House committees in the Tennessee legislature will have electronic roll call votes beginning this year if the recommendation from the House Select Committee on Rules is adopted. The change will get rid of controversial voice votes in which the chair decides if he or she heard more ayes or nays.
A contentious bill to close autopsy reports of minors whose cause of death is listed as a homicide ended up with a compromise: Copies cannot be released but a person can still inspect such reports in person. The bill was first introduced in the special session called by the governor in the wake of the shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville in which six people were killed, including three children. The parents of at least one of the children was deeply alarmed that the autopsy report of her child could be released to the public. The bill got stuck in the Senate during the special session and was reintroduced in 2024. It passed with the amendment, a compromise sought by TCOG and news media organizations.
Lawmakers handed open government some wins and losses during the session that ended Thursday. Among the wins was a bill by state Rep. Susan Lynn to add muscle to the Sunshine Law by allowing recovery of attorney fees and reasonable costs when a citizen prevails in an open meetings lawsuit.
A bill that has passed both the state House ad Senate will require state boards and commissions to make an agenda available to the public 48 hours before the meeting. The agenda must reasonably describe all agenda items.
The state tourism department is pushing a bill to give its commissioner authority to pick and choose which records are open to the public We think taxpayers deserve to know how their money is spent. Allowing secret deals opens the door to cronyism and corruption. NewsChannel 5 covered this controversial bill.
