A special session of the Tennessee General Assembly that begins on Monday reflects the way President Trump’s aggressive conservative agenda is already emboldening Republicans to pursue his priorities at the state level.
Gov. Bill Lee has proposed new measures to toughen immigration enforcement, including the creation of a position in state government that would directly coordinate with the Trump administration’s enforcement policies.
And he has called on lawmakers to revisit his plans to expand the use of public funds for private schools across the state.
What happens next in Tennessee may signal the extent to which conservative-led states will carry out Mr. Trump’s broader policy agenda. Many states’ regular legislative sessions are just getting underway.
Republican supermajorities, particularly in the South, have spent years rallying behind a litany of conservative policies. The Biden administration often condemned their decisions or challenged them in court, but the Trump administration is far more likely to be on the same page with them.
“During the Biden administration, red state legislatures were frustrated with what they saw the Biden administration doing or not doing,” said David Shonerd, senior director of state operations at MultiState, a state and local government relations firm. “Now they have a willing and excited partner.”
He added, “They’ll be able to push the envelope if needed.”
Mr. Lee has also asked the Tennessee legislature to take up a third issue in the special session: disaster aid for communities in the eastern corner of the state, which were devastated late last year by floods caused by the rainy remnants of Hurricane Helene. Supporters say using a special session to tackle the three issues is a way to fast-track high priority legislation by limiting what can be debated.
“People are going to complain about anything, whether it’s optics or whatever it may be, so that’s just part of it,” said Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican. He added, “it allows us to focus on a few issues in a very short period of time and to really dive in and explore those topics.”
Mr. Trump has called on other governors to follow suit on targeting immigration policy. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has already called state lawmakers into a special session that begins Monday. He asked them to consider legislation that would expand local officials’ power to detain and deport people who are in the country illegally. Legislative leaders said they would consider only some of the governor’s proposals.
Individual state lawmakers have put forward their own proposals to advance Mr. Trump’s crackdown against undocumented immigrants. In South Carolina, state lawmakers are pushing requirements for certain hospitals to report data on the immigration status of their patients. Lawmakers in both Georgia and Tennessee have called for more penalties for cities and local governments that defy state prohibitions on being a “sanctuary” jurisdiction.
A bill introduced in Mississippi last week would create a bounty hunter program with a $1,000 reward. In Tennessee, a bill would charge undocumented students tuition to attend public schools.
It is too early to say which of the bills will stand a chance of becoming law.
In Tennessee, Mr. Lee has backed the creation of what he described as a new chief immigration enforcement officer for the state. He has also backed bills that would further penalize cities and local officials that did not wholeheartedly cooperate with immigration enforcement. Legislators may introduce other bills on the issue as well.
“We are seeing the governor falling in line with Trump’s shortsighted and narrow vision of what it means to belong in this country,” said Judith Clerjeune, the advocacy director for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. She added, “It’s absurd that we would use local funding to go after immigrant families.”
Democrats, who broadly oppose such policies, have accused Mr. Lee of playing politics with hurricane aid by pairing it in the same special session with the more divisive proposals on immigration and school vouchers. Though they are covered in separate bills in the Tennessee session, some lawmakers in other states and in Congress have increasingly been trying to tie crucial emergency aid to obtain partisan policy changes.
“Providing overdue and much-needed financial aid and relief for the Tennessee families and communities devastated by flooding in September should be our focus and singular priority during this special session,” said State Representative John Ray Clemmons, the chairman of the Democratic caucus.
But with Republicans in control of a supermajority, there is usually little need for Democratic support to pass legislation.
Approval of Mr. Lee’s long-held ambitions for a statewide school voucher program is perhaps the most tenuous of the three policy items. Mr. Lee’s office has highlighted support from several eastern Tennessee mayors, but some school boards in the state have voted to publicly oppose the plan.
Conservative activists have worked to fund voucher programs and elevate elected officials who support them. Republicans pushed through a pilot version for Tennessee’s largest counties in 2019, despite concerns about undermining public education. But a heavily funded push to spend millions of dollars on a statewide plan has so far failed to overcome objections from rural conservatives who are protective of their local public school districts.
After falling short last year, Mr. Lee signaled that he would push lawmakers to take up the issue again. His proposal’s prospects for passage this year have been boosted in part by Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly said he favored creation of a federal school choice program. Mr. Trump recently tapped Penny Schwinn, a former Tennessee state education commissioner who oversaw the initial stages of the state voucher program, to serve in the U.S. Department of Education.
In the days leading up to the special session, Republicans circulated glowing endorsements for the voucher plan, including one from the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing group deeply involved in drafting the Trump administration’s policy agenda. It remains unclear, though, whether that support will be enough to pass the legislation.
“President Trump being in favor of school choice has really helped us,” Mr. Sexton said.
The proposal would initially allocate about $7,000 in scholarship money a year to each of 20,000 students, about half of whom would be students with disabilities or students from families far below the income threshold to qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches. Thousands more students would be added in the following years. It would also provide a one-time $2,000 bonus for public-school teachers who are teaching this school year.
Dana Goldstein and Patricia Mazzei contributed reporting.
