Second half of 112th General Assembly has begun
The Tennessee legislature returned this week to begin the second year in the 112th General Assembly. There will be no two-week reorganization period and lawmakers will likely not waste time moving bills early so they adjourn in order to campaign and fundraise for their 2022 legislative races. We expect that bills will tentatively begin moving during the week of January 17th, and committee calendars will start filling up quickly. The House Clerk has announced that February 2 will be the bill-filing deadline and the Senate is expected to announce a deadline soon after.
The Tennessee General Assembly is still made up of 27 Republicans and 6 Democrats in the Senate and 73 Republicans and 26 Democrats in the House. A few changes to members and committee chairs include:
- the addition of newly-elected Representative Greg Vital from Hamilton County to fill the seat previously held by Mike Carter, who passed away earlier this year.
- the appointment of Senator Jon Lundberg of Kingsport as Chairman of the Education Committee. The previous chair, Senator Brian Kelsey of Memphis, stepped down amid legal questions regarding former campaign spending.
Among the myriad of issues that will be taken up in the next few months, there are a few we expect to stand out:
- Redistricting. Redistricting bills will be one of the first orders of business during this session, as maps must be finalized by the candidate qualifying deadline of April 7th, 2022.The final maps will be voted upon by the full House and Senate, but each chamber’s respective ad-hoc committees have now released their recommendations. The biggest topics of conversation at this juncture are the number of democratic House members drawn into the same districts and the changes to the 5th Congressional district, which now shows Nashville split into three districts. The Senate maps have caused the least discussion so far. More details may be found here and here.
- COVID Cleanup. Legislation revisiting some of the actions taken during the COVID-19 special session has been discussed by numerous lawmakers. Although Governor Bill Lee signed the massive COVID-related omnibus bill that was passed in late October, legislators have expressed intent to tweak parts of the new law to clarify and address unintended consequences. As a reminder, this special session was a rare instance of the Republican supermajority being at odds with the business community.
- Education Funding Formula. The Governor has announced his plans to update the BEP this year. This is an ambitious undertaking and viewed by many as “taking a tiger by the tail,” especially in an election year. Chalkbeat has a good primer on the current model and the expected changes. Public school advocates have made clear that adding funding is as important a component of the conversation as changing how it is divided.
- Sentencing Reform. As part of the Governor’s commitment to updates to the state’s criminal justice framework, sentencing reform is slated to be on the agenda this year. House Majority Leader William Lamberth has championed the cause for some time and released an op-ed this week with more details.
- State Budget. The only constitutionally required function of the general assembly is to pass a balanced budget each year. Despite unprecedented funding from the federal government in the past two years and strong growth at the end of 2021, economic forecasts presented to the State Funding Board in November urged caution. The General Assembly passed a $42.6 billion budget last year heavy on one-time spending and projects and a similar approach is expected this year, a tactic some Democrats are critical of as Tennessee sits on a large surplus. It is unlikely the Republican supermajority will move away from one-time projects and will continue to keep pandemic-related federal funding separate from the state’s budget.