State Senator Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield) said a bill that would prohibit individuals from transporting illegal aliens into the Volunteer State failed in committee because its language was not “exact.”
The bill, SB 2802, would increase the penalty fine for transporting an illegal alien from $1,000 to $5,000.
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Tennessee State Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) said he voted present on the State Senate’s version of Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice bill this week in the education committee because he said he believed there needed to be “more discussion” on the bill before it advanced out of committee.
“I was present, not voting, because I felt like we needed more discussion in the education committee,” Hensley said on Thursday’s episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
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A bill to prevent local governments from spending taxpayer funds on abortions or travel out of state to get abortions passed a Tennessee Senate committee this week and will soon head to the full Senate.
The bill comes after Tennessee’s law banning abortions went into effect following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Last year, the Metro Nashville council proposed a $500,000 grant to assist women getting an abortion outside of Tennessee but then amended the bill to make it a grant to Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi.
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A Tennessee bill would allow every public school teacher in the state to have $500 to spend on classroom supplies.
The bill would be an adjustment on the $200 initially stipulated for each teacher’s use in the new Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement funding formula, set to begin in the 2023-24 school year.
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Tennessee lawmakers eliminated another sector of privilege tax this year with the removal of physicians and osteopathic physicians from the $400 annual state licensing tax.
But many are pushing for the remaining professional privilege taxes to end in Tennessee.
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Staff for Tennessee Governor Bill Lee won’t comment on the matter, but State Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) said Thursday that members of the Tennessee National Guard should decide on their own whether to vaccinate against COVID-19. Tennessee National Guard officials said in November that their troops must take the COVID-19 shot or face discharge. This, per a mandate from the U.S. Department of Defense and President Joe Biden.
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Metro Nashville School Board members won’t update their policy on transgender athletes to comply with a new Tennessee law, but a state legislator says state government officials could penalize the school district for disobeying. State Senator Joey Hensley (R-Howenwald) helped get the original bill through the Tennessee General Assembly.
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People who attended regional town halls this fall to discuss Tennessee’s public education funding strategy want legislators to pump even more money into public schools, but one state legislator said that’s not a remedy for improvement. Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) said Wednesday that the state’s funding formula should change but it needs to recognize how many teachers and principals are needed.
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The Tennessee Legislature finished its special session on Ford’s $5.6 billion electric truck project Wednesday by approving $884 million in spending and creating a Megasite Authority of West Tennessee board to oversee operations.
“This is the largest single economic investment in rural Tennessee’s history,” Gov. Bill Lee said. “… It is, most importantly, a win for western Tennessee’s workforce.”
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A bill in the Tennessee General Assembly would require that middle school or high school students’ biological gender determine whether they may participate in interscholastic sports specifically tailored either for males or females. Supporters of the bill told The Tennessee Star Friday they believe the bill will pass both the state house and the state senate.
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Local school boards in Tennessee and people who run charter schools could have more legal powers to create their own quarantine policies and implement those policies in an emergency. This, according to a bill that members of the Tennessee General Assembly filed this month.
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