House Democrats blame Speaker Harwell for state's potential $60 million loss


              House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, speaks during a news conference at the state Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday, June 30, 2016, about a health coverage task force's proposals for Medicaid expansion in Tennessee. From right behind her are Republican Reps. Steve McManus of Memphis and Roger Kane of Knoxville. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)
House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, speaks during a news conference at the state Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday, June 30, 2016, about a health coverage task force's proposals for Medicaid expansion in Tennessee. From right behind her are Republican Reps. Steve McManus of Memphis and Roger Kane of Knoxville. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

NASHVILLE - Tennessee Democrats charged Wednesday that policies initiated by Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell after the GOP took control of the chamber helped create the legislative foul-up that may now cost the state $60 million in federal transportation money.

"This was not an accident," House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Stewart of Nashville said at a news conference. "This was the direct result of specific policies put in place by Speaker Beth Harwell."

Stewart and other Democratic leaders specifically blamed efforts by Harwell to speed up the legislative process in order to shorten the length of the General Assembly's annual session.

Democrats also accused Harwell of brushing aside concerns that the lawmakers' review process for determining financial impacts of bills had broken down. Yet another factor, they say, was Harwell's capping the number of bills individual lawmakers can introduce each year.

That resulted in members introducing more "caption bills" which open up code sections with only vague descriptions of what is intended until last-minute amendments are made.

The end result, Democrats charged, was this year's "fiscal disaster." Federal transportation officials say Tennessee's new get-tough drunk driving law aimed at under-aged drinkers now puts the state in violation of their requirements.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials warn the state will lose 8 percent of its federal road funding, or $60 million, if the state is found to be in noncompliance on Oct. 1.

Harwell, of Nashville, was having none of Democrats' criticisms. Her office said "multiple positive changes have been implemented" as a result of both a 2015 examination of legislative procedures for ascertaining costs of legislation by the Joint Fiscal Review Committee's staff and a same-year review by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"These include additional staff, adjusting compensation levels to enhance retention of staff and programmatic software upgrades," a Harwell spokeswoman said.

The speaker herself pointed out that Stewart himself voted for House Bill 622 multiple times.

"This bill was filed 14 months prior to its passage in April of this year," Harwell said in a statement. "It traveled through five House committees over those 14 months, and was approved six times by an overwhelming bipartisan vote."

Harwell noted Stewart himself "participated in three separate committees, voted aye three separate times, and voted in favor of the legislation on the House floor."

The 14 months was "more than enough time for Rep. Stewart to understand what he was voting for," Harwell added. "We are hopeful, along with the Governor and Attorney General, that the federal government will allow us to address this in January rather than resulting in additional costs to the taxpayers."

Stewart said lawmakers have to depend on Fiscal Review to do the vetting job, because they lack adequate staff.

Lawmakers who pushed the bill said they didn't realize the change would make Tennessee the only state to be in violation of federal zero-tolerance standards for underage drivers.

Under federal rules, the maximum allowable blood-alcohol content for drivers under 21 is 0.02 percent. The new Tennessee law raised that limit to 0.08 percent for 18- to 20-year-olds. But it added tougher penalties for those violators, including mandatory 48-hour jail stays. The 0.02 standard remains in place for drivers through age 17. The legal drinking age is 21.

Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, state Attorney General Herbert Slatery and state Transportation Commissioner John Schroer are now arguing to federal officials that the new state law, in combination with other Tennessee statutes, succeeds in meeting federal requirements.

Federal officials have yet to say whether they will accept that, and the issue now is whether state legislators may be forced to return to the state Capitol this month for a special session to fix the problem prior to Oct. 1, when the new federal fiscal year budget takes effect.

Stewart said Republicans have also complained about the new pace of the legislative sessions. The General Assembly's annual session used to extend well into May and often later. But Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, has made it a point of pride to drive the GOP-run Senate and House to wrap up business more quickly.

Stewart referred to a 2013 news article in which House Calendar and Rules Committee Chairman Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, griped that "I do think we're moving too fast."

He also cited the 2015 report by then-Fiscal Review Executive Director Jeffrey Spaulding warning how an overload of bills, inadequate staff, vacancies and less time was creating problems.

Stewart claimed there was "no evidence" changes were taken to heart, which Harwell disputed.

Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, now chairman of the Joint Fiscal Review Committee, told the Nashville Post on Wednesday that by January 2016, the panel's staff had increased from nine to 14. Other improvements suggested by the NCSL had been made as well, he said.

"I spent probably 200 hours last fall and winter working on those suggestions," White told the Nashville Post. "They shouldn't be blaming Harwell, they should be praising her for trying to fix the problem."

Some lawmakers have privately questioned why the executive branch failed to catch the problem.

Meanwhile, the sponsor of the bill, Rep. William Lamberth, R-Cottontown, a former assistant prosecutor, said while critics may carp that some bills are moving too fast, his measure certainly didn't.

"This bill was filed two years ago, and if anybody wants to blame anybody, it's my fault. I sponsored the bill," Lamberth said.

Lamberth said "unfortunately, the position we're in, the federal government has tentatively said that we have run afoul of a guideline on the federal level. We have asked that instead of looking at the one law we changed that they look at all of our laws. Because we have zero tolerance in this state for anybody under the age of 21 drinking alcohol.

Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.

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