Image: Anti-School Choice protestors boo Cameron Sexton from the balcony as he is re-elected as Speaker of the House. Image Credit: Adelia Kirchner / The Tennessee Conservative
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
Yesterday marked the first day of Tennessee’s 2025 legislative session and the halls of the Capitol are already brewing with contempt.
During last year’s legislative session Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton enforced a ticketing system for the House gallery, which is typically open to the public.
This system allowed lawmakers one ticket each per House session to hand out to their personal guests or a member of the public. The west side of the gallery was completely reserved for individuals with tickets.
Only the east balcony remained open to general members of the public.
Whether Speaker Sexton will attempt to do the same thing this year is yet to be seen. However, what we do know is that during a meeting of the House Select Committee on Rules, House Republicans chose not to officially prohibit the Speaker from making this decision all by himself.
During the committee meeting, Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville-District 52) proposed a rule change regarding ticket policy.
According to this rule amendment, “Nothing in these rules herein may be used to give the speaker unilateral authority to require tickets or any similar restrictive mechanism for members of the public to view the House sessions from the gallery.”
This rule change suggestion was voted down in committee.
Other rule changes suggested by Rep. Jones and voted down by the committee include:
• Allowing for the use of visual aids in committees. The Tennessee Senate allows this but the House does not.
• Disallowing lobbyist family members to prevent conflicts of interest.
• Allowing citizens to bring larger signs into committee rooms.
• Prohibiting guns in the Cordell Hull building.
The majority of Tuesday’s two and a half hour meeting was made up of Democrat representatives explaining their proposed rule changes, and House Republicans voting those rule changes down.
House Minority Leader Karen Camper (D-Memphis-District 87) suggested that House members vote to revert Rule 21 back to the way it was before the 2024 legislative session.
This would address the previous reduction of time allowed for speech on the House floor by changing the time limit from 5 minutes back to 15 minutes.
Leader Camper also proposed a rule change regarding the limits on how many bills representatives are allowed to file each session.
“When I got here it was unlimited. Most people never did all those bills,” she said, noting that the limit was then reduced to fifteen bills per representative.
She suggested that minority leadership be able to file five additional bills in comparison to non-leadership. House majority leadership is currently allowed to file five additional bills in comparison to non-leadership.
Leader Camper requested that the committee vote on each of her proposed changes separately. Each one was voted down via voice vote.
House Democrat Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville-District 55) proposed that the legislative body revert Rule 19, regarding transgression of rules by House members, back to the way it was up until last year.
In 2024, the rule was changed to address issues with members of “The Tennessee Three” and render House members unable to participate in discussion on the chamber floor for two legislative days following multiple rule transgressions.
Chair Clemmons also suggested making an exception for immediate family members regarding persons admitted on the floor of the House.
“Mothers should be allowed to bring their minor children on the floor with them,” he said. “I think that I, or any of you, should be able to bring your children onto the House floor to watch our government in action.”
The Democrat chairman also proposed a change to bill filing limits to allow the minority to be able to bring more legislation.
“Any time you have a cap, the only party that’s truly capped is the minority party,” Chairman Clemmons said.
Chairman Andrew Farmer (R-Sevierville-District 17) responded saying, “If we ever end up in a situation where each member of the majority party and minority party are running and passing all their bills and they need more, then I think that’d be a good time to have discussion.”
“I do invite you to pass all my bills,” replied Chairman Clemmons. “I’d love for that to be a problem.”
All of these rule changes were voted down via voice vote.
So What Rule Changes Actually Passed in Committee?
Finally, the committee heard from Rep. Johnny Garrett (R- Goodlettsville-District 45), who stated that his proposed rule changes could be voted on all at once as a package.
This “package” of rules was passed by the committee via voice vote and included the following:
• Rule 4: regarding order in the gallery or the lobby – If there is a person who is unruly in the House gallery, in a manner that is detrimental to the orderly business of the House, that person will be removed from the gallery and will be unable to return that legislative day or the following legislative day. If “egregious” in behavior when they do return, that individual will be removed for the entire legislative session.
• Rule 9: regarding the chief clerk – The position of “assistant chief clerk” or “parliamentarian.”
• Rule 12: regarding the order of business – The time designated for welcoming and honoring will now be known as “welcoming, honoring, and announcements.” The time designated for announcements will now be known as “scheduling and procedural announcements.”
• Rule 19: regarding transgressions of House rules by lawmakers – Language has been changed to get rid of a loophole allowing disruptive behavior to continue if a representative simply “sits” down. Rule 19 will also be changed to add that if a representative repeatedly violates the rules they may no longer remain in the House and will have to vote remotely from a properly set up room in the Cordell Hull building.
• Rule 21: regarding time limits of debate – Puts current practice into the official rules. Representatives will have 5 minutes to present their piece of legislation on the House floor. If the lawmaker uses all of their time but another lawmaker is recognized in discussion of the bill, the bill sponsor may have an additional 2 minutes to respond.
• Rule 35: regarding other papers and visual aids – While on the House floor lawmakers are not allowed to have “other papers” or visual aids on their person or in their hands. This would now also apply to everyone else on the floor.
• Rule 44: regarding filing of bills – There is currently a 15-bill limit per representative. The limit will go down to 12 per House member. Full committee chairs will be allowed 5 additional bills and subcommittee chairs will be allowed 2 additional bills.
• Rule 83: regarding electronic voting – With a new microphone system for House committees, any piece of legislation that is receiving a final vote must be voted on electronically. Member votes will be recorded and appear similar to how they do for House floor sessions. Could lessen the frequency of voice votes.
• Rule 87: regarding committees – Adds the Naming and Designating Committee and the Private Acts Committee. According to Rep. Garrett this will be similar to the Government Operations Committee, where action is not taken on legislation by the committee. A bill simply leaves the committee with an affirmative or negative recommendation.
Provocative Activism Continues to Disrupt Decorum in Tennessee Politics
Routine Capitol activists accounted for at least a third of the individuals in attendance, some of whom were also involved in the counter-protesting that took place at The Tennessee Conservative’s Protect Tennessee’s Borders Rally back in March of 2024.
Not every protester shows up to the Capitol with the sole purpose of provoking legislators in order to gain publicity for getting kicked out, but some of these repeat offenders certainly seem to be orienting themselves towards that goal.
Throughout the duration of this committee meeting, some of the activists present repeatedly used expletives to express their annoyance or frustration with Republican House members, repeatedly making noise in agreement with Democrat representatives after Chairman William Lamberth told them they would be removed if they continued.
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
