Tennessee House Bills

Public Contracts - As enacted, requires a state department, agency, or official who contracts with a business to acquire property or services to make payments under the contract to the business within a certain time frame after receipt of the invoice; requires such state departments, agencies, and officials to annually report to the chairs of the appropriate standing committees of the senate and house of representatives the number and aggregate amount of late payments made for the preceding fiscal year and the amount of interest paid and outstanding on such late payments. - Amends TCA Title 12, Chapter 4.

Law Enforcement Training Academy - As enacted, authorizes the commissioner of general services to commission the director or a staff member of a law enforcement training academy; authorizes the department of general services to operate a sale facility at a law enforcement training academy for purposes of funding its operations. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 11 and Title 38, Chapter 8, Part 2.

Hazardous Materials - As enacted, makes various changes to the "Tennessee Drycleaner's Environmental Response Act." - Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 217, Part 1.

Sunset Laws - As enacted, extends the Tennessee council for career and technical education to June 30, 2027. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 49, Chapter 11, Part 2.

Sunset Laws - As enacted, extends the inmate disciplinary oversight board to June 30, 2028. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 41, Chapter 21, Part 10.

Motor Vehicles, Titling and Registration - As enacted, exempts a military service member who is stationed out of state on military orders from paying the additional registration fee imposed on all-electric vehicles. - Amends TCA Section 55-4-116 and Section 55-6-107.

Parks, Natural Areas Preservation - As enacted, designates segments of the Buffalo River, Duck River, and certain other rivers and creeks as Class II pastoral river areas; expands certain public outreach requirements concerning scenic rivers. - Amends TCA Title 11, Chapter 13.

Health Care - As enacted, enacts the "Caring for Caregivers Act." - Amends TCA Title 9; Title 33; Title 52; Title 67 and Title 68.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, makes various changes to law relative to human trafficking. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 39 and Title 40.

Criminal Procedure - As enacted, prohibits a defendant charged with certain offenses from being released on the defendant's personal recognizance or upon execution of an unsecured bond. - Amends TCA Title 40.

Health Care - As enacted, revises law relative to gender clinics and related services. - Amends TCA Title 1; Title 4; Title 33; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

Aircraft and Airports - As enacted, specifies that a joint board established by two municipalities and two counties pursuant to an interlocal agreement for the purpose of operating an airport is vested with all the powers, rights, duties, and privileges of a regional airport authority. - Amends TCA Title 42, Chapter 5.

Utilities, Utility Districts - As enacted, makes various changes to laws regarding utilities, including the procedure for consolidation of utilities and continuing education requirements for members of utility governing bodies. - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 34; Title 7, Chapter 82; Title 9, Chapter 21 and Title 68, Chapter 221.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, creates the offense for a person to knowingly travel, with intent to commit theft of another person's cash, from a commercial business; a financial institution; or an automated teller machine, on the same path or route as another person without substantial deviation from that path or route while in possession of two or more criminal instruments. - Amends TCA Title 39.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, enacts "Matthew Davenport's Law," which creates certain criminal offenses and testing requirements related to Kratom. - Amends TCA Title 33, Chapter 2; Title 38; Title 39; Title 50; Title 63 and Title 68.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, creates a criminal offense of knowingly violating a no contact order issued as part of a defendant's sentence or conditions of probation or parole following conviction for certain criminal offenses in which the alleged victim of the offense is a domestic abuse victim; punishes a violation as a Class A misdemeanor. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Secretary of State - As enacted, removes the filing fee that must be paid to the secretary of state to file articles of termination of corporation existence; increases the number of days after a person ceases solicitation activities after registration with the secretary of state, from 30 to 90, that the person has to notify the secretary of state; removes the requirement that a charitable organization that ceases solicitation activity and received in excess of $1 million in gross revenue during the most recently completed fiscal year include an audited financial statement and forms required to be filed by a charitable organization with the U.S. internal revenue service with the organization's notice to the secretary of state that the organization ceased solicitation activities. - Amends TCA Title 48.

Education - As enacted, expands the prescribed forms of epinephrine that an LEA or nonpublic school is authorized to administer when a student is believed to be experiencing a life-threatening allergic or anaphylactic reaction to any prescribed form of epinephrine, not just epinephrine auto-injectors. - Amends TCA Title 49 and Title 68, Chapter 140, Part 5.

Agriculture, Dept. of - As enacted, enacts the "Representative Johnny Shaw Tennessee Agricultural Innovation and Education Initiative." - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 43.

Sentencing - As enacted, requires a sentencing court to order the sentences for two or more offenses involving more than one minor victim to run consecutively unless the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the facts of the case do not warrant the imposition of consecutive sentences and the imposition of consecutive sentences would not be in the best interest of justice. - Amends TCA Title 40.

Capitol - As enacted, creates a capitol hill protection zone around the state capitol grounds that includes the state capitol, capitol annexes, World War II Memorial Building that formerly housed the state library and archives, Supreme Court Building, William R. Snodgrass Tennessee Tower, War Memorial Building, Legislative Plaza, James K. Polk State Office Building, Rachel Jackson Building, Andrew Jackson Building, John Sevier State Office Building, Cordell Hull Building, and the grounds, roads, and sidewalks along either side of the roads immediately surrounding such buildings. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 38; Title 39 and Title 40.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, enacts "The Memphis Safe Task Force Accountability Act." - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 7 and Title 39.

Salaries and Benefits - As enacted, enacts "The Chance Carlton Act." - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7, Chapter 51; Title 8 and Title 50.

Bail, Bail Bonds - As enacted, makes various changes related to entities seeking to secure the release of a defendant. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Pensions and Retirement Benefits - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee Trump Account Program Act." - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 9 and Title 50.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, provides that a person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by the conduct of another if, acting with intent to benefit in the proceeds or results of the offense, the person solicits, directs, aids, or attempts to aid another person to commit the offense. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 11; Title 39, Chapter 12; Title 39, Chapter 13; Title 39, Chapter 14; Title 40, Chapter 24; Title 40, Chapter 35 and Title 40, Chapter 39.

State Government - As enacted, requires each governmental entity to revise any existing ordinance, resolution, rule, policy, and procedure that includes a reference to a natural person's sex or gender to state that those terms are defined as the immutable characteristics of the person's reproductive system that identify the person as male or female, as determined by anatomy and genetics testing at the time of birth; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 1; Title 3; Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7 and Title 8.

Courts - As enacted, enacts the "Violent Criminal Court Act." - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 10; Title 16; Title 37; Title 38; Title 39; Title 40; Title 41 and Title 55.

Children - As enacted, provides, in addition to present law, an alternative method for the voluntary surrender of parental rights if executed within the geographic boundaries of the state. - Amends TCA Title 36; Title 37 and Title 68.

Physicians and Surgeons - As enacted, makes various changes relative to the authority of a physician or podiatrist to prescribe, dispense, or administer medication to the provider's own self or immediate family; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 33; Title 39; Title 53; Title 63 and Title 68.

Contracts - As enacted, requires a court to apply rebuttable presumptions when determining the reasonableness in time of a restrictive covenant sought to be enforced after the termination of an employment or business relationship; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 50; Title 63 and Title 68.

Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As enacted, extends present law concerning compensated unused leave for teachers to all employees of LEAs and public charter schools. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 49.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, increases from a Class E felony to a Class D felony the offense of burglary of a conveyance. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Insurance, Health, Accident - As enacted, requires a health insurer that issues, amends, delivers, or renews a contract or agreement for a health benefit plan to take effect on or after January 1, 2027, to include coverage for biomarker testing; requires a TennCare health benefit plan that is issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2027, to provide coverage for biomarker testing when medically necessary. - Amends TCA Title 56 and Title 71.

District Attorneys - As enacted, authorizes the attorney general to conduct a study of a district attorney general's disposition of charges and other ancillary matters within the 30th judicial district; authorizes the attorney general to petition the supreme court for appointment of a district attorney general pro tem if a district attorney general in this state has peremptorily and categorically refused to prosecute criminal offenses based on an unjustifiable and unconstitutional standard, without regard to facts or circumstances or taken other official action that constitutes a failure or refusal to prosecute according to the law. - Amends TCA Title 8.

Education - As enacted, authorizes local boards of education and public charter school governing bodies to allow schools in the LEA or the public charter school, as applicable, to display the Ten Commandments, the first sentence of the second paragraph of the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, and the preamble to the United States Constitution in a prominent location in a school building. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Taxes, Sales - As enacted, authorizes an entity designated to operate a stadium designed to host games of an intercollegiate football team that competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to receive a special allocation of state and local sales tax revenue derived from the sale of admission to events occurring within the stadium and from all sales of food, drinks, merchandise, and parking sold on the premises of the stadium to fund capital and operation expenses for the stadium. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 6.

Municipal Government - As enacted, extends from June 30, 2028 to June 30, 2038, the deadline by which a municipality that continues to receive an allocation of state sales tax revenue pursuant to the now-repealed Courthouse Square Revitalization Pilot Project Act of 2005, will continue to receive the allocation of the revenue. - Amends TCA Title 6 and Title 67, Chapter 6.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation - As enacted, grants the bureau discretion to investigate reports of suspected elder financial exploitation. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 38; Title 39; Title 45; Title 68 and Title 71.

State Government - As enacted, authorizes the commissioner of environment and conservation, notwithstanding agreements authorized by the commissioner of general services and with approval of the state building commission, to enter into agreements contemplated for the private development, redevelopment, construction, and operation of facilities on lands with Cumberland Mountain State Park, and the department of environment and conservation may supervise the construction. - Amends TCA Title 3; Title 4; Title 8; Title 9; Title 10; Title 12; Title 13; Title 14; Title 15; Title 41; Title 50 and Title 57.

Chiropractors - As enacted, requires certain insurers to reimburse chiropractic physicians at the same rate as physicians for the same services. - Amends TCA Title 56, Chapter 7 and Title 63.

Taxes, Real Property - As enacted, limits the authority of a special purpose corporation to negotiate and enter into PILOT agreements with the corporation's lessees, as delegated to it by a municipality, if certain written notice is not provided to certain chief executive officers of taxing jurisdictions; voids PILOT agreements entered into by the special purpose corporation if such notice is not provided. - Amends TCA Title 48 and Title 67.

Sewage - As enacted, makes revision to present law concerning sewerage systems using land application; exempts Hamilton County from the provisions requiring the developer of a subdivision or neighborhood that proposes to construct a treatment works to submit an application to the utility serving the area in which the system is located. - Amends TCA Title 7; Title 8; Title 9; Title 62, Chapter 2; Title 65; Title 68, Chapter 221 and Title 69.

Comptroller, State - As enacted, prohibits an LEA or public charter school from using public funds to initiate or maintain any civil action or proceeding against this state or an agency or officer of this state to challenge a school or district accountability measure established under state law. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, defines "seriously bodily injury" for the purposes of the present law offense of vehicular assault, which occurs when a person who, as the proximate result of the person's intoxication, recklessly causes serious bodily injury to another person by the operation of a motor vehicle or vessel subject to registration; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 55.

Boards and Commissions - As enacted, requires at least one hour of the board of medical examiners' required continuing education hours to be completed on topics related to nutrition; requires the same of the board of osteopathic examination. - Amends TCA Title 63, Chapter 6 and Title 63, Chapter 9.

Game and Fish Laws - As enacted, enacts the "Hunting for Heroes Act"; creates the Tennessee national guard sportsman license. - Amends TCA Title 70, Chapter 2.

Public Funds and Financing - As enacted, specifies the conditions that must be satisfied for monies from the governor's response and recovery fund to be provided to eligible local governmental entities and to eligible individuals in qualifying counties following an emergency or disaster. - Amends TCA Section 9-4-216.

Regional Authorities and Special Districts - As enacted, authorizes the Megasite Authority of West Tennessee to issue bonds for the sole purpose of financing, in whole or in part, the cost of acquisition, purchase, construction, reconstruction, improvement, betterment, or extension of the water system or wastewater system operated by the authority; grants certain additional authority to the board of directors; limits liability of the state on bonds of the authority. - Amends TCA Title 64, Chapter 9.

Gas, Petroleum Products, Volatile Oils - As enacted, makes various changes concerning oil and gas drilling operations; specifies procedural requirements for review of certain administrative actions. - Amends TCA Title 59; Title 60 and Title 68.

Administrative Procedure (UAPA) - As enacted, precludes certain boards administratively attached to the department of environment and conservation from voting to review the initial order of an administrative law judge in an administrative proceeding, but preserves the right of a party to appeal an initial order directly to the board; reduces from 180 to 90 days the period of time from the completion of the record of a contested case hearing within which an administrative law judge must issue an initial order in a hearing involving such boards. - Amends TCA Title 60; Title 68 and Title 69.

Private Protective Services - As enacted, adds stalking to the crimes for which an individual who has been convicted must have completed serving the individual's sentence or court-ordered probation at least five years prior to applying for a registration card to perform the duties of a security guard or officer; makes other changes related to security guards and officers. - Amends TCA Title 62, Chapter 35.

Child Abuse - As enacted, requires, rather than permits, the child protective team for a case involving a human trafficking offense to include a representative from a non-governmental agency specialized in combatting the commercial sexual exploitation of minors; extends the time within which the department or child protective team must determine whether reported abuse was indicated or unfounded from 60 days to 90 days or, in cases involving a child fatality, 180 days. - Amends TCA Title 37, Chapter 1.

Firefighters - As enacted, extends the period for the estate of an emergency responder killed in the line of duty from three years from the date of death to the later of such date or the date of a final order of a court, administrative law judge, or authorized state or local official designating the death as being in the line of duty; extends the period for an estate to file an appeal of a denial from 90 days to one year; adds a mechanism of appeal of a denial of a claim for the estates of firefighters, volunteer rescue squad workers, and emergency medical technicians. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 24; Title 7, Chapter 51, Part 2; Title 38, Chapter 8 and Title 68, Chapter 140.

Expunction - As enacted, permits a court to expunge certain violent offenses for which a person has been pardoned; requires the court to consider, in weighing the best interests of justice and public safety, whether the offense sought to be expunged was violent and any other relevant factors presented by the petitioner and the district attorney general. - Amends TCA Title 40.

Estates - As enacted, states that the Uniform Partition Heirs Property Act does not apply to sales of land to pay the debts of an estate; revises the method for determining a decedent’s gross estate for purposes of calculating a surviving spouse's elective share. - Amends TCA Title 29; Title 31 and Title 34.

Mass Transit - As enacted, enacts the "Subterranean Transportation Infrastructure Coordination Act." -

Boards and Commissions - As enacted, integrates the bureau of TennCare into the statewide planning and policy council’s structure and mission by adding the director of long-term care services and a managed care organization representative to its membership; expands the council’s advisory and reporting duties to include TennCare’s director, services, and waiver implementation alongside existing department programs. - Amends TCA Title 52, Chapter 5, Part 6 and Title 71, Chapter 5.

Health Care - As enacted, increases the number of members on the medical cannabis commission from nine to 10, and provides that the additional member must be a member who is a specialist in the area of substance abuse prevention and serve as a nonvoting member. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 68, Chapter 7.

Children - As enacted, allows a high school student who is older than 16 but younger than 19 to work in a child care center outside of school hours or during school hours through a work-based learning program if the student meets certain criteria. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 49; Title 50, Chapter 5 and Title 71.