Bills That Fail, Part 1

State session has been in full swing for two months, with four to six weeks before they’re finished for the year. As bills roll through the committee process, only one thing interests us more than bills that pass — bills that fail. Bill failure is sometimes routine, sometimes catastrophic, and often fascinating. The politics, policy, and players involved in killing legislation may tell us more about the legislature than any other metric. So we wanted to share the fascination with you.

Bill fail for a variety of reasons. Some are too ambitious. Some are too confusing. Some are bad. Some are good ideas with ill-conceived language, and as the old saying goes about details, there’s a devil in them. Some bills are sponsored by members who have spent all their political capital, or made too many enemies. Others are perfectly decent bills that run afoul of powerful lobbying groups, grassroots operations, or executive department wishes.

Below, we’ll look at a few bills that have failed already this year. Some have been “taken off notice” (never to return), some were sent to summer study (where they won’t be studied), and some were referred to General Sub (where they’ll never be voted on). The rest of them failed outright in committee, either with a negative vote or a failure to even be heard.

We’re going to take a little different format this week, explaining both what happened and — to the best of our ability — why. It’s our hope that by explaining how these bills fail, you might better understand our state political process and what shapes some of the laws we live under every day. Please write back to this email if you have thoughts or comments!

HB27/SB187 —

1. What is it? The “Reproductive Freedom Act”. This would have recognized that everyone has a fundamental right to ‘make decisions about their reproductive health care’, including to ‘have an abortion’.

2. What happened? The bill failed in House subcommittee a 6 to 2 vote along party lines. It has not been moved in the Senate.

3. Why? This bill had less chance of passage than a snowball’s chance in The Toasty Place. The bill’s sponsors likely knew this, but it was a statement bill for them. It’s an issue that they feel strongly about, and they wanted to push it and force a vote on it. On hot-button legislation, the party in power will sometimes use the rules to avoid votes that would look bad on their record, but in this case the issue is safe — Republicans on the committee were happy to go on record voting it down. The bill just failed on the merits: Republicans don’t support this broad-swathe legalization of abortion, even if they support certain exceptions to a ban.

HB552/SB494 —

1. What is it? The “FREE” Act. This would have created a new type of homeschooling option in the state, which would have allowed parents to school their children at home without any reporting to the state. Ideologically, we support this idea: Good parents are best suited to guide their children’s education, regardless of their own level of education, and similar bills have passed in 13 other states without negatively affecting educational outcomes. Making it simpler and less expensive for these parents to educate their children at home would be a great thing.

2. What happened? The bill failed in a House subcommittee by a vote of 5 to 1. The companion bil was sent to the General Subcommittee in the Senate, which really isn’t a committee at all and cannot vote on the bill.

3. Why? This one is a bit more complicated, so we’ll break it down with a few sub-points:

   1. Confusion. Instead of seeking to amend current code around homeschooling, this bill created a fourth type of non-public schooling in Tennessee. Had it passed, we would have had this totally free homeschool option, a state-regulated “independent homeschool” option, a religious-school umbrella option (which is how most homeschoolers in the state are educated), and then private schools. The legislation, while clear in some regards, also contributed to a confusing situation. Confusion kills bills.

   2. Several Tennessee courts issued statements saying that the new system of homeschooling could result in abusive parents pulling their children from the school system in order to avoid accountability. These statements seemed to weigh heavily with legislators.

   3. It appears that the bulk of Tennessee legislators believe that Tennesseans would be poor stewards of more personal liberty. This applies across a broad spectrum of policy areas. The tendency seems to be that citizens can’t be trusted with more freedom. And while we believe that more freedom in areas like this would be the right call, we also recognize that bad actors genuinely do abuse lax systems, and we can understand the desire to protect the vulnerable.

   4. The bill sponsors are having trouble passing legislation at the moment. While there are undoubtedly multiple factors at play, both of them have chosen to be vocally critical of leadership recently, and leadership usually responds to vocal criticism by making it hard to pass bills.

HB564/SB548 —

1. What is it? A bill that would ban entities that are intertwined with employers of a lobbyist from giving gifts to candidates for public office. It would also require the governor and his cabinet to disclose certain travel expenses.

2. What happened? The bill failed in a 3-2 vote in a House Subcommittee, with three Republicans voting against.

3. Why? In 2024, Governor Lee and TN Education Commissioner Reynolds were both found in violation of Tennessee ethics law by going on trips that were paid for by lobbyist employers. Investigations into these violations were instigated by Rep. Caleb Hemmer, who carried this legislation. The bill’s failure is probably a mix of political retribution against Hemmer and the fact that the Ethics Commission cautioned against narrowing the gift prohibition.

HB597/SB1207 —

1. What is it? A bill requiring that lobbyists report to the state about every measure that they’re paid to either support or oppose. We support this concept as a transparency move, though the exact implementation might differ.

2. What happened? The bill failed in a House subcommittee on a 4 to 2 vote. All Republicans voted against.

3. Why? There are doubtless politics going on behind the scenes for this one. The bill was sponsored by Democrats, which gave it a rough chance of passage in the first place, but the sponsors have moved legislation before so that isn’t entirely the issue. We suspect there may be two issues at play, one legitimate and one opaque:

   1. The legitimate: For lobbyists, trying to keep up with every piece of legislation that you are for or against, especially as things really get rolling, would be a HUGE burden in time and effort. Depending on the frequency and depth of the reporting, it could become dozens of hours per session to keep up with every bill that you’re working for or against.

   2. The opaque: If lobbyists had to report on the exact legislation that they’re working for and against, they would likely receive more public scrutiny and criticism. Interestingly, Senator Bo Watson’s wife has recently come under scrutiny for lobbying corporate clients while the Senator is on the Finance committee — if she were required to disclose every bill she lobbies for or against, it could create a clear ethical issue that opponents could exploit.

HB681/SB700 —

1. What is it? The “Healthy Soil Act”. It would create a state program (including $5m in grant money) to improve the health, yield, and profitability of soil in the state. Creates a network of “soil champions” to work on things like composting, improving microbiology, and improving the in-state resources available for farmers and ranchers who are taking care of their land in specific ways.

2. What happened? The bill failed for lack of a second in a House Subcommittee. This means that one member on the committee made a motion for the sponsor to speak, but no other member would second that motion, so the bill failed without being heard.

3. Why? This is an interesting case. The bill itself could have almost been sponsored by a raging conservative homesteader, and it has a lot of good ideas and substance. Unfortunately for the bill, it is sponsored by Justin Jones, the democratic activist who has made enemies of virtually every Republican in the legislature. Every one of his bills will die for the foreseeable future regardless of individual merit.

As things progress, we’ll have a few more editions in this vein, covering why certain bills fail to cross the finish line. And we’ll wrap session with a series on Bills that Pass.

P.S. — You may notice that this newsletter arrived in your inbox later than normal. That’s because one of our board members pointed out that it’s all too easy for us to think that salvation can comes through political figures or “passing the right laws”. But it really can’t. So Sunday morning is probably a better time to lift up our eyes and remember that our help comes from the Lord, not chariots or horses.

We agreed, so now you get to spend your Sunday mornings peacefully, resting in the knowledge that God has a plan that’s bigger than any bill or politician. And then you can read this newsletter in the afternoon after a nice nap.