Tennessee Senate Bills

Local Government, General - As enacted, clarifies that the general assembly occupies the entire field of the regulation of shopping carts, including their purchase, use, taxation, manufacture, ownership, sale, storage, and transportation, to the exclusion of all county or metropolitan government laws, ordinances, resolutions, enactments, or regulations; prohibits a county or metropolitan government, or any agency, department, or official of a county or metropolitan government, from adopting an ordinance, resolution, or other regulation requiring a business to adopt a shopping cart policy of any nature or imposing a fee or fine on a business related to shopping carts. - Amends TCA Title 5, Chapter 1 and Title 6, Chapter 54.

Lottery, Corporation - As enacted, vacates and reconstitutes the board of directors of the Tennessee education lottery corporation; requires certain information maintained by the corporation to be subject to a public records request; terminates the lottery corporation on June 30, 2030. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 10 and Title 49.

State Government - As enacted, requires either the executive head or president of each public institution of higher education, or the chief executive head of any of its campuses to submit an annual attestation of compliance to the comptroller of the treasury no later than January 1, 2027, and each January 1 thereafter, that such entity has not implemented a discriminatory preference to increase diversity, equity, or inclusion; authorizes the attorney general to make certain related investigations. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7 and Title 49.

Consumer Protection - As enacted, requires the Tennessee advisory commission on intergovernmental relations (TACIR) to conduct a study of the potential regulation of artificial intelligence systems and generative artificial intelligence chatbots in this state. - Amends TCA Title 29; Title 37 and Title 47.

Licenses - As enacted, enacts the "Military Families Licensing Recognition Act." - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 58; Title 62; Title 63 and Title 68.

Hospitals and Health Care Facilities - As enacted, prohibits a hospital emergency department, including a satellite emergency department, from denying to a woman who presents at such facility and purports or, if incapacitated, appears to be pregnant and experiencing active labor, other symptoms associated with active labor, or an emergency medical condition, an appropriate medical screening examination within the capability of the emergency department, including ancillary services routinely available to the emergency department, to determine whether or not an emergency medical condition or active labor exists; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 63 and Title 68.

Public Funds and Financing - As enacted, creates the joint capital tourism board; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 9 and Title 67.

Local Government, General - As enacted, authorizes municipalities and metropolitan governments to adopt a tiered system of monetary penalties for repeated violations of the same municipal ordinance by the same person or entity within a 12-month period. - Amends TCA Title 6 and Title 7.

Motor Vehicles - As enacted, prohibits the initial issuance of registration of a motor vehicle if the vehicle has not met the requirements of the "Financial Responsibility Law of 1977," which provides insurance and financial responsibility requirements for motor vehicle operators; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 29; Title 55 and Title 56.

Civil Procedure - As enacted, clarifies that the same immunities from civil liability, adverse action, and disciplinary action, and duties, that apply to this state, state employees, public schools, LEAs, public school students, public school teachers, public school employees, public school contractors, public institutions of higher education, public higher education students, public higher education faculty, public higher education employees, and public higher education contractors with regard to the use of a pronoun consistent with an individual's sex applies when using an honorific that is consistent with an individual's sex. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 50; Title 49, Chapter 7, Part 24 and Title 49, Chapter 6, Part 51.

Children's Services, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the commissioner of children's services to develop a statewide quality assurance program to ensure quality control through monitoring, evaluation, and feedback on the performance of the best practices in the service delivery system and utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data in outcomes-based approaches at the regional level. - Amends TCA Title 37, Chapter 5.

Alcoholic Beverages - As enacted, establishes new premier type tourist resorts, restaurants, community theaters, clubs, retirement centers, premises, and commercial passenger boat companies that can offer liquor by the drink; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 57.

Local Government, General - As enacted, authorizes Putnam County and incorporated cities within the county 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 7, Chapter 51, Part 26.

Sentencing - As enacted, enacts the "James Bardsley, Jr. Life Protection Act." - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 13 and Title 55, Chapter 10.

Municipal Government - As enacted, creates a process for continuing funding for a municipal LEA when the municipal legislative body and the governing body for the LEA cannot agree on a budget; provides a process for continuing funding of municipal operations when a municipal legislative body has not adopted a budget by the first day of a fiscal year. - Amends TCA Title 6, Chapter 56, Part 1 and Title 6, Chapter 56, Part 2.

Immigration - As enacted, creates certain offenses for a person who is unlawfully present in the United States to operate a commercial motor vehicle in this state and a direct employer of such person; requires the law enforcement agency of an officer who arrests a person who is unlawfully present in the United States to operate a commercial motor vehicle in this state to ensure that federal immigration authorities are notified; creates related civil actions for persons injured by an unlawfully present person's operation of a commercial motor vehicle. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 50.

Education - As enacted, revises the assessment testing requirements for students who participate in the education savings account (ESA) program. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 9; Title 12; Title 48; Title 49 and Title 67.

Sunset Laws - As enacted, extends the Tennessee state veterans' homes board to June 30, 2028; requires the board to report back to the government operations committee by December 31, 2026, to update the committee on its progress in addressing the findings and observations set forth in the December 2025 performance audit report. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 58, Chapter 7.

Sunset Laws - As enacted, extends the department of children's services to June 30, 2028; requires the department to report back to the government operations committee by December 31, 2026, to update the committee on its progress in addressing the findings and observations set forth in the December 2025 performance audit report. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 37, Chapter 5.

Computers and Electronic Processing - As enacted, requires TACIR to study artificial intelligence and submit a report to the governor and both speakers by January 31, 2027. - Amends TCA Title 29; Title 33; Title 39 and Title 47.

Historical Sites and Preservation - As enacted, authorizes local historical boards to lease land owned or managed by such boards for agricultural purposes, with all proceeds received by the boards to be used for the preservation of historic sites and structures. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 11; Title 12; Title 29 and Title 43.

Military - As enacted, designates the national guard armory in McNairy County as the "Brigadier General Donald F. Hawkins Army National Guard Armory." - Amends TCA Title 58, Chapter 1.

Taxes, Real Property - As enacted, provides that a collecting official or the division of property assessments is not required to request documentation verifying the income of an elderly person seeking tax relief if the applicant is at least 80 years old and meets certain other requirements. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 5, Part 7.

Health, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to make available and require educational materials on blood lead level testing for a pregnant woman who receives vouchers for the special supplemental food program for women, infants, and children. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 49; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Courts - As enacted, enacts the "Recovery Court Renewal Act." - Amends TCA Title 40, Chapter 32, Part 1.

Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As enacted, revises law relative to leave for teachers. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Telecommunications - As enacted, requires a person or entity that makes telephone solicitations using an automated telephone dialing system to delivery artificial or prerecorded voice messages to residential subscribers in this state to maintain a record of the number of such telephone solicitations made each month; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 47, Chapter 18; Title 65 and Title 67.

Health Care - As enacted, authorizes a physician to perform stem cell therapy or regenerative medicine therapy that is not approved by the United States food and drug administration if such therapy is used for a treatment or procedure that is within the scope of practice of the physician; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 63 and Title 68.

Dieticians and Nutritionists - As enacted, enacts the "Dietetics and Nutrition Practice Act." - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 63.

Sexual Offenses - As enacted, provides that a person commits the offense of grooming of a minor when the person engages in a course of grooming conduct directed at a minor with the specific intent to commit, or facilitate the commission by another person of, a sexual offense or violent sexual offense against the minor; or to cause or induce the minor to engage in simulated sexual activity that is patently offensive or sexual activity; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Controlled Substances - As enacted, clarifies that a substance that is approved by the U.S. food and drug administration and designated or scheduled under federal law by a final order published in the Federal Register, is generally considered to be in the same schedule as such substance is designated or scheduled under the federal schedule of controlled substances after the expiration of 30 days from the date of publication of the final order; authorizes a licensed healthcare prescriber who is authorized to prescribe controlled substances to prescribe a drug product that has been so scheduled if certain other criteria is met. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 53; Title 63 and Title 68.

Correctional Programs - As enacted, creates the state families of incarcerated individuals advisory board within the department of correction for the purposes of assisting the families of incarcerated individuals. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 41.

Obscenity and Pornography - As enacted, prohibits the issuance of a license to operate certain adult-oriented establishments unless certain signage is posted. - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 51 and Title 39.

Motor Vehicles - As enacted, requires a delivery network company or delivery network company driver to comply with certain automobile liability insurance requirements. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 7; Title 55; Title 56 and Title 65.

Regional Authorities and Special Districts - As enacted, enacts the "The Jeff Burkhart Act," which adds counties to the forms of local government that may establish a self-financing central business improvement district under the "Central Business Improvement District Act of 1990." - Amends TCA Title 5 and Title 7, Chapter 84, Part 5.

Health Care - As enacted, specifies that a good faith disclosure of information related to an activity of a quality improvement committee (QIC) made by a healthcare provider or healthcare organization to a patient or a family member of a patient is not a waiver of the privilege and confidentiality protections provider under current law if made in an open discussion; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 11.

Law Enforcement - As enacted, establishes a Tennessee safe initiative task force, which is administratively attached to the Tennessee bureau of investigation. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 38 and Title 39.

Criminal Procedure - As enacted, revises present law that authorizes the attorney general to bring an action to enforce compliance with the "Tennessee Abortion-Inducing Drug Risk Protocol Act" or intervene as a matter of right in a case in which the constitutionality of such act is challenged. - Amends TCA Title 38; Title 39 and Title 40.

Education - As enacted, makes various changes and additions to present law concerning public education. - Amends TCA Title 9; Title 49, Chapter 13; Title 49, Chapter 2; Title 49, Chapter 3 and Title 49, Chapter 1, Part 3.

Economic and Community Development - As enacted, vacates and reconstitutes the board of directors of the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation. - Amends TCA Title 4.

Professions and Occupations - As enacted, adds that a managed services provider that provides direct sales, installation, or maintenance service for an IP camera connected to the managed services provider's network; derives less than 25% of the managed services provider's gross annual revenue from those services; and provides proof of employee vetting satisfactory to the commissioner is specifically excluded from the requirements of the Alarm Contractors Licensing Act. - Amends TCA Title 62, Chapter 32.

Immigration - As enacted, requires the sheriff of each county to enter into an agreement under an available federal 287(g) program, and expands the powers of the board of control of the Tennessee corrections institute. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 7; Title 8; Title 16; Title 17; Title 38; Title 39; Title 40 and Title 41.

Administrative Procedure (UAPA) - As enacted, enacts the "Regulatory Freedom Act of 2026." - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 5.

Utilities, Utility Districts - As enacted, authorizes a political subdivision to enter into a cost-sharing agreement with a developer for the development of certain public infrastructure. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 13; Title 65 and Title 68.

Mortgages - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee Reverse Mortgage Innovation Act." - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 15, Part 5; Title 45, Chapter 2, Part 12; Title 45, Chapter 20; Title 47, Chapter 30 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 4.

Bail, Bail Bonds - As enacted, removes the requirement to place a defendant on a state or federal list or database as a fugitive from justice for failure to appear, unless it's on a felony; authorizes a court to relieve the surety of liability for an undertaking if the defendant has not been placed on the available state or federal list or database within five business days of the entering agency's receipt of the bench warrant or capias. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Local Government, General - As enacted, authorizes counties with a metropolitan form of government, by resolution of their governing bodies, to levy a tax on the retail sale of food and food ingredients for human consumption within the county at a rate less than the local option sales tax rate or exempt the retail sale of such food and food ingredients from the local option sales tax; deletes obsolete provisions relating to the timing for reducing the membership of metropolitan councils. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7 and Title 67, Chapter 6.

Tourism - As enacted, requires the department of tourist development to promulgate rules designating tourism development zones in this state as economic protection zones; places certain limitations on a local government blocking streets or other rights-of-way in a tourism development zone; clarifies that the Tennessee highway patrol has concurrent law enforcement authority with local law enforcement agencies within a tourism development zone in this state. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7 and Title 67.

Taxes, Exemption and Credits - As enacted, revises law relative to a financial institution applying for a credit against the sum total of the taxes imposed by the "Franchise Tax law" and by the "Excise Tax law." - Amends TCA Title 67.

Traffic Safety - As enacted, allows a person who submits the fine and costs for a speeding ticket in lieu of appearing in court to also register for an approved driver education course online, of which successful completion can cause points for the speeding conviction to be removed from the person's record in accordance with current law. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 10; Title 55, Chapter 8 and Title 55, Chapter 9.

Business and Commerce - As enacted, revises law relative to commercial litigation financiers and litigation financing contracts. - Amends TCA Title 47.

Insurance Companies, Agents, Brokers, Policies - As enacted, expands the prohibition, from stage 4 advanced metastatic cancer or metastatic blood cancer to any cancer, against a health benefit plan that provides coverage for cancer requiring the use of a step therapy protocol before the health benefit plan provides coverage for an approved prescription drug to an enrollee who has received a diagnosis of cancer. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Education - As enacted, enacts the "Better Spending, Better Schools Act of 2026." - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 49 and Title 67.

Human Services, Dept. of - As enacted, enacts the "Promising Futures Act." - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 43; Title 49; Title 57; Title 67 and Title 71.

Highways, Roads and Bridges - As enacted, authorizes a county or municipality to request the department of transportation to conduct a highway traffic noise study for residential properties located along the sound propagation path of a state or interstate highway if certain criteria is met. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3 and Title 54.

Judges and Chancellors - As enacted, creates a pilot project to provide for criminal magistrates in the 10 counties in which the criminal courts experience the highest judicial caseload, if authorized by the legislative body of an eligible county; authorizes the judges of the county with criminal jurisdiction to appoint the criminal magistrate, who shall serve at the pleasure of the majority of the judges of the county with criminal jurisdiction. - Amends TCA Title 16; Title 17 and Title 40.

TennCare - As enacted, extends the nursing home annual assessment fee to June 30, 2027; makes other related revisions. - Amends TCA Title 71, Chapter 5, Part 10.

Alcoholic Beverages - As enacted, revises law relative to alcoholic beverages. - Amends TCA Title 57.

Real Property - As enacted, requires a description of real property contained within a deed of conveyance of a property not previously described in a recorded instrument to be prepared by a registered land surveyor, or by a licensed attorney utilizing a survey prepared by a registered land surveyor. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 23; Title 39; Title 45; Title 47, Chapter 18; Title 56; Title 62 and Title 66.

Hospitals and Health Care Facilities - As enacted, enacts the "Annual Coverage Assessment Act of 2026." - Amends TCA Title 71, Chapter 5.