25 Tennessee House Members Passed Over 1/2 The Legislation During Last Session
By Adam Friedman [The Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –
During the last two-year legislative session, Tennessee lawmakers introduced almost 3,000 bills, passing about a third, but some members of the General Assembly are more effective or willing to sponsor legislation than others.
The concentration of who passes legislation is most evident in the state House, where Republican House Majority Leader William Lamberth of Portland is single-handedly responsible for a tenth of the bills that moved through. This is partially because, by tradition, he sponsors almost all of Gov. Bill Lee’s proposals.
The data from LegiScan and analyzed by the Lookout tracks who was the lead sponsor a bill, not co-sponsors.
Overall, 25 House members passed more than half of the bills through Tennessee’s lower chamber during the 2023-2024 General Assembly. Only one Democrat appears in the top 25, Rep. Bob Freeman of Nashville.
This year, half the state Senate’s 33 members and all 99 state House are up for re-election. The primary election is on Thursday, Aug. 1, and the general election is on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Both parties have gerrymandered legislative districts for decades, making the general election often irrelevant. This means the August primary is likely to decide the eventual winner of any race.
The current map favors Republicans, who controlled the redistricting process in 2022. At least two Republicans are running in 28 primaries, and 14 Democratic primaries are competitive.
A Lookout analysis shows that there could be about a dozen state House races during the general election that either political party could win, but it’s likely to be narrowed to more like three to five.
Below is a link to download a table for readers to see how effective their lawmakers are at either sponsoring bills and passing them.
Click Here to Download the Table.
As the party in the super minority, several Democrats have the worst bill passage rate, but they attempt to run dozens of bills, even when they have little chance of passing.
Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, a Memphis Democrat, ran the largest number of bills of anyone at the Capitol during the 2023-2024 General Assembly.
But some Republicans in the House are just as ineffective. Some 28 House members, 9 Republicans and 19 Democrats, passed fewer than 5 bills over the past two years.
The data excludes resolutions passed by lawmakers and legislation to renew departments and boards, which often pass without much disagreement.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THE DATA TABLE.
Thanx, couldn’t figger any kind of order they were listed by though.
Some legislators have a higher pass rate because they almost never take on the ‘hard’ issues. They do what’s easy and won’t rock the boat. They often ‘rubber stamp’ what the Governor wants, or the elite leaders in House or Senate. Mary Littleton comes to mind. Her new award as Legislator of the Year doesn’t mean much because of this. That’s why many in Dickson and Cheatham Counties are choosing to elect her opponent, Justin Spurlock.
Vote and THROW them OUT!
We Don’t need liberal woke Democrats destroying this state! Vote them out!