NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — On Tuesday, the 114th General Assembly reconvened for the first day of the legislative session, and even though lawmakers were focused on setting the new rules, advocacy groups showed up in force to remind them of their causes.
Creating a universal school voucher program by using taxpayer money to pay to send children to private school if their parents choose was the first bill filed ahead of the legislative session, and it was top of mind for some at the Capitol on the first day of session.
“Educational freedom can change a child’s life. We know that. That’s why we want to see universal access to all families,” Tori Venable, the state director for Americans for Prosperity said.
In addition, Americans for Prosperity is advocating for a constitutional amendment to repeal the statewide property tax in addition to supporting the REINS Act, similar to the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which would “rein” in regulations, according to the group.
The Tennessee Equality Project, Tennessee Pride Chamber, and Human Rights Campaign joined forces on the first day of the legislative session to advocate for LGBTQ+ and youth while voicing their opposition to a bill that would require residential educational programs that serve minors to separate bathrooms, showers, and changing areas based on biological sex.
“We are playing defense unfortunately this year again because Tennessee typically has more anti-LGBTQ bills than other states,” Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project said.
Tennessee Pride Chamber executive director, Stephanie Mahnke told News 2 anti-LGBTQ+ legislation can impact the entire state.
“From the business perspective, I meet with tourism companies; businesses thinking of moving here to Tennessee, and they’re not because the laws are pushing away our constituents and their constituents and customers,” Mahnke said. “We just want to make it a more hospitable state so we can keep folks and also make sure we’re not hemorrhaging folks from the talent pipeline.”
A nonpartisan, nonprofit group formed after the Covenant School shooting, Voices for a Safer Tennessee, is advocating for policies and incentives that make communities safer while respecting the Second Amendment. Their causes include expanding background checks to private gun sales to keep firearms away from people who cannot legally have them, increasing secure firearm storage through education and affordable storage options, and enacting temporary transfer policies. They are goals that Safer Tennessee’s director of communications, Jessica Jaglois told News 2 don’t necessarily need new laws to achieve.
“We don’t think we need a new law on this [temporary transfer measure] right now,” Jaglois said. “We think we can incentivize and add to the current laws already on the books that would just put a few more protections in place so that convicted domestic abusers, people who have orders of protections against them, people who are in danger of harming themselves or others might temporarily limit their access to firearms, just to pause before something really tragic could happen.”
Meanwhile, lawmakers debated new rules proposals for this session. One of the most controversial is a proposed House rule to limit each lawmaker to just 10 bills this legislative session. Lawmakers will vote on the rules later this week.
