NASHVILLE - The Tennessee General Assembly is making it legally clear who controls the state Capitol's second floor, including the placement of statues, busts and paintings, under a bill approved 71-19 Thursday by the House along partisan lines.
The legislation is a reaction to last year's dispute when Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, the Republican Senate speaker, and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, squared off publicly with Gov. Bill Lee over the Republican chief executive's two-year effort to remove a bust of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from prominent display on the second floor.
House Bill 1638 was sponsored by Sexton. The Senate companion bill, Senate Bill 2349, is sponsored by McNally. It's scheduled to come before the Senate State and Local Committee this week.
Lee pushed for removal of the bust from its place of honor outside the House and Senate chambers on the Capitol's second floor following approval of the Tennessee Historical Commission, which Lee had appointed new members to, followed by a later State Capitol Commission vote.
It ultimately was approved by the State Building Commission on a 5-2 vote. The bust was removed in July and moved to the Tennessee State Museum.
McNally and Sexton, who opposed the bust's removal, had earlier argued the legislature controlled the second floor and voted against removal. McNally had argued what was needed was the placement of historical context about the life of Forrest, the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery weighed in with a legal opinion, saying conflicting language in statutes created uncertainty. McNally and Sexton publicly disagreed but did not legally challenge the decision.
There was no debate on the House floor on the bill reasserting legislative control of the floor on Thursday. Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, of Chattanooga, was among Democrats voting no.
During earlier House committee debate, Rep. Chris Todd, R-Jackson, who carried the bill for Sexton, was asked if the intent of the bill was to bring back the Forrest bust, which is now in the Tennessee State Museum.
Todd said the bill is policy-oriented.
The bill "clarifies that no one else can do that [remove busts, other items] without our permission," Todd said. "They would not be allowed to do that."
It is not an effort to return the Forrest bust to the Capitol's second floor, McNally spokesman Adam Kleinheider later said in a statement to the Times Free Press.
"There is absolutely no plan to return the bust to the Capitol. The bill merely clarifies what is already true. Legislative space in the Capitol is legislative space - and thus controlled by the two speakers," Kleinheider said. "While he was personally opposed to the bust's removal, Lt. Gov. McNally respected the process and the wishes of the Capitol, Historical and Building commissions.
"But control of the second floor was never ceded, and this bill makes that clear," Kleinheider added.
Lawmakers are debating legislation to transfer the bust to the Sons of Confederate Veterans General Headquarters in Columbia, Tenn. The group commissioned the bust, donating it to Tennessee in 1977.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.