Jobs Take Legislative Priority Over Guns, Harwell Says

The woman expected to run the state House of Representatives next year says the top priority will be job creation. Nashville Republican Beth Harwell says the economy takes precedence over other popular GOP issues like gun rights.

Harwell says she’s confident the Republican caucus will make her speaker of the state House in January. And when that happens, her main task will be helping pass a jobs plan from the new governor, Bill Haslam. Specifics of that plan aren’t clear yet.

With the GOP in firm control of both legislative chambers, some say that agenda could get sidetracked by other issues like gun rights. But Harwell doesn’t think so.

“We addressed a good number of gun bills last session, and I feel that clearly we received a mandate from the public that we need to be focused on jobs and education and the economy this session.”

Harwell added as the party of less government, Republicans should run a short session and not push a lot of new laws or spend too much time on honorary resolutions.

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RAW AUDIO:

Below you can hear complete audio from Harwell’s press conference Monday morning.

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EXTRA:

When contacted for details about Haslam’s plan for jobs, spokesman Dave Smith offered this:

“Right now Gov.-elect Haslam is focused on building his team, a team that will be focused on growing jobs, continuing the momentum for education reform and managing a difficult budget.”

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