Tennessee House Bills

Constitutional Amendments - Proposes an amendment to Article II, Section 28 of the Constitution of Tennessee to authorize counties and municipalities, by a two-thirds vote of the local legislative body, to make the levying and collection of the tax on all real property, or one or more subclassifications of real property, by the jurisdiction optional or may authorize alternative payment plans, including advanced tax payments or deferred tax payments that include a lien against the title of the property. -

Local Education Agencies - As introduced, enacts the "School District Capital Improvements Investment Trust Act." - Amends TCA Title 49.

Healthcare Liability - As introduced, removes the three-year statute of repose for a healthcare liability action based on an injury that was not discovered when the negligent act or injury occurred so that the action may be brought within one year from the date of such discovery. - Amends TCA Title 28 and Title 29.

TennCare - As introduced, directs the governor to seek a new TennCare waiver within 180 days of the effective date of this act to provide medical assistance coverage for individuals whose gross annual income is equal to or less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level; clarifies that the amendment takes effect upon federal approval. - Amends TCA Title 71, Chapter 5.

Safety - As introduced, changes the reporting date, from February 1 to January 15, by which the commissioners of education and safety must jointly report to the governor and the general assembly on the implementation of the "Schools Against Violence in Education Act." - Amends TCA Title 49 and Title 68.

Taxes, Privilege - As introduced, removes licensed attorneys who have practiced more than 20 years from the application of the professional privilege tax. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 17.

Privacy, Confidentiality - As introduced, prohibits a state or local government entity from requiring implantation of a microchip or other permanent identification marker as a condition to receive benefits or services, or participate in assistance programs, offered or otherwise provided by the entity; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 40; Title 47; Title 50 and Title 56.

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.

Education, Higher - As introduced, waives, for the dependent child of a law enforcement officer or firefighter who was killed or who died as a direct result of injuries received while performing their official duties, the tuition and fees charged by the public institution of higher education at which the dependent child is enrolled as a student. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Lottery, Scholarships and Programs - As introduced, requires the Tennessee higher education commission to submit a report to the education and finance committees of the senate and house of representatives identifying any fiscal year, beginning with the 2004 fiscal year, for which net lottery proceeds were insufficient to fully fund certain scholarships and grants, resulting in a pro rata reduction in award amounts or a draw upon the general shortfall reserve subaccount. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 49; Title 4, Chapter 51 and Title 49, Chapter 4.

Public Records - As introduced, requires the department of correction to disclose records and information to any member of the general assembly, upon written request, to enable the member to determine whether the laws of this state are being complied with regarding inmates in the department's custody. - Amends TCA Title 3; Title 4; Title 10, Chapter 7; Title 40 and Title 41.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, expands the offense of adulteration of food, liquids, or pharmaceuticals to include adulteration for the purpose of making the user of the food, liquid, or pharmaceutical involuntarily intoxicated; classifies the offense as a Class D felony. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Environment and Conservation, Department of - As introduced, enacts the "Climate Resiliency Fund Act." - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 5; Title 9; Title 60; Title 67 and Title 68.

Local Education Agencies - As introduced, adds sixth grade to the grade levels for which a local board of education is required to establish an alternative school for students who have been suspended or expelled from the regular school program; requires a student in sixth grade who has been suspended for more than 10 days or expelled from the regular school program to attend an alternative school if there is space and staff available, with certain exceptions. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 6.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, prohibits a person who is convicted of a felony from running for public office, regardless of whether the person receives a presidential pardon; prohibits a public employee from receiving retirement benefits from the Tennessee consolidated retirement system, any superseded retirement system, or any other public pension system, if such employee or official is convicted of a felony. - Amends TCA Title 2; Title 8; Title 39 and Title 40.

Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, states that a person who has not been convicted of a violent, felony crime and who is lawfully able to own or to possess a firearm under the Constitution of Tennessee is considered to be individually licensed and verified by this state within the meaning of the provisions regarding individual licensure and verification in the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act. - Amends TCA Title 39.

Sentencing - As introduced, increases the penalty for failing to stop at the scene of an accident when the person knew or should reasonably have known that death resulted from the accident by requiring a mandatory period of confinement of not less than one year and a minimum fine of $10,000. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 40 and Title 55.

Sewage - As introduced, implements a system of graduated periods of suspension of a person's license to engage in the business of removing accumulated wastes from subsurface sewage disposal systems following conviction for offenses involving illegal dumping of sewage. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 68, Chapter 221.

Sewage - As introduced, increases, from a Class C to Class B misdemeanor, the classification of offenses involving unlawful disposal of sewage if the person commits the offense while engaged in the business of removing accumulated wastes from subsurface sewage disposal systems. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 68, Chapter 221.

District Attorneys - As introduced, authorizes the district attorneys general conference to pay the licensing fees for software applications used by the office of the district attorney general within a judicial district. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 9; Title 16 and Title 40.

Real Property - As introduced, expands existing statutory authority of a masonic lodge to take real property by deed by extending the same authority to a masonic lodge-sponsored corporation or limited liability company that is created for such purpose; authorizes a masonic lodge-sponsored corporation or limited liability company to lease or rent real or personal property to a masonic lodge or other entity. - Amends TCA Title 48, Chapter 102.

Courts, Juvenile - As introduced, requires the department of children's services, and others, to provide certain information to court-appointed special advocates in order to provide judicial officers with the most comprehensive information to be used in the consideration of the placement and custody of a child. - Amends TCA Title 37, Chapter 1, Part 1.

Memorials, Government Officials - Urges the Secretary of State to include "The Old Men" by T.L. Jones in the Blue Book. -

Memorials, Death - Robert Earl Dudgeon -

Taxes, Sales - As introduced, urges the department of revenue to study the amount of revenue derived during the previous five fiscal years from the sales tax imposed on retail sales of non-prepared food, and from the general sales tax imposed on retail sales of prepared food; requires a report be submitted to the chairs of the finance, ways and means committees and the office of legislative budget analysis. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 6.

Naming and Designating - As introduced, redesignates the Legislative Plaza and War Memorial Plaza, respectively, in front of the War Memorial Building as the "Winfield Dunn War Memorial Plaza." - Amends TCA Title 3, Chapter 1; Title 4 and Title 58, Chapter 4.

Motor Vehicles, Titling and Registration - As introduced, requires the validation or revalidation tab, sticker, or other device issued for a calendar year that is affixed to a registration plate must be a different color scheme than the color scheme of the validation or revalidation tab, sticker, or device issued for the previous calendar year. - Amends TCA Section 5-8-102 and Title 55, Chapter 4.

Alcoholic Beverages - As introduced, authorizes a retail alcohol licensee in a terminal building of a commercial air carrier airport to offer complimentary tastings for samples of the products it sells. - Amends TCA Title 57.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, creates an offense for a vape shop retailer, or a distributor, wholesaler, or importer, who sells or offers for sale a vapor product for retail sale in this state to sell Kratom and nitrous oxides. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 57, Chapter 7 and Title 67.

State Employees - As introduced, requires certain government employers to provide job-protected unpaid leave for a qualifying medical emergency to employees that meet certain criteria. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 49 and Title 50.

Water Pollution - As introduced, requires local approval of a tipping fee for application of sludge from water treatment plants onto agricultural lands, with proceeds earmarked for water treatment facilities, as a condition of such applications continuing in a locality; places a moratorium on certain permits in jurisdictions that do not provide such local approval. - Amends TCA Section 1-3-105; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 13, Chapter 7; Title 43; Title 68 and Title 69.

Real Property - As introduced, requires corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships, and limited liability partnerships that purchase or acquire residential rental property in this state to register the property with the secretary of state. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 13; Title 47; Title 48; Title 61 and Title 66.

Local Education Agencies - As introduced, requires director of schools to report a student who was formally truant and now enrolled in a home school to juvenile court; establishes that unexcused absences accumulated by a transfer student at their former school or LEA during the school year in which they transfer follow the student to the receiving school or LEA to determine habitual truancy, to implement a progressive truancy plan, and to identify cases of educational neglect. - Amends TCA Title 37, Chapter 1, Part 1; Title 49, Chapter 1; Title 49, Chapter 2 and Title 49, Chapter 6.

Children - As introduced, adds to the definition of a dependent and neglected child a child whose parent or guardian is unable to provide care and control of the child due to circumstances beyond the parent's or guardian's control; requires this finding to be made by a court at an adjudicatory hearing. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 37.

Lottery, Scholarships and Programs - As introduced, allows a private postsecondary institution that is a candidate for accreditation by a regional accrediting association and that has its primary campus domiciled in this state to serve as an institution at which a student may be enrolled for purposes of receiving financial aid funded using net proceeds of the state lottery. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 4, Part 9.

Tennessee Higher Education Commission - As introduced, requires the commission, in consultation with the department of finance and administration, to submit a report to the general assembly of the state appropriations made to each land grant institution in this state from 1987 to 2020, on a per pupil basis, by December 31, 2025. - Amends TCA Title 9 and Title 49.

Education - As introduced, deletes a pilot program, which was established to improve parent-teacher engagement in any grade from kindergarten through grade two in public schools, that expired in 2021. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Correction, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the department to develop and implement a performance-based contracting program for each contractor with which it contracts to operate prison facilities; requires the program to make the payment of an amount equal to 25 percent of the total funds appropriated to the contractor during a fiscal year conditional upon yearly performance improvements based upon a set of performance measures. - Amends TCA Title 41.

Taxes, Sales - As introduced, exempts from sales and use tax labor and service costs made as part of the sale of a taxable item of tangible personal property; exempts from sales and use tax repair and installation labor performed on tangible personal property. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 6.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, increases the penalty for assault against a firefighter, emergency services personnel, or other person who responds to calls for emergency assistance from a Class A misdemeanor with a mandatory minimum 30-day sentence and $5,000 fine to a Class E felony with a mandatory minimum 60-day sentence and $10,000 fine. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Health Care - As introduced, adds clinical informatics, lifestyle medicine, and medical virtualist to the list of words or abbreviations that a person may attach to a name to indicate or induce another person to believe that the person is engaged in the practice of medicine or osteopathic medicine. - Amends TCA Title 63, Chapter 6.

Evidence - As introduced, permits the introduction into evidence of a video recording of a child victim being interviewed by a forensic interviewer regarding sexual or physically violent contact with the child if the forensic interviewer is an employee of the department of children's services and meets certain requirements. - Amends TCA Title 9, Chapter 4, Part 2 and Title 24, Chapter 7, Part 1.

Sunset Laws - As introduced, extends the state energy policy council to June 30, 2027. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 68, Chapter 204.

Sunset Laws - As introduced, extends the local government planning advisory committee to June 30, 2027. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 7.

Education, Higher - As introduced, requires institutions of higher education to conduct various programs for intercollegiate athletes covering name, image, and likeness; authorizes institutions of higher education to collect talent fees; makes various other changes to intercollegiate athletes' name, image, and likeness authorizations and requirements. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29; Title 49, Chapter 7; Title 49, Chapter 8 and Title 49, Chapter 9.

Economic and Community Development - As introduced, enacts the "Employee Ownership, Empowerment, and Expansion Act" to support the growth and expansion of employee-owned businesses. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 9; Title 12, Chapter 3; Title 45; Title 50; Title 56, Chapter 1 and Title 67.

General Assembly, Statement of Intent or Position - Urges Mark Goins to resign as the Tennessee coordinator of elections. -

Campaigns and Campaign Finance - As introduced, authorizes the use of campaign funds for the payment of fines, fees, and penalties assessed for the violation of campaign finance or ethics laws. - Amends TCA Title 2, Chapter 10.

Motor Vehicles - As introduced, authorizes a dealer applicant without an established place of business to be issued a motor vehicle dealer license if the applicant is a nonprofit religious organization that is organized or incorporated in this state, has its certificate of incorporation or authority in good standing with the secretary of state, and has an established program of receiving donations of motor vehicles that it donates to individuals and providing free vehicle repair services to individuals with demonstrated need of a motor vehicle or repair services necessary to the individual's effort to become a self-sufficient member of the workforce. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 17.

Criminal Procedure - As introduced, removes the requirement for a petitioner for restoration of citizenship or an applicant for a certificate of employability to pay the costs of the proceedings; makes other changes to the process for restoration of citizenship. - Amends TCA Title 40, Chapter 29.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, creates an offense to knowingly inhale, ingest, use, or possess any compound, liquid, gas, or chemical that contains nitrous oxide. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 57, Chapter 7; Title 63 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 10.

Parks, Natural Areas Preservation - As introduced, requires playgrounds at Booker T. Washington State Park and Harrison Bay State Park to be built no later than January 1, 2027; requires existing resources of the department of environment and conservation to be used to build the parks. - Amends TCA Title 11, Chapter 3.

Local Education Agencies - As introduced, requires, with certain exceptions, each LEA and public charter school to implement a computer-based system that must be used by its teachers and school staff to collect data of early warning signs demonstrated by students enrolled in the LEA or public charter school. - Amends TCA Title 16; Title 37 and Title 49.

Real Property - As introduced, prohibits a homeowners' association from prohibiting a first responder from parking an emergency vehicle at the first responder's residence or on a roadway adjacent to the first responder's real property or from penalizing or threatening to penalize a first responder for parking an emergency vehicle at the first responder's residence or on a roadway adjacent to the first responder's real property. - Amends TCA Title 47 and Title 66.

Public Officials - As introduced, authorizes recall elections for elected members of a local legislative body, city and county mayors, sheriffs, trustees, registers, clerks, assessors of property, and members of a school board. - Amends TCA Title 2; Title 8, Chapter 47 and Title 49, Chapter 2.

Appropriations - As introduced, makes appropriations for the purpose of defraying the expenses of certain legislative enactments passed during the 2025 session of the 114th General Assembly; earmarks sufficient state funds for the purpose of funding any bill naming a highway or bridge in honor of a service member killed in action. -

Bond Issues - As introduced, authorizes the state, acting by resolution of its funding board, to issue and sell its bonds and bond anticipation notes for certain purposes. -

Budget Procedures - As introduced, deletes requirements that budget document includes personal income statement for calendar year 1977 and actual state appropriations for fiscal year 1977-1978. - Amends TCA Title 9, Chapter 4, Part 52.

Budget Procedures - As introduced, authorizes grant payments under the grant assistance program for nursing home care to be made either monthly or quarterly. - Amends TCA Title 3; Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 9; Title 10; Title 11; Title 12; Title 13; Title 16; Title 17; Title 18; Title 29; Title 33; Title 36; Title 37; Title 38; Title 39; Title 40; Title 41; Title 42; Title 43; Title 44; Title 45; Title 47; Title 48; Title 49; Title 50; Title 53; Title 54; Title 55; Title 56; Title 57; Title 58; Title 59; Title 60; Title 61; Title 62; Title 63; Title 64; Title 65; Title 66; Title 67; Title 68; Title 69; Title 70 and Title 71.

General Assembly, Statement of Intent or Position - Urges appointment of highly qualified individuals to the board of directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority who understand the growing energy needs of Tennessee and the importance of reliable, affordable power for the State's economic future. -