2016 Legislative Session Wrap-Up
Where to begin? It was a very hectic few months, but we made it! To start off, we would be remiss if we did not thank all of our brothers and sisters for their hard work this session. Whether it was speaking to your locals about pending legislation or joining us at the Capitol, every action made a difference in stopping some very detrimental bills. As we really noticed this year, while some right-wing groups may have significant financial backing, we have something that's hard for them to match: numbers. When we all come together in solidarity, that's when we truly get things done.
From our perspective, this was one of the best legislative sessions that we've had in quite a few years. There were multiple bills floating around that could have essentially wiped out Labor in one fell swoop. Thanks to a combination of lobbying efforts, the help of Republican and Democratic legislators, and a little bit of luck, we were able to stop nearly every bad bill that we faced in its tracks. While no session is without a few disappointments, we're ready to build off of this year's momentum for the 110th General Assembly!
Last session, over 1,600 bills were filed. This year, roughly 1,000 new pieces of legislation were filed that we read through back in January. Once again, we narrowed it down to about 200 bills that we felt were most important to our members, and then cut the amount down even more to approximately 30 bills. We also monitored other issues, including deannexation, the Hall Tax repeal, and the possible resurrection of Insure Tennessee. As we've done in the past, the top "good" and "bad" bills from this session are listed below. You'll probably recognize some of them from last year as well. Simply click on the bill number (House or Senate) to read more about the legislation, watch video clips, see votes, and much more. Please let us know if you have any questions. We'll be discussing this in much more depth at our Leadership Conference in June as well.
Once again, thanks to all of you for your hard work this session. If you haven't done so already,"like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to keep up with all of our work. See you on the Hill in 2017!
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