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Opinion: Legislators zoom through nearly $1 billion in controversial legislation with little opposition

Staff File Photo By Robin Rudd / State Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said legislation considered during the four-day Tennessee General Assembly special session has been thoroughly debated and vetted.
Staff File Photo By Robin Rudd / State Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said legislation considered during the four-day Tennessee General Assembly special session has been thoroughly debated and vetted. Staff File Photo By Robin Rudd / State Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said legislation considered during the four-day Tennessee General Assembly special session has been thoroughly debated and vetted.

By Clint Cooper 5 min read

Consider this:

The seven bills filed for the special session of the Tennessee legislature this week, comprising nearly $1 billion in spending, sailed through 17 committee hearings in less than 24 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The rushed legislation — especially involving education scholarships and immigration — was what we were afraid of when the special session was announced.

So it appears, if final approvals were given Thursday, the state will have — among other things — a constitutionally questionable law criminalizing local officials who vote for policies considered a “sanctuary” measure and a program that in two years will pay nearly $8,000 for any student to attend a private school willing to accept them.

The Republican supermajority evidently knew it had the votes to pass the measures going into the special session, so any hope of in-depth committee discussions with experts on both sides of an issue was not to be.