114 session

Zoning - As introduced, extends the terms of members of historic zoning commissions from five years to six years. - Amends TCA Title 13, Chapter 7, Part 4.

2025-02-05 — Assigned to s/c Cities & Counties Subcommittee

Environment and Conservation, Department of - As introduced, changes, from January 31 to February 15, the date by which the commissioner must submit reports related to the administration of the Water Quality Control Act of 1977 to legislative committees with jurisdiction over environmental matters. - Amends TCA Title 1, Chapter 3; Title 43; Title 44; Title 68 and Title 69.

2025-02-05 — P2C, caption bill, held on desk - pending amdt.

Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, requires TACIR to perform a study on the impact of this state's firearm laws on each county's firearm sales, criminal offenses, and use of firearms for self-defense, as well as identifying the similarities and dissimilarities between the impacts on each county. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 38; Title 39 and Title 40.

2025-04-09 — Placed on s/c cal Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee for 4/14/2025

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, requires an LEA and public charter school that provides parents or guardians of K-12 students with information on immunizations, infectious diseases, medications, or other school health issues to include information about Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes published by the department of education; directs the department, in cooperation with the department of health, to publish and make available to LEAs and public charter schools for free on its website certain information about Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. - Amends TCA Title 49 and Title 68.

2025-04-30 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 172

Public Health - As introduced, adds the legislative librarian as a party to which the department of health must submit an annual report based on data received by a county or district health department that operates a needle and hypodermic syringe exchange program, including the number of people served, number of needles, syringes, and supplies dispensed and returned to the program, number of naloxone kits distributed, and the number and type of treatment referrals provided. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 14; Title 29; Title 33; Title 37; Title 39; Title 53; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

2025-02-05 — P2C, caption bill, held on desk - pending amdt.

Hospitals and Health Care Facilities - As introduced, requires the executive director of the health facilities commission to submit a report no later than July 1, rather than February 1, of each year to the governor, the chief clerk of the house of representatives, and the chief clerk of the senate, regarding the commission's nursing home inspection and enforcement activities during the previous year. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 33; Title 53; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

2025-02-05 — P2C, caption bill, held on desk - pending amdt.

Public Utilities - As introduced, extends from January 1 to February 1, the deadline for local governments that have adopted local legislation related to wind energy facility siting to submit an annual report. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 13; Title 65 and Title 68.

2025-02-05 — P2C, caption bill, held on desk - pending amdt.

State Government - As enacted, terminates the James K. Polk Memorial Association and requires the Tennessee historical commission to enter into good faith negotiations for the purchase and transfer of the James K. Polk Home in Columbia. - Amends TCA Title 4.

2026-05-27 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 1054

Election Laws - As introduced, increases the time a person may be absent from work to vote, from three hours to four hours. - Amends TCA Title 2; Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7 and Title 8.

2025-02-05 — P2C, caption bill, held on desk - pending amdt.

Taxes, Privilege - As introduced, reduces the rate of tax on bottled soft drinks and barrels of beer; changes the distribution of the revenue from such taxes; provides for the eventual repeal of such taxes. - Amends TCA Title 57, Chapter 5 and Title 67, Chapter 4.

2025-02-05 — Assigned to s/c Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee

Education - As introduced, enacts the "Early Behavioral Intervention and Reporting Act"; clarifies that public charter schools are required to have a threat assessment team in the same manner as required of local education agencies. - Amends TCA Title 16; Title 37 and Title 49.

2025-04-09 — Placed on s/c cal Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee for 4/14/2025

Highways, Roads and Bridges - As introduced, requires TACIR to study transportation user fee alternatives and submit its recommendations to the chair of the committee in the house of representatives with jurisdiction over transportation issues, the chair of the transportation and safety committee of the senate, and the legislative librarian on or before January 1, 2026. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 9; Title 54; Title 55 and Title 67.

2025-02-05 — Assigned to s/c Transportation Subcommittee

Montgomery County - As enacted, permits a court to transfer, upon motion by the defendant, a criminal case to the veterans treatment court program in Montgomery County if the veterans treatment court program would have jurisdiction over the case if the offense had been committed in Montgomery County, the defendant files with the court a written waiver of the right to be tried by an impartial jury of the county in which the crime was committed, and the district attorney general for Montgomery County agrees to accept transfer of the case. - Amends TCA Title 16 and Title 40.

2025-05-27 — Effective date(s) 05/21/2025

Tobacco, Tobacco Products - As introduced, urges the department of agriculture to study the effects of the use of vapor products by persons under 21 and make recommendations to the legislature with regard to reducing such use. - Amends TCA Title 1, Chapter 3; Title 39; Title 43, Chapter 27 and Title 68, Chapter 1, Part 1.

2025-02-05 — P2C, caption bill, held on desk - pending amdt.

Taxes, Business - As introduced, authorizes the commissioner of revenue to change the due date of the taxpayer's business tax return to a date that is not less than 60 calendar days, rather than two calendar months, following the end of the taxpayer's business tax period for purposes of the commissioner changing a taxpayer's business tax period to correspond to the taxpayer's fiscal year. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 7.

2025-04-09 — Placed on s/c cal Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee for 4/14/2025

Probation and Parole - As introduced, removes the limitations on the board of parole's authority to deny parole based solely on the seriousness of the offense for certain offenses to allow denial based on the seriousness of the offense for any offense. - Amends TCA Title 40, Chapter 35, Part 5.

2025-04-16 — Sponsor(s) Added.

Bail, Bail Bonds - As enacted, makes changes to the law relative to professional bondsmen and agents of insurance companies making appearance bonds of a criminal nature. - Amends TCA Title 40.

2025-05-13 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 318

Election Laws - As introduced, revises the definition of "signature" for purposes of certain election-related documents, including absentee ballot and voter registration forms, and petitions for nomination, referendum, or another purpose; revises requirements for signing such petitions. - Amends TCA Title 2.

2025-03-04 — Taken off notice for cal in s/c Elections & Campaign Finance Subcommittee of State & Local Government Committee

Boats, Boating - As enacted, 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. - Amends TCA Title 69, Chapter 9.

2025-04-29 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 214

Education, Curriculum - As introduced, requires local education agencies and public charter schools to provide age-appropriate instruction to students on how to access, utilize, and critically evaluate various artificial intelligence tools within the curriculum taught by the educator; requires the department of education to issue guidance on how to implement the required instruction; requires the department to provide a professional development program in artificial intelligence education for educators, subject to available funding. - Amends TCA Title 49.

2025-03-18 — Taken off notice for cal. in Education Committee

Employees, Employers - As introduced, requires a person who employs an unemancipated minor and who knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that the minor has been subjected to child sexual abuse or attempted child sexual abuse in the course of the minor’s employment or on the premises of the employer to report such knowledge or suspicion to the minor’s parent within 24 hours of discovering the abuse or attempted abuse; imposes a penalty of $1,000 for a first violation or $2,000 for a second or subsequent violation, to be paid to the commissioner of labor and workforce development. - Amends TCA Title 37 and Title 50.

2025-03-19 — Taken off notice for cal in s/c Banking and Consumer Affairs Subcommittee of Commerce Committee

Health Care - As enacted, enacts the "Fertility Treatment and Contraceptive Protection Act." - Amends TCA Title 63 and Title 68.

2025-04-29 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 247

Tort Liability and Reform - As enacted, prohibits governmental entities or local boards of education from extending immunity granted to independent school bus contractors rather than independent school bus owners and operators for providing school-related transportation services; requires liability insurance coverage in a contract or agreement between a local board of education and an independent school bus contractor for such services to be in an amount sufficient to satisfy applicable law; permits evidence of such coverage to include a certificate of insurance from an insurance provider that lists the local board of education as an additional insured. - Amends TCA Title 29, Chapter 20.

2025-05-13 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 299

Pensions and Retirement Benefits - As enacted, establishes that certain public officials, including members of the general assembly, who take office on or after July 1, 2025, have mandatory membership in the Tennessee consolidated retirement system (TCRS); allows a retiree to reannuitize retirement benefits in favor of a new spouse beneficiary following cancellation of a former spouse beneficiary due to divorce; makes other revisions to provisions governing the TCRS. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 25; Title 8, Chapter 34; Title 8, Chapter 35; Title 8, Chapter 36 and Title 8, Chapter 37.

2025-05-13 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 367

Motor Vehicles - As introduced, authorizes a dealer applicant without an established place of business to be issued a motor vehicle dealer license if the applicant is a nonprofit religious organization that is organized or incorporated in this state, has its certificate of incorporation or authority in good standing with the secretary of state, and has an established program of receiving donations of motor vehicles that it donates to individuals and providing free vehicle repair services to individuals with demonstrated need of a motor vehicle or repair services necessary to the individual's effort to become a self-sufficient member of the workforce. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 17.

2026-01-20 — Taken off notice for cal. in Transportation Committee

Motor Vehicles, Titling and Registration - As enacted, enacts the "Law Enforcement’s Safer Tennessee Electronic Registration (LESTER) Act," which clarifies that law enforcement is required to accept a digital copy of vehicle registration as proof of registration. - Amends TCA Title 38 and Title 55.

2025-05-02 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 157

Election Laws - As introduced, requires county election commissions to set uniform hours for each polling place used for early voting such that each polling place opens and closes at the same time on a single day. - Amends TCA Title 2.

2025-02-19 — Sponsor(s) Added.

Consumer Protection - As introduced, prohibits healthcare providers from reporting a patient's medical debt to a consumer reporting agency; prohibits consumer reporting agencies from including on a consumer report a record of a medical debt. - Amends TCA Title 9, Chapter 8; Title 16; Title 18; Title 20; Title 21; Title 27; Title 28; Title 29; Title 45; Title 47; Title 63 and Title 68.

2025-02-05 — Assigned to s/c Banking & Consumer Affairs Subcommittee

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, 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. - Amends TCA Title 39.

2025-04-29 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 264

Water Pollution - As enacted, requires the division of water resources in the department of environment and conservation, in collaboration with U.S. army corps of engineers, as necessary, to annually report information concerning compensatory mitigation provisions in aquatic resource alteration permits issued during the prior fiscal year to the governor, the comptroller of the treasury, and the chairpersons of the commerce committees; and to establish four categories of isolated wetlands for regulatory purposes; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 11, Chapter 14, Part 4; Title 66; Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 4 and Title 69.

2025-05-15 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 437

Utilities, Utility Districts - As enacted, makes revisions to present law relative to utilities. - Amends TCA Title 7; Title 13, Chapter 7; Title 65 and Title 68.

2025-05-27 — Effective date(s) 07/01/2025

Sewage - As enacted, prohibits a municipal sewer system or utility district that has operated a sewerage system outside of the corporate boundaries of the city or town for 25 years or more from ceasing operation of the sewerage system outside the corporate boundaries so long as the sewerage system maintains sufficient capacity; requires a utility system that provides wastewater service to provide a connection to the owner of real property for wastewater service when the utility system meets certain requirements. - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 35; Title 7, Chapter 82 and Title 68, Chapter 221.

2025-05-15 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 461

Taxes, Ad Valorem - As introduced, creates the commercial development board; with respect to new commercial property developed by private entities in certain taxing jurisdictions, authorizes the private entities to enter into agreements for payments in lieu of ad valorem taxes and leases with the commercial development board. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 9; Title 13; Title 48 and Title 67.

2025-03-19 — Taken off notice for cal in s/c Cities & Counties Subcommittee of State & Local Government Committee

Education, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to provide at least one professional development course that provides asynchronous instruction on the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom and that is made available, at no cost, to teachers in grades 6-12; requires such teachers to complete at least one department-approved professional development course on the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom by the later of August 1, 2028, or within two years of becoming licensed as a teacher in this state. - Amends TCA Title 49.

2026-05-27 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 1056

Purchasing and Procurement - As enacted, authorizes a local government to execute a cooperative purchasing agreement with other local, state, and federal governmental entities for purposes of purchasing materials, labor, and services used for maintenance, operations, component replacement, or repairs of existing facilities and grounds owned or operated by a local education agency or by a local government agency. - Amends TCA Section 12-3-1205.

2025-04-04 — Effective date(s) 03/28/2025

Criminal Procedure - As enacted, requires the clerk of every court having jurisdiction of criminal offenses to include a $12.50 charge in every cost bill, to be remitted to the county government to provide support services for the purpose of promoting public safety at the sole discretion of the district attorney general; takes effect upon two-thirds vote of the county legislative body; requires a district attorney general receiving funding to submit an annual report. - Amends TCA Title 40.

2025-05-13 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 369

Purchasing and Procurement - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee Procurement Protection Act." - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 56.

2026-04-27 — Effective date(s) 07/01/2026

State Government - As introduced, creates the "Tennessee Critical Infrastructure Act." - Amends TCA Title 4.

2025-02-05 — Assigned to s/c Public Service Subcommittee

Pensions and Retirement Benefits - As enacted, enacts the "Fairness in Benefits Act." - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 27; Title 8, Chapter 34; Title 8, Chapter 35; Title 8, Chapter 36 and Title 8, Chapter 37.

2025-05-08 — Effective date(s) 05/02/2025

Health Care - As introduced, urges the human rights commission to study problems of discrimination against healthcare providers in this state because of their decision to decline to participate in a healthcare service on the basis of religious, moral, or ethical beliefs. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 20; Title 29; Title 39; Title 49; Title 50; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71.

2025-02-05 — Assigned to s/c Health Subcommittee

Education - As introduced, enacts the "Family Right to Educational Emancipation (FREE) Act," which creates a new category of independent home schools that are not subject to the data collection, reporting, or assessment requirements applicable to existing independent home school programs and that exempts such home school students and parents from compulsory school attendance requirements; prohibits the department of safety from conditioning the issuance of a driver license or learner's permit on a school-aged applicant's attendance record or enrollment status. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 49; Title 50 and Title 55.

2025-03-12 — Sponsor(s) Added.

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, expands "law enforcement officer" to include a correctional officer employed by a county jail, the department of correction, or a private prison contractor and a probation or parole officer employed by the department of correction or a private probation provider for purposes of the offense of assault against a law enforcement officer. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 13, Part 1.

2025-04-17 — Sponsor(s) Added.

Remedies and Special Proceedings - As introduced, creates a civil action against any person or government entity that infringes upon a person's right to bear arms under the Tennessee or United States Constitutions; requires the person or entity to be liable for actual or statutory damages, punitive damages, attorney's fees, and court costs. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 54.

2025-04-02 — Failed in s/c Civil Justice Subcommittee of Judiciary Committee

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, increases from a Class E felony to a Class D felony the offense of burglary of a conveyance. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

2026-05-14 — Effective date(s) 07/01/2026

Driver Licenses - As introduced, requires all written driver license examinations to be administered in English only; prohibits the use of a translation dictionary, electronic device, or interpreter to assist a person taking the examination. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 50, Part 3.

2025-03-18 — Failed in s/c Transportation Subcommittee of Transportation Committee

Natural Disasters - As introduced, creates the State Disaster Relief Program to be administered by TEMA for the purpose of providing grants to local governments where a natural disaster has occurred that does not exceed the threshold for federal disaster relief. - Amends TCA Title 58, Chapter 2, Part 1.

2025-04-02 — Taken off notice for cal. in State & Local Government Committee