NASHVILLE - Tennessee senators on Monday overwhelmingly approved a resolution directing Attorney General Herbert Slatery to sue the U.S. government over the federal refugee program. The measure also allows lawmakers to hire their own attorney if Slatery won't.
Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey's controversial measure passed 27-5 with only one GOP lawmaker voting no and just one Democrat voting for it. It now goes to the House for consideration.
Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, answers questions at the Tennessee Press Association convention on Jan. 28 in Nashville.The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union-Tennessee condemned the vote. Tennessee joins Alabama and Texas in suing the federal government over the issue.
Republican Gov. Bill Haslam raised questions about the need for the resolution last week.
The refugee resolution was introduced by Ramsey in the wake of the federal government's efforts to relocate Syrian refugees to various states.
Coming soon after the Islamic State-inspired Paris attacks, the refugee issue rang alarm bells in a number of Republican-run states, as well as the GOP presidential race. Critics charged the federal government couldn't properly vet the refugees for potential ties to Islamist terror groups like ISIS. And officials like FBI Director James Comey acknowledged it was difficult.
Ramsey's resolution charges the federal government has refused to meet its legal requirements to consult and collaborate with Tennessee over the resettlement of refugees in Tennessee.
Unlike Alabama and Texas, Tennessee Republicans are threatening to mount a challenge under the U.S. Constitution's 10th Amendment, which grants powers to states not specifically given to the federal government.
In this case, the specific challenge is pegged to requiring Tennessee to spend state tax money on refugees in areas like TennCare without the say-so of the state legislature, as required by the Tennessee Constitution.
Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, R-Memphis, who handled the resolution, noted wording in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding Obamacare, which originally required states' expand Medicaid, could not be mandated and had to be voluntary.
Alluding to protesters in the Senate galleries, Norris told colleagues he is weighing those concerns against Tennessee citizens and the state's right to control its purse.
"I know there are folks here in the gallery today arguing the rights of immigrants and refugees," Norris said. "I'm arguing the rights of citizens and sovereignty in Tennessee."
Republican Sen. Mark Green, R-Clarksville, was up front about his concerns on security.
"Our federal government has failed to protect us," Green said. "In certain groups of those refugees, people who want to do harm to us are infiltrating this program."
Democratic Caucus Chairman Yarbro said the uproar is "misguided and really betrays the values of who we are."
"I think this is one that's jumping on the bandwagon on one that doesn't represent what's best about the state of Tennessee," Yarbro said.
Sen. Steve Dickerson, R-Nashville, was the lone Republican no vote. While he didn't speak on the floor, he opposed the resolution in committee, saying it was "not very welcoming."
Norris said he thought immigrants would welcome Senate Republicans' determination.
"What could be more welcoming than a state that is willing to stand upon its rights, under the state and federal constitutions, to protect the people within its borders?" Norris asked. "What I, ask you, could possibly be more welcoming than that?"
He said the intent is to ask a federal court for a declaratory judgment on whether the federal government can compel Tennessee to spend state taxpayer dollars on programs. Slatery has shown little appetite to sue. If that holds, lawmakers would be empowered to hired their own attorney.
Last week, Haslam, who had previously chastised federal officials for not turning over information about refugees to the state, said "it's public record. "We get from the federal government all the refugees who have come in, where they're from, age, gender.
"I don't think at this point in time that this is something that's stressing our system," he said.
In other Senate action Monday:
' Before turning their ire on the federal government, senators passed two bills dealing with another favorite topic: local governments' affairs. One bill overrides Metro Nashville voters' referendum vote requiring certain percentages of government contractors hire workers from within the county.
The other bill would prevent local governments from barring their contractors from requiring job applicants to report criminal convictions. Both bills were sponsored by Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin.
' A bill seeking to add the Association of Classical and Christian schools to the list of accrediting organizations for church-related schools was delayed after Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Jeff Yarbro of Nashville questioned reports by the Southern Poverty Law Center that the group's founder, Douglas Wilson, wrote that black slaves in the South enjoyed a "life of plenty."
The law center also says Wilson, a Moscow, Idaho, minister, wrote, "Slavery as it existed in the South was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence. There has never been a multiracial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world."
Caught off guard by Yarbro's comments, Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, delayed consideration of the bill.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com, 615-255-0550 or follow via Twitter @AndySher1.