TN Senate Bill To Censor News Organizations, Advocacy Groups Amended To Remove ‘Controversial’ Elements

Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

A Senate bill that received a great deal of pushback from concerned Tennesseans has been completely rewritten to address the most ‘controversial’ elements, most notably the proposed redefinition of what a Political Action Committee is under law.

Senate Bill 0160, in part, sought to redefine a Political Action Committee as: 

(A) A club, corporation, association, or other group of persons that receives contributions or makes expenditures to support or oppose a measure; or 

(B) A club, corporation, association, or other group of persons that receives contributions or makes expenditures to support or oppose two (2) or more candidates for public office during a calendar year, and the contributions or expenditures in the aggregate exceed two thousand dollars ($2,000)

This proposed redefinition posed a significant threat to the freedom of speech of new outlets, advocacy groups and many individuals and smaller companies across the state by potentially forcing them to register as PACs and be subject to the regulatory authority of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance, which has the power to fine the PAC up to $10,000 or close the organization.    

The legislation as it was originally written, gave news outlets, advocacy groups, etc. few options.  They could choose to conform to the redefinition of their organizations and be subject to regulations and penalties originally meant for campaign financing or allow themselves to be silenced on important legislative issues and the support or opposition of political figures.

After rolling the bill last week to make amendments, Senator Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville-District 7), sponsor of SB0160, re-introduced his bill in the Senate State and Local Government Committee yesterday.

Briggs said, “I think all of us have received multiple emails about this bill.  It’s still Senate Bill 160 but the contents of the bill, we totally removed and we have an amendment now that makes the bill.”

“First I want to tell you what’s not in the bill because that was the controversial part.  It no longer designates political campaign committees and multi-candidate political campaign committees as political action committees.  And I think that was one of the most controversial parts,” said Briggs.

“It clarifies that PACs are only required to report expenditures made from contributed funds.  For example, PACs are not required to report interest earned in a bank account and the third point is that this bill now does not allow campaign office holders expenditures and personal expenditures from the same account,” Briggs stated.

The new amendment that “makes the bill” can be found HERE or the amended bill’s Talking Points and Summary from the Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance can be seen below.

Leading up to the discussion surrounding SB0160, Bill Young, Executive Director of the Bureau of Ethics gave the definition of Political Campaign Committee, said, “Currently, Political Campaign Committee is defined as an entity that gives more than $1000 in contributions to a candidate during an annual year.  We are not changing that definition.”

Referring to SB0160, Young said, “We had proposed to the House and the Senate that we change the definition, just the name ‘Political Campaign Committee’ to ‘Political Action Committee,’  However, given some responses we received that ended up being slightly controversial so that has been removed as amended.”

“The definition of Political Campaign Committee as it stands under existing law, the definition of multi-candidate political action committee as it stands under existing law will not be changed.  It will remain the same as it is today,” Young concluded.

Senator Mark Pody asked if Political Campaign Committees have to register with the Registry of Campaign Finance and Young answered in the affirmative stating that they are required to register under current law.

Following Briggs reading the lengthy amendment to SB0160, Senator Ken Yager requested that the bill be rolled until February 14th to allow time for the committee members to study the rewritten legislation.

Briggs concurred and stated that the bill is mostly “procedural” but it is a lot to digest. The bill is scheduled to be considered again in the Senate State and Local Government Committee on February 14th.

Gary Humble of Tennessee Stands said, “We’ve been opposing SB0160, as well as The Tennessee Conservative News who have done a phenomenal job covering this bill, and organizations across the state that have been keeping an eye on this bill. This is a great example of what it looks like whenever these committee members are actually listening to their constituents. You made a difference.  They heard you.  The amendment is a friendly amendment.  All the continuous language that we were concerned about has been removed from the bill.”   

With the new amendment that makes the bill, Humble says that he no longer opposes the bill and rather supports the bill.

However, Humble warns that the bill should still be watched as the House has not yet adopted the new Senate amendment.

Humble states that theoretically, “the House could pass a different version of the bill. The House could still move forward with the original language. If that happens, you will end up with two different versions of the bill in the Senate and the House and at the end of it all, they would have to go into what’s called a ‘conference committee,’ wherein compromises are made and a new bill comes out on which the House and Senate have to agree on to send to the Governor’s office.”

The House version of the bill, HB0183, has been assigned to the House Elections and Campaign Finance Subcommittee but has not yet appeared on their calendar upon publication of this article.

The Tennessee Conservative will continue to follow this bill as it makes its way through the legislative process and keep you updated.

About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative  ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career.  Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others.  He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History.  Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com