
Immigration, school vouchers and Helene relief: Here are the bills filed so far for Tennessee’s special legislative session
Chris Salvemini
Republican Governor Bill Lee proposed the special session and called for lawmakers to pass his proposal, letting public funds be used for private school expenses.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — State lawmakers are expected to gather in Nashville Monday for a special legislative session that Republican Governor Bill Lee would focus on his universal school voucher proposal, aid for communities impacted by Hurricane Helene and immigration policies supporting President Donald Trump’s goals.
After he called the special session, Democratic lawmakers called for the proposals to instead go through the regular legislative session, instead of having them be quickly considered and voted on during a special session. As a result of the special session, Tennessee could have new programs and policies in place months before most other bills usually become law.
Only a handful of proposals had been introduced the Friday before the session was expected to kick off. Those proposals are listed below.
A package introduced by Representative William Lamberth (R – Portland) bundles different immigration proposals into a single bill that could effectively transform the state’s approach toward immigration enforcement.
First, it would create a division in the state’s department of safety — the “centralized immigration enforcement division.” The chief executive of the division would be appointed by the governor and would be charged with overseeing state and local collaboration with federal immigration agencies.
The division would develop plans for immigration enforcement, and coordinate with federal immigration programs including the federal 287(g) program in which local law enforcement is effectively given some immigration enforcement powers.
It would also approve and distribute grants from a new “immigration enforcement fund” created by the proposal meant to incentivize local governments to join the 287(g) program. Before local governments could get funds, they would need to have valid agreements with the federal government and be part of the 287(g) program.
Grants would be available for immigration enforcement training, buying equipment or other immigration enforcement programs.
The bill would also make it a Class E felony for local governments to enact “sanctuary city” rules, making it felonious to vote in favor of such proposals on city councils and county commissions.
Sanctuary city proposals usually say local governments would not cooperate with immigration enforcement and have been enacted in places like New York City, Colorado and California. Local officials could lose their offices if they enact sanctuary city policies under the proposal.
The proposal also introduces rules that would require people who apply for driver licenses, instruction permits, intermediate driver licenses or photo ID licenses to prove that they are citizens of the United States. They would not be able to use driver’s licenses from other states to prove their citizenship if those states give licenses to undocumented immigrants.
The state would also be able to give different documentation to documented immigrants so that their status in the country could be more easily seen. Temporary licenses or permits would not be accepted as valid identification “where eligibility for a right or benefit is exclusive to United States citizens, including, but not limited to, voting.”
The temporary IDs given to documented migrants would need to have a “visually distinctive marker” to differentiate them from typical licenses.
Parts of Lamberth’s proposal would take effect on July 1, while other parts of the bill would take effect on Jan. 1, 2026, if passed.
Lamberth also proposed a one-page bill that aims to broaden the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency’s ability to respond to disasters.
After an emergency declaration, some rules would also be suspended to allow state leaders to change reporting requirements, “upon receiving appropriate federal guidance,” to give more people in affected counties access to unemployment resources.
This three-page bill would create two new state funds meant to help Hurricane Helene recovery efforts, months after the storm hit and plunged communities in upper East Tennessee underwater. The first would be named the “Hurricane Helene Interest Payment Fund” and would be funded through grants, federal money and General Assembly appropriations.
The money could not move into the general fund and would be used by TEMA to pay local governments’ interest on loans they took for disaster recovery efforts. TEMA would pay the interest for up to 3 years and the bill says the fund caps at a 5% interest rate.
The second fund would be named the “Governor’s Response and Recovery Fund” and would be used for agricultural recovery efforts, unemployment assistance or business recovery assistance for any disaster, as long as a state of emergency or disaster declaration was issued.
This bill would establish Lee’s proposed universal school voucher program, allowing families across the state to apply for scholarships that can be used to pay for a student’s private education costs. In previous years, the state experimented with voucher programs in urban school districts like Memphis and Nashville.
State leaders said in previous years that students in those early voucher programs performed worse than their peers in public schools.
The universal school vouchers would effectively use public funds to pay for accredited private schools regardless of where a family lives in Tennessee. State education leaders, families, advocates and some lawmakers criticized the proposal. Some said it took away money from already underfunded public schools. Others said the program would leave out families in rural areas who may not have access to any other type of education than public school.
At least four boards of education across East Tennessee formally said they were opposed to universal school vouchers. A survey by WBIR last year found that around 86% of participants did not support the proposal. The proposal also failed to find support last year in the legislature, after lawmakers introduced three competing bills to start the program. Education leaders also said similar programs in other states led to financial problems.
Lee and Republican supporters of the program said it is meant to improve families’ choices for their children’s education.
The program would give families scholarships of around $7,000, depending on their child’s individual needs and background. The bill also includes a single, $2,000 bonus for teachers across the state. Opponents of the bill said the money would not totally cover the cost of private education, and would instead supplement families who already intend to send their children to private school.
The bill said 20,000 scholarships would be available in the program’s first year, and half of those would be available for students from low-income families. If the number of scholarships given out exceeds 75% of the capacity of the program, the following year would have 5,000 more scholarships made available.
The bill also includes student testing and attendance requirements to stay eligible for the program. A fiscal note for the program said it could cost the state around $350 million in the first fiscal year, coming from Tennessee’s General Fund.
Money could be used for tuition costs, tutoring services, transportation fees, computer hardware and other kinds of expenses. If passed, the program would start on July 1.
At the end of every session, lawmakers must pass a bill that effectively directs leaders to pay for expenses related to it. This routine bill would simply make sure the General Assembly’s bills are paid for when the special session adjourns and the regular session starts back up.