TN Senate Delays Special Session Adjournment Due To Potential House Amendments Costing Taxpayers Even More Money

“You’re supposed to be fiscally conservative, this is a waste of money!” – “I want your per diem back!” -people yelled from the Senate gallery.

Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

On Thursday, August 24th, Tennessee Senate leadership made the decision to delay the official close of the Special Session in anticipation of House Amendments to Senate-passed bills, thereby adding at least one additional day to the session and costing Tennessee taxpayers thousands more dollars.

With only a handful of memorial resolutions and Senator Jack Johnson’s resolution to end the Special Session on the agenda, the Tennessee Senate convened on the 4th Extraordinary Day yesterday at 11:15.

All 33 members were present and no new bills were presented for first or second consideration.

Five memorial resolutions were on the consent calendar with another two being added by Representatives Ken Yager (R-Kingston-District 12) and Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis-District 29).

With the consent calendar approval receiving a unanimous vote in favor, the Senate moved on to the regular calendar items that only had one resolution to be considered.

 *SJR7086 by Johnson. – General Assembly, Adjournment – Adjourns sine die First Extraordinary Session of 113th General Assembly on August 24, 2023.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin-District 27) made the motion to send the resolution to the Calendar Committee, thereby extending the Special Session for a now-unknown number of days.

Johnson explained that the Tennessee House currently has several of the bills the Senate has already passed and expects amendments to be made to them in that chamber.

With amendments being made to bills already passed in a chamber, the chamber that originally passed the bill must consent to the amendments before the bill receives final passage and is then sent on to the Speakers for signing and onto Governor Lee to be signed into law.

Johnson said that he is hopeful the bills with any potential amendments will be returned to the Senate for consideration following the House’s floor session later in the day on August 24th.

He also explained that the decision had been made in the Senate to allow everyone to go home for the weekend.

Johnson then moved to adjourn the Senate until 4PM Central on Monday.

Senate Speaker Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge-District 5) called for a voice vote to approve the motion and counted it as passing.

Adelia Kirchner, reporter for The Tennessee Conservative, who was present at the meeting, said that everyone in the gallery was angry at McNally and company and yelled as the day’s session came to a close.

As the Senate adjourned and people were leaving the gallery, people expressed their frustrations, with a good handful yelling different things on their way out of the room. “Our children are dying!” and “I hope you lose as much sleep as I have over the last five months, over this weekend when you’re with your loved ones. That’s what I hope. Lose some sleep over this!” 

But also, “You’re supposed to be fiscally conservative, this is a waste of money!” and “I want your per diem back!” 

She stated that some ladies in the gallery started singing, prior to the meeting’s beginning, a version of “This Little Light Of Mine” but with the lyrics changed to mention the Capitol.

According to Gary Humble of Tennessee Stands, pressure is being levied by Speaker Cameron Sexton and intimidation tactics used for the Senate to open committees back up and pass an expansion of TENNCare and Medicaid for mental health services and to pass a very controversial bill sealing the records of autopsies on minors, HB7007.

Sources tell Tennessee Stands that Majority Leader Jack Johnson is secretly working behind the scenes to pressure Senate chairmen to reopen committees to pass these bills.

“So far, Senate committee chairmen have held strong in their resolve to end this session and we appreciate their strength,” Humble said.

However, Johnson told the media he didn’t expect the Senate to take up any other bills.

“We feel like we’ve accomplished what we came here to do, which is to address the things the governor wanted us to take up in this special session,” Johnson said.

The Tennessee Lookout reports that Senate Judiciary Chairman Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, said his committee would not reopen to consider any other bills.

Finance Chairman Bo Watson took a similar approach, saying his committee passed most of the bills sought by the governor and did not feel inclined to take up anything else.

The Senate previously passed three bills proposed by Lee and one dealing with appropriations for school safety, mental health and paying for the Special Session itself.

It is assumed these are the bills the Senate is waiting for House amendments on.

It is not currently known whether the Senate will hear additional bills coming from the House next week.  However, if they do, the Special Session will likely drag on past Monday.

With the addition of another day of the Special Session, Tennessee taxpayers will be hit with an additional $58,576 bill to pay the legislator’s per diem and mileage expenses.

However, this only covers those specific fees.  Funds required to pay security (State Troopers), other random costs will be extra and will not be known until the Session officially comes to a close.

On day 4 of the Special Session, the state has already incurred just slightly less than $500,000 in cost for Tennessee taxpayers.

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