HIGH SCHOOL CIVICS Part Four: Learning the ropes at the legislature In previous grades you learned how the Tennessee General Assembly consists of two chambers; that it usually meets for about four months out of the year; that it has the power to pass laws that can affect just about every aspect of your life. Now we're going to tell you much more "insider" stuff. First we're going to tell you a little about how the legislature is organized and about who these 132 state legislators are. We're going to tell you about two types of people -- lobbyists and reporters -- who affect legislators and affect the way the general public perceives legislators. And we're going to give you an example of a controversial bill, and explain the long and winding course it took to become a law. A committee of the state senate The committee system The Tennessee General Assembly meets from late January until about May each year. During a typical session, members propose in the range of 2,000 bills (more on that later). Because there are so many bills, and because they cover such a wide range of issues, the legislature has set up a committee system that votes bills up or down before they are considered by the entire house or senate. Bills have to receive majority approval in committee before they will be considered by the house or senate. We're not going to list every committee. But we will point out, since it should be of interest to you, that both the house and senate have education committees. Any bill that would affect the operation of your school would in all certainty be sent to both the 17-member House Education Committee and the 9-member Senate Education Committee.  Rep. Beth Harwell of Nashville, a member of the House Education Committee So let's say, for instance, that you want the Tennessee General Assembly to pass a bill that gives every student a new school desk. To get this bill to pass, you write a House version and a Senate version and find someone in the House and Senate to sponsor the bill. A few weeks later the bill is sent to the House and Senate Education Committees. You need 9 votes in the 17-member House committee and 5 votes in the 9-member Senate committee. A good place to start getting votes would be with House Education Committee Chairman Les Winningham (who is from Oneida) and Senate Education Committee Chairman Jamie Woodson (from Knoxville). Assuming you get through the education committees, you still have another hurdle. You see, in order to keep tabs on how money is being spent, all bills that require the state to spend money have to also be passed by the House and Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committees. Better go see House committee chairman Craig Fitzhugh (Ripley) and Senate committee chairman Douglas Henry  (Nashville).  Rep. Lois DeBerry, who is the Speaker Pro Tempore of the state house (number two person behind Speaker Naifeh) If you get the bill through the committee system, you'll of course have to get the bill to pass the full house and full senate. That means you are going to need 50 votes in the 99-member house and 17 votes in the 33-member senate. If you have somehow made it through all those committees, getting enough votes on the floor shouldn't be much of a problem. But make no mistake: Getting a bill to pass is a lot of work. It's so much work that there are people who spend their entire lives trying to navigate the process. They are called lobbyists, and we'll talk more about them in a while. Leaders at the General Assembly We talked earlier about how important it is to learn who YOUR state senator and state representative are. If you don't know this, click here to find out. Now, since there are 132 legislators, we're not going to tell you about all of them because that would take too long. But we are going to introduce you to the leader of the house and leader of the senate. The Tennessee House of Representatives Representative Jimmy Naifeh is the Speaker of the House (his last name is pronounced "nayFEE"). He is from Covington, a small town in southwest Tennessee. Speaker Jimmy Naifeh PHOTO: Tennessee General Assembly Naifeh's father was born in Lebanon, in the Middle East, and immigrated to this country. Oney Naifeh owned a grocery store in Covington, and it was in that grocery store that Jimmy Naifeh spent much of his childhood. Naifeh first ran for the state house in the fall of 1972, and lost by 13 votes. But he won two years later and has been serving in the state house since that time. In 1991 his colleagues elected him Speaker of the House, and he been reelected seven times to that position, making him the longest serving Speaker of the House in Tennessee history (much like Wilder is the longest serving Lieutenant Governor in Tennessee history). Two interesting personal tidbits about Jimmy Naifeh. Since Charms Company, maker of Blow Pops, has a sizable plant in Tipton County, he keeps a full jar of Blow Pops on a table in his office. When reporters crowd into his office for the weekly press conference, most of them usually grab a Blow Pop and are sucking on them when they ask him tough questions. And, in 1945, Naifeh's father started a tradition of having a big "coon supper" for friends and family every spring. ("Coons" being racoons, or course.) Today the coon supper is one of the most important political events in the state. If you hope to run for political office as a Democrat, there is no better place to be than the annual coon supper in Tipton County. Lieutenant Governor Ramsey PHOTO: Tennessee General Assembly The Tennessee Senate As the speaker of the state senate, Ron Ramsey is also the Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee, which means he would become the governor if the governor died in office. Ramsey is new to this office, having been elected to it by his peers on January 9, 2007. He replaced the legendary John Wilder, who held the post of lieutenant governor for an incredible 36 years. The first time Ramsey ever visited the Tennessee State Capitol was in 1991. A year later, he was elected to represent his upper east Tennessee district in the state house. In 1996 he was first elected to the Senate. Ramsey is auctioneer, a real estate agent and the father of three children. Rep. Debra Maggart of Gallatin with a student at a living history museum Today the Tennessee General Assembly is kind of an unpredictable place. Regardless of whether they are Republican or Democrat, regardless of which part of the state they come from, individual legislators can make a difference. They can, and do, show up every year with new ideas and have their ideas seriously considered by their colleagues and by  the governor. But it hasn't always been like this. Click here to learn how things have changed.