Jones silenced amid House passage of bills
(The Center Square) – The Tennessee House of Representatives passed several bills on Monday, and the Senate recessed until Tuesday without passing any to start the second week of a special session on public safety.
The most action of the day came late in the House session. Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, was ruled out of order for a second time and silenced for the remainder of the day before he planned to call for a no confidence vote on House Speaker Cameron Sexton.
The vote to silence Jones was part of a new set of House rules for the special session, where the entire body votes to confirm a member twice spoke off the topic of a bill once Sexton rules the member off topic.
After the vote to silence Jones, the House gallery began chanting “fascist” and “racist” and Sexton ordered to have the gallery removed. Once done, House Democrats left the body along with Jones while Republicans remained and finished session without them.
Republicans have a 75-24 majority in the chamber.
House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, said Democrats “abandoned their work and post.” Before leaving the floor, Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, contended that Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, also had been called out of order twice but the House Clerk said that one of the rulings was a warning.
House Republicans were also asked about why the body was passing legislation that the Senate – where GOP majority is 27-6 – was not taking up.
“I don’t know what they are doing,” said Rep. Lowell Russell, R-Vonore. “I don’t work over there. We are going to pass legislation over here whether they want to keep up or not.”
The first bill will now headed to Republican Gov. Bill Lee out of the session when Senate Bill 7088, creating a human trafficking report, passed the House.
“We have not done a report like this in a decade,” Lamberth noted. “It is time that we do so.”
The House also passed a set of bills that the Senate has not taken up.
House Bill 7072 would allow $75 million to be spent to update a new centralized statewide case management system for shared court reporting.
House Bill 7032 would require TennCare providers to pay for the same level of mental health services and treatment as other insurance carriers for alcoholism and drug dependence.
House Bill 7038 would create a school safety alert grant program with $90 million in funding.
The House amended and passed Senate Bill 7085 on firearm locks and handgun safety courses that will now head back to the Senate.
Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, called the bill “fluff” since Shelby County and other counties already have programs providing free firearm locks.
“We keep being held hostage and we keep ending up with nothingness because we’re trying to placate to everyone in this body,” Parkinson said. “I would rather you take this bill off notice rather than settle for nothingness.
“Some of the gun lock manufacturers might make some money, but will it save even one life in Shelby County? I think not.”
The House also passed bills on “duty to warn’ on the release of mental health patients, a bill allowing private schools to develop school safety plans including firearms, a bill increasing the penalties for stalking violations, a bill expanding the state’s school resource officer program and a bill where school district’s without a memorandum of understanding with local law enforcement can be assigned an SRO.
