Tennessee

2024 Legislation

  • House Bill 1887
    • Summary: As enacted, expands the types of duty that qualify a member of the national guard, state guard, or civil air patrol who is also a state employee for employment protections; specifies a calculation to determine the amount of monetary benefits for a national guard member who is injured or killed in the line of duty based on the member’s average salary. 
    • Status: Passed on April 17 2024 – 100% progression
    • Action: 2024-04-17 – Comp. became Pub. Ch. 687
Tennessee-2023-HB1887-Chaptered
  • House Resolution 99
    • Summary: Urges governor to take action to ensure medical freedom of the Tennessee Army and Air National Guard.
    • Status: Introduced on January 31 2024 – 25% progression, died in chamber
    • Action: 2024-02-07 – Assigned to s/c Departments & Agencies Subcommittee

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, that we urge Governor Bill Lee to take the following actions to mitigate the arbitrary and unjustified action of the Biden Administration to require COVID-19 vaccinations of Tennessee Guardsmen as a condition to service to our great State and our nation: 

g) Terminate the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the Tennessee State Guard, a volunteer state force that is not federally funded and cannot be federalized for any deployments.

2021 Legislation

  • House Bill 82
    • Summary: As enacted, establishes state employment protections for members of the national guard, state guard, and civil air patrol called to active state duty equivalent to the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) for members of the national guard called to federal active service. – Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 33.
    • Final Status: Passed on April 6 2021 – 100% progression
  • Senate Bill 754
    • Summary: As enacted, establishes state employment protections for members of the national guard, state guard, and civil air patrol called to active state duty equivalent to the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) for members of the national guard called to federal active service. – Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 33
    • Final Status: Passed on April 6 2021 – 100% progression

Benefits

  • An unpaid leave of absence from their respective duties, without loss of time, pay not specifically related to leave of absence time, regular leave or vacation, or impairment of efficiency rating for all periods of service during which they are engaged in the performance of duty or training in the service of this state under competent orders, including the performance of duties in an emergency; and
    • Equivalent protections regarding the right to reemployment to those protections afforded under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) (38 U.S.C. § 4301 et seq.) to service members called to federal active service.
      • To be eligible for the protections, a person must satisfy the following conditions:
        • (A) A person whose period of service in the uniformed services was thirty (30) days or less must report for work to the person’s employer not later than the first full regularly scheduled work period following a period of eight (8) hours after the person has completed the person’s period of service and has been safely transported to the person’s residence, unless reporting for work within that time period is not reasonably practicable through no fault of the person, in which case the person must report for work as soon as reasonably practicable;
        • (2) A person whose period of service in the uniformed services was greater than thirty (30) days but not more than one hundred eighty (180) days must submit an application for reemployment with the person’s employer within fourteen (14) days after completion of the person’s period of service, unless doing so is not reasonably practicable through no fault of the person, in which case the person must submit an application for reemployment as soon as reasonably practicable; or
          (C) A person whose period of service in the uniformed services was greater than one hundred eighty (180) days must submit an application for reemployment with the person’s employer within ninety (90) days after completion of the period of service.
    • (b) Persons covered by these benefits shall, unless impossible or unreasonable under the circumstances of the person’s call to active state duty, provide advance notice to their employer of competent orders calling the person to active state duty.
    • (c) The chancery court for the jurisdiction in which a person covered by subsection (a) is employed has the jurisdiction and authority to enforce this section, including the authority to order an employer to comply with this section.