employees access to unemployment compensation as well. The bill introduced Tuesday was stripped of this portion and only allowed fired employees the right to sue their companies. However, unemployment insurance was added back to it with an amendment as the bill was debated. 

Though, officials with the Tennessee Department of Labor said employees fired for not getting the Covid vaccine are eligible for unemployment insurance. They’d only not be eligible if getting a Covid shot was part of their original employment agreement. That is, if getting a shot was not in your original contract with your boss, you can still get unemployment in Tennessee.  

Republicans said they didn’t care if the law was duplicative. They stressed the need to “send a message” to employers and others with the legislation. 

As for employees suing their boss, Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis) put things plainly, saying, “I thought I was coming up here to split up $1 billion” for Ford. With that, he asked Zachary if he’d talk with Ford about the law as it would open the company up to potential lawsuits if it mandated a vaccine. Zachary said he worked for his constituents in Knox County and “could care less what Ford is OK with” as it pertained to the legislation. 

“I keep hearing Ford, Ford, Ford, and we appreciate them but we’re writing them a check for $884 million,” said Rep. Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka). “I don’t think if we pass this bill one away or another it will affect them from coming. They’re interested in the money the people of Tennessee is going to give them.”

As for mask mandates in schools, arguments on both sides were nothing new to anyone paying attention to the issue over many months. At the dawn of the 2021 school year, Lee allowed Tennessee parents to opt out of any mask mandate issued by counties, health departments, or school districts. Knox and Shelby counties both overrode the opt-out order in court and mandated students to wear masks in class. 

Rep Gloria Johnson (R-Knoxville) said masks work to keep everyone safe at school. Rep. Dan Howell (R-Cleveland) pointed to the millions of fans attending college football games every Saturday “without a mask and nobody says a word about it.” For some reason, he said, some want masks on children in Tennessee, and “I just don’t get it.”

Debate continued on the legislation after deadline. No final vote had yet been taken on the overall bill.  

So far, the bill does not have a Senate sponsor. 

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Megasite Board Secrecy Allowances Criticized

Credit: state of Tennessee

As lawmakers descend on Nashville for an $883 million incentive package for Ford Motor Co., a government transparency group is concerned about the secrecy that could be allowed the board that will oversee the project. 

State of Tennessee

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee called a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly last week to review and approve a state-funded incentive package for Ford that includes:

• $500 million in grants   

• $138.2 million for construction and demolition

• $40 million to build a Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) school on the site

• $200 million to build roads for the project

• $5 million in consulting fees

Another bill before lawmakers Monday afternoon would establish the Megasite Authority of West Tennessee (MAWT). That group will serve as a sort of city council for the megasite project with wide-ranging powers to buy real estate and personal property, build roads, grant mortgages, administer the properties, give grants, offer water and wastewater services, condemn land, and more. 

This group will be governed by a volunteer group of board of directors, only being compensated for travel expenses incurred in carrying out board duties. 

Members of the group include: 

• Two appointed by the governor

• One appointed by the Speaker of the House

• One appointed by the Speaker of the Senate

• The Commissioner of the Department of Economic Development (or a designee)

• The Commissioner of the Department of General Services (or a designee)

• The Commissioner of the Department of Finance and Administration

State of Tennessee

The group has broad powers and broad access to government secrecy, according to the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government (TCOG). The bill establishing the group adopts the “principle of open records” as its official policy. Then, the bill immediately outlines a laundry list of exceptions to the principle of open records. 

For example, a contract signed by the authority “that obligates public funds” is “not a public record” until the contract has been signed. Records containing “proprietary information” will be kept secret from the public for five years. 

Anything containing “trade secrets” will be sealed. Capital plans and marketing information will also be kept secret by the group, as the law is now written. 

These exemptions are anathema to those who support open government…

TCOG executive director Deborah Fisher

“These exemptions are anathema to those who support open government and public oversight that open government brings to government actions,” wrote TCOG executive director Deborah Fisher in a Monday-afternoon blog post. ”This oversight is especially important when large amounts of taxpayer money are involved.

New megasite authority could operate with secrecy under proposed bill

“While bringing Ford Motor Co. to Tennessee may be a game-changer for economic stimulus in the western part of our state, we don’t need it to be a game-changer for transparency in government. We don’t need a whole new branch of government that can operate without public scrutiny.”