Politics

The Tennessee House has voted to cap the number of bills members can introduce, a move GOP leaders think will help streamline business in the chamber.

The Tennessean reports the House passed a 15-bill limit for each member. House Speaker Beth Harwell initially wanted a ten-bill per member limit.

Supporters say the limit on legislation will lead to an increase in the overall quality of bills brought up in the chamber. But opponents describe the move as an effort to muzzle them. Representative Joe Towns of Memphis denounced the limit, saying “this is not the chamber of a communist country.”

The Tennessee Senate, meanwhile, finished their weekly business without deciding whether to bind the chamber to the state’s Open Meetings Act.

Kentucky's senior U.S. Senator finds himself the target of online ads run by a conservative group. The ads, bought by the group ForAmerica, criticize Republican Mitch McConnell for his role in the recent negotiations over the fiscal cliff.

Politico reports the ads read "Mitch McConnell: Whose side are you on?", along with a picture of McConnell wedged between President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Last-minute negotiations between Biden and McConnell reportedly helped break the impasse between Democrats and Republicans as time was running out to get a deal in place before huge spending cuts and tax increases went into effect.

Politico previously reported McConnell viewed the recent fiscal cliff deal as a way for Republicans to gain future leverage against Democrats and the White House.

Democratic state Representative Brent Yonts of Greenville could be in line to become the next chairman of the House State Government Committee, a key post with the legislature working to find a way to restore solvency to the pension program for government retirees in Kentucky.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo said he intends to nominate Yonts for the position and that he considers Yonts a front runner.

Lawmakers have been trying to find a way to erase a $33 billion unfunded liability in the pension system. A legislative task force that spent months studying the issue recommended pumping in more money without saying where that money would come from.