Tennessee House Bills

Probation and Parole - As introduced, specifies that if the trial judge finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant has violated conditions of probation and suspension of sentence for a felony offense by engaging in conduct that constitutes a drug offense, then for the first instance of such a violation, the trial judge must order the defendant to attend a substance abuse treatment program and must not revoke the defendant's probation and suspension of sentence. - Amends TCA Title 40, Chapter 35.

DUI Offenses - As introduced, allows a person convicted of driving under the influence of an intoxicant involving alcohol or opioids to agree to receive naltrexone injections at the person's own expense for a period of 12 continuous months in lieu of being required to operate only a motor vehicle equipped with an ignition interlock device. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 40 and Title 55, Chapter 10.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, adds the advisement or encouragement to commit suicide to the offense of assisted suicide under certain circumstances. - Amends TCA Title 39.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, enacts "The Intercollegiate Student-Athlete Protection Act," which creates a criminal offense of student athlete harassment; punishes the first offense as a Class A misdemeanor and a second or subsequent offense as a Class E felony; and specifies that a student athlete who is the victim of student athlete harassment has a private right of action against a person convicted of the offense. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 49; Title 39 and Title 49.

Children's Services, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the department to record, by audio recording or video recording, all interviews of children conducted by department employees as part of the department's investigation of claims of abuse or dependency and neglect. - Amends TCA Title 10, Chapter 7, Part 5; Title 24; Title 37 and Title 38.

Criminal Procedure - As introduced, prohibits a court from assessing court costs against a defendant in a criminal proceeding if the defendant is found not guilty by a jury or by a judge following a bench trial on all charges for which the defendant was accused, the prosecution is dismissed or a nolle prosequi is entered by the state, or the charges against the defendant are dismissed by the court. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, increases from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class C felony the available sentence for an aggravated criminal trespass if, while in commission of the trespass, the trespasser encounters the owner using or displaying a firearm in self-defense; upgrades trespass offenses to Class C felonies. - Amends TCA Section 39-11-611; Title 39, Chapter 13, Part 10 and Title 39, Chapter 14, Part 4.

Law Enforcement - As introduced, enacts the "Stop American Gestapo Act (SAGA)." - Amends TCA Title 38 and Title 39.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, increases the penalty for criminal impersonation of a law enforcement officer from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E felony if the offense occurs while the defendant is committing or attempting to commit a crime of violence. - Amends TCA Title 38; Title 39 and Title 40.

Death - As introduced, requires, if the person or government agency assuming custody of a body for the purposes of burial does not request an autopsy, or that the body be embalmed, the person or agency to ensure that the body is buried within 48 hours from the time when the person or agency waives the ability to request an autopsy or embalming of the body. - Amends TCA Title 34, Chapter 6, Part 37; Title 38; Title 50; Title 56; Title 62, Chapter 5; Title 62, Chapter 6 and Title 68.

Health, Dept. of - As introduced, directs the department on or before January 1, 2026, to submit a report with a list of each drug that is psychotropic medication pursuant to current law and the side effects of each medication to the chair of the health and welfare committee of the senate and the chair of the committee of the house of representatives having jurisdiction over health-related matters. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 33; Title 41; Title 49; Title 53; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Election Laws - As introduced, requires a voter to designate on the voter registration record a political party with which the voter is affiliated in order to vote in primary elections for such political party. - Amends TCA Title 2.

Sentencing - As introduced, requires a local community corrections advisory board to provide its annual report to the county legislative body on the progress of community corrections programs by February 1 of each year. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 16; Title 37; Title 39; Title 40 and Title 41.

Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, requires a gun dealer to ensure that three days have passed since the transaction was initiated by the purchaser before transferring a firearm to a purchaser if the purchaser is older than 17 but younger than 21. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

Criminal Procedure - As introduced, allows certain persons deprived of the right of suffrage to apply for a voter registration card and have the right of suffrage provisionally restored if the person enters into a payment plan to become current on all child support obligations. - Amends TCA Title 40, Chapter 29.

Education - As introduced, deletes obsolete provisions regarding implementation of the school grading system. - 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.

Motor Vehicles, Titling and Registration - As introduced, requires evidence of compliance with the financial responsibility law prior to registering vehicles; increases from $25 to $50 the coverage failure fee imposed by the department of revenue for the first failure to comply with the James Lee Atwood Jr. Law; increases that fee to $250 for a second failure to comply and to $500 for a third or subsequent failure to comply; allocates 50 percent of the fees to county clerks. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 12 and Title 55, Chapter 4.

Education - As introduced, deletes an antiquated section, which required the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee to, by December 15, 2014, perform a study on the economic feasibility of creating and utilizing a statewide comprehensive energy policy and submit its final report to the energy task force of the house of representatives. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Children - As introduced, exempts a school social worker, licensed by the state board of education, who provides preventative and developmental counseling, from having to obtain the consent of a parent of a minor prior to rendering such services. - Amends TCA Title 36, Chapter 8; Title 49 and Title 63, Chapter 1.

Education - As introduced, enacts the "Public Education Investments Act"; increases, from $50,000 to $50,290, the minimum base salary in the state salary schedule for teachers; increases from 5 percent to 10 percent the weighted allocation for a student who is a member in a school that is eligible for Title I schoolwide designation in the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Act; increases the amount of a Tennessee middle college scholarship by 3 percent each academic year for 10 academic years. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Libraries - As introduced, clarifies that the Age-Appropriate Materials Act of 2022 does not apply to any materials in the Tennessee Electronic Library. - Amends TCA Title 10, Chapter 1, Part 3 and Title 49, Chapter 6.

Utilities, Utility Districts - As introduced, prohibits public water system operators from adding fluoride to their water systems. - Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 221.

Jails, Local Lock-ups - As introduced, specifies that a jailer's authorization to evaluate a person confined in the county jail for purposes of the person's care includes evaluating the person's need for medical attention. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8, Chapter 8; Title 29; Title 40 and Title 41.

School Vouchers - As introduced, expands eligibility for an education freedom scholarship to students who are enrolled in an out-of-district public school. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Agriculture, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the commissioner to annually report the amount of fees, fines, and proceeds resulting from the sale of seized properties collected under Tennessee Apiary Act of 1995 to the chairpersons of the committees having subject jurisdiction over agriculture in both chambers of the general assembly. - Amends TCA Title 1; Title 4; Title 8; Title 11; Title 12; Title 35; Title 36; Title 38; Title 39; Title 40; Title 41; Title 43; Title 44; Title 47; Title 49; Title 50; Title 53; Title 55; Title 56; Title 57; Title 62; Title 63; Title 65; Title 66; Title 67; Title 68; Title 69; Title 70 and Title 71.

School Vouchers - As introduced, repeals the "Tennessee Education Savings Account Pilot Program," the "Education Freedom Scholarship Act," and the "Individualized Education Act." - Amends TCA Title 49.

Education - As introduced, enacts the "Tennessee Career Readiness Enhancement Act," which requires public high schools to integrate career readiness tools that enable students to earn credentials related to job readiness into career technical education; establishes a pilot program to obtain feedback from the business sector; makes other additions and changes to present law related to the provision and evaluation of career readiness tools. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Education - As introduced, establishes that a public institution of education may provide an opportunity or benefit exclusively to one sex through a program if the institution provides a substantially similar or reasonably comparable opportunity or benefit to the opposite sex through a different program. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Health, Dept. of - As introduced, directs the department to submit a report on the feasibility and cost projections for creating and maintaining an implanted medical device registry available to each healthcare facility in this state to the speaker of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives on or before January 1, 2027. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 53; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Human Services, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the department to apply, no later than January 1, 2027, for federal grants and other federal funds available to the state through the federal summer electronic benefits transfer (EBT) for children program for the purpose of providing nutrition assistance through EBT during the summer months for each eligible child. - Amends TCA Title 49 and Title 71.

Public Funds and Financing - As introduced, authorizes school districts to establish fund pools for the investment of school district funds. - Amends TCA Title 9 and Title 49.

Education - As introduced, deletes obsolete pilot program to improve parent-teacher engagement that terminated at the end of the 2020-2021 school year. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Local Education Agencies - As introduced, requires each local school board to establish a school lunch program and a school breakfast program that provide a free breakfast and lunch to each student enrolled in a school under the board's jurisdiction; requires the state to reimburse each LEA for the cost of providing a free breakfast and lunch to each student enrolled in the LEA after all available federal funds have been applied. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Education - As introduced, creates the school safety grant fund to be administered by the department of education; requires that school safety grants be used to support local education agencies and public charter schools with prevention, reduction, and response efforts with regard to school shootings. - Amends TCA Title 9 and Title 49.

Boards and Commissions - As introduced, creates the Tennessee board of sign language interpreting. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 63; Title 68, Chapter 1, Part 1 and Title 71, Chapter 4, Part 21.

Domestic Violence - As introduced, enacts "Katherine's Law"; creates the offense of aggravated domestic assault, which is a Class B felony. - Amends TCA Title 39.

Courts, Administrative Office of the - As introduced, enacts the "Tennessee Court Appearance Reminder Program Act." - Amends TCA Title 16 and Title 40.

Memorials, Recognition - Honors and celebrates the laws of the United States and longstanding legal precedent that makes clear that the federal government may not retain any funds collected by the U.S. government based on tariffs that have been ruled invalid. -

General Assembly, Statement of Intent or Position - Condemns NES's response to the January 2026 ice storm. -

Education, Higher - As introduced, adds the general assembly to the list of entities that each public institution of higher education must submit its annual foreign gifts and contracts disclosure report. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 14; Title 49, Chapter 7; Title 49, Chapter 8 and Title 49, Chapter 9.

Courts, General Sessions - As introduced, increases from $25,000 to $50,000 the jurisdictional dollar limit for general sessions courts in civil cases generally. - Amends TCA Title 13; Title 16 and Title 29.

Housing - As introduced, enacts the "Affordable Housing and Tenant Protection Act"; allows local governments to adopt ordinances and resolutions to control rent for private residential rental units; creates the increased housing program and increased housing fund; authorizes the Tennessee housing development agency to make grants from the fund to eligible developers and first-time homebuyers to assist in gap financing and down payment assistance. - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 53; Title 9; Title 12; Title 13; Title 66 and Title 67.

Economic and Community Development - As introduced, enacts the "Small Business Growth and Empowerment Act"; authorizes business tax credits for small businesses hiring locally or providing workforce training; creates grants for minority-owned and women-owned businesses in underserved areas. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 7 and Title 67, Chapter 4.

Energy - As introduced, requires an applicant and an electric utility service to perform and submit to the locality a site assessment prior to the approval of a rezoning request, special exception, or special use permit for the siting of a new high energy use facility (HEUF). - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 13; Title 54; Title 65 and Title 68.

Lottery, Scholarships and Programs - As introduced, removes the requirement that a student with a documented intellectual disability be admitted to, and enrolled in, an eligible postsecondary institution in an eligible postsecondary program no later than 16 months after completing high school in order to be eligible to receive a Tennessee STEP UP scholarship. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 50, Part 1; Title 49, Chapter 7 and Title 49, Chapter 4.

Lottery, Scholarships and Programs - As introduced, adds William R. Moore College of Technology as an eligible institution for receipt of the Wilder-Naifeh reconnect grant and Wilder-Naifeh technical skills grant; specifies that the amount of the scholarship for such students enrolled is the average cost of tuition and mandatory fees at TCATs less all other gift aid. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 4.

Solid Waste Disposal - As introduced, enacts the "Tennessee Waste to Jobs Act," which requires producers of goods to participate in a responsibility organization for recycling, reuse, and composting of certain packaging material. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29, Part 2 and Title 68, Chapter 211.

Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, enacts the "Tennessee Voluntary Do Not Sell Firearms Act," which permits a person to voluntarily waive their firearm rights through filing a waiver with the clerk of the circuit court in the county of the person's residence; specifies procedures the clerk, TBI, and department of safety must follow upon receipt of a waiver. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3; Section 10-7-504 and Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

Consumer Protection - As introduced, enacts the "Tennessee Homebuyer Harassment Prevention Act"; limits the number of times that a real estate developer, business entity, or individual working on behalf of the developer or business entity is permitted to contact a property owner to make an unsolicited offer to buy the property owner's property; makes other changes related to telephone and text message solicitations. - Amends TCA Title 40, Chapter 33, Part 2; Title 47; Title 65 and Title 66.

Comptroller, State - As introduced, increases from $50,000 to $100,000 the bond amount that every insurance company doing a workers' compensation business in this state must furnish with a surety company; increases from $100,000 to $200,000 the certificate amount that such a company may deposit with the commissioner of labor and workforce development in lieu of the bond. - Amends TCA Title 12; Title 29; Title 50 and Title 56.

Ethics - As introduced, prohibits a person from acting as an agent of a hostile foreign principal unless the person has filed a registration statement with the Tennessee ethics commission; requires each foreign-supported political organization to register with the Tennessee ethics commission. - Amends TCA Title 3, Chapter 6 and Title 4.

Health Care - As introduced, authorizes a patient with a severe chronic disease or terminal illness to access, and a physician to recommend, investigational stem cell treatment; requires the commissioner of health to promulgate rules to, among other things, list the medical conditions that constitute a qualifying severe chronic disease or terminal illness. - Amends TCA Title 53; Title 63 and Title 68.

Taxes, Exemption and Credits - As introduced, creates tax exemption for portions of property that provide tree canopy cover in counties whose local governing bodies elect to create the exemption. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6 and Title 67, Chapter 5.

Stanton - Subject to local approval, revises the general powers of the town; revises provisions related to the town judge. - Amends Chapter 142 of the Private Acts of 1990.

General Assembly - As introduced, enacts the "Restoring State Sovereignty Through Nullification Act," which establishes processes by which the general assembly may nullify an unconstitutional federal statute, regulation, agency order, or executive order. - Amends TCA Title 3 and Title 4.

Zoning - As introduced, reduces from 21 to 14 calendar days, the duration of the notice that a chief governing body must provide to the public before holding a public hearing to adopt a zoning ordinance or amendment. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 13 and Title 67.

Insurance, Health, Accident - As introduced, removes an obsolete reference to reimbursement requirements related to anatomic pathology services applying to anatomic pathology services billed by gastroenterologists only applying on and after July 1, 2014. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 47; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, enacts the "Reckless Bullet Prevention Act," which creates an offense of recklessly discharging a firearm into the air, ground, a body of water, or an object in close proximity to the person if the firearm is discharged at a place where other people are or may be present; punishes the offense as a Class A misdemeanor; specifies certain exceptions to the offense; requires handgun safety courses for enhanced handgun carry permits to instruct on the offense. - Amends TCA Title 39.

Dentists and Dentistry - As introduced, changes from at least five years to at least six years, the period of residency and practice in this state that each of the two dental hygienist members appointed to the board of dentistry on or after July 1, 2026, must have prior to such appointment. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 56; Title 63, Chapter 5; Title 68 and Title 71.

Medical Occupations - As introduced, reduces from 45 to 35 days, the amount of time the board of physician assistants has to either render a decision on a licensure application submitted by an individual licensed, registered, or certified as a physician assistant in another jurisdiction or inform the licensure applicant from another jurisdiction of the need to appear before the board. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 7; Title 24; Title 33; Title 38; Title 49; Title 53; Title 55; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68; Title 71 and Chapter 1042 of the Public Acts of 2024.