Time and again in the 2014 legislative session, the Senate has established itself as the throttle on the Republican supermajority railroad while the House has become the brakes.

The bill to legalize the open carrying of pistols without a permit, roaring through the Senate last week on a 25-2 vote with no debate, provides an example. In the House, the companion measure has been parked in a subcommittee under circumstances that would normally mean it’s dead.

Now, it is possible that the brakes on that one could loosen in the last moments as the session lurches to adjournment this week and strange things start to happen. But they were applied and, to venture a guess, they will hold.

They were also applied on the Senate-passed bill to override local government ordinances to permit guns in city and county parks. The guess there is that the brakes will be lifted at the last moment.

Indeed, it has been widely speculated that several senators were relying on the House brakes when they voted for the “open carry” measure. In doing so, they would have bragging rights with the pro-gun crowd while not having to worry about the bill really becoming law, which might upset unaware citizens when they see pistol-packing on the streets.

An even more striking example of this House braking phenomena last week came with a bill to cut the lifetime maximum payment of welfare benefits from five years to four. The bill sailed through the Senate, where the floor debate focused on whether exceptions to the new limit were too liberal.



No one really questioned the basic premise of the measure. Why, the sponsor said that California had even cut benefits from five years to four. There were nine no votes, though, indicating a minority of the silent senators had misgivings.

In the House, a subcommittee actually heard from critics. Tennessee has the second lowest welfare payments in the nation, averaging $185 per month, and would have lowest lifetime benefit level in the nation with passage. Further, they said California actually didn’t terminate benefits in the fifth year, instead just lowering them from an average of $638 per month to $516.

And there are zero savings through the reduction insofar as the state goes, since it’s all savings in federal funds that would be shifted into related programs. Some suggested children whose parents lose the money could wind up in state custody, which would cost state taxpayer dollars. Republicans on the panel joined Democrats in killing the bill on a voice vote.

Another example last week was the so-called “lawsuit lending” legislation — a measure that raised the question of which of the two warring special interests was the most callous and cold-hearted exploiter of vulnerable citizens left injured through no fault of their own and virtually assured of winning a lawsuit, if and when the case is heard.

On one side was the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which would like to cripple the lawsuit lenders because they keep lawsuits against businesses alive, making it more difficult to force injured plaintiffs into a cheap settlement. On the other were the lenders, who are currently unregulated in Tennessee and thus able to charge exorbitant interest and fees — presumably more than the 260 percent allowed in the payday loan industry.

It’s a complicated issue, but basically the Senate went with the Chamber folks after brief discussion. In the House, the bill provoked hours of impassioned floor debate over two days that ended in a compromise. In that case, the House brakes didn’t kill the bill, just slowed it down for a compromise that senators ultimately accepted.

On the education front, House Speaker Beth Harwell had to slam on the brakes herself to stop a bill authorizing for-profit companies to run charter schools. In the Senate, the bill was assured of passage and a vote had been delayed to see what happened in the House.

Elsewhere, well, passage of a school vouchers bill has been a foregone conclusion in the Senate. The Senate has approved. The House decision will be at the last moment.

The rule of the 108th General Assembly has been that the House has been holding back the reins on a Senate ready to rubber-stamp most anything that sounds conservative. Whether that’s good or bad, of course, depends on your perspective.