Tennessee House Bills

Funeral Directors and Embalmers - As enacted, authorizes a funeral director applicant who was not previously licensed in this state to substitute one year of apprenticeship with an associate degree from a college accredited by the American Board of Funeral Service Education or completion of a program of study in funeral service education. - Amends TCA Title 62, Chapter 5.

Traffic Safety - As enacted, defines "fully enclosed" as having side panels, a roll bar or roof, and a windshield with regard to crash helmet requirements not applying to autocycles that are fully enclosed. - Amends TCA Title 55.

Hospitals and Health Care Facilities - As enacted, declares Perry County Community Hospital in Linden and Decatur County General Hospital in Parsons to be necessary providers for the purpose of critical access hospital designation eligibility in accordance with Section 1820 of the Social Security Act. - Amends TCA Title 68.

Education, Curriculum - As enacted, enacts the "Teen Social Media and Internet Safety Act." - Amends TCA Title 49.

Pensions and Retirement Benefits - As enacted, requires the TCRS board of trustees to divest the retirement system from investment activity it has in a company known to be majority-owned by China; requires a local governing body to divest its political subdivision pension plan from investment activity it has in a company known to be majority-owned by China. - Amends TCA Title 9, Chapter 4, Part 15.

Bail, Bail Bonds - As enacted, specifies that venue for prosecution of the offense of knowingly violating a condition of release is generally the county in which the conduct constituting the violation of a condition of release occurred; clarifies that if one or more elements of the offense are committed in different counties, then the offense may be prosecuted in either county. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Estates - As enacted, removes the cap on the amount of wages or other compensation owed a deceased employee at the time of the employee's death that an employer shall pay directly to the surviving spouse of the decedent or, if there is no surviving spouse, to the surviving children of the decedent as tenants in common. - Amends TCA Title 30 and Title 31.

Driver Licenses - As enacted, creates the Class B misdemeanor offense of operating a motor vehicle in this state with an invalid driver license; designates out-of-state driver licenses issued exclusively to illegal aliens as invalid driver licenses in this state. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 50.

Consumer Protection - As enacted, enacts the "Debt Resolution Services Act." - Amends TCA Title 47, Chapter 18.

Motor Vehicles, Titling and Registration - As enacted, authorizes a county clerk, during a period of a public health emergency, natural disaster, or other temporary office closure, to request the assistance of a county clerk in a contiguous county for purposes of registering motor vehicles and related transactions. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 4 and Section 55-6-101.

Open Meetings - As enacted, specifies that the Tennessee One Health Committee is a governing body under the open meetings act; requires meetings of the committee to be open to the public. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 5; Title 8, Chapter 44; Title 43, Chapter 1; Title 58; Title 68, Chapter 1 and Title 70.

Taxes - As enacted, increases, by 15 cents over a 10-year period, and subject to a two-thirds vote of the county legislative body, the maximum mineral severance tax rate that may be levied by a county on all sand, gravel, sandstone, chert, and limestone severed from the ground within its jurisdiction; removes the authorization for Smith County to allocate its mineral severance tax to the county general fund or a fund other than its county road fund. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 7, Part 2.

Education - As enacted, requires that certain employees of state special schools receive the same leave and certain other benefits as employees of LEAs and public charter schools. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 50 and Title 49.

Water Authorities - As enacted, generally authorizes the board of directors of a municipal energy authority to, as part of the transfer of a water and wastewater system, adopt and assume all or any portion of such regulatory powers, authority, duties, obligations, and oversight over the water and wastewater operations as were applicable to the municipal water and wastewater system pursuant to ordinances, resolutions, or other rules or policies that were in effect immediately prior to the transfer of such system to the authority; authorizes later amendment to such rules, regulations, and requirements. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7 and Title 68.

Public Buildings - As enacted, expands public records exception to include residential information of local government employees. - Amends TCA Section 10-7-504.

Municipal Government - As enacted, authorizes a city incorporated under a city manager-commission charter to contract with a private entity for the development, construction, management, or operation of an indoor or outdoor sports facility under terms acceptable to the city if certain conditions are met. - Amends TCA Title 6.

Education - As enacted, requires the department of education to establish enrollment deadlines for voluntary pre-kindergarten programs so that at-risk students who will be four years old by August 15 must be enrolled by the beginning of the school year and students who are four-year-olds who do not have a disability or who meet the qualifications for enrollment at three years of age must be enrolled by August 30. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Alcoholic Beverage Commission - As enacted, requires a law enforcement agency to provide records related to an accident, the persons involved in such accident, and persons involved in providing or selling alcoholic beverages to persons involved in an accident upon receipt of a request for such records by the commission; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 55 and Title 57.

Appeal and Review - As enacted, authorizes criminal defendants who plead guilty, best interest, or no contest to also petition for a writ of error coram nobis based on evidence that was, through no fault of the defendant, unknown to the defendant at the time of the plea. - Amends TCA Title 40.

Children and Youth, Commission on - As enacted, creates the Tennessee juvenile justice review commission to review an appropriate sampling of juvenile justice cases and any critical incidents involving juveniles in order to provide the general assembly with findings and legislative recommendations. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 37.

Opioids - As enacted, authorizes an insurer, for purposes of group insurance plans offered to state employees, to adopt or amend a state preferred drug list (PDL); requires the insurer to ensure that a non-opioid drug approved by the U.S. food and drug administration for the treatment or management of pain is not disadvantaged or discouraged with respect to coverage relative to an opioid or narcotic drug for the treatment or management of pain on the PDL. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 53; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Election Laws - As enacted, defines "district," for purposes of municipal elections, to mean a district, region, precinct, sector, territory, ward, or other geographical area prescribed for the purposes of nominating and electing candidates. - Amends TCA Title 2 and Title 6, Chapter 53.

Henry County - Subject to local approval, authorizes the county commission to appoint a minimum of three and a maximum of seven members to the board of trustees for the Henry County Hospital District; reduces the frequency of regular meetings of the board of trustees from monthly to quarterly. - Amends Chapter 176 of the Private Acts of 1953; as amended.

Henry County - Subject to local approval, repeals an obsolete private act regarding the acquisition and operation of a nursing home. - Repeals Chapter 158 of the Private Acts of 1961.

Knox County - Subject to local approval, repeals the Tennessee Technology Development Authority Act. - Amends Chapter 148 of the Private Acts of 1983; as amended.

Bedford County - Subject to local approval, abolishes the Bedford County road board. - Repeals Chapter 30 of the Private Acts of 1975 and Chapter 39 of the Private Acts of 1989.

Driver Licenses - As enacted, prohibits the use of digital driver licenses and digital photo identification licenses for voter identification purposes; regulates the use, retention, and disclosure of data submitted by persons participating in the digital driver license system, including biometric identifiers; prohibits geolocation data from being collected for purposes of the digital driver license system; revises other provisions related to driver licenses. - Amends TCA Section 2-7-112 and Title 55, Chapter 50.

Agriculture, Dept. of - As enacted, establishes June 30 as the expiration date for certain licenses issued by the department. - Amends TCA Title 43, Chapter 1, Part 1; Section 43-10-118; Section 43-11-405; Section 43-8-104; Section 44-10-203; Section 44-11-105; Section 44-6-104; Section 47-26-1010; Section 53-1-204; Section 53-3-105; Section 53-3-106; Section 53-7-216 and Section 53-8-106.

Parks, Natural Areas Preservation - As enacted, revises the descriptions of existing state natural areas and designates new natural areas. - Amends TCA Title 11, Chapter 14, Part 1.

Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As enacted, increases from 20 to 30, the maximum number of consecutive days a substitute teacher may substitute for a regular teacher on leave without having to possess a teaching license; requires the six weeks of paid parental leave for eligible employees to be taken either consecutively or non-consecutively based on certain criteria. - Amends TCA Section 8-50-814; Title 49, Chapter 6 and Title 49, Chapter 3, Part 3.

Opioids - As enacted, clarifies that a physician licensed in this state is the only healthcare provider authorized to prescribe a buprenorphine product for a FDA-approved use in recovery or medication-assisted treatment; revises criteria for providers not licensed in this state to prescribe a buprenorphine product for the treatment of opioid use disorder. - Amends TCA Title 33; Title 41; Title 53 and Title 63.

Boards and Commissions - As enacted, prohibits the exclusion of persons from membership on state regulatory and health-related boards on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, and national origin; prohibits such boards from establishing or operating under race-based policies pertaining to their composition; removes requirement that appointing authorities strive to ensure certain boards and commissions are represented by members of racial minorities. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 21; Title 9; Title 62; Title 63 and Title 68.

Mining and Quarrying - As enacted, revises certain requirements to file liens for the reclamation of abandoned coal mining lands. - Amends TCA Title 59, Chapter 8, Part 3.

Drugs, Prescription - As enacted, adds mandating the use of biosimilar drugs as a cost-saving measure the bureau of TennCare may implement; adds that a health carrier, health benefit plan, or utilization review organization may require a patient to try a biosimilar product prior to providing coverage for the equivalent branded prescription drug; requires the TennCare pharmacy advisory committee to consider as a factor the use of biosimilar drugs in the committee's recommendation to the bureau of TennCare on any drugs to be added to the state preferred drug list. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 53; Title 56; Title 68 and Title 71.

Education - As enacted, prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, or religion against a student or an employee in a public institution of education; requires public institutions of education to treat harassment or discrimination against students or employees, or resulting from institutional policies or programs on their campuses, motivated by or including antisemitic intent in an identical manner to discrimination motivated by race; requires Title VI coordinators to be designated to monitor antisemitic discrimination and harassment at K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Energy - As enacted, clarifies that a political subdivision that imposes requirements or expectations related to the type of clean or green, or renewable, energy used by a public utility in an ordinance, resolution, or other regulation must include certain sources of energy as permissible sources of clean or green, or renewable, energy, regardless of whether the political subdivision classifies the requirements or expectations as relating to clean or green, or renewable, energy. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 13; Title 64; Title 65; Title 67 and Title 68.

Juvenile Offenders - As enacted, requires suspension of a minor's driving privileges or ability to obtain a driver license for a period of one year as part of the disposition if a minor is adjudicated delinquent for an act that would constitute the offense of harassment by bullying or cyber-bullying. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 39 and Title 55, Chapter 10, Part 7.

Rogersville - Subject to local approval, authorizes holding of an advisory, nonbinding referenda. - Amends Chapter 519 of the Private Acts of 1911.

Memorials, Recognition - TVA -

Memorials, Recognition - Mary Jane Skinner -

Memorials, Recognition - Paul F. Tuttobene -

Memorials, Sports - Malik Williamson, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Malachi Hill, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Kollin Patterson, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Octavious Anderson, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Freeman Agee, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - King Bullard, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Jordan Crawford, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Ryan Nelson, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Eli Turner, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Chase Kee, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Grant Griffin, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Ladarian Pittman, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Frankie Stinson, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Quinton Beauregard, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Mitchell Easter, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

Memorials, Sports - Russell Randle, Elmore Park Middle School basketball team -

TennCare - As introduced, prohibits a healthcare provider who participates in the TennCare or CoverKids programs from refusing to provide healthcare services to an enrollee based solely upon the enrollee’s refusal to obtain a vaccine or immunization; prohibits the bureau from reimbursing a healthcare provider in violation of such prohibition; requires the director to adopt rules. - Amends TCA Title 33; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Taxes, Sales - As introduced, exempts feminine hygiene products from sales tax on the annual sales tax holiday. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 6.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, expands "law enforcement officer" to include a correctional officer employed by a county jail, the department of correction, or a private prison contractor and a probation or parole officer employed by the department of correction or a private probation provider for purposes of the offense of assault against a law enforcement officer. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 13, Part 1.