NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's no longer about ostrich egg trophies and quiet discussions outside of the chambers. The Tennessee House and Tennessee Senate are visibly not getting along with each other when it comes to this special session.
The purpose of the special session was to take up bills regarding public safety and the Second Amendment after The Covenant School mass shooting left six dead, including three children.
Its committees closed and adjournment until next week, the Senate gave a clear message to the House: They are done with the special session. This has left the House and its leadership seething at its counterparts.
"We have a duty to warn bill that would have potentially stopped the Covenant shooter from happening that they refused to pass," House Speaker Cameron Sexton said. "So look, if that’s their prerogative, if they don’t want to come down here and propose a single thing they want to do or pass another bill that’s on them, but on the House, we’re going to do the job we think we should do."
The Senate has passed three pieces of legislation — gun storage funding, criminal depositions timing to the TBI and a request from the TBI to create a yearly report on human trafficking.
In response, the House said it would stick the bills it wanted funded inside its appropriation bill. The Senate has already passed a version of theirs to fund the special session and their trio of legislation plus a funding bill. The House is still meeting and passing bills through committees. In the final finance committee before the House session, lawmakers were going through 13 bills.
The Senate never reopened their committees Thursday to make way for those bills.
"They’ve got a chairman issue over there, so we’ll see," Sexton said.
When asked about what is the disconnect between the House and Senate during this session, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally said it was a list that would take too long to go through with reporters.
WATCH: Ever get really frustrated when you just can’t get an elevator? This is what happened when Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton left House chambers! pic.twitter.com/rIcsKZVjdG
— Phil Williams (@NC5PhilWilliams) August 24, 2023
"Well, we've completed what the governor has asked us to do," McNally said. "He had six bills plus an appropriations bill. They withdrew one, one had some issues. Four of those bills, we passed. We are waiting to see what happens on the House side. He thought those were the bills that would address the situation (Covenant school shooting)."
McNally said the Senate had sent them their bills and the appropriations bill and they would have to see what would come over from the House. He said that an order of protection bill wasn't a part of the bills, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be taken up in January. Originally, Gov. Bill Lee came up with an extreme order of protection bill that was rejected by the Republican supermajority.
"This is how we usually end up," McNally said. "Both bodies might have a little bit of difference of opinion on what gets done."
