Tennessee House overhauls rules and some lawmakers could be put in time out
The Tennessee House is warning lawmakers and the crowds watching legislative floor sessions that they could be booted from the room if their behavior is deemed out of line.For lawmakers, after multiple infractions they could be removed from the floor a few days at a time and forced to vote remotely.For the public, they could be banned up to two years for particularly bad or frequently disruptive behavior.
The tougher punishment options came in a news rules package passed Thursday.“You’re on the House floor, and you’re expected to have decorum and respect for the institution,” Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton told reporters.“Same thing in the gallery.”The stiffer rules mark another instance in the U.S.
where state lawmakers are focusing on punishments when they find their peers are misbehaving.The topic returned to the forefront Thursday in Georgia, when state Sen.
Colton Moore, who had been previously banned from the House chamber, was arrested after a shoving match with House employees where the right-wing Republican fell to the floor trying to enter the chamber for the governor’s state of the state.Rowdy crowds have drawn attention in legislatures elsewhere, too.In Rhode Island, the public was blocked from entering the rotunda on Wednesday for hours for Democratic Gov.
Dan McKee’s state of the state speech, including protesters calling for action on homelessness, according to news reports.Tennessee House Republicans have been tinkering with the rules to dissuade disruption from political opponents since 2023.That’s when they expelled two Democratic lawmakers for a protest on the floor calling for gun control after a deadly school shooting.
The move backfired politically, putting Tennessee in the national spotlight and elevating the Democratic representatives’ profile with huge fundraising hauls.Yet Republicans kept the same supermajority after November.Rep.
Gloria Johnson, the Democrat who survived the expulsion votes, called the ...