Tennessee General Assembly holds a 'not-so-special' session | Opinion

• Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, is the Tennessee Senate Democratic leader.

This week, which began with the commemoration of the 1920 special session to ratify the 19th Amendment, will end with a far less consequential special session of the Tennessee General Assembly.

On Friday, the House will convene to elect a successor to  Speaker Casada following months of scandals that engulfed the legislature and embarrassed the state. Then the legislature will adjourn, pretending all is well.

Tennessee’s Constitution provides that on “extraordinary occasions,” the governor may convene the General Assembly to consider specified “legislative business.” But the General Assembly convening on Friday will not even address the problems that led to the calling of this special session in the first place. Governor Lee’s proclamation effectively limits the agenda to little more than housekeeping.

Past special sessions have responded to 'challenges of their times'

The governor has missed an opportunity to provide real leadership at a time when it is sorely needed.

Anyone paying attention over the last few months has heard troubling allegations of campaign finance irregularities, drug abuse in the Capitol, improper sexual conduct, the condoning of racism, a lack of transparency, the attempted manipulation of an ethics panel, and alleged vote-buying.

With the vast array of red flags demonstrating the need for reforms to the way the legislature does business, we cannot pretend that a single personnel change is a meaningful solution. Rather than acknowledge the “extraordinary occasion” that actually triggered the special session, the narrow agenda seems to ignore what we all know is at stake.

In our 223-year history, there have been just 59 previous “Extraordinary Sessions,” and each is a snapshot of our political history.

From our first special session in 1796 to elect the state’s first congressional representatives, to the 1861 session preceding the Civil War, to women’s suffrage in 1920, to the income tax wars waged in the 1999 sessions, each assembly provides an instructive glimpse into how particular generations responded to the challenges of their times.

The agenda of this special session amounts to an 'institutional shrug'

In 2019, there is no shortage of significant challenges. But the legislature is not coming together for a special session to grapple with the opiate epidemic, hospital closures in rural Tennessee, growing racial divisions, gun violence, the risks of a coming economic slowdown, foreign threats to our election system, or any other public business. Instead, the legislature is meeting only to deal with a political scandal and somehow ignoring even that.

It is hard to imagine history looking kindly on this not-so-special session.  It amounts to an institutional shrug — the cynical acceptance of a politics that has become corrosive and small.

We cannot help but be reminded of that smallness in light of the centennial commemoration of the special session to consider whether full rights of citizenship should extend to women. A  century later, the prospect of such a consequential debate occurring in the Tennessee Capitol seems sadly far-fetched.

If our predecessors could play the central and decisive role in one the most important debates of American history, we should at least have the courage to confront our problems head on.

Following the 2005 Tennessee Waltz scandal, the General Assembly did not act as though its problems would be solved merely by disposing of a few bad apples. Instead, the legislature met in special session over a number of weeks to consider and enact a series of ethics reforms.

Leaders must commit to debate comprehensive reforms

Restoring trust and protecting the integrity of the legislature is a task that will take more than the couple of hours scheduled for this Friday.

Unless the plan is to just sweep this under the rug, both the governor and Republican leaders should come out of this special session with a specific commitment to debate more comprehensive reforms in the next regular session of the legislature.

It would be a disservice to adjourn this week with a suggestion that the legislature’s problems have now been fixed.

When politicians refuse to admit a problem is real, it reveals their willingness to let the problem go unsolved.

If we hear folks claiming that the legislature has turned the page based on nothing more than Friday’s abbreviated special session, we will know they intend to keep using the same, old playbook.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, is the Tennessee Senate Democratic leader. He represents District 21.