Are you interested in knowing your legislator’s voting record?
State Sen. Lee Harris, D-Memphis, and state Rep. Jason Powell, D-Nashville, have proposed legislation that would make that much easier for the ordinary citizens in Tennessee.
State Sen. Lee Harris, D-Memphis
On Tuesday, Harris’ bill, S.B. 322, passed a key Senate committee. It would require that the state “publish the voting record of each general assembly member on the official website of the Tennessee general assembly following the adjournment of each annual session of the general assembly.”
“As it stands now, in order to compile a legislator’s voting record, you would have to go to each individual bill to see how your member voted and put together all those bills to compile a list of how your member voted,” Harris told the Senate State & Local Government Committee on Tuesday. “So instead this bill basically says that we would do a compilation that’s published online of the voting records of an individual member if you clicked on that member’s name.”
“This will bring us up to date with the vast majority of states which already compile voting records,” Harris said.
The Senate State & Local Government committee voted unanimously for the bill.
One question was asked about the cost of publishing such information. The fiscal note on the bill says the cost would not be significant.
The House version of the bill is assigned to the House State Government committee, and is not yet on the calendar to be considered.
See video of discussion of the bill here.
