Texas and Tennessee At Forefront of State Attacks on Local Control in 2025 Legislative Session
In 2024, state legislators across the country made headlines for introducing – and in many cases, passing – abusive legislation that preempted local authority on a host of topics, from guaranteed income programs to criminal justice reform policies to prosecutorial discretion and beyond.
Just seven weeks into 2025, we’re already seeing more of the same concerning activity. As of February 14, LSSC was tracking 344 abusive preemption bills in legislatures across the country. Some of the most egregious examples of preemption bills have been introduced in Tennessee, where lawmakers pursued a number of preemption measures in 2024, and Texas, where lawmakers are meeting for the first time since 2023.
Abusive Preemption in Tennessee
To date, Tennessee lawmakers have introduced 21 preemption bills that would remove local authority regarding immigration, elections, LGBTQ+ protections, and workers’ rights. One bill already passed during Tennessee’s special session last month; on February 12, Governor Bill Lee signed into law SB 6002, which creates criminal penalties for local officials who adopt sanctuary policies and requires their removal from office upon conviction.
To give a few examples of the other types of bills being introduced:
Elections: Companion bills HB 384 and SB140 would create a recall process for members of a municipal legislative body and city and county school boards; they may be recalled for a variety of reasons including “incompetence,” or “voter dissatisfaction.”
LGBTQ+ protections: Companion bills HB 1262 and SB 1252, along with SB 1126, would update an existing law so that students cannot be required to use preferred pronouns for their fellow classmates – teachers and school employees were already omitted from this requirement. The bills also make changes to the civil liability and adverse action protections as it relates to the use of, or the refusal to use, a pronoun or preferred pronoun. Similarly, companion bills HB 1270 and SB 937 would prohibit certain individuals from being required to use another's preferred name or pronoun; would insulate certain individuals from civil liability for using, or refusing to use, certain names or pronouns and would allow a civil action to be filed against certain employers and public schools that implement certain preferred pronoun policies or that allow certain names or pronouns to be used in reference to an unemancipated minor without first obtaining parental consent.
Workers’ rights: SB 382 would preempt local guaranteed income programs.
Abusive Preemption in TeXAS
Texas lawmakers are also moving quickly to stifle local authority; to date, they have introduced 60 preemption bills that would remove local authority regarding abortion, criminal justice, DEI initiatives, prosecutorial discretion, education, elections, housing, immigration, LGBTQ+ protections, and workers’ rights. To give a quick overview:
Abortion: Companion bills HB 1806 and SB 721, along with SB 730, would prohibit local government support of abortions by prohibiting financial transactions and logistical support, and “certain economic and tax incentives” to entities that “assist, refer, or otherwise encourage a woman to obtain an abortion.”
Criminal justice: Companion bills HB 336 and SB 690 would restrict counties’ ability to prohibit or redirect funds from sheriffs’ offices. HB 1862 would require counties to get voter approval via an election before reallocating unspent funding that was appropriated to law enforcement. The same bill would also prohibit counties with populations over 1.2 million from transferring money appropriated to sheriff offices to the general revenue fund and from prohibiting lawful spending of appropriated money by the sheriffs’ offices.
DEI initiatives: Companion bills SB 689 and HB 1521 would prohibit the implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives by certain governmental entities. HB 167 and HB 436 would also prohibit DEI initiatives in a range of governmental entities, including city governments, county governments, and state agencies, and prohibit DEI considerations in contracting by governmental entities.
Elections: Companion bills HB 1489 and SB 511 would prohibit officers and employees of a political subdivision (i.e. counties, cities, townships, school districts etc) from distributing voter registration application forms to people who haven’t requested them, and from using public funds to facilitate these activities.
Housing: Existing state law prohibits local governments from adopting laws that attempt to circumvent enforcement of the state's ban on public camping. SB 241 would make the existing law even stricter by preventing local governments from banning or discouraging investigations into individuals who are violating the state's ban on public camping.
Immigration: Companion bills HB 1554 and SB 1005 would prohibit local governments from using public funds to provide legal services for individuals unlawfully present in the United States.
LGBTQ+ protections: HB 1655 would require school district boards to adopt a policy prohibiting employees from assisting students with social transitioning, including simply providing information. If an employee is found in violation of the policy, all funding to which the district is entitled for that school year will be withheld. Similarly, HB 2258 would impose private civil liability on anyone who assists with the social transitioning (or gender affirming surgery) of a minor, with a 20 year statute of limitations.
Prosecutorial discretion: In addition to creating new civil liability for certain abortion-related activities, HB 991 would grant Texas’ Attorney General concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute any abortion law, and would allow the Attorney General to authorize a district attorney to investigate/prosecute if a local district attorney does not.
Workers’ rights: Three bills – companion bills HB 530 and SB 395, along with SB 743 – would preempt local authority to establish and operate guaranteed income programs.