Tennessee Senate Bills

Taxes, Real Property - As introduced, sets the value of residential property for tax purposes at the higher of the most recent price paid for the property or the value attributed to the property by a financial institution when the owner refinances the mortgage on the property or otherwise uses the property as collateral for a loan; prohibits the sale of real property used by the owner as a principal place of residence for 10 years or more to satisfy a tax debt. - Amends TCA Title 26 and Title 67.

Children's Services, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the department to release certain information regarding providers that department contracts with to the public by January 1, 2027, and to publish monthly reports on its website on short-term or interim placements. - Amends TCA Title 37.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, creates the new criminal offenses of systematic unauthorized employment and aggravated systematic unauthorized employment; establishes the tort of unfair competition. - Amends TCA Title 29 and Title 39.

Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the report detailing strategies the department intends to use to increase resources for services and supports, including those funded by Medicaid, TennCare, or other public and private sources, to be submitted in an electronic format. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 33; Title 34; Title 52; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Public Utilities - As introduced, requires the supervisory body of municipal electric plants to make the current schedule of rates and charges and all rules and regulations relating to electric service available to the public in an electronic format online. - Amends TCA Title 6; Title 7 and Title 65.

Elder Abuse - As introduced, extends from 10 to 20 days, the time within which a court must schedule a hearing on a petition to freeze the funds of a criminal defendant charged with financial exploitation of an elderly or vulnerable adult involving the taking more than $5,000 of property while the criminal proceeding is pending for purposes of restitution to the victim. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 15.

Public Funds and Financing - As introduced, requires the state treasurer to use existing resources to conduct a study of the use of public funds by neighboring states to facilitate gender transition procedures to determine what restrictions neighboring states place upon public funding of such procedures; requires the treasurer to compile the findings of the study into a report and transmit the report to the general assembly no later than December 31, 2026. - Amends TCA Title 5, Chapter 9, Part 1; Title 6, Chapter 56, Part 1; Title 7, Chapter 3, Part 1; Title 8, Chapter 27; Title 9, Chapter 4, Part 51; Title 37; Title 39; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Health Care - As introduced, directs the commissioner of health to conduct a study of legislative developments occurring in neighboring states within the last five years concerning patient access to and patient safety in the use of assisted reproductive technology; requires the commissioner to publish and transmit to the general assembly the commissioner's findings and recommendations no later than December 31, 2026. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 29; Title 36; Title 63 and Title 68.

Boards and Commissions - As introduced, creates a rebuttable presumption that a license or renewal should be denied by the board of nursing if the applicant or licensee has a conviction for certain alcohol-related offenses that involved injury to another person. - Amends TCA Title 63.

Election Laws - As introduced, requires election officials to meet at the polling place at least one hour ahead of the time for opening the polls rather than 30 minutes. - Amends TCA Title 2.

Tennessee Housing Development Agency - As introduced, enacts the "First-Time Homebuyer Assistance Program," which creates a first-time homebuyer assistance program, to be administered by the agency. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7 and Title 13, Chapter 23.

Judicial Districts - As introduced, deletes the requirement that, beginning in 2028, the funding for each judicial district that has a disproportionately high number of judges, as determined by the comptroller, be reduced by 10 percent during the subsequent fiscal year if the legislature has not passed legislation reapportioning the judicial districts. - Amends TCA Title 16, Chapter 2, Part 5.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, prohibits a person or entity from distributing an electoral deepfake within 90 days of an election that the person or entity knows or should have known is a deceptive and fraudulent depiction of a candidate or political party; creates civil penalties and outlines exceptions. - Amends TCA Title 2 and Title 39, Chapter 17.

Alcoholic Beverage Commission - As introduced, requires the commission to submit its biennial report on underage drinking, drunk driving, and other harmful uses of alcohol to the governor in addition to members of the general assembly. - Amends TCA Title 57.

Education - As introduced, requires the office of research and education accountability in the office of the comptroller of the treasury to submit a copy of its annual report detailing the results of certain tests administered to recipients of education freedom scholarships to the legislative librarian. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Professions and Occupations - As introduced, exempts a person whose occupation or practice is confined solely to makeup application services from the requirement to be licensed as a cosmetologist or aesthetician if the person meets the requirements to obtain a certificate to provide makeup application services. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 62, Chapter 3; Title 62, Chapter 38 and Title 62, Chapter 4.

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.

Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, deletes the offense of carrying a firearm or a club with the intent to go armed, prohibits the carrying of a firearm or weapon inside of a kindergarten through grade 12 public or private school and on a school bus if the person's intent is to go armed and the school and the bus are posted in a certain manner; deletes the offense of carrying a firearm on the property of a university, college campus, and other public or private non-kindergarten through grade 12 educational institutions or property; rewrites the offense of possessing a handgun while under the influence of alcohol or any controlled substance or controlled substance analogue; rewrites the offense of carrying weapons during judicial proceedings; makes various other changes related to firearms. - Amends TCA Title 16; Title 36; Title 37; Title 38; Title 39; Title 40; Title 49; Title 55 and Title 65.

Secretary of State - As introduced, requires the secretary of state to create and maintain a publicly accessible, nonpartisan online candidate information page for each local, state, and federal election. - Amends TCA Title 2.

Education - As introduced, creates the task force for educational leadership to publish a comprehensive plan for the state to assume full responsibility for education programs currently administered by the United States department of education; requires the department of education to conduct an inventory of all existing federal education programs and grants administered by the state; requires the attorney general and reporter to conduct a review of all state statutes and rules that reference or incorporate federal education statutes or regulations for purposes of implementing the comprehensive plan. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8 and Title 49.

Insurance, Health, Accident - As introduced, increases from quarterly to monthly, the frequency with which licensed hospitals must report claims data to the commissioner of health and adjusts the delinquency deadline to require submission within 60 days following the end of the month, rather than the end of the quarter. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 29; Title 33; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Funeral Directors and Embalmers - As introduced, authorizes the operator of a crematory facility to provide an electronic receipt, instead of a written receipt, to the person who delivers a dead human body or body parts to the facility for cremation. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 10; Title 29; Title 30; Title 31; Title 32; Title 34; Title 35; Title 36; Title 38; Title 39; Title 46; Title 50; Title 55; Title 56; Title 58; Title 62; Title 67; Title 68 and Title 71.

County Government - As introduced, increases from 48 to 72 hours, the time within which the county legislative body must convene after the filing of an application by the county mayor for such convening based on the public necessity requiring it in the mayor's opinion. - Amends TCA Title 5 and Title 6.

Anatomical Gifts - As introduced, changes from July to January, the month when a medical facility and research institution covered under the Tennessee Genomic Security and End Organ Harvesting Act must certify to the commissioner of health that the facility and institution are compliant with the requirements in the act. - Amends TCA Title 63 and Title 68.

Livestock - As introduced, authorizes sheep producer associations to submit their annual reports electronically. - Amends TCA Title 44.

Economic and Community Development, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the commissioner to research the feasibility of establishing a development corridor, to be called the Oak Ridge Energy Park, located in and spanning parts of Anderson and Roane counties. -

Education, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the department to review and propose revisions to the physical education standards to incorporate guidance published by the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition to reestablish the presidential fitness test pursuant to Executive Order No. 14327 of the president of the United States on July 31, 2025. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Controlled Substances - As introduced, changes from January 1 to January 15 the deadline for the medical cannabis commission to submit its annual report. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29; Title 39; Title 43; Title 53; Title 57; Title 67 and Title 68.

Local Government, General - As introduced, increases from seven to 10 days the duration of public notice required for a hearing by a municipal governing body to consider the extension of a long term contract, lease, or lease-purchase agreement for a period of five years or more. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 9; Title 12 and Title 13.

Driver Licenses - As introduced, clarifies that the report made by a participant in the digital driver license system that the participant's electronic device has been lost or stolen must be made to the department of safety for purposes of terminating the person's participation in the system. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 50.

Local Education Agencies - As introduced, changes the timing of when an LEA must file with the local education insurance committee any changes in health benefits offered under a local insurance plan from at least 30 days prior to the effective date of the changes to at least 40 days prior. - Amends TCA Title 8.

Local Education Agencies - As introduced, allows time spent by students in a physical education class to meet physical activity time requirements if the students are physically active in the class; clarifies that physical activity may include structured movement breaks; allows a teacher to prevent a student from participating in unstructured play and to assign activities to students during periods of physical activity to improve or correct student behavior. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Local Education Agencies - As introduced, allows a student to be denied the privilege of participating in physical activity during the school day if the student engages in certain prohibited conduct or behavior; allows a teacher or administrator, as a form of discipline, to remove a student from, or deny a student participation in, any physical activity or physical activity period, or to assign a student alternative lessons, assignments, or activities, including physical activities, to improve the student's conduct or behavior. - Amends TCA Section 49-6-1021.

Planning, Public - As introduced, specifies that the presiding officer of the local government planning advisory committee must promptly notify, or cause to be notified, the appointing authority of a member who fails to attend three consecutive committee meetings. - Amends TCA Title 4.

Professions and Occupations - As introduced, enacts the "Responsible Welding for Tennessean’s Safety Act," which requires general contractors, project managers, and subcontractors to ensure that welders performing structural steel welding are tested and certified by an accredited facility or individual and that the work meets applicable standards whenever a design professional includes D1.1 or D1.5 codes in the job specifications, subject to an exemption for work performed on the premises of a homeowner or farmer. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 15; Title 56; Title 62; Title 64 and Title 68.

Judicial Districts - As introduced, enacts the "Violent Criminal Court Act," which adds two additional criminal courts to the thirtieth judicial district for the purpose of hearing cases involving certain violent criminal offenses. - Amends TCA Title 2; Title 8; Title 16; Title 17; Title 18; Title 22; Title 23; Title 24; Title 25; Title 26; Title 27; Title 37; Title 38; Title 39 and Title 40.

Banks and Financial Institutions - As introduced, increases, from 24 hours to 48 hours, the time that a state bank has to report to the commissioner of financial institutions any change in chief executive officers. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 12; Title 45; Title 46; Title 47; Title 48; Title 50; Title 61; Title 62; Title 65; Title 66 and Title 68.

Election Laws - As introduced, requires each county election commission to check each applicant with the systematic alien verification for entitlements (SAVE) program database prior to placing a registrant on the voter rolls in order to ensure non-United States citizens are not registered to vote in the county; requires, at least once each quarter, the county election commission to check the county's entire voter registration list through the SAVE program database to ensure that non-United States citizens are not on the voter rolls in the county. - Amends TCA Title 2.

Statutes of Limitations and Repose - As introduced, specifies that certain statutes of limitation in civil matters apply to the state and the state's political subdivisions. - Amends TCA Title 9; Title 28 and Title 29.

Eminent Domain - As introduced, enacts the "Tennessee Just Compensation for Property Owners Act," which requires an airport authority that exercises eminent domain to acquire private property to pay enhanced damages and costs to the owner of the subject real property. - Amends TCA Title 29 and Title 42.

Children - As introduced, enacts the "Parental Rights Protection Act," which makes various changes to the termination of parental rights, including raising the burden of proof the state must show to beyond a reasonable doubt and establishing the right to a trial by jury. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 37.

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.

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.

Local Education Agencies - As introduced, allows certain searches of containers, packages, and certain enclosures used for storage by students or visitors to be conducted by a school employee who has been designated by the school principal to conduct such searches and who has completed an orientation and training program developed by the department of education. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 6.

Education - As introduced, requires each public charter school to publish the policy adopted by its governing board on the use of artificial intelligence by students, teachers, and staff for instructional and assignment purposes on its website; requires each local board of education to direct each school under its management and control to publish the policy adopted by the local board on the use of artificial intelligence by students, teachers, and staff for instructional and assignment purposes on the school's website. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Fireworks - As introduced, increases, from fewer than 90 days to fewer than 95 days, the time that a firework exhibitor licensee has after expiration of the exhibitor's license to renew the license and have it retroactive to the date the old license expired. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 12; Title 45; Title 46; Title 47; Title 48; Title 50; Title 61; Title 62; Title 63; Title 65 and Title 68.

Consumer Protection - As introduced, deletes an obsolete provision staggering the effective date of the prohibition on printing more than five digits of a credit or debit card number or the expiration date on the receipt retained by the merchant or the receipt provided to the cardholder at the point of sale or transaction for a cash register or other machine or device that electronically prints receipts and that was in use prior to January 1, 2005, or first put into use on or after January 1, 2005. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 12; Title 45; Title 46; Title 47; Title 48; Title 62; Title 65 and Title 66.

Consumer Protection - As introduced, requires certain data controllers to annually register with the consumer protection division of the office of the attorney general and reporter; requires the division to create and maintain a website and accessible deletion mechanism that a consumer can use at no cost to make a single deletion request that is binding on all controllers registered with the division; makes other related changes to the Tennessee Information Protection Act. - Amends TCA Title 47, Chapter 18, Part 33.

Human Resources, Department of - As introduced, excludes a child care agency that provides child care services through a child development program and is accredited by the United States department of defense from being subject to licensure as long as such child care agency provides child care services only to an eligible patron. - Amends TCA Title 71, Chapter 3.

Recreational Areas - As introduced, creates an administrative attachment for the Doe Mountain Recreation Authority with the department of environment and conservation, while preserving the Authority's autonomy and powers in all other aspects. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 11, Chapter 25 and Title 70.

Education - As introduced, authorizes, instead of requires, local education agencies and public charter schools to retain a student in the third grade if the student has not shown a basic understanding of the curriculum and an ability to perform the skills required in the subject of reading or English language arts. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 1 and Title 49, Chapter 6.

Motor Vehicles - As introduced, creates a Class B misdemeanor offense for a motor vehicle dealer or salesperson to knowingly retain a copy, in an electronic or other format, of a person's identification. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 47 and Title 55.

Taxes, Real Property - As introduced, requires the comptroller of the treasury to provide required cost and income limit estimates for property tax relief to the directors of the office of legislative budget analysis in addition to the members of the general assembly. - Amends TCA Title 48 and Title 67.

Taxes, Real Property - As introduced, enacts the "Local Government Revenue Stability Act," which replaces property taxes with a statewide 4 percent surtax on the sale of goods and services to be collected in the same manner as the sales and use tax and disbursed to local governments. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 49; Title 54 and Title 67.

Planning, Public - As introduced, authorizes the City of Clarksville and Montgomery County to participate in the Tennessee local land bank program. - Amends TCA Title 13, Chapter 30.

Public Health - As introduced, requires healthcare provider regulatory authorities to report quarterly to the department of health the number and type of disciplinary actions taken against a healthcare provider for knowingly performing or offering to perform on a minor, or administering or offering to administer to a minor, a prohibited medical procedure. - Amends TCA Title 63 and Title 68, Chapter 33.

Insurance, Health, Accident - As introduced, enacts the "Stabilizing Healthcare Access with Reimbursement Protections (SHARP) Act." - Amends TCA Title 8 and Title 56.

Real Property - As introduced, enacts the "Tennessee Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act." - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 30; Title 31; Title 32; Title 35; Title 55; Title 66 and Section 67-4-409.

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.

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.