The second regular session of the 113th Tennessee General Assembly convened on Tuesday, Jan. 9, ushering in new restrictions for media and the public hoping to view proceedings in the House of Representatives.

The new policy, apparently established the day before, requires would-be spectators to obtain advance approval from lawmakers in order to sit in the House gallery. The restriction appears to be aimed at mitigating public disruptions that defined the legislative session last spring following the Covenant School shooting in Nashville. As legislators filed into the Capitol building on Tuesday, state troopers and Sergeants at Arms flanked either side of the House chambers entrance, sequestering members of the public and lobbyists alike to a small area to the side of the rotunda that was previously open to the public just a year ago.

As for the upper chamber, no such policy has been enacted at the present time. The gaveling in of Senate business was largely perfunctory, save for the absence of Lt. Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) who is continuing to recover from ankle surgery at his home. Senate Speaker Pro Tem Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin) presided over the body on Tuesday.

While the second half of a legislative session typically bears little changes in the constitution of committees, two new House members were sworn in this fall to fill seats vacated by Rep. Scotty Campbell (R-Mountain City) who resigned in April, and longtime Rep. Bill Beck (D-Nashville) who died in May. Reps. Timothy Hill (R-Blountville) and Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) succeeded both members after winning their respective special elections in August. Hill previously held the HD-3 seat from 2012 to 2020 but chose not to seek re-election in order to run for Tennessee’s 1st Congressional District. He was appointed as interim representative by the Sullivan County Commission and eventually won the three-way Republican primary in June. Behn, a member familiar with the legislature through community organizing and protesting, won the HD-51 seat in a close primary race against former Nashville city councilmember, Anthony Davis, who had been appointed by the same following the sudden death of Beck.

Both Behn and Hill have been assigned to the House Health Committee, in addition to Hill being assigned to Insurance full and subcommittees.

As TMA works to advance its 2024 policy priorities, we will be asking members to engage with their elected officials to secure votes as bills move through the process. We encourage your active participation in these and other important legislative issues at our annual Day on the Hill set for Tuesday, March 5. You can also support our policy efforts by making a donation to TMA PAC, TMA’s nonpartisan, political action committee.

Do you have a relationship with one of these lawmakers? We want to know about it! Through this brief survey, you can provide information on the advocacy issues that you are willing to engage on and the legislators within your personal or professional network. This information will help TMA leverage our physician members to better amplify the voice of organized medicine across Tennessee.