Pat Marsh

Rep. Pat Marsh: (R) He is House Speaker Pro Tempore and serves as Chair, Select Ethics Subcommittee, Chair, Select Committee on Rules, Member: Calendar and Rules Committee, Select Ethics Committee, Government Operations Committee, Health Committee, Health Subcommittee, Public Service Subcommittee, State Government Committee, Transportation Committee, and the Joint Commerce, Labor, Transportation and Agriculture. Rep. Marsh could be one of our champions, supporting twenty-five of the TLRC positions on chosen bills, but his four dissents drop him below mid-level among his fellow Republicans, earning him a 94% vote score.

He co-sponsored six of our favored bills:

SR0023 – Rudd – Resolution creating a bi-cameral panel to research the recall of Judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle (failed in House Civil Justice subcommittee).

A media story on the subject

SB0187/HB0013 – Bowling/Hulsey – Prohibits forced vaccines within state and local government entities. It does not prohibit private business from requiring vaccines for employment (passed with weakening amendments).

SB0230/HB0016 – Hensley/Cepicky – Teacher’s discipline freedom, creating a path for the removal of unruly student (passed).

SB0623/HB0580 – Bell/Ragan – The teaching of Critical Race Theory is prohibited in TN public schools (passed).

SB0858/HB0575 – Ragan/Bowling – Limits county health officer’s quarantine powers/prohibits government requiring COVID vaccines (passed).

SJR2 – Kelsey – Puts Right-to-Work into our Tennessee constitution, making it much more difficult to rescind (passed).

Marsh earned 7.5 out of 10 on constitutional fidelity. His four errant votes support the following bills which TLRC opposed:

HJR0010 – Parkinson – A Resolution to declare racism as a public health issue (sent to Summer Study). The passing of this resolution would have labeled Tennessee as a self-identified systemically racist state; we are not! “Systemic racism” has been conscripted and construed into a bludgeon to divide Americans. We must resist the comfortable path of acceptance, which implies assent.

SB0736/HB0141 – Johnson/Lamberth (a Governor’s bill with which we take issue) – Special tax exemption for the film and video industry which was supported by a large majority of the General Assembly (passed). TLRC does not support special carve-outs for cherry-picked industries. The government should not be picking winners and losers.

HR110 – Hardaway – Resolution to honor Pastor William J. Barber II (sent to Summer Study). Barber is a black theologist CRT advocate whose rhetoric is anti-American in the tradition of Jeremiah Wright.

SB0783/HB1204 – Massey/Zachary – Authorizes a special sales and use tax allocation to finance Randy Boyd’s Baseball stadium in Knoxville at the expense of Tennessee taxpayers—Boyd is a mega-millionaire (passed).

Media stories on the subject:
Boyd Sports to Profit from Events Held at Taxpayer-Funded Stadium – Tennessee Star

Member of Senate Committee Considering Legislation for Randy Boyd’s Taxpayer-Funded Baseball Stadium is Employee of Law Firm That Could Benefit From Bill’s Passage – Tennessee Star

Five Sponsors of Bill Enabling Randy Boyd’s Taxpayer-Funded Baseball Stadium Received More Than $90,000 in Campaign Funds from Individuals with Ties to the Project – Tennessee Star

Chairman Marsh sponsored eighteen bills, eight of which passed into law. Nothing very news-worthy, but this one will be interesting to some:

HB1286 adds Wilson County Promotions, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation, to the entities with which the Tennessee state fair and exposition commission may work to conduct a fair or exposition; provides for the Tennessee state fair being held at the Wilson County fairgrounds. One of our congressmen, John Rose, is a major owner of the Wilson County Fairgrounds.

We do not need more laws; we need better laws, and enforcement of the better laws already on the books. The grassroots are looking for courage in our legislators: courage to stand up for constitutional principles over pressure from leadership and paid lobbyists. We are at a crisis point and now is the time to stand for the people instead of special interests, the wealthy, and well-connected, and against those who assume power through corruption and coercion. If we do not, we could very well lose our republic and our liberties.