Kevin Vaughan

Rep. Kevin Vaughan (R) Serves as Chair, Commerce Committee, Member: Banking and Consumer Affairs Subcommittee, Business and Utilities Subcommittee, Calendar and Rules Committee, and Health Committee. Chairman Vaughan is one of our more vociferous members. He supported most of the TLRC positions on chosen bills but dissented on every bill we opposed. His 94% vote score does not reflect the totality of his inauspicious votes. On the bright side, he co-sponsored three 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

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

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

Chairman Vaughan earned a dismal six out of ten on constitutional fidelity. His six errant votes were on the wrong side of the following bills:

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. Vaughan voted aye.

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. Vaughan voted aye.

SB0425/HB1379 – Kumar/Massey – Would require insurers to cover infertility treatments, which would result in higher premiums for all. Dictating to private business is antithetical to the U.S. and Tennessee constitutions but some of our legislators only remember that when it serves them (sent to Summer Study). Vaughan voted aye.

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. Vaughan voted aye.

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). Vaughan voted aye.

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

SB0902/HB0801 – Stevens/Griffey – requires employers of six or more to utilize an e-verification program in hiring and removes immunity for an employer’s reliance on other forms of verification. It also makes other related changes. Vaughan voted nay.

Chairman Vaughan sponsored thirty-one bills, thirteen of which passed into law. Here are a few that might be of interest:

HB0225 specifies that local boards of education and governing bodies of public charter schools, as applicable, have the sole authority to open or close schools during a public health emergency; authorizes the board or governing body to delegate that authority to the director of schools or school administrator, as applicable (we do not have that much confidence in the LEA’s and their governing boards).

HB0442 enacts the “Major Trevor Joseph Act,” which requires the department to provide burial services for a person who died while on active duty with the armed forces and is being interred in a state veterans cemetery on a date requested by the family members of the person if the department is given notice of the burial at least 72 hours in advance of the burial.

HB1112 prohibits local governmental entities from mandating certain disclosures in contracts for improvements to real property, or in a bid, proposal, or agreement relating to an improvement of real property.

HB1351 authorizes an intercollegiate athlete at a four-year public or private institution of higher education located in this state, other than an institution of higher education governed by the board of regents of the state university and community college system, to earn compensation for the use of the athlete’s name, image, or likeness under certain conditions.

HB1353 authorizes a graduate nurse to engage in the practice of professional nursing without a license for a limited period of time if certain conditions are met.

We do not need more laws; we need better laws, and enforcement of the good laws we already have. The grassroots are looking for courage in our legislators: courage to stand up for constitutional principles over pressure from leadership and paid lobbyists. Ken Vaughan seems to have the grit but is often applying it in the wrong direction. 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.