IN THE CAPITOL
The House Floor
Bills moving forward:
-HB 229 (Shepard) – authorizes pharmacies to participate in pharmacy drug disposal programs
-HB 25 (Williams) – adds dry needling to scope of practice of a physical therapist
Bills not moving forward:
-SB 256 (Bell) - Reauthorization of TN Economic Council on Women for another four years – Established in 1998, the council’s mission is to “assess the economic status of women in Tennessee in order to develop and advocate solutions that will address their economic needs and promote economic autonomy.”
-HB 804 (Pitts) – would have authorized private employers the ability to establish a preference in employment policies for hiring veterans, spouses of veterans, widows of veterans and widowers of veterans. The bill was defeated by a 4-3 vote in the Senate Government Operations Committee.
The top 3 issues about which I am receiving the most emails from constituents are:
1. Full practice authority for nurses (in support);
2. Governor’s proposal to end longevity pay for state employees (against); and,
3. HB 894 – requires the Dept of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to work with the Family Support Council before making changes to the administration of the Family Support Program (in support).
Sponsored Legislation
Standing up for working familes:
As I mentioned above, I will be presenting two affordable and workforce housing bills to the House Local Government Subcommittee on Wednesday. I worked closely with the Mayor’s Office and Metro Planning on this legislation.
HB 1174: The legislation, as amended, will support local government partnerships with non-profit organizations to develop affordable and workforce housing on government-owned land. In 2013, Metro Nashville established a local housing fund, the Barnes Housing Fund. This fund makes grants available to non-profit developers through a rigorous RFP process. While state law allows local governments to contribute funds to non-profits, this legislation would expand that allowance to include the contribution of real property. It would effectively allow Metro to use select Metro-owned properties as part of the Barnes portfolio, further supporting the non-profit, non-governmental development of affordable and workforce housing options. Notably, most of the real property at issue in this proposed legislation has little value – it has already been through a sale process that did not attract any buyers willing to pay the amount owed for taxes and, likewise, was not redeemed during the redemption period. By getting these properties in the hands of non-profits for the purpose of building affordable or workforce housing will eventually put them back into productive use and maybe onto the tax roll, which is preferable to having the government hold and maintain them indefinitely.
HB 1351: The legislation, as amended, would simply add a new subsection (27) to TCA 5-9-101. This would allow Metro to facilitate the construction and development of more affordable and workforce housing. The new statute would read, in part:
CHAPTER 9. Appropriation and Disbursement of Funds.
Part 1. Authorized Appropriations Generally.
5-9-101. Miscellaneous purposes.
The county legislative body may appropriate moneys as follows:
(1) For the payment of jurors;
…
(25) To appropriate funds for any project otherwise statutorily authorized;
(26) For economic and community development; and
(27) For affordable or workforce housing.
IN OTHER NEWS
Tennessee jobless rate rises. WBIR Senate Republicans vote to end the Tennessee Economic Council on Women. Read more here. Black Caucus calls on Republicans to remove Sheila Butt from her leadership role. The Tennessean A step backwards for diversity in Tennessee. MSNBC
