Tennessee General Assembly Lacks Transparency According To Investigation

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The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –

An investigation by NewsChannel 5 has discovered a lack of transparency in the Tennessee legislature regarding amendments to bills brought up in committees, among other issues.

NewsChannel 5 Investigates says that questionable practices, such as reinterpreting rules, are allowing the Republican supermajority to introduce dramatic changes in legislation without the public noticing. They are also killing bills in a way that makes it hard to know who is responsible.

A couple of related bills, one to require high schools to tell seniors how they can register to vote, and another that would have studied whether college student IDs could be used as a form of identification for voting were killed this past session in committee with unrecorded voice votes.

The same fate struck down House Bill 1880 (HB1880) that would have required local boards of education to provide an opportunity for at least 10 people to speak on any topic related to the board for at least three minutes per person at each public meeting and to provide an opportunity for people to submit written public comments.

House Bill 2117, that sought to require employers that required COVID-19 vaccinations to provide employees who refused to take the vaccine because of religious beliefs with exceptions and reasonable accommodations also suffered the same fate.

According to the investigation, committee members on the Senate side are deciding whether bills live or die with recorded roll-call votes while the fate of bills in the House comes down to what committee chairs think they hear on voice votes.

The Democratic members of the Tennessee General Assembly are on record as having many concerns about these issues, but those concerns are shared by those on the opposite end of the political spectrum as well.

Tori Venable, head of the Tennessee chapter of Americans for Prosperity speaking to NewsChannel 5 said, “The amendment system, absolutely. This is where we need transparency.”

When members were asked to vote on a campaign finance bill that started out as a caption bill pushed by by House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville-District 25) in committee, Chairman John Crawford (R-Kingsport-District 1) asked them to vote to allow a last minute amendment that most of the representatives voting had not yet seen.

“How can you expect someone to vote on something when they haven’t read it? Vote on it to know what’s in it?” Tori Venable asked.

Even when amendments are filed in a timely manner it is difficult to track them as they are posted on the House website along with hundreds of pages of amendments for other bills. This makes it almost impossible for members of the public to keep up with.

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“If somebody makes a motion again to take it up and it gets a second, then I don’t have a choice but to take it to a vote,” said Crawford to NewsChannel 5.

Crawford did not extend the same courtesy to Representative Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville-District 54) two weeks earlier when he tried to present a late-filed amendment meant to clarify his school voting bill.

Crawford was specifically asked, “Do we have an opportunity to vote the untimely amendment up or down? I know in some committees we do that.” 

“I know it’s been done in other committees,” said Crawford, “but we’ve not accepted an untimely filed amendment – and I’m not going to start today.”

When asked about the inconsistency, Crawford told NewsChannel 5, “Well, I said we don’t take up untimely filed amendments. We hadn’t taken any up to that point all year long.”

News Channel 5 asked the House Speaker, “You have committee chairs single-handedly deciding whether bills live or die. Is that democracy?”

Sexton replied, “I don’t think they single-handedly do that.”

The bill that would have studied the possible use of student IDs by college students to vote was gaveled dead by Representative Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro-District 34) according to News Channel 5 before the voice vote was even complete.

Student activist Justin Jones confronted Rudd about the vote telling him, “I think we had five.”

Rudd insisted that Jones was incorrect.

Jones asked him, “How many did we have?”

Rudd replied, “I go with the voice level.”

News Channel 5 approached Rudd before he entered the House chambers before a recent session to hear his side. “You gaveled a bill dead before you even heard the votes. Can you explain that?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” was the answer Rudd gave while walking away.

The investigation also noted that when voice votes occur, the legislative cameras focus on the chairperson alone, making it impossible for the public who may be watching the footage from home to see how members of the committee vote.

The Tennessee House committee rules state that “all votes constituting final action on any bill or resolution shall be by roll call vote.”

Republicans re-interpret that to mean “prior to any votes of any kind being taken.”

News Channel 5 attempting to get clarification on the rule from Sexton asked, “The rules say you can ask for a roll call before any vote.”

Sexton replied, “Corr…no, before any vote is taken.”

News Channel 5 stated, “That’s not what the rules say.”

Sexton passed the buck by saying, “I would have to refer you to the Clerk.”

About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.