Tennessee Bills

Memorials, Recognition - Arab American Heritage Month -

Memorials, Recognition - Do Something Tennessee Day, May 1, 2026 -

Memorials, Personal Occasion - John Patrick Hallet and Susan Marie Hallet, 45th wedding anniversary -

Memorials, Recognition - National Pencil Day -

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, increases the penalty for obstruction of a highway, street, sidewalk, railway, waterway, elevator, aisle, hallway, or other place used for the passage of persons or vehicles from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E felony; establishes an increased penalty of a Class D felony if the offense was committed by intentionally obstructing a highway, street, or other place used for the passage of vehicles. - Amends TCA Title 39.

Boats, Boating - As introduced, urges the department of transportation, in consultation with the department of revenue, to study the potential impact on transportation infrastructure needs of requiring personal trailers used for the transportation of boats to be registered in this state; requires the department of transportation to report to the chairs of the transportation and safety committee of the senate and the committee in the house of representatives having jurisdiction over transportation on or before January 1, 2027, if such study is conducted. - Amends TCA Title 10, Chapter 7, Part 5; Title 55 and Title 69.

Memorials, Congress - Urges the U.S. Congress to enact H.R. 2350 (S. 1137), which permits states to deploy cell-phone jamming systems in prisons. -

Memorials, Recognition - "Veterans Suicide Prevention Day," September 22 -

Memorials, Recognition - Trapping, effective wildlife management tool -

Economic and Community Development - As introduced, increases, from 30 to 45, the number of days within the end of a fiscal year, for which a municipality is requesting an allocation of sales and use taxes revenues, that a municipality may submit a summary of the cost of an economic development project through to the end of that fiscal year, with supporting documentation certified by the chief financial officer of the municipality. - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 40.

Local Government, General - As introduced, requires that a reduction of the allocations and distributions of certain tax and other revenues to counties and municipalities due to a population loss based on the revised populations certified by the department of economic and community development be implemented incrementally in 20 percent increments over a five-year period. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3; Title 4, Chapter 49; Section 9-16-101; Title 54, Chapter 4; Title 55, Chapter 4; Title 57, Chapter 5, Part 2; Title 57, Chapter 3, Part 3 and Title 67.

Boats, Boating - As introduced, urges the department of transportation, in consultation with the department of revenue, to study the potential impact on transportation infrastructure needs of requiring personal trailers used for the transportation of boats to be registered in this state; requires the department of transportation to report to the chairs of the transportation and safety committee of the senate and the committee in the house of representatives having jurisdiction over transportation on or before January 1, 2027, if such study is conducted. - Amends TCA Title 10, Chapter 7, Part 5; Title 55 and Title 69.

Children's Services, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the department to create and maintain a website that includes certain information about child care agencies. - Amends TCA Title 37, Chapter 5, Part 5.

Election Laws - As introduced, requires the legislative body of each municipality to change the date of municipal elections to coincide with the August primary or November general election; makes municipal elections partisan; standardizes the election timetable for referendums for the incorporation of a new municipality. - Amends TCA Title 2; Title 5; Title 6 and Title 7.

Jellico - Subject to local approval, authorizes the levy of a privilege tax, not to exceed two percent, on the purchase of prepared food from restaurants. - Amends Chapter 91 of the Private Acts of 2008.

Memorials, Congress - Urges Congress to pass the Eliminating Discrimination And Creating Corridors to Expand Student Success (ED ACCESS) Act of 2022. -

Memorials, Public Service - Tennessee's retailers that collect sales taxes for the State -

Taxes, Exemption and Credits - Authorizes the allocation by the Tennessee housing development agency, and credit by the department of revenue, of the tax credit created by the Tennessee Rural and Workforce Housing Act against a taxpayer's liability for premium tax, retaliatory tax, franchise tax, and excise tax; authorizes $10 million per year to be allocated in credits for the next three calendar years. -

General Assembly, Statement of Intent or Position - Encourages Tennessee's teachers to use the names Gulf of America and Mount McKinley in classroom instruction. -

Education - As introduced, corrects the name of the Cumberland Museum and Science Center to the Adventure Science Center for purposes of receipt of appropriations of state funds made for educational grants-in-aid under allotments of the commissioner of finance and administration. - Amends TCA Title 49.

District Attorneys - As introduced, adds an additional assistant district attorney general position and criminal investigator position in each judicial district that includes a state correctional facility. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 16 and Title 41.

Taxes, Business - As introduced, exempts from business tax, receipts from the sale of a prescription drug or medicine with a cost for a 30-day equivalent supply that exceeds the medicare cost threshold for 2025 plan years and services necessary for proper preparation, storage, handling, administration, patient education, or post-sale monitoring of such exempted drugs or medicines. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 7.

Women - As introduced, creates a pilot program to be administered by the bureau of TennCare to provide pregnant TennCare recipients improved maternal health care through remote patient monitoring for maternal hypertension and maternal diabetes. - Amends TCA Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Taxes, Sales - As introduced, exempts from the sales and use tax the retail sale of infant formula and diapers and wipes designed to be used by infants and children. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 6, Part 3.

Criminal Procedure - As introduced, requires a person arrested for a felony offense to have a biological specimen taken by the arresting authority for the purpose of DNA analysis to determine identification characteristics specific to the person. - Amends TCA Title 18; Title 38, Chapter 6; Title 39 and Title 40, Chapter 35.

Taxes, Business - As introduced, exempts services furnished by persons engaged in the appraisal of real estate or real property from business tax. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 7.

Taxes, Privilege - As introduced, reallocates 3 percent of revenue derived from the beer barrelage tax that is provided to the general fund to the department of agriculture for the purposes of supporting growth in the utilization of Tennessee agricultural products in brewing and in the promotion of the growth of the Tennessee brewing industry. - Amends TCA Title 57.

TennCare - As introduced, requires the bureau of TennCare to reimburse certain public or private ground-based ambulance services that bill for transports at a rate not less than 67.5 percent of the federal medicare program's allowable charge for participating providers for emergency services and 100 percent of the federal medicare program's allowable charge for participating providers for nonemergency services. - Amends TCA Title 71.

Education - As introduced, requires local boards of education to establish a program to provide free school breakfast and lunch to disadvantaged students; subject to funding, requires the state to reimburse LEAs for providing such free breakfasts and lunches after all federal funds have been applied. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Advertising - As introduced, requires just compensation to be paid for the acquisition or removal of an outdoor advertising device lawfully erected; prohibits the use of amortization to provide such just compensation. - Amends TCA Title 29, Chapter 16 and Section 54-21-107.

Lottery, Scholarships and Programs - As introduced, adds William R. Moore College of Technology as an eligible institution for receipt of the Wilder-Naifeh reconnect grant and Wilder-Naifeh technical skills grant; specifies that the amount of the scholarship for such students enrolled is the average cost of tuition and mandatory fees at TCATs less all other gift aid. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 4.

TennCare - As introduced, enacts the "TennCare Network Reporting Reform Act." - Amends TCA Title 71.

Education - As introduced, converts the school safety alert grant pilot program to a statewide two-year school safety alert grant program; removes the limit on the number of grants that may be awarded in a fiscal year. - Amends TCA Title 49 and Chapter 994 of the Public Acts of 2024.

Tennessee Higher Education Commission - As introduced, creates the Tennessee Promise completion grant special account in the state treasury for purposes of awarding completion grants to certain Tennessee Promise scholarship students; makes the four-year pilot program established by the commission to award completion grants to certain Tennessee Promise scholarship students a permanent program. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 49; Title 49, Chapter 4 and Title 49, Chapter 7.

Taxes, Ad Valorem - As introduced, increases the amount of the reimbursement that is paid under the provisions for property tax relief for disabled veteran homeowners from the first $175,000 of the full market value of the home to the first $250,000 of the full market value. - Amends TCA Section 67-5-704.

Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) - As introduced, adds pre-kindergarten students with special education needs and their peer models to the categories of students who generate education funding through the TISA. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, enacts the "Comprehensive Assault Crime Intervention Act." - Amends TCA Title 38; Title 39 and Title 40.

Taxes, Real Property - As introduced, revises the formula for calculating tax relief on real property owned by eligible disabled veterans so that in determining the amount of relief to such a taxpayer, the assessed value on the first $175,000 of full market value is to be multiplied by the ad valorem tax rate of the jurisdiction instead of by a rate that has been adjusted to reflect the relationship between appraised value and market value in that jurisdiction. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 5, Part 7.

TennCare - As introduced, enacts "Emma's Bill," which requires that when making a determination of medical necessity, the bureau shall take into consideration the patient's overall condition and use such overall condition as a factor to determine the level of funding and what medical items and services the patient receives, even if such determination does not result in the least costly course of diagnosis or treatment. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 71.

Public Funds and Financing - As introduced, creates the medical expense relief fund to assist the next of kin and the estate of a decedent who was enrolled in TennCare at the time of death with paying the decedent's medical debt and expenses; requires the department of human services to administer the fund and the awarding of grants. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3; Title 9 and Title 71.

Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) - As introduced, creates a 3 percent weighted allocation for a student who resides in a school district with a membership between 1,001 and 1,250, both inclusive. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Education - As introduced, creates a special fund to provide grants to local education agencies and public charter schools for the acquisition, retention, or expansion of digital career and technical education curricula through platforms containing comprehensive courses with lesson plans, media rich content and activities, and interactive assessments. - Amends TCA Title 9 and Title 49.

Taxes - As introduced, adds to the process for requesting an extension of time to file a business tax return that the request may be signed by the person's authorized representative. - Amends TCA Title 67.

Appropriations - As introduced, appropriates $25 million to the legislature for planning and construction of a new parking garage that has at least 400 parking spaces, is attached to the Cordell Hull Building, and is used solely by legislative employees. - Amends TCA Title 3; Title 4; Title 8; Title 9 and Title 12.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, expands the offense of unlawful photography to include a photograph that the defendant knew would include the victim engaged in sexual activity; increases the penalty for the offense of unlawful photography from a Class A misdemeanor or a Class E felony to a Class D felony in certain circumstances; authorizes the issuance of an order of protection for a person who has been subjected to, threatened with, or placed in fear of unlawful photography. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 13 and Title 40.

Law Enforcement - As introduced, requires an annual training pay bonus supplement for eligible campus police officers and public safety officers in the amount of $800. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 38 and Section 49-7-118.

Veterans - As introduced, enacts the "Veterans Assistance for Livelihood, Opportunity, and Relief (VALOR) Act," which exempts disabled veterans who have 100 percent permanent and total disability from a service-connected cause from the payment of certain taxes and fees. - Amends TCA Section 5-8-102; Title 55, Chapter 4; Title 67 and Title 70, Chapter 2.

Education - As introduced, enacts the "Protecting Tennessee Schools and Events Act." - Amends TCA Title 12 and Title 49.

Sentencing - As introduced, adds as an enhancement factor to be used in determining the sentence within the permissible range for a criminal offense that the defendant is an adult and committed the offense with a minor, regardless of whether the minor was convicted of the offense. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Taxes - As introduced, urges the department of revenue to study the potential economic impact of making all franchise and excise tax credits transferable to any person or entity other than the entity to whom or to which the credits are initially made available pursuant to the statute creating the credit; requires the department to report to the finance, ways and means committee of the senate and the committee in the house of representatives having jurisdiction over tax-related matters on or before January 1, 2026 if such study is conducted. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 20 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 21.

Health Care - As introduced, lowers from every three years to every two years, the time within which the advisory committee composed of medical device industry representatives and a representative of the department of economic and community development must review rules regarding the board of pharmacy's oversight of facilities that manufacture, warehouse, and distribute medical devices in order to review the advancements of new medical device technologies. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 47; Title 56; Title 63 and Title 71.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, decreases from 150 grams to 50 grams or more the amount of any substance containing fentanyl, carfentanil, remifentanil, alfentanil, thiafentanil, or any fentanyl derivative or analogue that is punished as a Class A felony for the knowing manufacture, delivery, or sale of the substance, or possession with intent to manufacture, deliver, or sell the substance. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17.

Taxes - As introduced, repeals the professional privilege tax for tax years that begin on and after June 1, 2026. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 17.

Highways, Roads and Bridges - As introduced, clarifies that the plans for an acquisition of a right-of-way by the state must be filed and recorded with the office of the register in each county where the project is located if the project is located in multiple counties. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 54 and Title 55.

Taxes, Business - As introduced, exempts child care agencies from business tax; requires the state to annually allocate the amount of such taxes derived from child care services and received from counties and municipalities in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 4.

Education, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the department to allocate to each local education agency sufficient funds for the LEA to employ one full-time licensed professional school counselor at each high school in the LEA that enrolls at least 600 students in grades 10 through 12; requires each LEA to employ one full-time licensed professional school counselor at each high school for which the LEA receives such funding from the department. - Amends TCA Title 49.

TennCare - As introduced, enacts the "Tennessee Medicaid Modernization and Access Act of 2025," which aligns TennCare's current Medicaid reimbursement rates for obstetrics/gynecology, primary care, outpatient mental health, and substance use disorder treatment with the Medicare fee schedule or average commercial rates, whichever is higher. - Amends TCA Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Correction, Dept. of - As introduced, adds the legislative librarian as a recipient of the report submitted by the commissioner of correction to the general assembly on the transactions of state correctional facilities during the two years preceding the report. - Amends TCA Title 3; Title 4; Title 8; Title 9; Title 27; Title 29; Title 38; Title 39; Title 40 and Title 41.

Children's Services, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the department to conserve any federal funds a child in the department's care is eligible for or may receive for the child's reasonable, foreseeable future needs or use for special needs services not currently being provided by the department. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 37.

Taxes, Exemption and Credits - As introduced, exempts from the sales and use tax the purchase of a motor vehicle that is registered in this state by a qualifying member of the Tennessee national guard; applies the sales tax exemption only to the first $15,000 of the sales price and only to one vehicle sold to such individual within a five-year period. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 6, Part 3.