2020 Legislative Priorities - March 16 Update
2020 Legislative Priorities: Updated March 16
Partner Organizations’ Legislative Priorities
Advocate Confidentiality - led by AWAKE
1. 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 on Judiciary calendar for Wednesday, March 19; SB PASSED
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act - led by A Better Balance
2. 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 on Government Operations calendar for Monday, March 16; SB on Floor calendar for Monday, March 16.
Improving the Health Outcomes of Incarcerated Women and Their Pregnancies - led by Healthy & Free Tennessee
3. 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 on State calendar for Tuesday, March 17; SB on Floor consent calendar for Monday, March 16
Voting Rights Restoration - led by Think Tennessee
4. 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: The sponsors and leading advocacy organizations are deliberating new approaches to restoration based on a recent AG opinion about the relationship between voting rights restoration and restitution payments.
Maintaining Past Gains
Ending Child Marriage and Forced Marriage in Tennessee
5. 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 is on Children & Families sub calendar for Wednesday, March 18.
Combating Suicide in Tennessee
6. 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.
Supporting Victims of Human Trafficking
7. 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 on Judiciary calendar for Wednesday, March 18
Streamlining the Rape Kit Process - Priority of Coalition to End DV & SV
8. 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 on Judiciary calendar for Wednesday, March 18; SB on Judiciary calendar for Tuesday, March 17.
49 to One Strategic Priorities
Eliminating Barriers to Secondary Education
9. 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: PASSED
Firearms Restrictions for Offenders
10. 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.)
Equal Pay for Tennessee Women
11. HB1588/SB1721 - Sex Discrimination - This bill enacts the “Tennessee Pay Equality Act.”
Update: SB on Commerce and Labor calendar for Tuesday, March 17.
12. 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: Failed in Employee Affairs sub.
Family Leave Legislation
13. 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.)
14. HB2265/SB2198 - State Employees - This bill was filed as a caption, but will be a (significantly) reduced version of the Governor’s Paid Leave announcement.
Update: HB on Public Service and Employees sub calendar for Wednesday, March 18; SB on State and Local calendar for Tuesday, March 17.
Advancing Sex Education in Tennessee
15. 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 on Curriculum sub calendar for Tuesday, March 17; SB on Education calendar for Monday, March 16.
16. 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.
(These bills align with the Reproductive Rights measures from the 49 to One report.)
Update: HB on Education calendar for Wednesday, March 18; SB on Education calendar for Monday, March 16.
Additional Priority
17. 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 on Public Health sub calendar for Tuesday, March 17.