Updated 2020 Legislative Priority List - February 21, 2020
2020 Legislative Priorities - Feb 21 Update
Partner Organizations’ Legislative Priorities
Advocate Confidentiality - led by AWAKE
HB2171/SB2742 - Victim’s Rights: This bill prohibits an advocate from disclosing communications received from a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking in a judicial, legislative, or administrative proceeding unless the victim gives express written consent. (Aligns with Violence & Safety measures from 49 to One report and supports our victim advocate partners locally and statewide.)
Update: HB in Criminal Justice subcommittee on 2/25; SB in Senate Judiciary on 2/25
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act - led by A Better Balance
HB2708/SB2520 - Employees/Employers: This bill prohibits employers from discriminating against applicants and employees with pregnancy-related conditions by not providing them with reasonable accommodations. (Aligns with Work & Family measures from 49 to One report.)
Update: HB in Employee Affairs subcommittee on 2/25; SB assigned to Commerce & Labor
Improving the Health Outcomes of Incarcerated Women and Their Pregnancies - led by Healthy & Free Tennessee
HB1651/SB1839 - Prisons and Reformatory Institutions: This bill requires a physician to provide prenatal and postpartum medical care to pregnant prisoners and detainees; requires correctional institutions to provide pregnant prisoners nutritionally appropriate meals and supplemental provisions. (Aligns with both Health & Wellness and Reproductive Rights measures from 49 to One report.)
Update: HB in Correction subcommittee on 2/26; SB assigned to Health & Welfare
Voting Rights Restoration - led by Think Tennessee
HB547/SB589 - Criminal Procedure: This bill restores the voting rights of persons convicted of certain crimes upon receipt of a pardon or completion of any sentence of incarceration, parole, or probation. Among other things, it removes legal/financial obligations as a barrier to voting eligibility. (Aligns with Political Participation measures from 49 to One report.)
Update: HB assigned to Judiciary; SB assigned to Judiciary subcommittee
Maintaining Past Gains
Ending Child Marriage and Forced Marriage in Tennessee
OPPOSE: HB2310/SB2290: This bill deletes the statutes on marriage licensing and ceremonies, effectively rolling back the strides we made to end child marriage and to impose penalties for forced or coerced marriage.
Update: HB assigned to Children & Families subcommittee; SB assigned to Judiciary
Combating Suicide in Tennessee
HB159/SB1465 - Health Care: This bill extends the Suicide Prevention Act of 2018 indefinitely and requires the department of health to compile data on the medications that were prescribed to those dying from suicide. It also includes reporting requirements.
Update: HB assigned to Finance, Ways and Means subcommittee; SB assigned to Finance subcommittee
Supporting Victims of Human Trafficking
HB2093/SB2043 - Children’s Services, Department of: This bill requires the department to publish the guidelines for best practices in identifying and reporting signs of child abuse, child sexual abuse, and human trafficking in which the victim is a child on the department’s website.
Update: HB assigned to Children & Families subcommittee; SB assigned to Judiciary
Streamlining the Rape Kit Process - Priority Bill of Coalition to End DV and SV
HB2191/SB2121 - Sexual Offenses: This bill revises and enacts various provisions regarding the rights of victims of sexually oriented crimes, including decreasing the time period within which a law enforcement agency must submit a sexual assault evidence collection (SAEC) kit to the TBI, requiring the TBI to begin analyzing an SAEC kit within 30 days of receipt, requiring the TBI to create a tracking system for SAEC kits, and prohibiting the use of forensic evidence against the victim in certain circumstances.
Update: HB assigned to Criminal Justice subcommittee; SB assigned to Judiciary
Survivor Victim Relief
FOLLOWING, NO POSITION YET: HB2530/SB2811 - Criminal Procedure: This bill specifies that a trafficking victim filing a petition for expunction must not have been convicted of any federal offenses or offenses in any other state. This was filed as a caption bill, and we are working hard to determine the intended direction of the bill.
Update: HB in Constitutional Protections subcommittee on 2/25; SB assigned to Judiciary
49 to One Strategic Priorities
Eliminating Barriers to Secondary Education
HB379/SB823 - Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation: This bill requires TSAC to promulgate rules designating pregnancy as an approved medical leave of absence for purposes of the Tennessee HOPE scholarship. (Aligns with Poverty and Opportunity measures from 49 to One report.)
Update: HB in Government Operations on 2/24 (already passed Education); SB in Education on 2/26
Firearms Restrictions for Offenders
OPPOSE: HB1662/SB1999 - Firearms and Ammunition: This is a bill that we opposed and stopped (with partners across the state) last session, but it’s back. This bill replaces the firearms surrender affidavit completed by those convicted of domestic violence crimes and instead requires a defendant, prior to entering a guilty plea for a domestic violence offense, to sign a domestic violence offense firearm notification form stating the requirements of lawful dispossession. (Aligns with Violence and Safety measures from 49 to One report.)
Update: HB assigned to Constitutional Protections subcommittee; SB assigned to Judiciary
Equal Pay for Tennessee Women
HB1588/SB1721 - Sex Discrimination: This bill enacts the “Tennessee Pay Equality Act.”
Update: HB assigned to Employee Affairs subcommittee; SB assigned to Commerce & Labor
HB2387/SB1853 - General Assembly, Directed Studies: This bill directs the Tennessee advisory commission on intergovernmental relations to perform a study to determine what disparities persist between equal pay for equal work between men and women of the public sector in this state. (These bills align with both the Employment & Earnings and Poverty & Opportunity measures from 49 to One report.)
Update: HB assigned to Employee Affairs subcommittee; SB assigned to Commerce & Labor
Family Leave Legislation
HB2024/SB1786 - Public Employees : This bill provides paid family and medical leave for state employees and teachers. (Aligns with Work & Family measures from 49 to One report.)
Update: HB assigned to Public Service & Employees subcommittee; SB assigned to State & Local
Advancing Sex Education in Tennessee
HB2434/SB2583 - Education, Curriculum: This bill deletes the family life curriculum that only allows students to receive education on sexual risk avoidance through abstinence and requires each LEA and public charter school that serves any of the grades kindergarten through 12 to provide students with medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education that teaches students about abstinence, contraception, consent, and how to develop healthy relationships and communication skills.
Update: HB assigned to Curriculum subcommittee; SB assigned to Education
HB2527/SB2411 - Education, Curriculum: This bill requires the state board of education to develop standards, and the department of education to develop an aligned curriculum, for instruction on healthy relationships in the lifetime wellness standards.
Update: HB assigned to Curriculum subcommittee; SB assigned to Education
(These bills align with the Reproductive Rights measures from the 49 to One report.)
Additional Priority
HB2509/SB2797 - Public Funds and Financing : This bill adds requirements to the spending, dedicating, or reserve of certain funds from the temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) program by the department of human services and the department of health.
Update: HB assigned to Public Health subcommittee; SB assigned to Health & Welfare