Information is provided courtesy of 70th District State Rep. Clay Doggett, R-Pulaski, who represents Giles, parts of Lawrence and Lincoln counties.
Weather for the beginning of March in District 70 has surely come in like a lion with storms hitting many parts of our district, and Rep. Doggett’s bills were known in Nashville.
House Bill 705 requires a court ordering the expunction of a person’s public records of a criminal offense to include the appropriate state control number in the expunction order sent to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).
House Bill 705 was passed on the House consent calendar, Doggett’s first piece of legislation that passed in the 113th General Assembly!
House Bill 701
House Bill 701 “cleans up” Child Sexual Abuse laws, by expanding the offense of solicitation of a minor to include statutory rape by an authority figure and requiring a person convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child be sentenced to community supervision for life. House Bill 701 remains behind the budget.
House Bill 30
House Bill 30 passed through the Finance, Ways and Means Committee and the Calendar and Rules Committee.
It was heard on the House floor on the House Regular Calendar.
House Bill 30 requires a person, in jurisdictions with an adult-oriented establishment board (Board), to obtain a valid entertainer permit from the Board prior to performing adult cabaret entertainment for compensation, and it prohibits public, private, and commercial establishments from allowing a person younger than age 18 to attend a performance featuring adult cabaret entertainment.
House Bill 47
House Bill 47, which seeks to establish the phrase “Send Me.” as an additional motto of Tennessee, was heard in the Calendar & Rules Committee, and it was placed on the House Consent Calendar.
House Bill 708
House Bill 708 passed in the Local Committee.
House Bill 708 entitles each local unit of government that requires all full-time certified local correctional officers to complete an in-service training course each calendar year to receive from the Tennessee Corrections Institute (TCI) a pay supplement of $800 per officer.
The training course needs to be (a) provided or approved by TCI; (b) appropriate to the officer’s rank and responsibility and the size and location of the officer’s department, and; (c) at least 40 hours long.
The bill will be heard in the Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee.
House Bill 31
House Bill 31 prohibits probation for any person convicted of rape.
It passed the Criminal Justice Committee, and it will be heard in the Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee.
House Bill 702
House Bill 702 passed the Criminal Justice Committee and seeks to address the prevalence of fentanyl by enhancing the punishment for the sale, manufacture, delivery of, and possession with intent to sell, manufacture, or deliver fentanyl, carfentanil, remifentanil, alfentanil, and thiafentanil, from a Class C felony to a Class B felony.
This applies to any amount of 0.5 grams or more but less than 15 grams, and for any amount less than 0.5 grams if a weapon was involved or if the offense resulted in death or bodily injury of another person.
It will be heard again in the Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee.
House Bill 704
House Bill 704 authorizes the medicaid fraud control unit of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) to investigate misappropriation of funds or property in healthcare facilities receiving payments under the state Medicaid plan and board and care facilities as allowed by federal law, as well as complaints of abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation of Medicaid recipients.
It also authorizes the TBI Director to create additional divisions within the bureau as necessary. The Criminal Justice Committee passed it, and it will be heard in the Calendar and Rules Committee.
House Bill 706
House Bill 706 reduces, from nine months to two months, the amount of time a law enforcement officer must be retired before they can accept reemployment without a loss or suspension of retirement benefits.
The bill extends the authorization for a retired law enforcement officer to be reemployed without a loss or suspension of retirement benefits from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2026.
House Bill 706 was presented in the Council on Pensions. It will be presented for the first time in a regular House committee in the Public Service Subcommittee.
Doggett has eight bills to present again, including two to be heard on the House floor. Hopefully those two will bring Doggett’s passed legislation total to three!