Finance subcommittee advances consent calendar; 30+ bills move to full finance

The Tennessee House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee on April 17 approved a broad consent calendar and referred more than 30 bills to the full Finance Committee for further consideration.

The committee, chaired during the session by Chairman Hicks, opened with a roll call and, after objections to several consent-calendar items were noted, voted to adopt the calendar. Chairman Hicks recognized individual bill sponsors to offer brief descriptions before the committee voted to advance each bill.

Why it matters: The subcommittee’s routine referral sends multiple substantive bills — spanning criminal justice, environmental permitting, transportation funding and social-services pilot programs — to the full Finance Committee, where fiscal considerations will be examined before final floor action.

The most substantial items included:

House Bill 5 76 (Chairman Doggett) — creates a Board of Professional Bondsmen to be housed in the Department of Commerce and Insurance. The committee adopted one short amendment (drafting code 7,254) and voted to send the bill to full finance, 13-0.

House Bill 12 78 (Chairman Hill) — as amended, allows certain loan charges (origination, application, appraisal fees) to be included in the hurricane interest payment fund application requests for counties. The committee voted to move the bill to full finance, 12-0.

House Bill 40 (Chairman Reedy) — establishes a task or study to assess juvenile detention bed needs for the state rather than earmark funding immediately. The committee advanced the bill to full finance, 13-0.

House Bill 10 89 (Sexton and Chairman Hicks) — requires mental-health evaluations for individuals convicted of certain offenses as part of the court’s sentencing process. The committee approved an amendment (drafting code 6,500) and moved…