Tennessee’s House Speaker wants Senate to take up more bills

Tennessee’s special session will extend into Monday. The choice was made by the Senate on Thursday morning — although Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, who leads that chamber, says they’ve passed what they want.

“We’ve completed what the governor’s asked us to do,” said McNally.

They passed four of the seven bills in Gov. Bill Lee’s package. House Speaker Cameron Sexton thinks the Senate should do more.

“At this point they haven’t put forth a single idea that’s theirs so maybe next week they’ll come back and do something,” said Sexton.

Sexton and other representatives aren’t letting senators stop them from moving forward with what they want to get done.

“We put forth ideas that we think will benefit mental health access, that will solve or help solve juvenile crime in our state, as well as other things that would have helped duty to warn and other things that we think are beneficial to our state,” said Sexton.

Sexton says he wants the state to fund safety measures for private and public colleges and universities and a student loan forgiveness plan for mental health care providers.

Here’s what @LtGob and @SenBoWatson had to say. Basically the same thing. pic.twitter.com/tjI6cxPYms

— Blaise L Gainey (@BlaiseGainey) August 24, 2023

Unless senators change their minds over the weekend, those ideas would not likely become law.