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As the 105th General Assembly's Legislative Session is drawing towards a close, we have some successes to share with you and a few action alerts.  Many predict that session will end by May 15 or 16.  Once session is closed and Legislators go home, all legislation not passed this year will have to be reintroduced next year in the 106th General Assembly.  That means that we really need your help to share our support for the passage of the bills in this legislative update.  
In this Legislative Update: 
• Action Alert and Update: Study Committee on the Death Penalty
• Action Alert and Update: The Long Term Care Bill
• Action Alert and Update: The Racial Profiling Prevention Act
• Article on SJR127

Action Alert and Update:
HB 2733 Death Penalty Study Committee
House Finance, Ways & Means Budget Subcommittee
Wednesday May 7th, 2008
This was a Catholic Day on the Hill Focus issue.
This bill has PASSED in the Senate! 
Study committee on administration of the death penalty. Extends the date for the special committee to study the administration of the death penalty to report its findings to the governor and general assembly to October 1, 2009 from one year from the date of its members' appointments.
Share your support by sending an email to the members by clicking their names: 
Chair Tindell, L. DeBerry, Fitzhugh, Armstrong, Harrison, McDaniel, Odom, Overbey, Rinks, Roach, Shaw

Action Alert and Update:
Long Term Care 
We made a difference!
One of our focus issues for Catholic Day on the Hill was the Long Term Care bill that passed the Senate last Thursday!  But it still is moving in the House.  Please take a minute to help this bill along its way!   
House Finance, Ways & Means Budget Subcommittee
Wednesday May 7th, 2008
Email the members by clicking their names: 
Chair Tindell, L. DeBerry, Fitzhugh, Armstrong, Harrison, McDaniel, Odom, Overbey, Rinks, Roach, Shaw

Action Alert and Update:
Racial Profiling Prevention Act
Senate Floor
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
This was another one of our Catholic Day on the Hill Focus Issues! 
This bill has PASSED in the House!

Please take a minute to tell your Senator how much we support this bill!
Sen. Mae Beavers Sen. Andy Berke Sen. Diane Black
Sen. Dewayne Bunch Sen. Tim Burchett Sen. Charlotte Burks
Sen. Rusty Crowe Sen. Lowe Finney Sen. Raymond Finney
Sen. Ophelia Ford Sen. Thelma Harper Sen. Joe Haynes
Sen. Douglas Henry Sen. Roy Herron Sen. Doug Jackson
Sen. Jack Johnson Sen. Bill Ketron Sen. Tommy Kilby
Sen. Rosalind Kurita Sen. Jim Kyle Sen. Beverly Marrero
Sen. Randy McNally Sen. Mark Norris Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey
Sen. Steve Roller Sen. Steve Southerland Sen. Paul Stanley
Sen. Reginald Tate Sen. Jim Tracy Sen. Bo Watson
Sen. John Wilder Sen. Micheal Williams Sen. Jamie Woodson

Don't know who your Senator is? Click Here

So, what actually happened?
SJR127 spurred Parliamentary Chaos-adapted from the Tennessee Journal

Backers of a constitutional amendment to neutralize a 2000 state Supreme Court ruling on abortion long have had a majority of the 99 member House on their side.  But they lacked the 66 votes needed to pull the measure form the subcommittee system that blocked it.  Thursday, Rep. Bill Dunn from Knoxville tried a parliamentary trick aimed at getting the measure  before the House with a simple majority vote.  He sought to amend a routine rules suspension on another matter by Majority Leader Gary Odom from Nashville.

Speaker Naifeh from Covington ruled Dunn out of order.  And indeed, after being shown the pertinent rule later, Dunn conceded that such motions aren't subject to amendment.  But before that Dunn challenged Naifeh's ruling.  Naifeh stepped down to let Speaker Pro Tem Lois DeBerry from Memphis preside.  And for the first time in 18 years as speaker, Naifeh lost a challenge to the ruling of the chair, with 46 members voting to sustain it, 47 to overturn it.  After a 15 minute recess Dunn's motion to amend prevailed 51-43.  Ultimately, he still needed 66 votes to suspend the rules.  He got 55.

The fuss was over SJR127, a Senate passed resolution to amed the constitution to undo the courts decision that found greater abortion rights protections implicit in the state's constitution than the nation's. 

On Feb. 29, in response to a question from Sen. Diane Black from Gallatin, state Attorney General Cooper opined that if the TN legislature enacted the same ban on partial birth abortion that Congress has passed and federal courts have upheld, it would be "constitutionally suspect." That's because the 2000 state ruling requires a strict scrutiny standard.  Last week, in response to a question from Rep. Phillip Pinion from Union City, Cooper opined that federal law on partial birth abortion applies in Tennessee.  


In this issue:
1. SJR127 Consitutional Amendment regarding Abortion Fails
2. Death Penalty Update
3. Catholic Day on the Hill reminder

SJR127: Constitutional Amendment regarding Abortion Fails in Subcommittee
The proposed consitutional amendment that could have allowed new limits on abortions failed tuesday in the House Public Health and Family Assistance Subcommittee. This is the fourth time this type of proposal has been defeated in the legislature. The subcommittee voted 6-3.

See What Happened:
You can watch the House Public Health and Family Assistance subcommittee archived video to see the discussion and debate that took place on Tuesday. Click Here to watch video. Once there choose 2/26/08 Public Health from the subcommittee menu. It will download the video that you can watch from your computer.

Newspaper Articles:
Tennessean: "Proposal to limit abortion rejected" ( By Theo Emery, published 2/27/08 Local News Section)

Nashville City Paper: "House panel kills anti-abortion amendment" (by John Rodgers, published online 2/26/08)

Knoxville News Sentinel: "House Dems kill proposed abortion amendment" (by Tom Humphrey, published 2/27/08 State and Regional New Section)

Synopsis of how a bill passes through the General Assembly

Bills may be companions if both captions are identical. If a bill passes one house, it is sent to the other. If it has a companion that is moving through the process, the bill passing first remains on the clerk's desk in the second chamber until the companion reaches the floor. At that time the first bill is "substituted and conformed," meaning that lawmakers acted on the version already passed in the other chamber.

If a bill without a companion passes in one chamber, it goes through the committee process in the other chamber. Such bills rarely pass.

Names in parentheses in the bill summary are the prime sponsors who are listed first on the bill.

Amendments to bills are summarized just after the sponsors' names. Status columns usually note that amendments are on the bill.

Constitutionally all bills must pass three readings. The first two are formalities -- first reading when the bill is introduced, second reading when it is referred to committee. Third reading is final passage on the floor by the entire chamber.

Committees may defer a bill (deferral to a date when the Assembly is out of session is a way to kill legislation); it may fail; it may be referred to a subcommittee; it may be recommended for passage with or without amendments; or go to the floor without recommendation.

When a committee recommends a bill with a large fiscal effect, it is referred to the Finance, Ways & Means Committee, which must also act on it. Otherwise, the bill goes to the Calendar Committee in the Senate or to the House Calendar & Rules Committee. The Senate Calendar Committee routinely schedules all bills for the floor, so we do not report its calendar. The House Calendar & Rules Committee is reported because it considered each bill substantively and bills frequently die there.

On the floor, a bill must receive the favorable vote of a "constitutional majority," or 17 senators and 50 representatives. If a constitutional majority votes against a bill, it is rejected and no bill on the same subject may be enacted during that two-year term. If a bill falls in between -- neither the votes for it or those against it make up a constitutional majority -- it "fails for lack of a constitutional majority" and goes to the Calendar committees. The bill can return to the floor under some conditions, but a bill may be voted upon only twice during a session.

 

 

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