Tennessee Senate Bills

Campaigns and Campaign Finance - As introduced, prohibits out-of-state political campaign committees from making contributions to influence a state or local primary election for the Republican Party. - Amends TCA Title 2 and Title 3.

Public Contracts - As introduced, requires a local government to send back any requested changes on a contractor's or developer's application for development site plans or inspections in a single deliverable document or set of documents, or to remit related fees back to the developer for subsequent change requests; prohibits a local government from requiring a developer or contractor to fund, develop, or contribute to the development of nonessential infrastructure, unless otherwise agreed upon by the parties. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 9; Title 12; Title 13 and Title 66.

Law Enforcement - As introduced, requires law enforcement agencies to investigate for the presence of workplace bullying concurrent with investigations of crimes of violence in the workplace; requires law enforcement agencies to report findings to the TBI; requires the TBI to annually submit a report to legislative committees concerning workplace bullying and violence. - Amends TCA Title 38; Title 39; Title 40 and Title 50.

Education - As introduced, enacts the "Early Behavioral Intervention and Reporting Act"; clarifies that public charter schools are required to have a threat assessment team in the same manner as required of local education agencies. - Amends TCA Title 16; Title 37 and Title 49.

Education - As introduced, enacts the "Universal Pre-K Funding Act." - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 51; Title 49 and Title 67.

Livestock - As introduced, requires the commissioner of agriculture and the state veterinarian to receive prior approval from the joint government operations committee of the house of representatives and the senate to order vaccinations and tests for animals in this state; removes the requirement that an owner of a dead animal be liable for the sanitary disposition of the animal; clarifies indemnity procedures for a destroyed animal. - Amends TCA Title 44 and Title 58.

Air Pollution - As introduced, designates the intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of chemicals, chemical compounds, substances, or apparatus within the borders of this state into the atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight, or supplying or otherwise providing the chemicals, chemical compounds, substances, or apparatus required for the conduct, as a Class A misdemeanor; makes other changes related to investigations and enforcement related to weather modification. - Amends TCA Title 58, Chapter 2 and Title 68, Chapter 201.

Sentencing - As introduced, reduces the percentage of sentence that a person convicted of first degree murder on or after July 1, 1995, and sentenced to life imprisonment is required to serve before becoming eligible for release from 100 percent of 60 years less sentence credits earned and retained to 60 percent of 60 years less sentence credits earned and retained; prohibits a defendant becoming eligible for parole before serving 25 years of the sentence, if the defendant was 25 years of age or younger at the time of the offense, or 30 years of the sentence, if the defendant was 26 years of age or older at the time of the offense. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 39, Chapter 13, Part 2 and Title 40.

Election Laws - As introduced, requires county election commissions to publish office hours for early voting 30 days rather than 25 days prior to the day of the election. - Amends TCA Title 2.

Health Care - As introduced, requires every year, instead of every other year, the commissioner of health, in consultation with the regulatory boards that license healthcare practitioners, to provide a letter no later than November 1 to the governor, the speaker of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives, and legislative committees with subject matter jurisdiction over health that includes updated information on the impact and effects of the restrictions and limitations on treating patients with opioids. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 33; Title 53; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Scholarships and Financial Aid - As introduced, adds an institution accredited by the National Accrediting Commission of Career Arts and Sciences (NACCAS) that has its primary campus domiciled in this state as an eligible postsecondary institution in which a student may be enrolled for purposes of receiving a Tennessee Promise scholarship; conditions the availability of the scholarship at such an institution on there being no available enrollment slots in a Tennessee college of applied technology in the student's county of residence for the student's desired program of study. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Driver Licenses - As introduced, requires an enforcement officer to issue an out-of-service order to a driver issued a commercial driver license if the officer determines during a safety inspection that the driver is unable to read and speak the English language in violation of federal requirements for commercial driver license holders; applies penalties against employers of such drivers. - Amends TCA Title 55 and Title 65, Chapter 15.

Water - As introduced, decreases from 1.5 milligrams per liter to 0.4 milligrams per liter the threshold for the presence of fluoride in a public water system that requires an increase in the frequency of fluoride-level testing from quarterly to monthly; requires public water systems to cease adding fluoride to drinking water supplies by May 1, 2025, and provide written notice of cessation of fluoridation to customers. - Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 221, Part 7.

Local Education Agencies - As introduced, requires a parent or guardian who wishes to enroll the parent's or guardian's student into an LEA or public charter school to submit one of the listed documents to the LEA or public charter school upon enrollment of the student unless the parent or guardian pays an amount equal to the amount representing the per pupil state and local funds generated and required through the Tennessee investment in student achievement formula for the LEA in which the participating student resides. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Driver Licenses - As introduced, lowers the minimum age, from 25 to 21, that is necessary to receive an initial school bus endorsement. - Amends TCA Section 5-8-102; Title 49 and Title 55.

Labor and Workforce Development, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the chief elevator inspector to perform a final acceptance inspection upon completion of the installation, modification, or alteration of a private residence elevator prior to such elevator entering service; requires a homeowner to register a private residence elevator with the department; directs the chief elevator inspector to develop and maintain a database of private residence elevators. - Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 121.

Landlord and Tenant - As introduced, authorizes a landlord to submit a single registration form for a multi-dwelling property with the agency or department of local government that is responsible for enforcing building codes in the jurisdiction if the property contains five or more dwelling units; authorizes local governments to require residential landlords to register with the local government. - Amends TCA Section 66-28-107.

Consumer Protection - As introduced, requires a healthcare facility that accepts public funds as compensation for losses due to providing uncompensated care to ensure that an amount of outstanding patient debt equal to the amount of public funds accepted is designated as satisfied and that patient is notified of such satisfied debt; prohibits the healthcare facility from seeking a judgment or taking other legal action to collect from the debtor any portion of such debt that is so designated; requires the department of health and division of TennCare to submit an annual report on uncompensated care payments to hospitals. - Amends TCA Title 9, Chapter 8; Title 16; Title 18; Title 20; Title 21; Title 27; Title 28; Title 29; Title 33; Title 45; Title 47; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Juvenile Offenders - As introduced, requires a juvenile court, upon finding a child has committed a third or subsequent delinquent act, to enter an order of restitution against the parent, legal custodian, or guardian who had custody of the child at the time of the act for the expenses incurred by any law enforcement agency in responding to and investigating the delinquent act. - Amends TCA Title 37.

Law Enforcement - As introduced, requires law enforcement agencies and officials to communicate with federal officials regarding the immigration status only for an individual who has been arrested for a criminal offense; sets a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for a law enforcement agency that does not comply to be enforced by the attorney general and reporter. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 40 and Chapter 716 of the Public Acts of 2024.

Sentencing - As introduced, permits a person who is serving a sentence of incarceration of eight years or more for an offense committed prior to January 1, 2026, and who is a victim of domestic abuse subjected to substantial physical, sexual, or psychological abuse inflicted by a member of the same family or household as the person to submit to the sentencing court, a request to apply for resentencing. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Expunction - As introduced, permits the expunction of a Class E felony conviction for official misconduct. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40, Chapter 32.

Employees, Employers - As introduced, requires an employer that terminates the employment of an employee who the employer knows to be pregnant and who is covered under an employer-sponsored health benefit plan to continue to provide coverage under the plan until the employee’s pregnancy ends. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 27; Title 50; Title 56 and Title 71.

Real Property - As introduced, makes void and unenforceable a restriction in a homeowners’ association declaration that would prohibit the operation of a family child care home at a property that is the site of a proposed family child care home, if the operator of the proposed family child care home has obtained a license from the department of human services and any necessary permits or licenses from the applicable local government for the operation of the family child care home. - Amends TCA Title 13 and Title 66.

Birth Control - As introduced, enacts the "Tennessee Contraceptive Freedom Act." - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 53; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Health Care - As introduced, enacts the "Tennessee Medical Cannabis Act," which establishes a medical cannabis program to be administered by the Tennessee medical cannabis program commission. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 38, Chapter 3; Title 39, Chapter 17; Title 43; Title 50; Title 53; Title 63; Title 67 and Title 68.