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As we continue Phase Two (mailto:[link removed]) here in Nashville, please continue to stay safe, maintain social distancing, and take all necessary precautions to remain healthy.

Paid for by Friends for John Ray Clemmons, Sydney U. Rogers, Treasurer

 LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

This email is landing in your inbox as I walk to the State Capitol for tonight’s legislative session. We officially reconvened the Tennessee House of Representatives on June 1st, with committee meetings beginning the week before. Having spent the better part of two-plus months of quarantine assisting individuals with their unemployment claims and trying to home-school our boys (Tamara actually deserves all the credit for that), I returned to the Capitol hoping to focus and work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to fix our unemployment system, address students’ educational needs, allow absentee voting, restart the economy, balance the budget, and ensure access to health care coverage. These are the biggest challenges facing Tennessee families. These are the issues that I continue to hear about from people all across the state.

 

Though we face tough budgetary decisions and have a limited amount of time before we adjourn sine die, we have a tremendous opportunity and the infrastructural capacity to use all that we’ve learned and the new data we’ve collected over the past several months to build a stronger, more efficient state government that will work better for Tennesseans in the future. Unfortunately, we find ourselves wasting precious time and resources debating and passing legislation that would not fairly qualify as a priority or topic of discussion at most any Tennessee dinner table. In an attempt to steer us back between the lanes, some of my colleagues and I are using the floor amendment process to focus on important issues.  Just last week, I introduced amendments to allow “no-excuse” absentee voting, facilitate Medicaid expansion, and hold the Department of Labor accountable for its continued failures to get thousands of Tennesseans their badly needed unemployment money. This week, we will continue these efforts starting tonight. 

  

BLACK LIVES MATTER

Marchers continue to fill the streets across our country, speaking up and calling on our city, state, and country to address the continued racism that has plagued our country from its beginning. The civil unrest of today is the result of generations of pain that community leaders and elected officials continue to acknowledge but not address. It is time to listen to black voices and reflect on their stories. It is time to learn from their experiences. It is time to act and end the injustices that exist in our society and continue to be reflected in our public policies and laws.  This is the only legitimate way to ensure true equity and equality, as well as the safety and welfare of all citizens.  We must make meaningful changes to address the way institutional racism continues to manifest and take deliberate, thoughtful action to adopt data-driven policy solutions to unite our community and country. Division is maintained through laws and systems that do not work.  As a state legislator, I have a unique opportunity and responsibility to stand up and say: I am listening. I am learning, and I stand with you ready to dismantle the institutional racism that has created a broken system. It is time to act.

 

 

ABSENTEE VOTING

Last week, the honorable Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle ruled ([link removed]) that the State of Tennessee must give any registered voter the option to cast an absentee ballot by mail. This was welcomed news by many who have reached out to my office and want to vote safely amid a pandemic. My legislation to accomplish this has failed in a subcommittee the past two years along a party-line vote, as did our floor amendment last week. Unfortunately, the state’s Attorney General has announced he will appeal the court’s decision. Meanwhile, I would encourage all to visit the local League of Women Voters ([link removed]) and the Davidson County Election Commission ([link removed]) sites to get more information.    

 

 

UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS

I continue to field emails from individuals across the state regarding their unemployment-related claims, and I am more than happy to help.  If you or someone you know continues to have difficulty processing a claim, getting questions answered, or checking on the status of a claim, please direct them to me.

 

Anyone requiring assistance should email me (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Request%20for%20Unemployment%20Assistance) with the following information: 1) full legal name; 2) phone number; 3) email address; 4) last four digits of SSN; and 5) any specific inquiry/issue. 

 

 

TDEC PERMIT

TDEC issued a Notice of Determination ([link removed]) on June 1, 2020 concerning the REOstone Quarry’s application regarding its NPDES permit to discharge treated mine wastewater and storm water into Richland Creek in Nashville, Tennessee. 

 

 

IN THE NEWS

5/7/2020 - Tennessee spends $8.2 million on sock material masks criticized by Democratic lawmakers ([link removed]) – Tennessean

 

5/11/2020 - Rare bipartisan agreement: TN Republicans, Democrats raise concerns over sharing COVID-19 patient data with police ([link removed]) – Tennessean

 

5/14/2020 - Lawmaker spends hours helping your unemployment claim get processed ([link removed]) – News Channel 5

 

5/20/2020 – TN Department of Labor begins extended unemployment benefits programs, those waiting remain skeptical ([link removed]) – WSMV

 

5/21/2020 - Tennesseans running headlong into unemployment woes ([link removed]) – The Daily Memphian

5/29/20 - Tennessee seeks to salvage literacy initiative during budget crisis — and use coronavirus relief money to pay for it ([link removed]) – Chalkbeat TN

 

6/1/2020 - Why the Tennessee state House and Senate are at odds as lawmakers return to work ([link removed]) - Tennessean

 

6/1/2020 - Shelby County Health Department stops distribution of masks provided by state health department ([link removed]) – Commercial Appeal

 

6/3/2020 - Tennessee House approves measure reducing campaign finance disclosures in election years ([link removed]) - Tennessean

 

6/4/2020 - Tennessee Democrats, Republicans spar over resolution to host GOP Convention ([link removed]) – Fox 17

 

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Please remember to sign up for this newsletter and other important legislative updates at my website ([link removed]) and follow me on Twitter @JRClemmons, Facebook @johnrayfortn and Instagram @jrclemmons.

 

 





2501 Oakland Avenue | Nashville, TN 37212 US

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