NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tuesday afternoon, the Tennessee Special Session came to a pretty dramatic end when Rep. Justin Pearson and Rep. Justin Jones approached Speaker Cameron Sexton, and eventually a shoving match ensued between Pearson and Sexton.
"Representative Pearson comes in and pops me from the right side," said Sexton.
"I was pushed by Cameron Sexton and by other folks on his team," said Pearson.
But just agreeing on how to end the special session was a battle of its own.
Early Tuesday morning, leaders of the House and Senate met in Tennessee Governor Bill Lee's office at the Capitol, hoping to broker a peace between the warring chambers.
"Do you have a second to chat with us?" NewsChannel 5 asked Rep. William Lamberth (R-Portland), who serves as House Majority Leader.
"Probably best I don’t right now," replied Lamberth.
"We’re going to go back and negotiate some more and see what happens. We’re hopeful there will be some movement, but you know, time will tell," said Speaker Cameron Sexton, in a joint interview with Lt. Gov. Randy McNally.
Negotiations continued behind closed doors. About an hour after the meeting with Gov. Lee, a brokered peace was reached.
Here's what both chambers agreed to do. The House and Senate would only pass four bills. One speeds up the time a clerk must report criminal activity to the TBI background check system, another provides safe gun storage incentives and another bill sets up a system for the TBI to study human rights violations and trafficking.
The Senate also agreed to adopt some of the House funding appropriations, including $50 million for mental health facilities in the state and $30 million to Tennessee colleges and universities for security upgrades.
"I believe it was a success," said Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, in a later Senate Republican news conference. But Senators seemed to be the only ones leaving happy.
"This is unacceptable to not pass bills that will make us a safer state without trampling on anyone’s civil liberties," said Rep. Lamberth. "I respect our senate colleagues. I disagree with them as strongly as I possibly could on this, but they got elected by their constituents the same as I did. And so, neither chamber can force the other chamber to do something."
House Republican leaders said they felt like the Senate left them with no choice.
"The message coming back from the senate was, we’re not passing anything else. So yea, you could have sat here for another week. And then what do you do then if they say we’re not passing anything — two weeks — three weeks. At what point do you just take the Senate at their word?" said Speaker Sexton.
Democrats called the whole session a waste of time and money.
"They did nothing of value for Tennesseans and it’s a betrayal, because that was the promise when we came in," said Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville.) "What we saw was bullying members, we saw bullying constituents, bullying Covenant Moms and throwing them out of committees and making a rule against signs that is against their First Amendment rights."
