Tennessee Senate Bills

Tipton County - Subject to local approval, establishes litter abatement and control requirements. -

Montgomery County - Subject to local approval, creates a fifth General Sessions and Juvenile Court of Montgomery County. - Amends Chapter 232 of the Private Acts of 1953; as amended.

Tullahoma - Subject to local approval, extends the term of the current city judge by one year in order to have the election of the city judge coincide with the elections for members of the board of mayor and aldermen. - Amends Chapter 553 of the Acts of 1903; as amended.

Germantown - Subject to local approval, makes the office of mayor a full-time position, with the salary of the office to be set by ordinance. - Amends Chapter 87 of the Private Acts of 1985.

Hardeman County - Subject to local approval, requires the school board in Hardeman County to submit its budget specifying the funds that the school board estimates will be necessary to fund the upcoming school year on or before the first Monday in May rather than the first Monday in April. - Amends Chapter 68 of the Private Acts of 1937.

Agriculture, Dept. of - As enacted, renames the "Tennessee Meat and Poultry Inspection Act" as the "Tennessee Meat Inspection Act"; revises the act to facilitate the implementation of a state meat inspection program. - Amends TCA Title 53, Chapter 7 and Chapter 380 of the Public Acts of 2023.

Criminal Procedure - As enacted, increases from 11 months and 29 days to two years from the date of arrest the time within which misdemeanor charges against a defendant who has been found incompetent must be retired unless the defendant is restored to competency; adds to present law that, when a defendant whose misdemeanor charges were retired due to a finding of incompetency is released into the community, the chief officer is required to notify the court of the defendant's discharge and provide the court and the sheriff with an outpatient treatment plan that accounts for the safety of the community. - Amends TCA Title 33; Title 40 and Title 52.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, requires the department of mental health and substance abuse services to establish a mental health evaluation process for a community mental health center or qualified mental health professional to evaluate a defendant convicted of domestic assault, child abuse, aggravated child abuse, cruelty to animals, aggravated cruelty to animals; requires a court in which a person is convicted of any such offense to order the offender to undergo a mental health evaluation prior to the sentencing hearing. - Amends TCA Title 33; Title 39 and Title 40.

Education, Dept. of - As enacted, extends the school turnaround pilot program for priority schools administered by the department and that is scheduled to conclude at the end of the 2024-2025 school year to a permanent school turnaround program for priority schools; increases, from five to 15, the maximum number of priority schools that may participate in the school turnaround program. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Taxes - As enacted, allows nuclear energy production facilities to seek pollution control tax credits for certain machinery and equipment. - Amends TCA Title 67.

Economic and Community Development, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to revise and certify the population of each county and municipality, and the aggregate population of the state, prior to July 1 each year during the interim between the regular decennial federal census to ensure equitable allocation and distribution of the local share of revenue; requires the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, through the Tennessee state data center, to generate annual population estimates for each county and municipality and provide the estimates to the department for review and certification. - 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; Title 67, Chapter 3, Part 9; Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 9 and Title 67.

Human Rights - As enacted, schedules the Tennessee human rights commission for termination on July 1, 2025, and transfers the commission's duties concerning discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, malicious harassment, the Civil Rights Act of 1990, the "Tennessee Anti-Slapp Act," and education to the attorney general and reporter. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8 and Title 68.

Local Government, General - As enacted, sets up a process by which the attorney general and reporter may review whether a local government action violates state law or the Constitution of Tennessee. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8 and Title 9.

Taxes, Exemption and Credits - As enacted, changes the amounts of the franchise and excise tax credits allowed to financial institutions from certain percentages of the unpaid principal balance of certain qualified loans made to eligible housing entities to certain percentages of the month-end average unpaid principal balance of such loans; makes other related revisions. - Amends TCA Section 67-4-2109.

Real Property - As enacted, extends from January 28, 2025, to April 15, 2025, the date by which an assessor must have determined that property was destroyed or damaged by a qualified disaster in order for the owner to be eligible for a direct payment from the comptroller of the treasury. - Amends TCA Title 67.

Driver Licenses - As enacted, limits to four the number of points that may be assessed to a person's driver record for the offense of operating a motor vehicle while the person's driving privilege is canceled, suspended, or revoked. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 50.

Health Care - As enacted, establishes licensure of anesthesiologist assistants; revises provisions authorizing hospitals to employ certain licensed physicians for certain medical services. - Amends TCA Title 47; Title 63 and Title 68.

Newspapers and Publications - As enacted, specifies that the website where legal notices must be posted must not require a fee or a subscription for a person to view the website; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 1, Chapter 3.

Real Property - As enacted, revises present law relative to advertising the sale of land to foreclose a deed of trust, mortgage, or other lien securing the payment of money or other thing of value or under judicial orders or process. - Amends TCA Title 35.

Boards and Commissions - As enacted, vacates and reconstitutes the board of ground water management effective July 1, 2025; makes related changes relative to the board. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 69.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, increases the penalty from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E felony for a person who commits child abuse by knowingly treating a child between 9 and 17 in such a manner as to inflict injury. - Amends TCA Title 36; Title 37; Title 39 and Title 40.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, revises present law relative to unlawful photography. - Amends TCA Section 39-13-605 and Title 40, Chapter 39, Part 2.

Scholarships and Financial Aid - As enacted, makes various changes to the "Tennessee Future Teacher Scholarship Act of 2023." - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 4, Part 7.

Taxes, Sales - As enacted, increases, from two to four, the number of temporary sales periods that a bona fide religious institution may participate in and be exempt from registering to collect sales tax on sales directly to consumers made during such temporary sales period. - Amends TCA Section 67-6-102.

Health Care - As enacted, extends the termination date for the Alzheimer's and dementia respite care pilot program from December 31, 2025, to December 31, 2026. - Amends TCA Title 9; Title 33; Title 52; Title 67 and Title 68.

Public Funds and Financing - As enacted, authorizes use of the Hurricane Helene interest payment fund to pay local governments' loan charges; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 9 and Title 58.

Military - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee National Guard Servicemember's Medical Readiness Act." - Amends TCA Title 58, Chapter 1, Part 2.

Education - As enacted, authorizes local education agencies and public charter schools to provide up to four days of the required 180 days of classroom instruction via hybrid learning in the event of dangerous or extreme weather conditions, or an emergency, as determined by the director of schools or the director of public charter schools. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Montgomery County - As enacted, permits a court to transfer, upon motion by the defendant, a criminal case to the veterans treatment court program in Montgomery County if the veterans treatment court program would have jurisdiction over the case if the offense had been committed in Montgomery County, the defendant files with the court a written waiver of the right to be tried by an impartial jury of the county in which the crime was committed, and the district attorney general for Montgomery County agrees to accept transfer of the case. - Amends TCA Title 16 and Title 40.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, requires, beginning August 1, 2027, each LEA and public charter school to prohibit food or beverage items that contain Allura Red AC, which is Chemical Abstracts Service registry number 25956-17-6 and also known as Red 40, to be sold, offered for sale, or provided to students on school property through the school nutrition program provided by the LEA, public charter school, or a third party expressly authorized by the LEA or public charter school. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Public Funds and Financing - As enacted, enacts the "Savannah Grace Copeland Act." - Amends TCA Title 9; Title 12; Title 37; Title 39 and Title 49.

Public Defenders - As enacted, creates five additional assistant district public defender positions effective July 1, 2025. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 14 and Title 9, Chapter 4.

Clerks, Court - As enacted, revises present law concerning court clerks' fees. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 18; Title 55 and Title 67.

Governor - As enacted, authorizes, if the governor issues or extends an executive order or proclamation of a state of emergency, the general assembly to terminate such state of emergency by joint resolution of both houses. - Amends TCA Section 58-2-107.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation - As enacted, enacts "Savanna's Law," which creates a registry of persistent domestic violence offenders; requires the bureau to maintain the registry. - Amends TCA Title 18; Section 38-6-103; Title 39 and Title 40.

Sentencing - As enacted, generally requires a person convicted of a Class A misdemeanor in general sessions court to pay for and complete a cognitive behavioral training course; requires the offender to provide proof of course completion to the court or the court’s designee within the time period specified by the court. - Amends TCA Section 40-35-302.

Workers Compensation - As enacted, creates a presumption that the diagnosis of a law enforcement officer or emergency medical responder with post-traumatic stress disorder as the result of responding to certain incidents was incurred in the line of duty for purposes of workers' compensation coverage. - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 51 and Title 50, Chapter 6.

Courts - As enacted, prohibits the disqualification or removal of a municipal judge who was duly elected or appointed to office prior to March 7, 2025, and who is qualified for such office under the laws and interpretations in effect at the time of such election or appointment, due to a residency requirement during the term of office to which the municipal judge was elected or appointed. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 16; Title 17; Title 18; Title 20; Title 21; Title 24; Title 25; Title 26; Title 27; Title 28 and Title 29.

Motor Vehicles, Titling and Registration - As enacted, creates new specialty earmarked license plates; extends certain specialty earmarked license plates; authorizes the funds generated from the issuance of the Historic Franklin new specialty earmarked license plate to also be used to provide financial support for the Chester Inn State Historic Site; authorizes the issuance of motorcycle plates for paratroopers. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 4.

Public Funds and Financing - As enacted, generally requires that all monies received under the sales and use tax from the sale, use, consumption, or distribution of new or used tires on or after July 1, 2025, must be earmarked and allocated to the highway fund. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 54; Title 55; Title 65 and Title 67.

Appropriations - As enacted, makes appropriations for the fiscal years beginning July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025. -

Bond Issues - As enacted, authorizes the state to issue and sell bonds. -

Budget Procedures - As enacted, authorizes, in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, transfers from the Access Tennessee health insurance program fund, created or referenced in the Access Tennessee Act of 2006. - 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 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.

TennCare - As enacted, enacts "Lucca's Law," which addresses TennCare coverage of treatment for pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS) and pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS). - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 56 and Title 71.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, creates the offense of knowingly engaging in conduct that places a child in imminent danger of death, bodily injury, or physical or mental impairment by exposing the child to fentanyl, carfentanil, remifentanil, alfentanil, thiafentanil, or a fentanyl derivative or analogue; punishes the offense as a Class E felony if the child is over 8 and as a Class B felony if the child is 8 or less. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 39 and Title 40.

Alcoholic Beverage Commission - As enacted, provides for the regulation of the manufacturing, supplying, wholesale distribution, and retail sale of hemp-derived cannabinoid products by the commission and department of revenue; creates licenses for suppliers, wholesalers, and retailers; establishes taxes for such products and the manner in which such taxes are collected and allocated; establishes civil and criminal penalties for violations. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 40; Title 43, Chapter 27; Title 53, Chapter 11; Title 57 and Title 67.

TennCare - As enacted, directs the director to establish an additional PACE program as a pilot in one of the two grand divisions where a PACE program did not exist in 2024; permits a current PACE program in a county with a specific population to expand into contiguous counties having specifically listed populations. - Amends TCA Title 71.

Commerce and Insurance, Dept. of - As enacted, revises law relative to the treatment and coverage of treatment for stage 4 advanced metastatic cancer, blood cancer, metastatic blood cancer, and associated conditions; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Housing - As enacted, authorizes local governments to regulate sober living homes for recovery from alcohol, drug, and substance abuse to the extent such regulation complies with the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 13 and Title 33.

Federal Aid - As enacted, establishes a process for reviewing requests for federal aid. -

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, authorizes a local legislative body for a county that has adopted a charter form of government to require elections for the county board of education to be held at the same time and on the same election cycle as elections for members of the local legislative body for the county, members of the county board of education to have successive terms of office if members of the local legislative body for the county have successive terms of office and members of the county board of education to have the same term limits as members of the local legislative body for the county. - Amends TCA Title 2; Title 5; Title 7; Title 8 and Title 49.

Election Laws - As enacted, requires the coordinator of elections, in collaboration with the department of safety, prior to January 1, 2028, to create a secure, electronic portal through which each county administrator of elections may access information to verify, prior to processing an applicant's application to register to vote, whether the applicant is a United States citizen based upon records on file at the time of issuance of the most recent driver license or identification card or other credential from the department of safety; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 2; Title 4; Title 38; Title 39; Title 41 and Title 55.

Boards and Commissions - As enacted, enacts the "Less is More Act of 2025." - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 20; Title 33; Title 38; Title 40; Title 52; Title 55; Title 62; Title 63; Title 68; Title 70 and Title 76.

Tourist Development, Dept. of - As enacted, creates a marketing division within the department to replace the tourism division; authorizes the department to enter into agreements with the department of transportation to assist with maintenance of welcome center facilities; creates a welcome centers division within the department to oversee such centers throughout the state; directs the commissioner of finance and administration to transfer from highway user taxes allocated to the highway fund an amount sufficient to support the annual appropriation for implementation and administration of all welcome centers in the state. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 22.

Tennessee Fish & Wildlife Commission - As enacted, authorizes the commission to promulgate rules or pass proclamations to authorize the use of drones to locate and retrieve deer that have been wounded by hunters. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 70.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, creates the criminal offense of threatening to commit an act of mass violence; creates the criminal offense of posting on a publicly accessible website the telephone number or home address of an individual with the intent to cause harm or a threat of harm to the individual or a member of the individual's family or household. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 13, Part 8 and Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 3.

Bonding, Surety and Professional - As enacted, makes revisions to law relative to bondsmen. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 13; Title 39; Title 40; Title 41; Title 56; Title 62 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 8.

Utilities, Utility Districts - As enacted, makes revisions to present law relative to utilities. - Amends TCA Title 7; Title 13, Chapter 7; Title 65 and Title 68.

Nuisances - As enacted, revises nuisance laws. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 13; Title 16; Title 29; Title 39; Title 67 and Title 68.

Local Government, General - As enacted, enacts "Dismantle DEI in Employment Act." - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8 and Title 49.