Deal lifts deadlock on two immigration bills

Each party agrees to pass legislation other side wants approved

By TOM HUMPHREY, KnoxNews.com
March 31, 2007

NASHVILLE - Republican and Democratic legislators have reached a so-called "gentlemen's agreement" - there are ladies involved, too - to resolve a partisan dispute blocking passage of two bills that affect illegal immigrants.

Under the arrangement, as outlined by some of those involved, two things will happen:

• A Republican-sponsored bill killed in a Democrat-dominated House subcommittee March 20 will be revived and approved. The measure gives the Highway Patrol clear legal authority to negotiate an agreement with federal authorities that will allow state troopers to enforce federal immigration laws. It already has passed the Senate.

• Republicans in the Senate, meanwhile, would agree to passage of a bill sponsored by Democrats at the request of Gov. Phil Bredesen that abolishes the "driver's certificate" program, which was suspended by the governor last year.

Lawmakers in both parties support repeal of the certificate program, widely criticized as subject to abuse by illegal immigrants. The Senate has approved a bill sponsored by Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, that is stalled in the House.

The House, meanwhile, has advanced a Democrat-sponsored version and left the Republican-sponsored bill stranded. Because identical bills must pass both the House and Senate to become law, the situation raised the possibility of a stalemate.

The upshot of the deal is that Republicans will get credit for the Highway Patrol bill; Democrats for the certificate repeal bill. Both measures, further, will be officially bipartisan, with Republicans co-sponsoring the Democratic bill and Democrats co-sponsoring the Republican bill.

Ketron said senators would wait to see if House Democrats fulfill their end of the bargain first, resurrecting the Highway Patrol immigration bill. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Delores Gresham, R-Somerville, has been scheduled for a new vote Tuesday before the subcommittee that killed it earlier.

"If they've breathed new life into Delores' bill, that is good for the people of Tennessee," said Ketron. "I want to make sure they honor that gentleman's agreement."

• The Senate is scheduled to vote Monday night on a package of revisions to state laws on medical malpractice that grew out of bipartisan negotiations. A House subcommittee is scheduled to take up the same package Tuesday.

"You know things are working out when you've made everybody equally unhappy. I think we've reached that point now," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rob Briley, D-Nashville.

Briley has worked with sponsors of the bill, Senate Republican Leader Mark Norris of Collierville and Rep. Doug Overbey, R-Maryville, in putting together the package.

The goal of the bill is to eliminate frivolous lawsuits early and to streamline the process of dealing with malpractice claims, reducing costs. The bill eliminates a proposed ceiling on the amount of money that can be collected in lawsuits, a longtime goal of doctors, insurance companies and their allies that has failed repeatedly in past legislative sessions.