19 Legislative Plaza Speaker Beth Harwell 615-741-0709

House of RepresentativesHouse of RepresentativesHouse of RepresentativesHouse of Representatives State of TennesseeState of TennesseeState of TennesseeState of Tennessee

Office of the SpeakerOffice of the SpeakerOffice of the SpeakerOffice of the Speaker

Memorandum

To: House Committee and Subcommittee Chairs

From: House Speaker Beth Harwell

Date: March 18, 2015

Subject: Committee Processes

I want to thank you for all of your hard work thus far during the first legislative session of the

109th

General Assembly. As chairs, you are an integral part of ensuring the committee process in

the House moves with efficiency, while also being deliberative in your actions, and I believe you

are accomplishing this. House staff has put together some statistics that bear this out:

Number of bills on notice as of this week: 507

Total Committee Time through March 13th

: 88 hours and 30 minutes

Total Floor time through March 13th

: 552 minutes

With regards to the pre-meetings that some committees choose to have in order to ensure this

process continues to move efficiently, I respectfully request two things: that these meetings be

announced, and that you have an open door policy. I know some of you already practice this,

but concerns have recently been raised, and I would like to ensure the process is open and

accessible. I believe these are two things the public expects and deserves, and we always want

the citizens of Tennessee to have faith in this process. I sincerely appreciate your attention to

this matter.