Tennessee House approves measures on dual-office holding, wildlife naming, literacy reviews and CMT reporting

Members of the Tennessee House of Representatives approved a package of bills and resolutions during a floor session that included a prohibition on holding some simultaneous elected offices, a clarification of naming authority for the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission, a change to the frequency of a comptroller literacy report, and a nonbinding resolution urging a voluntary state reporting system for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

The measures were approved by voice or recorded tallies after limited debate on the House floor. Sponsors and a handful of members discussed scope and potential local impacts for some measures; other items were presented with agency or sponsor descriptions and passed with little floor discussion.

House bill 618: limits dual-office holding Representative Ron Wright, sponsor of House Bill 618, described the measure as: "It is a 1 sentence, bill prohibits an individual from holding an elected office of a local government and holding another elected office in the state at the same time." The bill includes a grandfather clause and "does not apply to state executive committees," Wright said on the floor. Representative John Hirt spoke against the measure for parts of rural Tennessee, saying, "for my rural district, we don't have people beating the bushes down to serve," and urging that voters should be allowed to decide in places where long-serving officials perform both roles. The bill passed on third and final consideration, receiving a recorded tally reported as 61 yeas, 27 nays,…