Mt. Juliet, TN – This week, Sen. Mae Beavers’ opponent sent out another press release attacking Sen. Beavers regarding the Tennessee Health Freedom Act, a bill that Sen. Beavers passed twice in the State Senate, and a bill that Beavers’ opponent was unable to pass in the State House.

The press release in question, in addition to recent mailers sent out by Sen. Beavers’ opponent, references the Tennessee Health Freedom Act, a bill crafted by Sen. Beavers with the aid of Rep. Jim Clark from Idaho – one of the nation’s leading state sovereignty champions. Senator Beavers’ bill included protection for Tennesseans from the unconstitutional provisions of the national healthcare legislation, and directed the Tennessee Attorney General to join the Attorney Generals of other states to challenge the constitutionality of Obamacare.

Sen. Beavers’ bill was passed overwhelmingly by the Senate (26-1) in February of 2010, after recommendation by the appropriate Senate committees. Four months later, in June, five minutes before telling the House sponsor of the Health Freedom Act, Rep. Mike Bell, that he would vote for the bill and send it out of committee, House Speaker Kent Williams instead voted to kill the Senate bill. Incredibly, Beavers’ opponent now declares in her press release that this never happened. The event, widely reported at the time, was decried by all those opposed to the unconstitutional federal healthcare mandate.

It is also a fact that soon after, the House Speaker voted instead to send to the house floor a substantially weaker bill that did nothing to combat the unprecedented and unconstitutional federal mandates… A bill authored by Senator Beavers’ opponent.

Unfortunately, Beavers’ opponent’s weaker bill was dead in the Senate as it had never been moved by the Senate sponsor, nor heard by a single committee.

“My opponent knew that the Senate version of her bill had not moved through committee, but instead the House Speaker knew that he could kill my bill and instead pass out my opponent’s, a move that screams politics at its worse,” said Beavers.  “It’s also a fact that before doing this, my opponent had agreed to hold back a bill regarding the TWRA that she was sponsoring at the Speaker’s request, a move that many know was made to put pressure on the TWRA to provide funding for the Speaker’s pork project – the infamous fish hatchery in Carter County.”

Beavers’ opponent’s press release also reveals that she doesn’t understand how a bill becomes a law. She claims that Sen. Beavers, apparently single-handedly, amended her weaker Healthcare Freedom Act in the Senate.  Such a statement shows blatant ignorance regarding how the State Senate operates, as the only way the Senate agreed to hear the dead bill directly on the floor was to amend it to include language that had moved through the Senate committee system and then passed by the full Senate.

“My opponent obviously does not know how the State Senate operates, and would rather spread baseless lies,” said Sen. Beavers.  “I did not amend my opponent’s bill – the entire Senate did – and if we would not have, then that bill would not have been able to be voted on.  The Senate saved the Health Freedom Act, and we then passed it for a second time.”

Eventually, the House failed to pass the TN Health Freedom Act, a move that angered both Sen. Beavers as well as many who view the national healthcare legislation to be unprecedented and unconstitutional. Yet, Sen. Beavers’ opponent continues to blame her for the bill’s failure, including calling the language passed by the Senate as being “unconstitutional.”

When asked about such a statement, Sen. Beavers responded by saying, “Well, the only way you can believe that the TN Health Freedom Act is unconstitutional is if you believe Obamacare is constitutional, and quite frankly, I and my nine co-sponsors and the other 22 Senators who voted for the Heath Freedom Act do not.”

In a letter to Senator Beavers on behalf of the nation’s largest guns rights organization, NRA State Liaison Heidi Keesling said the following: “On behalf of National Rifle Association members in State Senate District 17, I am pleased to announce your NRA-PVF “A+” rating and endorsement for the 2010 Tennessee Primary Election. This is a reflection of your answers to our candidate questionnaire in addition to your record of promoting and supporting Second Amendment legislation while serving in the Tennessee General Assembly.”

Senator Beavers was grateful for the endorsement, as it reflects a lifetime of supporting 2nd Amendment Rights on behalf of the citizens of District 17 and of the entire state of Tennessee.

“I am a proud to protect the rights of law-abiding and responsible citizens,” said Senator Beavers. “I believe in the constitutions of the State of Tennessee and of the United States of America – and my constituents know I will fight for their rights. I am honored to know that an organization such as the NRA has recognized my will to fight for what I believe.”

MT. JULIET, TN – Senator Mae Beavers is proud today to receive the endorsement of one of the country’s state sovereignty champions, Representative Jim Clark of Idaho.  Representative Clark is the current Idaho House of Representatives Judiciary Chairman, as well as being Idaho’s state chairman to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

“I am proud today to announce my endorsement of a lady with strong convictions and who has worked tirelessly to combat an unprecedented over-reaching of the federal government throughout the years,” said Representative Clark.  “Senator Beavers sponsored and passed the Firearms Freedom Act last year, and this year sponsored and passed the Tennessee Health Freedom Act twice in the State Senate.  The state of Tennessee and the people of Senator Beavers’ district are lucky to have someone with such steadfast and consistently conservative principles and credentials.”

Representative Clark is the original author of the Idaho Health Freedom Act – joining with Virginia and Arizona as being one of the three states with statutorily-enacted laws directly challenging the constitutionality of President Obama’s national healthcare legislation.  Clark worked with Senator Beavers in drafting of the Tennessee Health Freedom Act, acknowledging that language offered by ALEC’s version of the bill was inadequate and did nothing but issue a statement of intention regarding what the state legislature can and cannot do.

“The ALEC version of the Healthcare Freedom Act was similar to a resolution,” said Representative Clark.  “I decided to use language in my legislation that made the law in Idaho a direct confrontation with the unconstitutional federal healthcare bill.  We also put into law a remedy to such an unprecedented violation of our rights in that our Attorney General would protect the state of Idaho from these federal fines and unfunded mandates.  I applaud Senator Beavers for passing this bill in the Tennessee Senate, and I wish the Tennessee House of Representatives would have been able to pass this legislation and stand up to the federal government as well.”

Representative Clark graduated from Tampa University in Florida in 1973. He received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army, and later served his country proudly for twenty years stationed in Germany, South America, Vietnam, and throughout the United States.  Clark also has a Master of Science degree in International Relations from Troy State University in Alabama and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Idaho.  Clark has served in the Idaho House of Representatives since 1996.

Contact: Josh Bradley
Phone:  (615) 444-4898

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Susan Lynn argued, repeatedly, that the Attorney General was the Governor’s attorney and the Governor trusted him. This is simply incorrect and betrays an appalling ignorance about the office of Attorney General. The Attorney General is NOT the Governor’s attorney. He is not appointed by the Governor. He does not report to the Governor. He is appointed by the justices of the state supreme court.

Tennessee Report had a reporter at the meeting and he video-taped the whole meeting. Watch these three videos if you want to know exactly what happened:

On Friday, June 4th, Senate leaders enacted a procedural method that revived the Tennessee Health Freedom Act.  The original Health Freedom Act, SB 3498, was sponsored by Senator Beavers and passed the Senate Floor overwhelmingly last February.

However, due to parliamentary maneuvers and side-deals being struck by House members and the House Speaker, that bill was killed last week in a budget subcommittee.

“The House Speaker cast a tie-breaking vote to kill that bill in committee last week,” said Senator Beavers.  “The House committee then decided to pass out a similar, but substantially weaker bill to cover their tracks… however, all of the members knew that bill had not moved in the Senate.  Their attempt to only advance the version that was dead in the Senate was their attempt to kill the Tennessee Health Freedom Act.”

The legislature was then left with a predicament in that there were two different versions of a bill that sought to protect Tennesseans from unconstitutional provisions of the national health care bill. However, both of their companion bills were stalled in the opposite legislative chamber.  Therefore, SB 2560 was recalled from committee and brought straight to the Senate Floor.  The only way the Senate agreed to recall the bill was to have an amendment that would put Beavers’ version of the Tennessee Health Freedom Act onto the bill since that was the only amendment that had been through the Senate committee process. If the Senate had not adopted that version of the bill, the bill would have been dead.

“This was an unusual procedural motion,” acknowledged Senator Beavers.  “However the difference between this motion and others that have failed in the past is that this amendment has been vetted in committee and passed overwhelmingly in February.  To me, it’s not a question of politics, it’s a matter of policy and principle… the Tennessee legislature needs to send a firm message to Washington that we do not agree with their unprecedented and unconstitutional national healthcare legislation.  My amendment protected Tennesseans from the federal government, the other bill only said that the state legislature could not impose mandatory healthcare – which is irrelevant because it’s the federal government, not the state, who will impose such a mandate.”

Then, after passing the Senate overwhelming for the second time, the Tennessee Health Freedom Act failed to receive the necessary 50 votes to pass in its final form in the House of Representatives.

“I was incredibly discouraged that House Democrats voted to kill this bill,” said Senator Beavers.  “The Senate did every maneuver we could to resurrect this bill – even passing the Tennessee Health Freedom Act once in February and then again last week.”

Many Democrats cited the reason for their vote being that Tennessee’s Attorney General said it was likely unconstitutional, yet Senator Beavers argued that such a statement was merely his opinion.  “The only way you could say that my bill is unconstitutional would be if you believe Obamacare is constitutional – and the State Senate said loud and clear that we do not think it is… it’s the Attorney General’s job to defend the policies of this state, and there is no way that an unconstitutional federal law should trump a constitutional state law!”

To read about the different versions of the Tennessee Health Freedom Act, see

• Mae Beavers’ original Health Freedom Act – SB3498:
  http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=SB3498
• Amendment 1 to SB3498:
  http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/106/Amend/SA0829.pdf
• Weaker Health Freedom Bill originated in the House – SB2560:
  http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/106/Bill/SB2560.pdf
• And finally, a compromise bill reached in conference committee for SB2560:
  http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/106/CCRReports/CC0027.pdf

The budget process consisted of weeks of negotiations, mainly with Senate Republicans attempting to pass a responsible budget against the will of many House Democrat and Republican leaders.

After passing a conservative budget out of the Senate Finance Committee, Senate leaders were constrained by members of the State House in what spending they could cut to balance the budget…and negotiations with House leaders allowed numerous pork projects to be included into the budget, in addition to raiding Tennessee’s “Rainy Day” savings account by hundreds of millions of dollars.

“I applaud the Senate for attempting to pass a conservative budget during these hard economic times,” said Senator Beavers.  “However, due to certain House members’ wish lists when it came to pork projects that are not affordable during these times… in addition to spending hundreds of millions of dollars from our rainy day fund, I had to vote against this budget.  It’s a shame that House members would rather spend, spend, spend and borrow, borrow, borrow rather than operate within our means.  My family operates in a pay-as-you go fashion…and the state of Tennessee needs to do the same.”

Read the rest of the story at WKRN

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The state Senate is sending a message to Washington that Tennesseans should have the right to say no to potential federal health care coverage.

National health care reform may be on hold, but Tennessee is on the verge of a new law that says, ‘We don’t want it.’”

The Tennessee Senate overwhelmingly passed the “Tennessee Health Freedom Act” on Wednesday.

Republican leader Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey said, “I hope the health care plan is dead as presented in Washington D.C., but in case it was not, this addresses the problem.”

Ramsey was among the co-sponsors of the bill in the state Senate.

Wilson County Republican Senator Mae Beavers also sponsored the bill.

Sen. Beavers said, “My bill would say they could not fine anybody in the state of Tennessee, and if they tried to, our attorney general would defend us.”

She says it allows the state to defend anyone who would pay a penalty if they refused federally mandated health care coverage.

Beavers said, “It’s not a nullification bill, because it gives people a choice. If they choose the national health care, they will be able to choose that. If they choose to have their own insurance, they can do that.”

Go to WKRN’s website to read the rest of the story (opens in new tab)

“This act seeks to protect the rights of Tennesseans to choose what type and quantity of health insurance to purchase,” said Beavers.  “No matter what legislation eventually passes through Congress, as state legislators, we need to stand up for the citizens of this state, our fantastic doctors and hospitals, and stand up against unconstitutional and unprecedented federal mandates.”

Senate Bill 3498 would protect a person’s right to participate, or not participate, in any healthcare system, and would prohibit the federal government from imposing fines or penalties on that person’s decision.  The bill does not seek to “nullify” any federal law, as it would still allow individuals the option to participate in a federal program; however, it would also acknowledge the right of individuals to refuse to participate in a government-run health insurance program.

“Unlike car insurance which is not compulsory but is required when one chooses to utilize the privilege of driving on public roads, the pending health insurance mandates are entirely different because they are based solely as a requirement of U.S. citizenship,” said Beavers.  “Never in our history has the U.S. government required its citizens – simply because they are citizens – to purchase a particular product from a private company or government entity.”

The Tennessee Health Freedom Act will now move to the Senate floor in the coming weeks to be voted on by the entire Senate, and then the measure will have to pass through the House before it will go to the Governor for his signature.

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