Tennessee Senate Bills

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.

Immigration - As enacted, requires a memorandum of understanding entered between certain law enforcement agencies and federal officials concerning enforcement of federal immigration laws to include a requirement that the agency accept and honor any immigration detainer received from federal immigration authorities. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 7; Title 38 and Title 41.

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.

Driver Licenses - As introduced, requires an enforcement officer to issue an out-of-service order to a driver issued a commercial driver license if the officer determines during a safety inspection that the driver is unable to read and speak the English language in violation of federal requirements for commercial driver license holders; applies penalties against employers of such drivers. - Amends TCA Title 55 and Title 65, Chapter 15.

State Employees - As enacted, removes the requirement for waivers to be used only one course at a time for academic courses that full-time state employees are eligible to take without paying tuition charges, maintenance fees, student activity fees, registration fees, or online course fees; authorizes the waiver to be used for more than one course at a time. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 8.

Insurance Companies, Agents, Brokers, Policies - As introduced, changes, from June 1 to July 1, the date by which an insurer or insurance group must submit its disclosure to the commissioner of commerce and insurance as required under the Corporate Governance Annual Disclosure Act. - Amends TCA Title 56.

Professions and Occupations - As introduced, specifies in various provisions that for a person to be eligible for a particular license, certificate, permit, or authorization, the person must be a citizen of the United States or a qualified alien. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 7; Title 20; Title 23; Title 33; Title 37; Title 39; Title 42; Title 43; Title 44; Title 45; Title 46; Title 47; Title 49; Title 52; Title 53; Title 55; Title 56; Title 57; Title 59; Title 60; Title 62; Title 63; Title 67; Title 68; Title 69; Title 70; Title 71 and Chapter 463 of the Public Acts of 2025.

Sexual Offenders - As enacted, requires sexual offenders and violent sexual offenders to notify the owner or operator of any campground on which the offender intends to stay overnight of the offender's status as a sexual offender or violent sexual offender prior to beginning the stay; creates the offense of knowingly staying overnight at a campground without providing the required notice, which is punished as a Class E felony. - Amends TCA Title 40, Chapter 39, Part 2.

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

Motor Vehicles - As introduced, requires an applicant for a driver license who cannot speak and read English sufficiently to be issued a restricted license for one year and to re-take the written driver license examination in English to be issued a driver license thereafter; requires evidence of U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residence, or temporary lawful resident status prior to registering vehicles. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 4; Title 55, Chapter 50 and Title 65, Chapter 15.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, requires an LEA to close a virtual school not meeting certain requirements for continued operation; requires the department of education to maintain and publish on the department's website a list of providers that operated or managed a virtual school that was closed for not meeting the requirements for continued operation; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Public Health - As enacted, provides that any certificate of public advantage in effect on June 30, 2028, automatically expires but any pricing restrictions in a certificate of advantage remain in effect until the fifth anniversary of the expiration date or the date that a new inpatient acute care hospital opens in the geographic service area, whichever is earlier; requires the attorney general to supervise any pricing restrictions still in effect, and the pricing restrictions may only be modified by the mutual written agreement of the attorney general and the entity subject to the restrictions; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 9; Title 49; Title 53; Title 55 and Title 68.

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.

Bail, Bail Bonds - As enacted, allows the court to temporarily revoke a defendant's bond and order the defendant held without bail for no more than 10 days pending a bail revocation hearing if the defendant violates a condition of release, is charged with an offense committed during the defendant's release, or engages in conduct that results in the obstruction of the orderly and expeditious progress of the trial. - Amends TCA Title 40, Chapter 11.

Hospitals and Health Care Facilities - As enacted, increases from three to five the maximum number of nonrelated persons in a home for the aged to be considered a tier 1 home for the aged; increases from four to six the maximum number of nonrelated persons in a home for the aged to be considered a tier 2 home for the aged. - Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 11.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, directs the Tennessee advisory commission on intergovernmental relations to study the status of the crime stoppers programs across the state and make recommendations to enhance such programs. - Amends TCA Title 38; Title 39 and Title 40.

Codes - As introduced, increases, from one to two working days of when the request is made, the time within which an inspection of a one-family or two-family building's footer is considered timely. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 68.

Motor Vehicles - As enacted, prohibits the motor vehicle commission from denying an application for a license, or revoking or suspending the license, of a manufacturer, distributor, distributor branch or factory branch or officer, agent or other representative because such person has failed to deliver motor vehicles within 60 days of a dealer's order due to an act of God, a work stoppage or delay due to a strike or other labor action, a lack of available manufacturing capacity, a freight embargo, or other cause or material issue over which the person has no control; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 55.

Drugs, Prescription - As enacted, requires the Tennessee opioid abatement council to allocate funds held in the opioid abatement fund in a certain manner. - Amends TCA Title 33; Title 38 and Title 41.

Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As enacted, prohibits an educator from engaging in any sexually related behavior with certain students enrolled, graduated, or withdrawn from school; requires violations to be reported to the state board of education. - Amends TCA Title 49.

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.

Correctional Programs - As introduced, requires the department of correction to study the cost of equipping correctional officers and employees of prison contractors with body cameras who work at Trousdale Turner Correctional Facility and report its findings to the chairs of the appropriate standing committees of the legislature not later than July 1, 2026. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 10 and Title 41.

Water Authorities - As enacted, expands the areas served by the West Tennessee River Basin Authority to include Perry, Stewart, Houston, and Humphreys counties. - Amends TCA Title 64, Chapter 1, Part 11.

Firearms and Ammunition - As enacted, states that if the possession of a handgun is restricted or prohibited at a county courthouse, then the sheriff of the county may provide secure storage lockers for those individuals who are lawfully carrying a firearm to store the firearm in separate secured, lockable storage units at or near a designated public entrance to the building or structure at no cost to the individual. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 7; Title 8, Chapter 8 and Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

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

Taxes, Real Property - As enacted, revises standards for the length of the redemption period for a property subject to a tax sale based on whether the period of delinquency is three years or less or is more than three years. - Amends TCA Section 67-5-2701.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, requires an LEA that operates a public high school that meets certain criteria to permit certain high school students who are enrolled in private schools to participate in interscholastic athletics at the public high school. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Education, Higher - As enacted, removes various dates by which various reports must be submitted by various entities; makes various changes to the Tennessee student assistance award; requires new and existing transfer pathways to be reviewed on a rotating basis; authorizes the Tennessee higher education commission to conduct private meetings for certain purposes; makes various other changes related to financial aid and higher education. - Amends TCA Title 43, Chapter 6, Part 5 and Title 49.

Children - As enacted, clarifies that a child's parent, legal guardian, or legal custodian may, to the extent allowable by federal law, access and review all health and medical records of the child, including those records related to treatments available to unemancipated minors without parental consent; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 33; Title 36; Title 37; Title 49; Title 63 and Title 68.

Appropriations - As enacted, authorizes direct and continuing appropriations by certain airport authorities for the issuance of debt that is not a liability of the state and the payment of debt service thereon. - Amends TCA Title 9.