NASHVILLE—This week on Nashville’s Capitol Hill, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Senate Bill 2661 by Senator Jeff Miller (R-Cleveland) in a 7-1 vote to prohibit Tennessee from legally recognizing same-sex civil unions and same-sex domestic partnerships that were entered into in another state.
“Since 1996 when we first passed our version of the Defense of Marriage Act which statutorily defines marriage as being between one man and one woman, the debate has shifted. Vermont now allows civil unions and Massachusetts is looking at that as an option as a response to activist judges in their state. This bill extends our state’s public policy to include a statement that Tennessee does not recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships. We need to take this action to get ahead of this before it becomes a problem here,” stated Senator Miller.
Senator Miller was the Senate prime co-sponsor of the 99th General Assembly’s SB 2305/HB 2907 which established what is now Tennessee’s legal definition of marriage. That measure became Public Chapter 1031 in the Acts of 1996. That act, once codified into law, is Tennessee Code Annotated 36-3-113 and establishes that the legal union in matrimony of only one man and one woman shall be the only recognized marriage in Tennessee.
SB 2661 would add to the 1996 statute: “If another state or foreign jurisdiction recognizes a civil union or a domestic partnership between individuals of the same sex, which relationships are prohibited in this state, any such civil union or domestic partnership shall be void and unenforceable in this state” and “A civil union or a domestic partnership between individuals of the same sex is not a legally recognized relationship in this state.
Senator David Fowler (R-Signal Mountain) was also a Senate prime co-sponsor of the 1996 bill to define marriage by statute. Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville), and Senators Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet), Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) and Micheal Williams (R-Maynardville), members of the state House of Representatives at that time, were co-sponsors of the 1996 House companion bill, HB 2907.
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Committee Approves Nursing Home Bills
SB 3294 passed out of Senate General Welfare, Health and Human Resources Committee, as amended, to require nursing homes that are not fully sprinklered to install smoke alarms or detectors in every patient room within 90 days of the effective date of the act, and within six months for multi-story facilities or 11 months for single-story facilities to submit a plan for fully sprinklering the facility, and to make failure to submit a plan grounds for discipline or licensure action. Republican Senators Bill Clabough (R-Maryville), Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge), and Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) co-sponsor the bipartisan bill.
Another nursing home bill, SB 2457, also passed out of Senate General Welfare to establish a timetable of 18 months for multi-story facilities and 30 months for single-story facilities to meet sprinkler requirements. Republican Senators Burchett, Ketron, Clabough, and McNally co-sponsor the bipartisan measure.
A third nursing home bill, SB 2134, passed out of Senate General Welfare to authorize the Department of Health to inspect the more than 90 unlicensed nursing homes in the state.
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Bills, Bills, Bills
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All things considered: After action this week, the Senate has 3,483 Senate bills filed as of 2:30 p.m. on Thursday (March 18), while the House has 3,578 bills. Resolutions: Senate Joint Resolutions now number up to 862; HJRs 995; SRs 138; and HRs 307. The Senate has used 71 legislative days with the House having used 63 days. Article II, Section 23 of the state Constitution provides for 90 paid regular legislative session days for every two-year-long General Assembly. The Senate convenes on Monday at 6 p.m. with the House going in at 5.
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Senate Floor Actions
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SB 2407 by Senator Ben Atchley (R-Knoxville) passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Monday to revise the law on Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System pensions.
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SB 3218 by Senator Burchett passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Monday to clarify that the lifetime sportsman license fee for children less than three years of age is not subject to periodic fee increases.
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SB 3384 passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Monday to expand the exception to the prohibition on state officials and employees purchasing surplus property from the state to allow purchases by Internet auction in addition to purchases by bid at public auctions
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SB 2220 unanimously passed the Senate Monday to require the grantor or lessor, as well as the grantee or lessee, of tax-exempt property to promptly report to the property assessor any change in the use or ownership of a property which might affect its exempt status. As amended, the bill includes a one-year lookback provision. Volunteers handling these transactions do not always know they need to apply for the tax-exempt status after acquisition until they receive a tax notice the following year.
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SB 2806 unanimously passed the Senate Monday to require county election administrators to release upon request the name of any person who obtained a nominating petition to seek elective office, even if the date for returning and filing the petition has not passed or the petition was not returned and filed.
At least one county is not keeping paper copy records of petitions that have been picked up so that officials can then claim that there are no public records subject of the Open Records Act. This bill puts the requirements in statute to prevent this creative loophole construction in the future.
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SB 2869 unanimously passed the Senate Monday to require county election commissioners to attend a statewide or regional training seminar conducted by the Coordinator of
Elections within one year of a commissioner's initial appointment.
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SB 2969 unanimously passed the Senate Monday to require departments and agencies to give preference to Tennessee agricultural products during purchasing if cost and quality are equal. Senator Rusty Crowe (R-Johnson City) is co-prime sponsor of the bill.
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SB 2981 unanimously passed the Senate Monday to allow a county to redesignate the county mayor as county executive by private act. Some understood Public Chapter 90, the County Mayor Bill, as passed last year was to be permissive; however, the wording is mandatory.
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SB 3167 by Senator Clabough passed out of Senate State and Local Tuesday and then through unanimous consent of the Senate Thursday to exempt library books, recordings and materials from the requirement in the County Purchasing Act of 1957 that all county personal property that is surplus, obsolete or unusable must be sold at public auction or by sealed bid.
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SB 3212 came before the Senate Thursday and had substantive floor action to add protective amendments and administration safeguards to enact the Tennessee Charitable Gaming Implementation Law. The bill would establish the procedures for nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations to conduct an annual fundraising raffle event. It was referred to Senate Finance Committee and is expected back on the floor next week. Senator Atchley is a co-sponsor.
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SB 3133 unanimously passed the Senate Thursday to revise the calculation of child support payments to treat all children more equitably.
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SB 3398 unanimously passed the Senate Thursday to exempt Highway Response Operator and Communications Dispatcher employees of the Department of Transportation's Office of Incident Management from certain overtime provisions regarding compensatory time.
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SB 3403 unanimously passed the Senate Thursday to grant the Transportation Commissioner emergency contracting authority during a transportation system failure or other emergency that presents a hazard to the traveling public or a significant delay in transportation.
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HB 3543/SB 3447 unanimously passed the Senate Thursday to limit sales of restricted pesticides to persons holding and who show proof of a valid certificate or license issued by the Agriculture Department and to increase violations from a Class C to a Class A misdemeanor.
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Selected Senate Committee Actions
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Senate State and Local Government Committee:
SB 2612 by Senator Crowe passed out of Senate State and Local to establish certain parameters for qualifications of veterans' service officers, appropriate compensation for veterans' service officers, and the establishment of joint veterans' service offices by more than one political subdivision.
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SB 2586 by Senators Fowler, Miller, and Ketron passed out of Senate State and Local to require a review by the Fiscal Review Committee of state contracts exceeding the originally bid and contracted price by 10 percent or more.
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SB 3136 passed out of Senate State and Local to raise the Governor's annual salary to be equal to the salary of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court beginning with the November 2006 election. Pensions for those already retired would be based on the present $85,000 salary.
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SB 2711 by Senator Mark Norris (R-Collierville) passed out of Senate State and Local, as amended, to require registers of deeds to either adopt a policy establishing credit/debit accounts and allowing overage amounts which the register's office may retain as fees of the office, or the register shall adopt a policy to register every instrument eligible for registration accompanied by fees equal to or in excess of the required legal fees and retain as fees of the office a reasonable amount of any monies received in excess of the required fees and refund excess monies received in accordance with the adopted policy.
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SB 2712 by Senator Norris passed out of Senate State and Local, as amended, to add affidavits of scrivener's error and other affidavits in furtherance of identification and title of land. The bill would allow these to be entered rather than deeds of correction for clarification.
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SB 3437 passed out of Senate State and Local to increase the daily room and board rate per corrections inmate from not less than $5 nor more than $12.50 to not less than $7.50 nor more than $15 and to increase monthly community corrections supervision fees from $15 to $20.
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Senate Commerce, Labor and Agriculture Committee:
SB 3187 by Senator Clabough passed out of Senate Commerce to exempt from all mandated health benefits requirements insurance plans which provide only major medical insurance coverage for a catastrophic illness requiring in-patient hospital care except to the extent that a specified mandated coverage is essential to provide basic health care for that illness.
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SB 3376 passed out of Senate Commerce to clarify that certain laws and regulations are applicable to prepaid limited health service organizations and to authorize the Commerce and Insurance Commissioner to suspend or revoke the certificate of authority of an HMO if the HMO filed a sworn financial statement containing material omissions or errors.
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SB 3385 passed out of Senate Commerce to repeal the Toughman and Badman Law.
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SB 3393 passed out of Senate Commerce to revise the formula for assignment of annual unemployment insurance premium rates for new employers, effective July 1, 2004.
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SB 3396 passed out of Senate Commerce to increase the period of validity for certifications, licenses and registrations for licensing alarm systems contractors from one year to two years.
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SB 3421, an administration bill, passed out of Senate Commerce to authorize the Commerce and Insurance Department to query the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s criminal history records, orders of protection files and other similar databases, including FBI files, when necessary in the performance of its licensure, permit and consumer protection duties.
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SB 3455 passed out of Senate Commerce to revise the law regarding mortgage loan originators.
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SB 2259 passed out of Senate Commerce to regulate the use of consumer credit information by an insurer in calculating premiums for certain types of personal insurance and to prohibit use of certain discriminatory factors and to require information to be filed with the Commerce and Insurance Department regarding the use of consumer credit information.
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SB 3259 passed out of Senate Commerce to add legal protections for owners of homes with home loans made by a nonprofit lender with a zero percent interest rate.
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SB 2391 passed out of Senate Commerce to revise the duties of the Alarms Systems Contractors Board to include prescribing tests required for registration, testing requirements, and test fees.
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SB 2392 passed out of Senate Commerce with amendments to revise the scope of practice of employee assistance professionals.
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SB 3186 passed out of Senate Commerce to prohibit the transmission of unsolicited facsimile advertisements and to require a facsimile transmission to include on the top or bottom of page margins the sender’s identification and the telephone number of the sending machine or sending party.
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SB 3358 passed out of Senate Commerce to extend the reporting deadline for the Special Joint Committee on Predatory Lending from February 28, 2004, to May 1, 2005.
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SB 2895 by Senator Miller passed out of Senate Commerce with an amendment to require a health insurance entity to provide verification to a health care provider that an insurance claim has been filed by the provider within five days when it is filed electronically.
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SB 2706 by Senator Norris passed out of Senate Commerce with amendments to revise the statutes regarding who may issue and countersign title insurance.
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SB 2931 by Senator Ramsey passed out of Senate Commerce with an amendment to require abatement of action brought against a contractor, subcontractor, supplier, or design professional related to a construction defect unless the claimant provides notice, giving such parties an opportunity to respond, make a settlement offer, or remedy a
defect.
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SB 2737 passed out of Senate Commerce with an amendment to regulate the filing of telecommunications tariffs with the Tennessee Regulatory Authority.
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Senate Judiciary Committee:
SB 3209 by Senate Judiciary Chairman Curtis Person (R-Memphis) passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee with amendment to redefine aggravated cruelty to include the failure to provide food and water to a companion animal resulting in a substantial risk of death or death.
Additionally, the bill would pass the costs to the owner responsible in cases when large numbers of animals are taken into an animal shelter due to abuse or neglect, such as those taken from a transporter truck or from a breeder. Two cases cited in committee involved over $45,000 for Rutherford County and $18,000 for Davidson County in the truck puppies case.
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SB 2935 by Senators Ramsey and Miller passed out of Senate Judiciary to encourage law enforcement agencies to open their shooting ranges to the public when not being used by law enforcement personnel and to allow the agencies to charge reasonable fees to public users.
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SB 2524 by Fowler passed out of Senate Judiciary, as amended, to exclude certain actions from the commission of a felony in the misapplication of contract payments and to revise prima facie evidence of intent to defraud if loan proceeds or contract payments are misapplied or if the amount of a lien is exaggerated.
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SB 2975 passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee to increase the salaries of assistant district attorneys general for each year of experience in the position. Republican Senators Person, Fowler, Ramsey, Clabough, Burchett, and McNally co-sponsor the bipartisan measure.
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SB 2976 passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee to increase the number of assistant district attorneys general by at least one in certain judicial districts. Republican Senators Person, Fowler, Ramsey, Clabough, and Burchett co-sponsor the bipartisan measure.
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SB 2379 passed out of Senate Judiciary to enact the Commonsense Consumption Act.
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SB 2085 passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee to provide that a handgun carry permit issued to person in or who enters the U.S. Armed Services remains valid as long as that person's service continues and that person is stationed outside of Tennessee and gives that person eight months from discharge or separation from service or reassignment back into this state to renew the permit without being considered a new applicant.
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SB 2241 passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee to permit the TBI to use the $50 fee collected for expunction of criminal records for the support and maintenance of the TBI information systems division as well as for the expunged criminal offender and pretrial diversion database.
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SB 2735 passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee to define hardship for purposes of parental delegation of child care-giving authority to another adult.
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SB 3280 passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee to authorize the TBI to sell intrastate criminal history information to the private sector and noncriminal justice agencies for $29 per name submitted for the purpose of offsetting expenditures related to operational costs of the TBI. The information is already public information.
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SB 2744 passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee to authorize the Department of Children's Services to request that a criminal justice agency conduct a name-based criminal history check on adult residents of the home in which a child is placed during an emergency situation and to require the TBI to positively identify the residents by fingerprint analysis.
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SB 3103 by Senator Williams passed out of Senate Judiciary 5-1-1 to create a Class C misdemeanor for scalping tickets to events at facilities with over 140,000 permanent seats.
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Senate Education Committee:
SB 2205 by Senator Miller passed out of Senate Education Committee to require the state Education Department to have a task force start on July 1 to determine how to standardize academic grades for 9-12 grades and report back the results by December 31. The board would also need to set up necessary rules and regulations. Local education agencies would have to comply with the policy. The issue has become relevant because of lottery scholarship criteria.
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Senate Environment, Conservation and Tourism Committee:
SB 2664 passed Senate Environment to enact the Tennessee Agricultural Ethanol Production Act of 2004. Republican Senators Burchett, McNally, Miller, and Norris co-sponsor the bipartisan measure.
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Senate General Welfare, Health and Human Services Committee:
SB 2100 by Senator Fowler passed out of Senate General Welfare to exempt certain volunteer medical practitioners from continuing education and occupation tax requirements.
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Senate Environment, Conservation and Tourism Committee:
SB 2431 by Senator Burchett passed out of Senate Environment to enact the State Park Funding Act of 2004 which puts the department’s goals in statute so they are not politicized.
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SB 877 by Senator Ramsey passed out of Senate Environment to revise the storm water management law and to clarify that it does not apply to farmland runoff.
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SB 2770 passed out of Senate Environment Committee to authorize the Environment and Conservation Commissioner to deny a wastewater treatment discharge permit if an economically feasible alternative means for disposal exists, such as spraying on agriculture.
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SB 3411 passed out of Senate Environment to require the Environment and Conservation Commissioner and the Tourist Development Commissioner to serve as ex officio members of Great Smoky Mountains Park Commission. Senator Clabough is a co-sponsor.
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Senate Transportation Committee:
SB 3369 by Senator Burchett passed out of Senate Transportation Committee to prohibit motor vehicle windshield wipers from having lights or reflectors.
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SB 3371 by Senator Burchett passed out of Senate Transportation Committee to prohibit any materials around a license plate that covers or conceals any information on the license plate and to prohibit any tinted material from covering a license plate.
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SB 2179 by Senator Fowler passed out of Senate Transportation Committee to allow TDOT to operate in house the program for logo signs on highways and to revise the bid requirements.
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SB 2212 passed out of Senate Transportation Committee to create a specific offense of vandalism of roads and bridges and to provide $250 rewards for reporting such vandalism.
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SB 2453 passed out of Senate Transportation Committee to prohibit the operation of a sound amplification system in a motor vehicle that can be heard more than 50 feet from the vehicle with violations bringing a fine of up to $50.
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SB 3175 by Senator Williams passed out of Senate Transportation Committee to revise registration taxes for motor vehicles operated commercially to allow the freight vehicle registration tax discount for vehicles used as part of a nursery business.