NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Three bills with no consensus.
“The House version is very different than the Senate version, and both of them are very different from the governor’s version. This is the governor’s initiative,” House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) said. “If none of the people running the three parts of this legislative branch or executive branch agree, then why are we doing it?”
It’s the latest in what’s essentially been a cold war between the Tennessee House and Senate since last year’s special session.
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Tennessee Republicans are trying to push a bill to allow private school families to take public tax money. The issue is neither House and Senate Republicans nor Gov. Bill Lee (R-Tennessee) can agree on how to do so – and there are three different proposals.
“Our goal is to pass the House version of what we can get through committee, what that looks like,” Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) said. “We think we’re in a good spot with what we have.”
Senate Republicans have downplayed the rift, but both sides have acknowledged they have no intention of passing the other’s voucher bill as is.
“My focus, and I hope the Education Committee’s focus, has been on our bill and our legislation,” Senate Education Chair Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol) said. “We’ve been laser-focused right now on that.”
The House packed their proposal with numerous other issues tied to public schools, like cheaper insurance for teachers but relatively few accountability measures.
The Senate declined to say whether those were dealbreakers but alluded to the fact that they wouldn’t pass those measures.
“If these things are important to them – which they’ve told us for two decades – then they need to go over to the Senate and start talking to them about, ‘These are the things that we like, and these are the things that we think should be included,” Sexton said about public school proponents.
Both sides said Thursday they’re likely headed to what’s called a Conference Committee. It happens when the two chambers can’t come to an agreement and refuse to resolve it through legislation.
Instead, members of leadership appoint members to the Conference Committee to hammer out a compromise.
Most recently, the General Assembly went to Conference during last year’s special session. The Senate refused to budge and pass any legislation, and the House was ultimately forced to fold.
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