Tennessee Senate passes a package of bills on third reading, including bans on local guaranteed-income pilots and expanded civil liabilities tied to mailed FDA‑

The Tennessee Senate met in session and approved a series of bills on third and final consideration, voting on measures that ranged from election‑administration changes and pension divestment rules to criminal‑justice and public‑health provisions.

Among the most contested measures were a ban on local guaranteed‑income pilot programs, a bill adding a wrongful‑death remedy tied to mailed abortion‑inducing drugs, and a permissive measure allowing certain local officials to cast votes remotely under narrow conditions. The chamber also approved legislation on prisoner monitoring costs in work‑release programs, teacher accountability guidelines, and requirements about political nomination methods for county offices.

Votes at a glance (bill; description as stated on the floor; final tally): - Senate Bill 136 (local elected officials' limited remote voting): permits county commissions and city councils to allow members to vote electronically in narrowly defined circumstances (medical, family emergency, military service, inclement weather), requires live audiovisual feed and recording; passed 28‑2. - House Bill 1025 (conformed from Senate Bill 170; juvenile license revocation for bullying/cyberbullying convictions): added possibility of driver's license revocation for juveniles adjudicated under recent anti‑bullying statutes; passed 27‑0. - Senate Bill 351 (preemption of local guaranteed‑income programs): preempts local governments from establishing guaranteed‑income programs that give unconditional cash payments to individuals; passed 26‑4. Sponsor: Senator Taylor; opponents described the bill as a preemption of local pilot experiments. - Senate Bill 419 (wrongful‑death remedy for abortions induced by mailed abortion‑inducing drugs): makes the death of an unborn child by certain mailed abortion‑inducing drugs a wrongful death/catastrophic injury for civil recovery in limited circumstances and exempts physicians, pharmacists and carriers from liability; passed 25‑5. - Senate Bill 533 (clarifies responsibility for electronic monitoring costs in jail work‑release): clarifies that sheriffs/jail authorities are responsible for paying monitoring costs or deducting from wages as appropriate; passed 25‑5. - House Bill 805 (conforming bill regarding divestment from certain Chinese‑owned equities for public pension systems): requires plans to divest majority‑owned Chinese equities or submit plans; passed 24‑1. - Senate Bill 602 (teacher accountability and related leave provisions for state special schools): requires guidance on how long a student must be present before a teacher is held accountable for that student's academic records and permits local districts to compensate estates for unused leave; passed 27‑0. - Senate Bill 621 (campaign‑finance/disclosure change for corporate political communications): closes a disclosure loophole for corporate mail campaigns and requires formation of a PAC for such activity; passed 25‑2. - Senate Bill 626 (election administration amendments, including provisional ballot timing and prohibitions on internet voting): makes multiple changes to county election procedures and ballot handling; passed 22‑4. - Senate Bill 655 (clarifies who may be appointed to pursue removal/ouster petitions when local counsel has conflicts): permits a district attorney general to authorize another district attorney or assistant to proceed in removal actions when conflicts prevent local counsel from filing; passed 23‑5. - Senate Bill 674 (state preemption of new local labor regulations): preempts local governments from imposing new labor regulations that exceed state or federal law; passed (constitutional majority declared; tally not specified in floor record). - House Bill 676 (conforming substitute for Senate Bill 705 concerning state special schools' teacher pay/leave parity): requires state special‑school salary schedules and leave to move with county LEA adjustments; passed (constitutional majority declared; tally not specified in floor record). - Senate Bill 750 (Centralized Immigration Enforcement Division reporting and information‑sharing requirement): requires the Centralized Immigration Enforcement Division to report to the legislature and share analyses with enforcement officials; passed 26‑5. - Senate Bill 799 (primary election requirement for statewide political party nominees and grandfathering for some counties): requires statewide parties to nominate by primary and contains limited grandfathering for counties that used caucus nominations in prior cycles; passed 26‑3. - House Bill 760 (permissive school rescue‑inhaler program, amended): permits school systems to maintain rescue inhalers and provides liability protections for entities/providers under set conditions; passed 28‑0.

The session also moved several other items to calendars or set certain bills for later consideration. Where the floor explanation provided details, the descriptions above reflect sponsors' explanations and floor debate; where the record did not provide a substantive bill description the summary is marked "not specified." The chamber repeatedly invoked constitutional‑majority procedures and routinely declared passage when the recorded ayes met the constitutional majority.

Quotes from the floor (selected): "This bill does have a sunset... the amendment corrects the date of the sunset to 07/01/2028," Senator Briggs said while explaining an amendment to Senate Bill 136. "This bill would not prevent a philanthropic organization from giving money to people... what it would stop is giving that money to the government, and then the government turn around and giving that money to a citizen for no other reason than not working... This is socialism," Sponsor Senator Taylor said in debate on Senate Bill 351. "This makes the death of an unborn child a wrongful death if it's caused by abortion‑inducing drugs... it's already illegal... What this bill does is add that wrongful death to the catastrophic injury in the law," Senator Hensley said while explaining Senate Bill 419.

Members and committee chairs advised members of upcoming committee meetings and other procedural announcements before the Senate adjourned until the next stated session time.