A resolution sponsored by State Senator Mae Beavers that recognizes pornography as a public health hazard has cleared the Senate and is heading to the House.
Senate Joint Resolution 35, which passed 32-0, states that “due to advances in technology and the universal availability of the internet, young children are exposed to what used to be referred to as hardcore pornography at an alarming rate [and] this is leading to low self-esteem and eating disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages and an increased desire to engage in risky sexual behavior as young adolescents.”
It also declares that “pornography use has a detrimental effect on the family as it is linked to lessening desire in young men to marry, dissatisfaction in marriage, and infidelity.”
The resolution is non-binding and does not create new laws. It does, however, proclaim that the “State of Tennessee is acknowledging the need for education, prevention, research, and policy change at the community and societal level to address the epidemic that is harming the people of our State and our country as a whole.”
Meanwhile, the Senate has adopted another Joint Resolution sponsored by Beavers that urges “President Donald J. Trump and the United States Congress to enact legislation to distribute funding to the states by block grant.”
Pointing out that “federal highway funds are now diverted to a multitude of non-road purposes through federally-legislated mandates and earmarks that dictate how states can expend the funding they receive,” the measure calls for a different approach to distributing such funds.
The resolution states that “One remedy to address this critical fiscal issue would be the development of a block grant distribution plan whereby each state would receive from the federal highway trust fund a block grant equal to the fuel tax revenues raised within its borders and would be entitled to spend such grant on transportation priorities of its own choosing.”
If passed, the resolution would be forwarded to appropriate federal officials and states “this General Assembly urges the enactment of legislation to repeal all federal mandates, either by statute, rule, or policy, that dictate the expenditure of federal transportation funding.”
The House Transportation Committee is the next stop for the resolution.
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