Legislative update: ‘Two extraordinary sessions,’ says state Rep John Ragan

October 13, 2021 by Ken Leinart

State Rep. John Ragan (Dist. 33) will travel back to Nashville Oct. 18 to take part in two extraordinary legislative sessions.

The first of those, Ragan said, will be allocating funds for a Tennessee College of Applied Technology in West Tennessee near the new Ford plant.

“They call it the ‘Blue Oval City,’” Ragan said with a grin. “Ford is committing $6 billion for this plant and in getting that, the state had to commit to building a TCAT campus.

“Ford’s committing $6 billion and the state is committing half a million? That’s a pretty good trade-off.”

But Ragan said before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee can sign off on spending the money, the legislature has to allocate it.

“That should take about three days,” Ragan said — noting much of the time will be spent going through the procedural process.

The second extraordinary session will deal with COVID restrictions.

Ragan said while the format is “broad,” there is a message being sent statewide by constituents.

“I get thousands of e-mails daily,” he said. “Literally. On a slow day I may only get 500 and that’s usually a Sunday. And less than 5-percent of the e-mails I receive want restrictions.”

“They want them gone.”

Ragan didn’t say what he thought about COVID mandates or restrictions, just what his constituents are saying — by a vast majority.

“There is an extreme distrust (in what is being said) … About the pandemic.”

Ragan noted the number of times “recommended guidelines” have flipped, changed, or just been dropped.

He also spoke about vaccine mandates as part of the COVID restrictions.

“Tennesseans read all of the information available,” Ragan said. “And Tennesseans aren’t stupid.”

Ragan said he has four bills near completion to be introduced during the extraordinary sessions. He has another dozen or so he’s working on for when the legislature reconvenes in January.

“I learned when I was first elected 20 years ago that if you wait until January to start writing your bills, you’re already behind,” he said.