What we're watching as Tennessee lawmakers return to work

🍎 Education: Gov. Bill Lee has already announced school voucher expansion as one of his top priorities. But there's some dissension among Republicans, as school boards in traditionally conservative areas have spoken against it.

• School vouchers have faltered in conservative bastions like Texas.
• But Lee has said he's willing to tweak the specifics of his proposal.

Meanwhile: A Republican effort to reject more than $1 billion in federal education funds, which House Speaker Cameron Sexton first proposed, seems to have fizzled.

• Sexton tells Axios that lawmakers will continue to review the funding and the corresponding regulations.

📌 Guns: Following The Covenant School shooting last March, passionate protests over gun control became common at the Tennessee State Capitol. But the Republican supermajority has resisted meaningful reforms. During a special session to address safety after the shooting, lawmakers never even debated Lee's short-lived proposal to keep guns from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.

• Covenant parents and Democrats have vowed to continue pushing for reforms despite the resistance.

⚖️ Criminal justice: Republican leaders are expected to continue their efforts to create stricter sentences for some crimes.

• Lawmakers are likely to revisit a proposal to give some minors mixed sentences where they could be sentenced to adult prison time after aging out of the juvenile system.
• Leadership also wants to increase the penalty for threatening mass violence to a felony.
• A high-profile shooting death in November could prompt lawmakers to make it easier to commit someone to a mental institution if they are deemed unfit to stand trial. One bill that would do so would also stop those individuals from having guns.

🩺 Abortion: Tennessee's abortion ban is one of the strictest in the country. Last year, lawmakers added limited exceptions for medical emergencies. Efforts to add exceptions for rape and incest have failed so far.

• Some women have sued, saying the current exceptions don't do enough to protect patients whose pregnancies put them in medical jeopardy.

• A Republican lawmaker is drafting legislation that would expand existing exceptions, although it could face long odds.
• Democrats are seeking to restore abortion access more broadly, although those efforts are sure to be blocked.

🌈 LGBTQ+ issues: Tennessee has long been at the forefront of legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community, with efforts to restrict drag and eliminate gender-affirming care for minors taking center stage last year. Advocates expect that trend will extend into 2024.

• The Tennessee Equality Project has already identified multiple bills as being "anti-LGBTQ," including one that would ban pride flags in schools.

🥊 Clashes with Metro: Last year, Republican lawmakers pursued several measures targeting Nashville city business, including efforts to shrink the Metro Council and assert state control over the airport and sports authorities. Nashville has successfully fought the laws in court.

• Sexton says he's met with Mayor Freddie O'Connell and that tension between the city and state has improved.
• "We may not agree politically on a lot, but I like him as a person and I think we can work well together," Sexton says. "I think everybody's willing to put the past behind us."