House makes rare move to recall approved car seat bill

In a rarely used move, the Tennessee House of Representatives on Thursday pulled back a bill they previously approved that would have made changes to the state’s safety laws related to children in cars.

Although Democrats said the move is nothing more than political shenanigans, Republicans argue they simply want to revisit an issue that has generated much concern among their constituents in recent days.

At issue is a bill sponsored by Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, that seeks to clarify the state’s existing child safety law, which requires children younger than 1 to ride in rear-facing car seats. Children can ride in forward-facing car seats if they are between 1 and 3 years old, and then ride in a booster seat until age 8.

According to the bill's summary, Clemmons’ legislation would change the state’s law to require rear-facing seats until age 2 and forward-facing car seats until age 5. Booster seats would be required until children turn 12, unless the child is 4 feet 9 inches tall, in which case they would not be required to ride in a booster seat.

Clemmons argues the provision dealing with a child's height has been lost in media reports about what the bill actually does.

While explaining the bill on the House floor on Thursday, Clemmons said the measure is simply an attempt to cover children who are younger than 12 who do not meet the 4-foot-9 height requirement.

Later in the day, he told reporters the age requirement is simply a “backstop provision.”

He said there was a miscommunication that a child had to be in a booster seat until age 12.

Clemmons said children who may be older than 8 but are shorter than 4 feet 9 inches are at risk of decapitation because of the height of the rear seatbelt.

He said that safety experts wanted the current age cap bumped from 8 to 12 in order to protect late-growing children.

Democrats argued the move to bring the bill back to the House is not only for political purposes — Clemmons has sponsored several resolutions this session that have generated concern among Republicans — but also an example of how Republicans are moving bills through the legislature too quickly.

“If there had been adequate debate, we wouldn’t have had to go through all this extraordinary reason for recalling a bill,” said House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh.

House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada, R-Franklin, said the move is simply to re-examine the legislation, which he said piqued the interest of several lawmakers.

“Is this government overreach? Is this a good thing or not?” Casada asked, noting that he and other House members have received several phone calls from concerned constituents about the bill’s potential effect.

Casada said among the concerns about the bill are when the new requirements would be rolled out, as well as the potential financial burdens related to the change in rear-facing seats. He also cited the age changes as another concern.

Casada denied that politics are playing into the decision to send the bill, which already received approval in the Senate by a 32-0 vote, back to a House committee. The House previously voted 68-19 to approve the legislation.

“Members vote, and just like other things, sometimes you have something called buyer’s remorse,” he said.

The House voted 64-26 to recall the bill, and the legislation is expected to be sent back to a committee, which will be tasked with addressing the concerns related to it.

Reach Joel Ebert at 615-772-1681 and on Twitter @joelebert29.