Stockard on the Stump: Tennessee GOP senators sounds off on English-only driver’s license bill

Tennessee Republicans’ White House-backed immigration slate is a far cry from drawing unanimous support.

Count Sen. Richard Briggs of Knoxville among those who don’t consider them “anti-immigration” as much as “anti-foreign.”

Briggs is halfway on board with the package formed in cooperation with Trump deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, sponsoring one of Republicans’ “Immigration 2026” bills requiring state and local governments to verify a person’s citizenship before hiring. He also voted for a bill in the Senate that would allow truckers’ out-of-state commercial driver’s licenses to be confiscated if they can’t read or write English well enough. (This is assuming state troopers will be able to administer tests on the side of state highways.)

Briggs fired off an email to Republican senators after receiving a letter from the Japanese consul-general questioning a separate English-only driver’s license testing bill. 

In the letter, Briggs said he’s spoken with Japanese, Korean and British executives, Canadian diplomats, the CEO of Cirrus Aircraft and representatives of Oak Ridge’s expanding nuclear industry.

Tennessee senators move amended English-only driver’s license testing

“In frank conversations, they related their surprise and discouragement that a state with a longstanding international reputation as business friendly and personally welcoming to foreign investments has so suddenly reversed course with [a] series of bills which chills the atmosphere toward foreigners,” Briggs wrote.

Briggs’ letter says senators should consider the consequences of “overly aggressive and even unnecessary laws” that feed the perception that Tennessee “offers an unpleasant environment for recruitment of scientific non-citizen legal residents in the nuclear industry or for foreign companies considering investment, expansion, or relocation to Tennessee.”

The initial letter from Consul-General Watanabe Shinji points out Japanese investment in the state exceeds $21 billion, supporting 60,000 jobs in 21 facilities, mainly because of Tennessee’s strong investment environment. About 4,000 Japanese nationals live in the state, many of them families of managers and engineers who move here temporarily for work.

The ability to take the driver’s license test in Japanese allows company representatives and their families to get their licenses, start work immediately and handle other basic freedoms such as going to the grocery store and school, Shinji wrote.

“But I am concerned that the changes proposed in SB1889/HB1708, restricting the license’s functionality and lessening the benefits enjoyed by so many, could be perceived negatively by Japanese investors. And that future investments might suffer,” Shinji’s letter says.

The Senate version of the bill passed the Transportation Committee recently with an amendment allowing people to take the driver’s license test in their native language and obtain a three-year unrestricted license. When they reapply, they must take the exam in English.

The House version of the bill, sponsored by Republican Rep. Kip Capley, is to be taken up in the finance subcommittee on a calendar dedicated only to driver’s licenses. It allows an 18-month unrestricted license before a person must take the test again in English, meaning the bills don’t mesh.

Senate Transportation Chairperson Becky Massey called the first version of the bill, which didn’t allow any time for foreign residents to work on their language skills, unacceptable. She isn’t “gung ho,” either, about the bill’s newest form because it could make things harder for people who come here legally. But she voted for it after working toward the three-year provision.

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally defended the measure Thursday, pointing out that people who don’t speak English can take the driver’s test in their own language and prove their skills on the driving portion of the exam. (Some 45 years ago, that consisted of motoring around the back of a Tennessee Highway Patrol building off Murfreesboro Road in Nashville. Buckling a seat belt and using the turning blinker were major parts of the test, even though the driver didn’t venture out into heavy traffic.)

The bill’s defenders argue that it’s needed to make sure motorists know how to read American road signs.

Briggs, a retired U.S. Army colonel and medical doctor, said that makes no sense because, presumably, the state will be licensing people to drive for three years without English skills.

The whole deal hurts relationships with foreign companies that have been supplying jobs and benefits to Tennesseans for decades. He pointed toward Nissan Stadium as one example. Yet other states are taking up the same measure. 

With an eye toward such xenophobism, Briggs said, “Let us be the little island of common sense.”

“Roll with it, baby”

The Senate was set Thursday to take up Republican Sen. Bo Watson’s bill restricting K-12 immigrant students. But he “rolled” it (another word for postponed) until next week, saying fellow senators needed more time to “digest” changes made in the House.

Watson’s bill, which passed the Senate last year before running into problems in the other chamber, would have allowed school districts to charge tuition to students without permanent legal documentation. It was designed to bring a court challenge that would overturn the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, which required schools to enroll all children regardless of immigration status.

The amended House version of the bill, which must be taken up by the Senate, turned into a head count of undocumented students because the initial one could have cost the state $1.1 billion in federal money.

More than 100 Hamilton County educators told Watson this week they oppose the bill in any form. His response Thursday was that they didn’t have to opt in, and added “that doesn’t disturb me at all.”

Tennessee House passes bill requiring immigration checks in public schools

“Obviously, the preference would have been to have the bill that the Senate passed,” Watson said. 

The Hixson Republican said he wants to take time over the next week to consult members to see if “the juice is worth the squeeze” or wait until the next session.

Some Republican senators such as Page Walley of Savannah are not climbing aboard on this one. Walley says even the second version could dump more work on the backs of school staff, turning them into immigration agents.

It sounds like a lot of effort for something that has no penalties for refusing to turn in numbers. 

Maybe the legislature could give secretaries a raise or bring in former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who got bumped down the ladder after spending who knows how much on TV ads to bolster the ranks of ICE – and then laying it at the feet of President Trump.

Virtuals run into reality

Tennessee’s virtual public schools could hit the skids if they don’t boost performance.

The Senate voted 26-6 Thursday for SB2441, which would allow the state to close online schools if they don’t make improvements over three consecutive years. Republican Sen. Bill Powers of Clarksville sponsored the bill, which hasn’t started moving in the House.

Opponents such as Republican Sen. Todd Gardenhire of Chattanooga said the students who attend virtual schools “have no other choice.” But Powers said space would be made in other schools for any students affected by shutdowns. 

“Let’s follow the money,” Powers said.

With nearly 8,200 students and receiving $7,300 each from the state, virtual schools are collecting $59 million annually, and that’s likely to grow to $63 million next year, according to Powers.

The bill raises the question: Do they need space?

The schools don’t spend money on buildings, furniture, utilities, cafeterias, sports facilities or buses and nurses, Powers said. Yet they still collect, and the state is seeing no student “growth” out of 12 virtual schools. 

“How long are we gonna let that go on?” he asked.

Typically, a 26-6 vote means the Senate’s six Democrats lost another one. This time, it was Republicans in the minority, Gardenhire, Joey Hensley of Hohenwald, Mark Pody of Lebanon, Kerry Roberts of Springfield, Jessie Seal of New Tazewell and John Stevens of Huntingdon. 

“Thou shalt not …”

If you need proof that Tennessee’s legislature has God on its side, look no further than passage of Senate Bill 303, which allows schools to post the Ten Commandments along with other historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

The Senate passed the measure Thursday sponsored by Sen. Mark Pody of Lebanon and Rep. Michael Hale of Smithville. 

Opponents were assured it wasn’t mandatory. And earlier this year, out of an abundance of caution that it could blur the lines between church and state, we were told that students can always avert their eyes.

Following Thursday’s vote, Lt. Gov. McNally advised reporters that the Ten Commandments set the foundation for America’s laws.

He has a point, at least about killing and stealing, as if people were waiting for Moses to come down from Mount Sinai with stones saying “Thou shalt not kill” before deciding Cain shouldn’t have killed Abel.

Of course, they were worshiping a golden calf (“Thou Shalt have no other gods before me”) when he arrived, so the commandments might have been lost on a lot of them. Thus, they had to wander in the desert for decades.

Since then, and this is a safe bet, there’s been a whole lot of worshipping false gods, taking the Lord’s name in vain, lying, coveting, disrespecting parents and failing to keep the Sabbath holy.

You heathens know who you are.

Be careful whom you back

Tennessee Republicans are throwing a stumbling block in the path of Cade Cothren’s election hopes. 

The former chief of staff for ex-Speaker Glen Casada was certified to run for the House District 71 seat held by Republican Rep. Kip Capley after being pardoned by Trump for running a fraudulent House mailer consulting company called Phoenix Solutions. Cothren started the business after resigning his post amid a racist and sexist texting scandal that also led to Casada’s political demise.

But the Republican Party recently rejected his GOP bona fides because he donated money to Democratic Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson after they were expelled from the House for leading a gun protest following the Covenant School mass shooting three years ago, according to a Tennessee Journal report. Those campaign finance reports can come back to haunt when you least expect it. Just a guess, but the donations were likely a dig at House Speaker Cameron Sexton.

Expect an appeal from the Cothren camp.

This time, though, he shouldn’t be able to claim indigency, which he did before last year’s federal criminal trial, meaning the people paid his legal fees for something that, ultimately, never occurred. The funny thing is: Sitting through that trial didn’t feel like a figment of our imagination. 

“Sure as night will follow day / Most things I worry about never happen anyway” *

* “Crawling Back to You,” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers