Opponents of a bill seeking to prevent teaching public school students about gay issues react to the measure passing the Senate in Nashville on Friday. The bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Stacey Campfield of Knoxville passed on a 20-10 vote. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)NASHVILLE – Tennessee’s $30.78 billion annual spending plan sailed through the House on a 96-0 vote Friday while senators were expected to act on the measure later in the evening.
The House version includes an estimated $129.5 million in federal funds to restore extended unemployment benefits for another 20 weeks to thousands of jobless Tennesseans who exhausted or soon will exhaust their 79 weeks of state and federal emergency benefits.
House majority Republicans as well as House Democrats expected Senate Republicans to go along with the unemployment extension after Gov. Bill Haslam intervened to broker a deal on the extension earlier in the day.
Republican Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, the Senate speaker, had previously opposed extending the benefits, saying that after 79 weeks “you have to draw the line in the sand and say: ‘This is it.'”
But after Haslam and administration’s efforts, the lieutenant governor said, “I think you’ll see that pass the Senate and the House.”