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Tennessee House adopts resolution honoring SpaceX; lawmakers spar over Elon Musk’s local actions
Summary
The Tennessee House adopted a resolution praising SpaceX for rescuing astronauts, but Representative Pearson’s proposed amendments criticizing Elon Musk’s business activities in Shelby County and political actions drew floor debate and failed to pass.
The Tennessee House adopted House Joint Resolution 486 on the chamber floor, honoring SpaceX and the leadership of the company’s founder for their role in bringing two American astronauts safely home after a prolonged rescue effort.
The measure’s sponsor, Chairman Faison, urged adoption as a simple recognition of the company’s actions. "SpaceX, through the leadership of Elon Musk, was able to go and bring them back to Earth," Faison said on the House floor while renewing his motion to adopt the resolution.
Representative Pearson offered a series of amendments seeking to add critical language about Elon Musk and related companies. Pearson said she represented Southwest Memphis and pressed the House to weigh Musk’s local business activities, arguing those operations have harmed air quality in her district. "Elon Musk is also the founder of XAI and is polluting Tennesseans in Southwest Memphis," Pearson said while moving an amendment to add those criticisms to the resolution.
Pearson pointed to what she described as air-quality impacts from gas turbines associated with XAI in Shelby County and said the House should consider the broader, cumulative effects of praising an individual whose companies also operate in Tennessee. She framed the amendments as a call to look at the "totality" of an individual’s actions rather than limit recognition to a single act.
House leaders moved to end debate and call the previous question. Each of Pearson’s amendments was brought to a recorded vote and did not carry; the transcript records that amendments proposed by Pearson failed on the floor. After the failed amendments, Chairman Faison renewed his motion and the House adopted the resolution.
The final adopted resolution honors SpaceX and notes the return of the astronauts to their families. The debate on the floor made clear some members supported the narrow recognition of the rescue mission while others sought to use the resolution to highlight alleged local harms tied to Musk’s companies.
Action items and next steps recorded in the minutes show the resolution was adopted as presented after the failed amendment attempts; no implementing actions or directives to state agencies were included in the adopted language.
