Pandemic may stall controversial gun, abortion bills
Dozens of Republican lawmakers crowded onto the stage to flank Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, some standing on the floor off of the overflowing platform as the governor announced one of his top initiatives for the legislative session: a bill to legalize carrying handguns without a permit.
It was Feb. 27.
Reporters peppered Lee with questions about the legislation. Its cost. Concerns from law enforcement. How the governor could ensure public safety.
Lee called on longtime WKRN Capitol Hill reporter Chris Bundgaard.
“I have a different type of question,” Bundgaard said. “About the coronavirus.”
Those on the stage and dozens more who had crammed into the Old Supreme Court Chamber at the Capitol burst into laughter. Some reporters raised eyebrows at the change in topic.
But it was likely the most consequential question of the news conference.
The permitless carry bill, like other major legislative initiatives planned for the year, would effectively be cast into irrelevance as the state’s focus shifted to navigating a public health crisis.
Exactly one week after the gun announcement, the governor would tell the state that Tennessee had confirmed its first case of COVID-19. A week after that, the illness would be classified by the World Health Organization as a global pandemic, one that would rapidly spread across the state and upend the remainder of the legislative session.
As legislators prepare to return the final week of May for committee meetings and to resume the session June 1, House and Senate leadership have different ideas about how they’ll spend their time before adjourning the 111th General Assembly.
Governor’s legislative agenda will likely have to wait
Lee and legislative Republicans’ big plans to pass the expanded gun carry bill, wide-ranging abortion restrictions, cuts to the state’s professional privilege tax and other major initiatives may not materialize this year, after all.
“That would be decisions the legislature makes, but those are not the priorities that I’ve got,” Lee said Thursday when asked about his administration’s previous agenda for this session.
“My priority is going to be on the state’s budget and making sure that we make the decisions that are going to best serve Tennesseans through this next particularly challenging economic period.”
Lee in January, also flanked by scores of Republican members, had announced an aggressive abortion restriction bill including a ban on the procedure once a fetal heartbeat can be detected and prohibitions on abortion based on sex and Down syndrome diagnoses, among other changes.
That same month, the governor held another news conference announcing an executive order extending 12 weeks of paid family leave to all state employees, an initiative that received pushback from Republicans in the legislature and turned into a fight with some members over his authority to enact it and how it would be funded.
Lee had worked with Republican leadership about which criminal justice reform measures to take up this year, too, going back back and forth until settling on a handful of less expansive approaches than what the governor’s office had initially intended.
The paid family leave battle — one the governor may not have won this year had it ultimately gone to a vote — and other legislative debates likely won’t occur at all this session as the General Assembly will need to focus most of its effort on making additional cuts to the state budget. Before recessing in June, legislators approved an emergency budget with roughly $1 billion in reductions from what Lee had proposed earlier in the year at his State of the State address. Most new spending initiatives were cut from the budget at that time.
Lt. Gov. Randy Mcnally, R-oak Ridge, on Tuesday said that additional “sizable budget cuts” would need to be made in light of projected revenue shortfalls.
House wants to take up more business, allow public into Capitol
If it’s up to House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-portland, legislators will resume where they left off, taking up legislation unrelated to the coronavirus pandemic.
“COVID-19 is not the only thing Tennesseans care about,” Lamberth said. “It is the most important thing right now to combat this virus, but there are a lot of other important things to debate.
“We’re not going to allow COVID-19 to dictate to us that every single aspect of our society must be shelved because of this virus.”
Lamberth said in the House, which has a full calendar of committee meetings scheduled starting May 26, it will be up to individual members whether they decide to move forward with legislation they’ve introduced.
“Right now, every bill that’s been filed is important,” Lamberth said. “I want the committee system to work through that process.”
He said bills with fiscal notes, or significant costs attached, weren’t necessarily off the table. “It’s a much tighter budget year, but that doesn’t mean we’re just going to say no to ideas that may benefit Tennessee moving forward just because they cost money,” Lamberth said.
The House leader expects the legislature to be in session for two to three weeks and the public to be allowed inside the building during that time.
Hundreds of lobbyists, advocates, state employees, tour groups and others gather at the Capitol and legislative office building on any given day during session, congregating in common areas and chamber galleries and crowding into elevators.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton, Rcrossville, echoed Lamberth’s sentiment about opening the building during session.
“Our goal in the House is to have the Cordell Hull Building open to the public,” Sexton said in a statement. “We are very hopeful we can accomplish that goal with the same safety procedures and protocols that were in place prior to recess and possibly by adding additional precautions.”
In the weeks before the legislature recessed, hand sanitizer dispensers were placed around the Cordell Hull legislative office building and the Capitol. During their final week before recessing March 19, the building was closed to the public, though all proceedings were available by livestream, as they typically are.
Both Sexton and Lamberth acknowledged they would continue to examine the ongoing public health situation leading up to June 1.
Senate prepared to limit scope of session, people in building
Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-franklin, said he believes the legislature should limit its focus in June only to making necessary amendments to the budget and focusing on urgent coronavirus-related legislation, where needed.
“I think we need to put everything through a filter of, is it critical that this get passed now or can it wait until January?” Johnson said. “Different people are going to feel differently about different types of bills. To me, I believe some of those things can probably wait until January.”
He said he hopes the two chambers will come to a “cooperative agreement,” however, on what business they’ll try to tackle.
“If there’s a discrepancy between the House and the Senate, let’s say the House wants to take up more legislation than the Senate does, they can do so but it doesn’t mean we’ll take it up,” Johnson said.
Mcnally also said members should wait until they return next year — though it will be in the 112th General Assembly, to which some legislators may not be reelected — to address most bills that are still pending.
“My preference is we concentrate only on the important work of ensuring the budget remains structurally balanced and other essential items,” he said in a statement. “Anything else can be addressed when the body returns in January.”
A joint decision will be made by Mcnally and Sexton, said Mcnally’s spokesman Adam Kleinheider, about whether the building will be open, but the legislature should follow guidelines set forth by both Lee and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Such guidelines as of now strongly urge against hundreds of people gathering in a room.