Tennessee House Bills

Driver Licenses - As enacted, requires written examinations administered to applicants for a driver license or intermediate driver license to include questions concerning hand signals used by operators of bicycles to communicate turning, slowing, and stopping. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 50.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, clarifies that a person commits the offense of unlawful exposure by distributing a private, intimate image of another identifiable person with intent to cause emotional distress, regardless of whether the person who distributes the image was a party to the original agreement or understanding that the image would remain private. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, creates an offense for a person who harms or threatens to harm an individual involved in the judicial process or a family member of such person with the intent to impede, intimidate, interfere with, or retaliate against the justice system participant in connection with their participation in the judicial process, punishable as a Class E felony. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 16.

Education, Higher - As enacted, authorizes, subject to appropriation, an institution of higher education to request to redirect the institution's capital outlay funds for purposes other than those set out in the 2022 appropriations act; makes related revisions. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 9; Title 10; Title 12; Title 49; Title 66 and Title 67.

Real Property - As enacted, creates a vested property right upon the submission, rather than the approval, of a development plan or building permit; specifies that the vesting period applicable when it is based on the submission of a building permit is three years. - Amends TCA Title 13.

Agriculture, Dept. of - As enacted, establishes a fund for the development and implementation of programs that benefit Tennesseans by preserving farmland and forestland, including a grant program for conservation easements. - Amends TCA Title 43, Chapter 1, Part 1.

Education, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to implement a transition plan to close the achievement school district (ASD) and to release all schools currently assigned to the ASD before the start of the 2026-2027 school year; requires the department to establish a different intervention system for priority schools; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Food and Food Products - As enacted, adds certain conditions in order to produce and sell homemade food items. - Amends TCA Title 53 and Title 68, Chapter 14, Part 7.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, creates a civil and criminal action for individuals who are the subject of an intimate digital depiction that is intentionally disclosed without the individual's consent under certain circumstances. - Amends TCA Title 28 and Title 39, Chapter 17.

Education - As enacted, prohibits a public school, LEA, or teacher, employee, or contractor of a public school or LEA from requiring a student, teacher, employee, or contractor of the public school or LEA to provide the individual's preferred pronouns; makes related revisions. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 9, Chapter 8; Title 29, Chapter 20 and Title 49.

Insurance, Health, Accident - As enacted, removes the aggregate penalty limits for violations of law concerning pharmacy benefits managers; provides that a pharmacy benefits manager regulated under law relative to pharmacy benefits managers is subject to the insurance laws relative to timely reimbursement of health insurance claims and its requirements for timing of payments to pharmacists; provides that a violation of the prompt pay standards is governed by the penalties set out in insurance laws relative to timely reimbursement of health insurance claims. - Amends TCA Title 56.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, makes various changes to present law concerning criminal justice. - Amends TCA Title 10, Chapter 7, Part 5; Title 36; Title 37; Title 38; Title 39; Title 40 and Title 53.

General Assembly, Directed Studies - As enacted, directs TACIR to conduct a study and prepare a report on recommendations on the continuum of care in this state and how the continuum of care can be improved; requires the study and report to survey the continuum of care in other states and compare such care to the continuum of care in this state; requires TACIR to submit the report. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 33; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Taxes, Sales - As enacted, sets the end date at June 30, 2027, for the exemption from sales and use tax for purchases and leases of equipment and infrastructure used to produce broadband communications services or provide internet access. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 6, Part 3.

Education, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to allocate the state share of the Tennessee investment in student achievement formula funds generated by student members of a public charter school in the prior school year directly to the public charter school instead of allocating such funds to the local education agency in which the public charter school is located. - Amends Chapter __ of the Public Acts of 2025 (1st Ex. Sess. – SB 6001 / HB 6004); and TCA Title 49, Chapter 13 and Title 49, Chapter 3.

Correction, Dept. of - As enacted, provides that in a facility operated pursuant to a contract to provide correctional services, or in a facility operated pursuant to a contract with a county to hold state inmates and that county has entered into a contract with a contractor to provide correctional services, if the death rate of inmates at the facility is twice the death rate of an equivalent state-operated facility, then the department must reduce the population at such facility by 10%. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 12; Title 40 and Title 41.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, makes the offense of possession of a used, detached catalytic converter by an unauthorized person punishable by a term of imprisonment not greater than 11 months, 29 days; a fine not to exceed $2,500; or both, instead of only subject to a fine. - Amends TCA Title 38; Title 39; Title 55 and Title 62.

Education - As enacted, requires the department of education to develop guidelines and criteria for determining how long a student must have been present in a teacher's classroom before the student's record is attributable to the teacher for purposes of evaluating the teacher; authorizes an LEA or public charter school to compensate the estate of a teacher who, on the teacher's death, was in the employ of the LEA or public charter school for the teacher's unused and accrued annual and sick leave in the same manner that the estates of deceased state employees are compensated under present law. - Amends Chapter __ of the Public Acts of 2025 (1st Ex. Sess. – SB 6001 / HB 6004); and TCA Title 4, Chapter 49; Title 8 and Title 49.

Morgan County - Subject to local approval, establishes that the County Attorney must be a licensed practicing attorney appointed or hired subject to the vote of the Morgan County Commission to serve a four-year term and does not need to be a resident of Morgan County to serve as County Attorney. - Amends Chapter 467 of the Private Acts of 1951; as amended.

Schools, Charter - As enacted, prohibits a county LEA or public charter school authorized to operate in a county LEA from charging registration fees, enrollment fees, or tuition for a student who resides in the county and who transfers to a public charter school authorized to operate in the county LEA from another LEA located in the same county. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 13 and Title 49, Chapter 6.

Pensions and Retirement Benefits - As enacted, authorizes, after July 1, 2025, a political subdivision to adopt a supplemental bridge benefit for members who are in positions covered by mandatory retirement provisions; makes related changes relative to supplemental bridge benefits. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 34; Title 8, Chapter 35 and Title 8, Chapter 36.

Tobacco, Tobacco Products - As enacted, requires the department of revenue to maintain a directory on its website that lists all vapor products certified as authorized to be sold in this state; levies certain privilege taxes. - Amends TCA Title 10, Chapter 7, Part 5; Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 15; Title 47, Chapter 25; Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 10 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 26.

County Government - As enacted, authorizes a county that has adopted the County Purchasing Law of 1957 to require a competitive bid process for insurance brokerage services. - Amends TCA Title 5 and Title 12, Chapter 3, Part 12.

Open Meetings - As enacted, expands the requirement that state and local governing bodies make an agenda available to the public prior to regular public meetings of the body to include the governing bodies of certain nonprofit organizations, including nonprofit community organizations that receive federal funding, nonprofit organizations that receive community grant funds from this state or certain funding from local governments, nonprofit organizations created for the benefit of local governments, and nonprofit organizations that provide the metropolitan government of Nashville/Davidson County with certain utility services; requires, rather than permits, such governing bodies that maintain a website to post the agenda to the website. - Amends TCA Section 8-44-110.

Children - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation Act." - Amends TCA Title 24; Title 39; Title 40 and Title 47.

Remedies and Special Proceedings - As enacted, removes the ability to bring a civil liability action for negligence per se against a seller of a qualified product; expands "qualified products" to include knives, body armor, pepper spray, silencers, and other certain products; requires physical injury for a negligent entrustment action rather than an unreasonable risk of physical injury; specifies that a person who will be subject to an ordinance in the future or reasonably intends to be physically present in the political subdivision is an adversely affected party for purposes of filing certain actions; makes various other changes regarding civil actions against arms dealers, manufacturers, and sellers and the preemption of local regulation of firearms. - Amends TCA Title 29, Chapter 42 and Title 39.

Education, Dept. of - As enacted, enacts the "The Learning Pod Protection Act." - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 49.

Public Records - As enacted, requires the office of open records counsel to facilitate the convening of meetings of the advisory committee on open government, including selecting a date for the required annual meeting in the absence of co-chairs. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 4, Part 6.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, increases, from 130 minutes per full school week to 40 minutes per school day, the minimum amount of physical activity required for elementary school students; establishes additional requirements for the minimum amount of physical activity required for elementary school students. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Immigration - As enacted, requires the centralized immigration enforcement division within the department of safety to provide a report to the chief clerk of each house of the general assembly and the legislative librarian regarding illegal alien criminal activity in this state. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 7; Title 8; Title 38 and Title 68.

Tort Liability and Reform - As enacted, allows a charitable organization that provides housing to a person whom the charitable organization knows is unlawfully present in the United States to be held liable for a loss, damages, injury, or death resulting from a criminal offense committed by the person who is unlawfully present in the United States while the person is receiving housing services from the charitable organization if the charitable organization's conduct in providing housing constitutes negligence, gross negligence, or willful and wanton misconduct. - Amends TCA Title 29, Chapter 34.

Bail, Bail Bonds - As enacted, requires every bondsman licensed in this state to file a quarterly report with the department of revenue detailing the total number of bonds issued by the bondsman in the preceding quarter, the number of bonds issued in each county in which the bondsman operated, and the total amount of the bondsman's liability in each county; requires each clerk of a court that admits defendants to bail to file a quarterly report with the department detailing the total number of bonds accepted from bondsmen and the total amount of the bonds accepted from bondsmen in the preceding quarter; authorizes the department to use the reports to complete audits on the bail bonding tax. - 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.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, removes a definition of "content harmful to minors" from the Protect Tennessee Minors Act. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17.

Historical Commission - As enacted, prohibits the commission, and any other state entity other than the state building commission engaged in the historic preservation of real property, from regulating the renovation, alteration, or demolition of improved public or private real property that is not listed on the Tennessee register of historic places, or taking any adverse action against the owner of such real property, if the real property meets certain criteria. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 7; Title 8; Title 13 and Title 66.

Education, State Board of - As enacted, expands the state board's power to subpoena the appearance of persons or the production of items the chair of the state board, or the chair's designee, considers material or relevant to an accountability hearing for a local education agency operating a public school, or a public charter school, receiving a "D" or "F" letter grade. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 1; Title 49, Chapter 3 and Title 49, Chapter 5.

Industrial Development - As enacted, redefines "remediation site" to include a 501(c)(3) nonprofit entity whose main purpose is to promote industrial development and new nuclear development upon dissolution of the existing nonprofit entity. - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 53, Part 3.

Bonding, Surety and Professional - As enacted, authorizes the surety on a bail bond to petition the court for release from their obligations as surety if the principal forfeits. - 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.

Education - As enacted, requires each public senior high school to provide official recruiting representatives of the armed forces of this state and the United States access to the high school at least once a month during student lunch periods for the purpose of informing students of educational and career opportunities available in the military and at least once every other month when school is in session to provide further information to students who have expressed interest; provides additional related access. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Regional Authorities and Special Districts - As enacted, enacts the "Real Estate Infrastructure Development Act of 2025." - Amends TCA Title 7; Title 9; Title 12; Title 13; Title 66; Title 67 and Title 68.

Taxes, Hotel Motel - As enacted, revises present law relative to the privilege tax upon the privilege of occupancy in a hotel levied by municipalities. - Amends TCA Title 7 and Title 67.

Motor Vehicles, Titling and Registration - As enacted, increases, from $5 to $7, the fee for the service of handling mail orders that renew a registration plate through the U.S. postal service; increases, from $2 to $3, the fee for the service of handling mail orders of decals. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 4, Part 1.

Election Laws - As enacted, authorizes Hamblen County to participate in the convenience voting center pilot project. - Amends TCA Title 2, Chapter 3, Part 3.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, adds organized retail crime and possession or employment of a firearm during the commission of or attempt to commit a dangerous felony to the definition of racketeering activity; clarifies that carjacking is a racketeering activity. - Amends TCA Title 39.

Criminal Procedure - As enacted, requires the clerk of every court having jurisdiction of criminal offenses to include a $12.50 charge in every cost bill, to be remitted to the county government to provide support services for the purpose of promoting public safety at the sole discretion of the district attorney general; takes effect upon two-thirds vote of the county legislative body; requires a district attorney general receiving funding to submit an annual report. - Amends TCA Title 40.

Pensions and Retirement Benefits - As enacted, establishes that certain public officials, including members of the general assembly, who take office on or after July 1, 2025, have mandatory membership in the Tennessee consolidated retirement system (TCRS); allows a retiree to reannuitize retirement benefits in favor of a new spouse beneficiary following cancellation of a former spouse beneficiary due to divorce; makes other revisions to provisions governing the TCRS. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 25; Title 8, Chapter 34; Title 8, Chapter 35; Title 8, Chapter 36 and Title 8, Chapter 37.

Tort Liability and Reform - As enacted, prohibits governmental entities or local boards of education from extending immunity granted to independent school bus contractors rather than independent school bus owners and operators for providing school-related transportation services; requires liability insurance coverage in a contract or agreement between a local board of education and an independent school bus contractor for such services to be in an amount sufficient to satisfy applicable law; permits evidence of such coverage to include a certificate of insurance from an insurance provider that lists the local board of education as an additional insured. - Amends TCA Title 29, Chapter 20.

Bail, Bail Bonds - As enacted, makes changes to the law relative to professional bondsmen and agents of insurance companies making appearance bonds of a criminal nature. - Amends TCA Title 40.

Child Custody and Support - As enacted, requires the court to consider any failure to pay child support, rather than failure for a period of three years or more, when making a child custody determination; clarifies that the court may preclude or limit any provisions of a parenting plan if the court finds that a parent has failed to pay child support. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 37.

Opioids - As enacted, adds Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Inc., Indivior Inc., Viatris Inc., and Purdue Pharma L.P. to the list of companies that may be released by the attorney general and reporter for pending or future claims regarding opioids. - Amends TCA Title 20 and Title 33.

District Attorneys - As enacted, expands the proceedings for which a district attorney general pro tem may be appointed to include certain civil proceedings; declares meetings of the district attorneys general conference to be open meetings except for meetings related to certain matters; specifies that the executive director of the district attorneys general conference must provide legal counsel and advice to district attorneys general and their staff and that the legal counsel and advice may be provided by attorneys employed with the district attorneys general conference. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 7, Part 1 and Title 8, Chapter 7, Part 3.

Election Laws - As enacted, revises present law relative to voting and county election commissions, such as requiring the commission to publish a notice of the location of the provisional counting board, prohibiting the commission from tabulating any marked ballots submitted via the internet, prohibiting voting machines from being connected to the internet, and making other changes. - Amends TCA Title 2.

Fire Prevention and Investigation - As enacted, changes present law concerning the frequency of fire drills in educational occupancies. - Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 102.

Criminal Procedure - As enacted, revises the procedure for restoration of rights of citizenship. - Amends TCA Title 2; Title 4; Title 22; Title 36; Title 39 and Title 40.

Public Records - As enacted, authorizes the comptroller of the treasury to publish certain survey data that is otherwise deemed confidential. - Amends TCA Section 10-7-504.

Alcoholic Beverages - As enacted, establishes new premier type tourist resorts, urban park centers, and museums that can offer liquor by the drink; makes certain clarifications with regard to commercial airline travel clubs that can offer liquor by the drink. - Amends TCA Title 57.

Jails, Local Lock-ups - As enacted, requires, if a prisoner is released for paid employment, the cost of the electronic monitoring device to be deducted from the prisoner's wages by the sheriff and paid directly to the electronic monitoring device provider by the county or state, as applicable; requires, if a prisoner is released for unpaid work, the entity utilizing the prisoner for work to pay the costs of the electronic monitoring device. - Amends TCA Title 41.

Children - As enacted, clarifies that the economic disadvantage of a parent or guardian alone is not a ground for termination of parental rights; clarifies that, for purposes of laws relative to juvenile courts and proceedings, "neglect" does not exist solely on the basis of economic disadvantage. - Amends TCA Title 36; Title 37 and Title 39.

Sullivan County - As enacted, requires the members of a utility district board of commissioners to serve without compensation for their services, except that, by resolution duly adopted by the board of commissioners, each commissioner may receive per diem payments for not more than 12 meetings of the board of commissioners in any calendar year, at rates not greater than $500 per meeting. - Amends TCA Title 2; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 12; Title 13; Title 66 and Title 67.

Holidays and Days of Special Observance - As enacted, designates the month of June as "Celebration of Life" month, the month of July as "Celebration of Liberty" month, and the month of August as "Celebration of the Pursuit of Happiness" month in Tennessee. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 1, Part 4.

State Government - As enacted, prohibits the enforcement and recognition of requirements or mandates issued by the World Health Organization, United Nations, or World Economic Forum in this state or its political subdivisions. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 1, Part 4.