Senator Joey Hensley, MD

The 113th General Assembly has adjourned for 2023, and it was a very successful year. We have taken measures for Tennessee to be a better place to live, work and to raise a family. I will go over some of the laws passed this session.

Cracking down on TikTok use at Tennessee College Campuses - This law prohibits the Chinese-owned social media platforms TikTok and WeChat from being accessed on Tennessee public higher education institutions’ internet networks. The State of Tennessee and the Federal government have taken similar steps to mitigate the security risks of TikTok by prohibiting government internet networks and devices from supporting the social media app. These platforms pose serious national security risks to the United States.

Preventing sanctioned countries from buying real estate in Tennessee — This law prevents foreign governments, businesses and non-US citizens from the 38 countries on the U.S Department of Treasury’s sanctions list in addition to China from purchasing or acquiring real estate in Tennessee. There are currently 38 countries on the sanctions list, but China was added to the list of countries in the law that passed this year.

Prohibiting Chinese Surveillance - The General Assembly passed a law that prohibits law enforcement agencies from purchasing drones from corporations or entities which are banned under the National Defense Act of 2019. Those include drones made in China, Russia or other adversarial countries. Agencies are not required to replace existing equipment and can still use any drones they currently have. Any new devices must be purchased in compliance with the new regulations.

Protecting Tennessee businesses from local minimum wage requirements - This law protects businesses and workers in Tennessee by prohibiting local governments from imposing requirements on an employer pertaining to hours worked, work scheduled or employee output during work hours. The law preempts local governments from imposing additional wage or employee benefit mandates on private employers. It also prohibits local governments from requiring a private business to pay an hourly rate above minimum wage as a condition of contracting with the local government or operating within the local government’s jurisdiction. Finally, the law prohibits a local government from giving preference to vendors, contractors, service providers or other parties doing business with a local government based on wages or the employee benefits they provide. Local governments still maintain the right to adopt policies for their own employees.

Extending COVID-19 liability protections indefinitely – The General Assembly made permanent certain laws passed during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect citizens from government overreach and provide businesses and health care providers with liability protections from health-related claims. By making these laws permanent, lawmakers ensure that state and local governments cannot require COVID-19 vaccine mandates and that statewide standards are met before local governments can issue mask mandates in public buildings and schools. Among other things, it also guarantees a person hospitalized can have a family member with them during their stay. The new law removes the termination date on these provisions of July 1, 2023.

Growing the workforce – A new law is aimed at getting more workers back into the workforce faster. It increases the number of required weekly work searches for claimants of unemployment benefits from three to four per week. The measure also closes the “ghosting loophole” in which claimants of unemployment benefits set an interview for a job, but skip it, wasting employers’ time and resources.

Stimulating economic growth - A new law aims to keep Tennessee competitive with neighboring states and stimulate economic growth and job creation by lowering the cap for fuel tax payments by commercial aircraft carriers. The measure reduces the maximum amount of aviation fuel taxes paid by a commercial aircraft carrier from $5 million annually to $3 million in fiscal year 2023-2024 and to $1 million in fiscal year 2024-2025 and subsequent years. The bill applies to any airline with at least 50 flights per day in and out of Tennessee.

Improving Broadband Accessibility Grant Program - A new law improves the Broadband Accessibility Grant Program to benefit rural Tennesseans by increasing the minimum download and upload speeds to 100 Mbps and 20 Mbps respectively, ensuring grant funds will provide broadband to homes or businesses that don’t have access to service, and clarifying broadband grant funding should be allocated for last-mile broadband projects and stipulates the cost of a proposed project will be a factor in determining grant funding. The law was unanimously approved by the General Assembly.

Contact Senator Hensley at

425 5th Avenue North, Suite 746

Nashville TN 37243

615-741-3100

Toll Free 1-800-449-8366

ext. 13100

Fax 615-253-0231

855 Summertown Highway

Hohenwald TN 38462

Phone 931-796-2018

Cell Phone 931-212-8823

E-mail:

[email protected]