Capitol Hill Conversation: What’s Left In The Closing Weeks At The Tennessee State Capitol

Governor Bill Haslam’s plan to raise the gas tax, the IMPROVE Act, has been one of the major stories of this year’s legislative session.

Lawmakers could close the book on that debate this week. So what else is left to be done?

Nashville Public Radio’s Jason Moon Wilkins sat down with statehouse reporter Chas Sisk to talk about that.

Transcript:

JMW: One thing that may have gone under the radar with all of the focus on the IMPROVE Act is that its debate has held up the state’s ability to pass a budget. Are there concerns that the timeline to get a budget done will be too compressed?

CS: Not unless something happens to the IMPROVE Act at the last minute. The Haslam administration has been preparing a final budget on the assumption that it passes, and the plan is for state lawmakers to start considering the final budget this week.

Typically, it takes the state legislature about three weeks to pass a budget, so that puts them on track to wrap up the second week in May. In years past, we’ve seen session run much later than that — sometimes into June — but the absolute deadline for the budget isn’t until July 1. So there’s still plenty of time for them to finish up.

But, if something happens here at the last minute with the gas tax, all that’s out the window.

JMW: Another thing that Haslam talked a lot about leading into the session was school bus safety. It was inspired by the tragic crash in Chattanooga. There are now two different bills up for debate. How do they differ in dealing with the issue?

CS: So the legislature is set to pass a bill that would raise the minimum age for a school bus driver to 25. That measure would also require drivers to get more training. Those were seen as the major factors in the Chattanooga crash, by many lawmakers.

What’s more controversial is another measure that would require new buses to have seat belts on them. This has been proposed several times in the past, and the argument against them is that they wouldn’t be effective, so districts would just be wasting money.

But no one really wants to be seen as putting financial considerations ahead of children’s safety, so this is moving through the legislature. But it’s moving very slowly, and the question is whether it gets to the floor of the House and Senate for a vote or if lawmakers run out the clock on it.

JMW: With other issues stealing the spotlight, school vouchers haven’t been discussed as much, but there’s a still a proposed pilot program out there.

CS: Yeah, there is, a pilot program for Memphis schools. This is the latest of many voucher bills lawmakers have considered through the years.

It still has a couple of hurdles to get over. The House and Senate Finance Committees have to sign off on it, because it’s going to cost the state some extra money to run a voucher program — even a small one like this one.

There’s a chance the full House and the Senate could vote on vouchers this year. But these voucher proposals have always managed to get defeated one way or the other, so we’ll have to see what happens on that.

JMW: Well, moving to a different topic, there is one bill left addressing abortion. But there’s concern by the attorney general it could face federal opposition and potentially some lawsuits. Is that one still moving forward?

CS: It is still moving forward. You’re right that the attorney general has warned against this proposal, but that really hasn’t stopped it from moving closer to the floor of the House and the Senate.

To explain what this bill is, what it does is it essentially restricts abortions after 20 weeks. If doctors determine that the fetus is viable outside the womb, they could perform an abortion only if there’s a medical emergency.

Now, keep in mind, almost all abortions at 20 weeks or beyond are for medical reasons. And the consensus opinion is that fetuses aren’t viable until 24 weeks.

So the legal concern is that this bill is just trying to construct hoops for women and doctors to jump through with no real medical purpose. And if that’s the case, then the measure is problematic constitutionally.

But supporters of the measure note that other states have passed abortion bills like this one. And so far, those laws haven’t been overruled.

JMW: Finally, nearly every gun bill has been abandoned or struck down in committee this year, but the measure on selling silencers is still alive and there is one other that concerns gun bans. That one is particularly confusing.

CS: Right, much like the abortion measure, this is a tricky bill to understand.

Basically, what it does is create a cause-of-action that would make it easier to sue governments over gun bans. So if a city bans guns at a public concert venue, for example, someone could argue in court that the local government has jeopardized their safety.

The fear, among opponents of this bill, is that it’s meant to help organizations like the National Rifle Association do in court what they haven’t been able to do in the legislature — namely extend gun rights into public buildings. It should be an interesting debate at the end of the session.