UPDATE: The three bills in the Special Legislative Special are heading to Governor Bill Lee’s desk.
The special session is officially over as of about 3:30 p.m. yesterday (Thursday) afternoon. The House and Senate passed all three of the focal points of the Governor’s proposed school choice program, a disaster relief package for those affected by Hurricane Helene and an immigration bill is headed to his desk for a final signature.
The Governor’s $500 million School Choice Program plan will give 20,000 students about $7,000 each in public dollars to help them pay for private school.
Original Story: Governor Bill Lee’s special session is moving along as the Senate has now passed two of the three bills that the session was called to discuss.
This session started Monday evening and as of yesterday (Wednesday), the Senate has passed an immigration bill and a disaster relief bill that would help victims of Hurricane Helene in Tennessee. The school voucher or Education Freedom Act is expected to pass but is still being discussed.
These bills will still have to be passed by the House in order to head to Lee’s desk to be signed
The disaster relief bill will invest more than $450 million in direct relief for Tennesseans who are still dealing with the estimated $1.2 billion in damage-related costs from Helene.
The immigration bill will provide incentives for promoting the enforcement of federal immigration and criminal penalties for officials who adopt sanctuary policies and create a centralized immigration enforcement division within the Department of Safety which will require them to issue non-citizens a temporary driver’s license instead of a standard license, to help determine voter eligibility.
The House is expected to vote on these bills before the end of the week.