NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are gearing up to take a broad swipe at officials who have had a role in maintaining COVID-19 pandemic protections, from school boards that passed mask mandates to a prosecutor who has pledged not to enforce the governor’s order letting parents exempt their students from classroom mask wearing.
Wednesday’s special session kickoff marks the third time lawmakers call themselves into action in Tennessee history without the governor. Democrats have blasted the COVID-19 session as politically motivated and dangerous for public health.
The session will have a starkly different tone than last week, when GOP Gov. Bill Lee brought lawmakers back for overwhelming bipartisan votes for economic incentives and oversight plans related to a massive Ford electric truck and battery project coming to West Tennessee.
Republican legislative leaders are keeping the topics in play broad and have not promised what will pass.
They have indicated they could even try to circumvent elected district attorneys if they publicly decline to enforce certain laws – a national trend by progressive prosecutors that Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk has carried out on multiple hot-button policies that target abortion rights, transgender people, mask requirements in schools and small marijuana possession cases.