GENERAL ASSEMBLY STILL IN RECESS

The Tennessee General Assembly was in recess this week, as committees in the Senate were appointed.  The new committees are attached to this report.  Lt. Governor Ramsey will be moving to the Legislative plaza where former Lt. Governor Wilder resided for over 30 years.  Many of the other Republican chairman, however, will remain in the War Memorial Building.   Republicans now chair seven out of the nine major committees and have the majority on each of those panels, meaning they can significantly determine what bills become laws and which don’t.   Ramsey also appointed Democratic Senator Rosalind Kurita to be the Senate’s Speaker Pro Tem, the body’s No. 2 ranking position.  Kurita was the deciding vote on the Lt. Governor’s election.  Knoxville Senator Tim Burchett will be Deputy Speaker.

click here for a list of commitees

Democrats in the state Senate also met to consider ousting current Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Haynes and electing new leaders.  Haynes said that sent “the wrong message to Republicans.”  But in the end, the already-split Democrats stayed as divided as they could be with a tie vote of 8-8 cast. Haynes remained caucus chairman.  Kurita, who attended the meeting, said the meeting was “painful.”

The Tennessee House will meet this week with organizational meetings being held in the standing committees.  Subcommittees will be appointed and named as well.  The Speaker had indicated he was looking at cutting down the number of subcommittees in each standing committee, but that is yet to be determined.  Session will resume on Monday night, Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday morning.  The tentative filing cut-off date in the House for the filing of all bills is close of business on February 15, 2007, the 10th legislative day.

The Senate will not meet this week. The cut-off date for the unlimited filing of all general bills is the close of business on Thursday, February 8, 2007.    The cut-off date for the nine bill limit is close of business Thursday, February 22, 2007, whereby each Senator will be only allowed to file 9 bills each.

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