House Republican lawmakers join Majority Whip Johnny Garrett, at the podium, during the first week of the 114th Tennessee General Assembly. (Photo: John Partipilo)
NASHVILLE — The Tennessee House adopted rules Thursday lowering the bill-filing limit and setting up harsher punishments that enable the banishment of lawmakers and members of the public deemed out of order.
The bill limit will be 12 for rank-and-file members, and committee chairs will receive five extra bills while subcommittee chairs will be able to file two extra bills. Democrats, who are in a superminority, oppose the move, saying their voices will be further silenced because Republicans hold all chairmanships and will be able to file more bills.
The Republican-controlled House adopted stringent rules in 2024 after three members led an anti-gun rally on the floor in the wake of the 2023 Covenant School shooting in which six people were killed.
The new rules take those a step further.
House members who are called out of order two times in the same day can be limited to two minutes of speaking. If called out of order again by the speaker, the member can be silenced, and further disruptions over two days can lead to removal from the chamber.
Members who net that sort of punishment would be allowed to go to a meeting room in the Cordell Hull Building where they could cast votes remotely. The ban could last for three legislative days.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton said Thursday he doesn’t think the removal of members to a separate area runs into constitutional problems. He said other states such as Montana, as well as Congress, use comparable measures that enable lawmakers to vote remotely.
When the House held an expulsion hearing two years ago for Reps. Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson for their roles in a floor protest, it had no options except to expel or censure lawmakers for such a rules violation, Sexton said.
“I think it enhances what we’re doing and allows us to have different options for bad behavior,” Sexton said.
Jones filed suit against Sexton and House staff members, claiming his constitutional rights were violated through the use of House rules. In a rules committee this week, Jones, a Nashville Democrat, repeatedly referred to Sexton as “authoritarian” but was unable to persuade the Republican-controlled committee to pass any of his rules proposals.
Similarly, the House will be able to remove members of the public who disrupt sessions from the gallery or the Capitol lobby for two days. People who continue to show “egregious” behavior can be banned for the rest of a session, which lasts two years.
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