Lamar bill raises profile of doulas, maternal health in Tennessee
8:30 a.m. CT - Senate Floor Calendar - Watch - SB 0044 *Lamar
- More mothers die due to childbirth in Tennessee than in any other state in the nation.
Sen. London Lamar is aiming to reverse this trend with Senate Bill 44, which creates a new professional license and standards for doula care.
- The legislation raises awareness of doulas as a solution to save more lives. Doulas are trained professionals who provide continuous support to their patients before, during and after childbirth.
Online schools hunt for voucher scam tax dollars
8:30 a.m. CT - Senate Floor Calendar - Watch - SB0827 by Hensley
- Like clockwork, pop-up private school companies are pushing legislation that will give them access to Gov. Bill Lee’s $150 million voucher scam.
- To get their hands on our public school dollars, Senate Bill 827 would make it easier for some online, private schools to qualify for Lee’s program.
Oliver bill gives child care agencies access to underutilized public property
8:30 a.m. CT - Senate Floor Calendar - Watch - SB1014 by Oliver
- Senate Bill 1014 would give child care businesses and nonprofits an early right to purchase public school property deemed underutilized. Access to suitable facilities is a major challenge for many child care providers.
‘Portable benefits’ law would help Big Tech skirt employment laws
8:30 a.m. CT - Senate Floor Calendar - Watch - SB1377 by Watson
- For years, Big Tech companies that hire “gig workers” have been coming under threat from class action lawsuits for employee misclassification. The current push for “portable benefits” fits into a long-term national strategy by the app companies to preemptively kneecap pro-worker regulations.
- Under this bill, companies could voluntarily contribute funds to a portable benefit plan as a form of compensation to an independent contractor, but the benefit “must not be used as a criterion for determining a worker's employment classification.”
- There’s no law stopping these corporations from paying workers a stipend for healthcare or retirement right now. What the gig apps really want is legal protections from misclassification lawsuits. The American Prospect explains more.
2nd try: GOP bill raises state’s home loan interest rate cap from 8.56% to 11.5%
8:30 a.m. CT - Senate Floor Calendar - Watch - SB 0749 *Yager
- On Monday, Republicans delayed a final vote on this bill after questions were raised about its impact on prospective home buyers in Tennessee.
- Senate Bill 749 will increase the maximum allowable interest rate on home loans in the state by changing the marker state regulators use to set the rate. Under the bill, state officials would begin setting the maximum allowable home loan interest rate at four points above the “average prime offer rate.”
- If the proposed law were in place today, the home loan rate cap would be 11.5% — the highest allowable rate in 30 years. Under current law, the maximum interest rate on a home loan is 8.56%.
- IMPORTANT CONTEXT. Federal lending laws override Tennessee’s home loan interest cap for loans issued by national banks, federally insured state-chartered banks and credit unions. But those laws track similarly to Tennessee’s current cap. That said, the state cap still applies to loans from non-bank lenders, private lenders and unregulated entities operating within the state. The cap would also go into effect for banks and credit unions if the relevant federal laws and regulations were repealed.
8:30 a.m. Senate Floor
1. *SJR001 by Haile.
Constitutional Amendments- Proposes additional language in Article II, Section 28 to prohibit the general assembly from levying, authorizing, or otherwise permitting a state tax on property.
Watch. First reading. Vote takes place after the third reading. This could undermine Tennessee’s corporate franchise tax, which includes a tax on the net worth of a company – including real property.
2. *SB0044 by Lamar. (HB0295 by Love.)
Health Care - As amended, directs the department of health to establish by rule a process for the verification of certification to a person who demonstrates that the person has completed a doula training program that meets certain requirements.
3. *SB0280 by Jackson. (HB1020 by Russell.)
Tort Liability and Reform - Amends TCA Title 29 and Title 39. As introduced, specifies that a law enforcement officer who causes property damage to or inflicts personal injury upon a person during the course of the law enforcement officer's official duties is immune from civil liability if at the time the damage or injury occurred, the person suffering the injury or damage was engaged in conduct that resulted in the person being convicted of the offense of resisting a stop, frisk, halt, arrest, or search of the person.
Watch. Expands police immunity
4. *SB0437 by Reeves. (HB0654 by Hicks T.)
Insurance, Health, Accident - With amendment, requires a health benefit plan that provides coverage for mental health and substance abuse services to provide for coverage and reimbursement of such services through a psychiatric collaborative care model. Authorizes a health benefit plan to deny coverage and reimbursement of such services on the grounds of medical necessity. Authorizes a policy or contract for health insurance provided under the TennCare program or the CoverKids program to provide coverage for PCCM services to enrollees if such coverage is determined to be medically necessary pursuant to the Division of TennCare's established criteria.
5. SB0457 by Rose. (*HB0190 by Gant.)
Criminal Offenses - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 13. As introduced, decreases from 0.20 percent to 0.15 percent the minimum weight of alcohol concentration in a defendant's blood or breath as an element of the offense of aggravated vehicular assault and in a defendant's blood as an element of the offense of aggravated vehicular homicide.
6. SB0472 by Bowling. (*HB0064 by Bulso.)
Education - Amends TCA Title 49. As introduced, requires all residential educational programs in this state, regardless of type or duration, that allow minors to participate or to access residential facilities to segregate all restrooms, changing areas, and showers by immutable biological sex.
More anti-trans laws
7. SB0476 by Bowling. (*HB0134 by Davis.)
Local Education Agencies - Amends TCA Title 49. As introduced, requires LEAs and public charter schools to prohibit food or beverage items that contain Red 40 to be sold, offered for sale, or provided to students on school property unless the food or beverage item is sold to the student as part of a school fundraising event.
8. SB0522 by Roberts. (*HB0502 by Littleton.)
TennCare - Amends TCA Title 56 and Title 71. As introduced, requires the bureau to provide coverage and treatment for enrollees with Kleefstra syndrome.
9. *SB0827 by Hensley. (HB1003 by Haston.)
Schools, Private - Amends TCA Title 49. As introduced, prohibits the state board of education from requiring a private school that provides a fully online, self-paced educational program to comply with certain class size, school calendar, vaccination, and assessment requirements in order to operate in this state as an approved Category III nonpublic school.
Watch. Voucher vultures want access to the taxpayer dollars.
10. SB1014 by Oliver. (*HB0698 by Camper.)
Local Education Agencies - Amends TCA Title 49 and Title 71. As introduced, requires an LEA in which a child care facility operates to submit a comprehensive list of all underutilized or vacant property to the department of human services and the comptroller of the treasury and to make the list available to each child care facility operating in the LEA; grants certain owners of a child care facility that operates in an LEA a first or second right of refusal to lease or purchase underutilized or vacant property listed by the LEA.
11. SB1377 by Watson. (*HB0494 by Baum.)
Insurance, Health, Accident - Amends TCA Title 50 and Title 65, Chapter 15, Part 3. As introduced, enacts the "Voluntary Portable Benefit Plan Act" and makes certain other changes relative to independent contractors, such as authorizing marketplace platforms to provide medical or other insurance benefits to a marketplace contractor.
Watch. “Portable benefits” model bill from gig apps looking to ward off misclassification lawsuits.
12. *SB0196 by Walley. (HB0392 by Butler.)
Education - Amends TCA Title 49. As introduced, requires the school grading system to apply to all high schools with 20 or more students in the most recent graduating cohort.
13. *SB0231 by Akbari. (HB0296 by Love.)
Insurance Companies, Agents, Brokers, Policies - As amended, requires TACIR to study insurance coverage for habilitative or rehabilitative speech therapy services.
14. *SB0233 by Akbari. (HB0634 by Clemmons.)
State Government - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 34 and Title 71, Chapter 2. As introduced, creates the conservatorship management task force.
15. SB0517 by Akbari. (*HB0485 by Hardaway.)
Education - Amends TCA Title 49. As introduced, authorizes local education agencies and public charter schools to provide up to four days of the required 180 days of classroom instruction via hybrid learning in the event of dangerous or extreme weather conditions, or an emergency, as determined by the director of schools or the director of public charter schools.
16. SB0561 by Hatcher. (*HB0530 by Eldridge.)
Boats, Boating - Amends TCA Title 69, Chapter 9. As introduced, removes the monitoring requirement for boating safety examinations; replaces statutory fees for boating safety certificates and replacement cards with authorization for TWRA to set such fees.
17. *SB0582 by Akbari. (HB0623 by McCalmon.)
Education - Amends TCA Title 49. As introduced, requires the department to establish enrollment deadlines for voluntary pre-kindergarten programs so that at-risk students who will be four years old by August 15 must be enrolled by the beginning of the school year and students who are four-year-olds who do not have a disability or who meet the qualifications for enrollment at three years of age must be enrolled by August 30.
18. SB0916 by Haile. (*HB0540 by Crawford.)
Criminal Offenses - Amends TCA Title 39. As introduced, expands the definition of "racketeering activity" to include committing, conspiring to commit, aiding, attempting to aid, soliciting, coercing, facilitating, or intimidating another person to commit the criminal offense of animal fighting.
19. SB0988 by Haile. (*HB0375 by Zachary.)
Local Government, General - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 10 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 29. As introduced, requires each department, agency, or official of a local government who assesses and collects a fee of more than $500 to document the justification and cost basis of the fee; makes such documentation a public record; subjects such documentation to an annual audit by the comptroller of the treasury.
How long must they retain the documentation of the justification?
20. *SB0749 by Yager. (HB0908 by Garrett.)
Interest Rates - Amends TCA Title 45 and Title 47. As introduced, removes the weighted average yield of the accepted offers of the Federal National Mortgage Association's current free market system auction and the 30-year treasury yield as the two bases upon which the maximum effective rate of interest on home loans may be set by the commissioner of financial institutions, and replaces them with the average prime offer rate.
Watch: Increases the maximum effective home loan rate in Tennessee:
8.56% - TN’s current Maximum Effective Rate of Interest on Home Loans
11.5% - Maximum effective rate of interest on homes loans, under SB 749 (Prime rate + 4)
CONTEXT: The proposed law does exactly as I described above, however, federal law currently supersedes this state law for loans issued by national banks, federally-insured banks and credit unions. So for as long as the federal laws and regulators exists, an increased home loan interest cap mostly applies to loans from non-bank lenders, private lenders and unregulated entities operating within the state.
Message Calendar
1. SB0668 by Taylor. (*HB0155 by Hale.)
Death - Amends TCA Title 68. As introduced, removes the limitation that a death must have been anticipated for a registered nurse to make the actual determination and pronouncement of death if a deceased was a patient at a hospital. - Amends TCA Title 68.
2. *SB0704 by Massey. (HB0786 by Howell.)
Criminal Offenses - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 51; Title 39 and Title 65, Chapter 15. As introduced, creates the Class B misdemeanor offenses of criminal impersonation of a transportation network company driver and criminal impersonation of a private passenger-for-hire vehicle driver.
3. *SB0715 by Taylor. (HB0713 by Alexander.)
Cemeteries - Amends TCA Title 46. As introduced, changes the way that the fair market value of an improvement care trust fund is calculated for certain purposes; clarifies that the fee that a cemetery company charges for the memorial care of a commodity installed in the cemetery cannot exceed the fee charged by the company for installation of the commodity; makes other changes related to cemeteries.