UPCOMING LEGISLATION
I am currently working on my legislative package for the upcoming session. The filing deadline is January 31, 2023, so I will detail my legislation in the coming weeks.
Some of the following issues are expected to be on the legislative agenda this year:
Reproductive Healthcare Rights
The trigger bill passed by the GOP supermajority purposefully contained no exceptions for rape, incest or life of the mother, so this bill must be amended. I would prefer a full repeal, but that appears unrealistic with this Republican supermajority. For various reasons, there now appears to be strong momentum behind amending the criminal defense portions of the bill. Because there still appears to be strong Republican opposition to creating exceptions for circumstances such as rape and incest, those issues will likely be debated in a separate bill. I will continue working across the aisle to amend, to the extent possible, what is now the most restrictive anti-reproductive healthcare bill in the country.
Transportation Infrastructure
Having inherited a crumbling I-440, I have been working on transportation infrastructure issues since the day I took office in 2014. Now that I represent the I-24 corridor, I am even more driven to address the transportation issues plaguing our region and state. Our economic growth is being limited and every families’ quality of life is detrimentally impacted on a daily basis because we have nothing resembling a 21st century infrastructure system. Not only is our state behind the curve, it is also failing to develop a sustainable long-term vision for continued growth. Additionally, the state continues to allow itself to be handcuffed with an archaic funding model dating back to Gov. Austin Peay. We cannot wait any longer to substantively solve these problems.
Governor Bill Lee has finally decided to focus on the issue. Unfortunately, while he has outlined all the obvious problems and challenges, he has proposed no solutions that come close to addressing them to date. After parsing through all his fluff, all Lee is proposing thus far is to: a) increase fees on electric vehicles by 300%; and b) privatize lanes on state roadways under the guise of a “public/private partnership.” To sell these proposals as a “modernization” of our transportation system is offensive to the families I represent sitting in traffic for two or three hours every day. We cannot simply tax and pave our way out of this problem. Neither of Lee’s proposals will generate the funds necessary to adequately fund the development of a modern transportation infrastructure system that Tennessee families and businesses need and deserve or address the root causes of our funding woes. Regardless, for now, I am going to remain optimistic that those of us on both sides of the aisle who truly want to do the hard work to solve these problems can come together and use Lee’s proposal as a springboard to accomplish something meaningful.
Third Grade Retention Law
I was one of only two legislators in the House to vote against Gov. Lee’s shortsighted “literacy bill” during a special session two years ago, because I found its inherent flaws glaring. From placing too much weight on a single standardized test to removing input from teachers to exacerbating educational inequities to being an unfunded mandate, the bill was yet another poorly conceived Lee policy that was blindly rushed through the legislature by the GOP supermajority. Now that teachers and local officials have resoundingly communicated their displeasure to their legislators from one end of the state to the other on the eve of its enactment, we may finally be positioned to amend or even repeal the law. I will be working across the aisle to this end.
Taking Aim At Nashville
The legislature again appears prepared to overstep into local affairs. This year, Nashville families should be prepared for the state to attempt to limit the powers of the mayor and shrink the size of the Metro Council. The most commonly discussed plan would shrink the Council to 20 members with no at-large members.
