Legislative Update – Week Ending 2-1-19

TSEA February 4, 2019 Comments Off on Legislative Update – Week Ending 2-1-19
Legislative Update – Week Ending 2-1-19

TSEA has spent the first few weeks of the 111th General Assembly speaking with many top officials including the Speaker of the House Glen Casada, the new Commissioner of Human Resources Juan Williams, University of Tennessee President Randy Boyd and many others.

Below are a couple highlights from the last few weeks, and information on what to watch this week:

The first organizational meetings of all the committees in the House and Senate took place this week. TSEA met with and are looking forward to working closely this legislative session with Public Service and Employees Sub Committee Chairman Dr. Bob Ramsey and State Government Committee Chairman Kelly Keisling, and their great staff members. Likewise, we will be meeting soon with Senate State and Local Government Chairman Dr. Steven Dickerson and have already made contact with his outstanding staff.

Meetings were held with Speaker Glen Casada, Chairman of House Finance Committee Susan Lynn, Sub Committee House Chairman Andy Holt, as well as Senate Finance Chairman Bo Watson regarding funding longevity-for-all.

An introductory meeting was also held with Governor Lee’s Legislative Director Brent Easley to start our mutual working relationship and to have an initial conversation about TSEA’s legislative priorities. The release of Governor Lee’s budget proposal and his first State of the State address are scheduled for March 4, 2019.

We briefly met the new Commissioner of Human Resources Juan Williams. He has a great attitude and is highly qualified. We are planning a formal meeting with DOHR soon as our first official contact with the new Commissioner and his staff.

We also have been in conversation with Higher Education leadership from University of Tennessee, University of Memphis, and East Tennessee State University regarding their legislative packages and any effect on members. Chairman Jim Coley of the House Higher Education subcommittee met with TSEA to discuss his thoughts about the future of higher education and trends he is seeing. The House Higher Education subcommittee meets Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. and is live-streamed from the legislature’s website.

Full House State Committee and Senate State and Local are currently scheduled to meet Tuesday’s at 10:30 a.m. and can also be live streamed from the legislative website.

For live-streaming committee hearings, calendars, and other legislative information, visit the Legislature’s website here: http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/

Next week is the bill filing deadline. TSEA legislative staff’s focus will be finalizing bill sponsors for our key legislation. Check this update next week for a list of bills and sponsors and continue to watch TSEA’s website for legislative updates.