Capitol Hill chaos

In unprecedented move, Speaker Jimmy Naifeh overruled by Tennessee House of Representatives

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse

Jimmy Naifeh

For more than an hour, the Tennessee House of Representatives was in chaos this morning as opposing factions battled over rules and procedures in an effort to bring up a bill concerning abortion. In a stunning move, Speaker of the House Jimmy Naifeh was even overruled on a vote by the full legislative body.

What started as a routine vote to allow Gov. Phil Bredesen to address a joint session of the Tennessee General Assembly quickly descended into mass confusion. It took more than an hour to sort out the controversy, which has left many questioning what really happened.

It started when Democratic Majority Leader Gary Odom (Nashville) made a motion to suspend the rules to bring up a vote on a Senate joint resolution to allow Bredesen to speak. Then, Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville) made a motion to amend Odom's motion that the House also take up SJR 127.

SJR 127 is the highly controversial bill that deals with abortion and reproductive rights. In a nutshell, supporters of that bill say it needs to pass in order to enforce abortion laws. Opponents say it is not needed and state and federal laws go far enough.

As soon as Naifeh heard Dunn make his motion, he ruled him out of order. Dunn challenged Naifeh's ruling and – for the first time anyone can recall – a Speaker of the House in Tennessee lost a procedural vote on the full House floor.

Every member of the Republican caucus voted with Dunn. The votes of Democratic representatives John Mark Windle (Livingston), Curt Cobb (Shelbyville), Charles Curtiss (Sparta), Eddie Bass (Prospect) and Nathan Vaughn (Bristol) gave them the margin they needed to overrule Naifeh.

Immediately after this vote, a recess was called that sent both caucuses into meetings for about 15 minutes.

Upon resumption of business, Odom made a procedural motion to withdraw his original motion that now had been attached with Dunn's amendment to take up SJR 127. Republican Minority Leader Jason Mumpower (Bristol) then objected to the withdrawal and forced a vote on whether Odom could take the bill off the floor.

In a 45-51 vote, Mumpower prevailed and Odom was blocked from taking his amended bill out of consideration.

Bringing a resolution to the floor and bypassing the committee process requires a two-thirds majority. This would be the last hurdle that Dunn faced before his amended bill ensured that SJR 127 would be brought to the attention of the full House and out of the committee system. But that vote failed and SJR 127 was not brought to the floor.

Odom's original motion to allow Bredesen to speak to a joint convention of the House will now have to be redrafted.

While all of this was happening, the Republican-controlled State Senate had already passed its version of Odom's joint convention bill. Even if Dunn had been successful, the issue had already been addressed in the Senate and that could not have brought up the new resolution, according to Senate Republican sources.

At the end of all of this, Rep. Gary Moore (D-Nashville) called for a moment of prayer. That was followed by a lunch recess.

Upon leaving the chambers for the recess, Democratic and Republican leaders had very different reactions. Minority Caucus Chair Glen Casada (R-Franklin) told NashvillePost.com, "It was contentious but respectful. it was the way it should be. It was good, we were treated with respect. Of course, I am not happy with the final vote, but it was democracy in action."

Odom sharply disagreed with his colleague, stating "We have an orderly process and this deviated from that. It was a complete waste of time. Verbally amending rules is a dangerous approach and we deviated from the rules. People should take this a bit more seriously."

Odom then added that State Sen. Diane Black (R-Gallatin) had asked him today to roll consideration of SJR 127, which was already scheduled to be brought up in another session next week, for another week. Odom informed NashvillePost.com that he will object to rolling the bill back any further.