Capitol Hill Week

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 Right to Work Constitutional Amendment on track for final Senate approval

(Feb. 26, 2021) - Senate Committees worked at “full steam” this week as state senators examined the budgets of 18 departments or agencies of state government and advanced several important bills. The budget hearings, which will continue through March, come after Governor Bill Lee delivered his plan to fund state government for the 2021-2022 fiscal year to lawmakers earlier this month.

The committee which I chair, the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, conducted two budget hearings with the Department of Financial Institutions and the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.  The hearings are an important part of the process of reviewing how taxpayer dollars are spent and whether the money is being used efficiently and effectively to meet the needs of Tennesseans.   

Right to Work

Among key legislation highlighted this week in the Senate was a resolution to add Tennessee’s Right to Work law to the State Constitution.  The resolution is headed to the Senate floor after approval was given this week in our Commerce and Labor Committee. Senate Joint Resolution 2 protects the right of Tennesseans to join or refuse to join a labor union or employee organization, saying it should always be a “fundamental civil right.”  I am proud to co-sponsor this resolution.

Tennessee workers want to make their own choices in the workplace and this amendment will forever seal that right. It also sends a strong message that Tennessee will continue to foster a business-friendly climate into the future for locating high quality jobs. There is no better place than our State Constitution to ensure that Tennessee remains a right to work state.

Tennessee’s Right to Work statute has been state law since 1947. It provides workers cannot be hired or fired based on their membership in, affiliation with, resignation from, or refusal to join or affiliate with any labor union or employee organization.  While Right to Work has been the long-standing public policy of Tennessee, it is increasingly under attack.  Twenty-seven other states have Right to Work laws, and nine of those have passed constitutional amendments, including neighboring states Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama.

National Anthem

Republicans in the Tennessee Senate sent a letter this week to the state’s university presidents and chancellors asking them to address the issue of student athletes kneeling in protest during the National Anthem prior to sports competitions.  The letter points out that the National Anthem “represents not only the freedoms we enjoy as Americans, but the ultimate sacrifice paid by many in order for us to enjoy those freedoms.”

Without the sacrifices of our veterans, there wouldn’t be an opportunity for team sports or perhaps even the opportunity to receive an athletic scholarship or public college education. These opportunities came at a high price for many men and women who fought and died to give us the freedoms we enjoy. If players are playing for Tennessee’s public university teams, they should stand for the National Anthem and honor those sacrifices. It is what should unite us as Americans, not divide us, and we should expect no less.

“The National Anthem is a symbol of pride for America,” the letter said.  “It lifts our spirits toward the ideals upon which our great country was founded:  that all are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  During athletic competitions, our student athletes represent not only themselves, but also our universities and all the citizens of this state, many of whom view this form of protest as offensive and disrespectful to the very thing our National Anthem represents.”

The letter went on to encourage each of the universities to adopt policies within their respective athletic departments to prohibit any such actions moving forward.  “While we work together to make Tennessee a better place for all our citizens, let’s not focus on what divides us but on what unites us, which is being an American,” the letter concluded.

Tennessee Promise Scholarships

Legislation creating a pilot program for Tennessee Promise students with financial hardships advanced through the Senate Education Committee this week. The Tennessee Promise Program is a scholarship program through which a person may attend community college or technical college free of tuition and fees.  Senate Bill 229 requires the Tennessee higher education commission (THEC) to establish a four-year pilot program that awards grants to Tennessee Promise scholarship students who are receiving services as part of the college coaching initiative delivered by partnering organizations and are experiencing financial hardships that may prevent degree completion. Currently, about 57% of Tennessee Promise students complete their degree.   

U.S. Supreme Court Justices -- Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted seven to two this week to urge Congress to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to keep the number of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices at nine seats.    Senate Joint Resolution 49 seeks to preserve the integrity of, as well as public confidence in, the nation’s highest court by keeping the same number which has served the nation well for the past 150 years.  The amendment would first need to win over two-thirds of both chambers of Congress, and then be ratified by three-fourths of the states.

Visitation/Long Term Care Facilities

The Tennessee Department of Health announced this week that state-specific visitation restrictions for long-term care facilities are ended effective February 28, 2021. Although limited visitation restriction will no longer be in place at the state level, facilities still remain under federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Visitation Guidance.  The Department of Health said 100 percent of Tennessee’s nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities have completed both doses of COVID-19 vaccinations, and Tennessee’s assisted care living facilities and residential homes for the aged are projected to be completed this week.      

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