I’m learning the ins and outs of the Tennessee House of Representatives.  I’m a member of a committee where we are trying to push issues important to Republican Women to get women involved and motivated.  As a result we are meeting with our local Representatives and Senators in a small group setting on a monthly basis.  It’s a great opportunity to ask questions, voice our concerns and address topical issues without the party line going amok. 

There are two procedural issues that have surprised me with the Tennessee house which has been run by Democrats for decades.  The first issue is where Representatives are allowed to place votes for each other if the missing Representative is onsite.  But at the end of last years session votes were placed for Representatives who were not onsite, when this came out nothing happened to change the votes so I would guess this is also an accepted practice.  The second issue is the Speaker is allowed to vote on any committee.  This past week the Speaker was brought in to tie a vote (which defeated the bill) on English only for obtaining a drivers license and for Tn Hwy Patrol to be trained for illegal alien processing.  I did find out that this procedure also applies to the Senate where the Lt. Governor is allowed to place a vote on any committee.

In meeting with this particular Representative this week I found out that the Republicans would continue these rules if they were to take control of the House.  Instead of using this as an opportunity to remedy long standing rules that are just wrong I was told that this would never be changed.  In fact, this Representative saw nothing wrong with placing votes for another Representative!  So, our Representatives don’t really need to be there to do their job since someone else is allowed to do it for them. 

Now I read on Stacey Campfield’s (R-Knoxville) blog if a legislator doesn’t report a donation bribe, and if the election commission discovers this “error” in campaign donation bribe reporting – the legislator is notified, given 10 days to correct this “reporting error” thus clearing the record with no fines or penalty of wrong doing.  Pretty slick huh? 

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