What's Ahead For 2017?
With the election complete, our focus now turns to the upcoming legislative session. Once again, we expect to have our work cut out for us (and then some) as legislators return to Nashville. Republicans continue to have extreme dominance in both chambers, so we'll be fighting more uphill battles. Given what we'll be facing at both the federal and state levels, it's crucial that we don't let these difficulties dampen our strength and dedication to fighting for working families. It's times like these when the labor movement absolutely needs to stand together and put the concept of solidarity into action. To help ensure that all of our members are informed and educated about all legislation that we'll be watching, please let us know if you have any questions about bills that are on our radar. Knowledge is power, after all!
As a reminder, the legislature will reconvene on Tuesday, January 10th. Our weekly legislative updates will start in February. Because 2016 was an election year, the legislature will go into recess for two weeks after the opening week of session for reorganization. The bulk of our work is expected to begin the week of January 30th, but we'll be reading through any and all filed bills during that time. Because of the current makeup of the General Assembly, we know that we'll be playing a considerable amount of defense and do not plan on filing any legislation of our own this year. However, we will do our part to lobby for any bills that benefit working families in Tennessee.
We've listed the changes that have occurred in the General Assembly since last year, as well as what bills or issues we expect to see again. Remember, this is not a final or definite list, just a summary of things that we expect to see or have been told are likely to be taken up. If you have questions about any of the items listed below, please don't hesitate to contact our office and speak with a member of our legislative team (A.J., Adren, Alyssa or Jerry). Let's get ready to rumble!
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