What follows are excerpts from a May 7 press conference.
Senator Jeff Yarbro:
“This is a legislature that changed the court system in the dead of night in a room where no one from the public or the press was allowed to be.”
“More Tennesseans have lost loved ones in the last 12 months than in any year in our history. More Tennesseans lost their jobs or businesses in the last 12 months than any 12 months in our history. But you would never know from this legislature, which bounced around like a rudderless ship from one imaginary problem to the next. And this is a time when people actually count on government work, when people need government to do things.”
“We are increasingly dominated by a hyper-partisan focus on issues that just don’t have much to do with the lives of Tennesseans… the Tennessee legislature is focused on FOX News problems. They are not focused on actually making lives better for Tennesseans.”
Representative Vincent Dixie:
“We really don’t have much to be happy about at this particular time and under this administration.”
“The budget is a moral document and we woefully missed the mark. We missed the mark on healthcare. We missed the mark on education. And we missed the mark on just helping people. We had a golden opportunity here to show people how much we wanted to help them and we did nothing to put more money in their pocket, nothing to put more food on their table, and we did nothing that if they were sick they could go to see a doctor.”
“We did pass a criminal justice reform measure but it didn’t go far enough.”
“If you really want to make Tennessee thrive and get back to where it needs to be you have to get people back in a position so they can get back to work.”
“We passed a lot of punitive bills that show where our values are as a general assembly.”
“Our job is to make this world a better place than we found it. And right now it seems like we didn’t take two steps backwards, we took ten steps backwards.”
“What is it going to take for us to make your lives better? And are the people who are your representatives right now doing the best job for you at this moment? Ask yourself that and if the answer is ‘No’ please make sure you get to the ballot box and let’s change the place at the ballot box in 2022.”
Senator Raumesh Akbari:
“I’m going to talk about missed opportunities. We just concluded our legislative session with an unexpected surplus of around $3 billion dollars. We had opportunities to really do things that were innovative and transformational and that could really move our state forward. And instead, we didn’t.”
“We’ve been talking about this for years…the education formula that calculates what a fully funded education budget looks like is broken. And there is no desire to change that even with an excess of funds that could have been used to do that.”
“Tennessee is 46th in the nation in education spending. In order to catch up with our nearest southern neighbor, Alabama, we’d have to spend upwards of $500 million each year…there is no priority to do that. “
Representative Karen Camper:
“It’s been a tough year. Our opportunity to do something great has been missed out on.”
“I do feel there is a role for the minority in a situation like this and that is holding the majority accountable and we’re doing our best to do that. But it’s also the role of the minority to still accomplish things for our constituents.”
Camper listed bills Democrats managed to pass during the session that ended May 6. Rep. Chisholm had a bill that added nurses to the list of first-responders. Rep Clemmons passed a bill to make schools and workplaces safer from gun violence. Rep. Townsend and Sen. Akbari passed a bill to remove slavery from the constitution. Rep. Hardaway passed a bill recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday.A bill passed to study how African American businesses were impacted during the pandemic.
Rep Dixie passed a measure that requires a parole officer to meet with an inmate a year before they leave prison to come up with a transition plan. “That’s going to help tremendously because studies have shown that if you come up with a plan that drastically reduces recidivism,” Camper said.
Rep. Chisholm had a bill that added nurses to the list of first-responders. Rep Clemmons passed a bill to make schools and workplaces safer from gun violence. Rep. Townsend and Sen. Akbari passed a bill to remove slavery from the constitution.Rep. Hardaway passed a bill recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday. A bill passed to study how African American businesses were impacted during the pandemic.
“Although we didn’t expand Medicaid, Representative Love passed a sickle cell bill requiring a yearly review of medications used to treat the disease. And that’s going to be huge when that happens.”
“Thinking about issues that affect families, Sen. Yarbro and Sen. Kyle both passed bills dealing with childcare, so we had a lot of accomplishments and I don’t want that to go unrecognized.”
“We are going to keep working on some of the same issues. We’re going to come up with a different strategy to try to try and move the majority forward in this state.”
“Our offices are still getting a lot of calls dealing with unemployment claims. Tennesseans are still hurting which makes it really more disheartening that the majority chose to make unemployment benefits the shortest in the nation so there is a lot of work we still have to do.”
“We’ve got to keep a watch over the redistricting process…and the federal dollars what will be coming to us in the upcoming election.”
“We will keep putting our plan forward. We will keep knocking at the door. We will keep holding the Lt. Governor and the Speaker accountable.”
