Chairman Yeager presented four budget amendments to the Appropriations Subcommittee at the start of the meeting, including a $750,000 nonrecurring grant to replace a flood-damaged bridge in Overton County and a proposal to raise pay for direct-support professionals to $16 per hour.
Yeager said, “Budget amendment 73 is a $750,000 nonrecurring appropriation to the Department of Transportation for the purpose of granting for a grant for the Overton County Highway Department,” and described the funding as intended to replace a flood-damaged county bridge. He told the committee the road is a county road; the transcript does not specify a precise county-road number.
The senator also highlighted a proposal to increase pay for direct-support professionals (DSPs) who serve people under the 1915 waivers and the Choices program. Yeager said the plan would raise the average hourly rate to $16 from a current pay of $15.37, and that the governor’s budget had already increased pay to about $15.68. He stated the proposal would require $9,934,420 in funding.
Yeager described two additional items: a $50,000 nonrecurring grant to the Men's Health Network “to be used for adjustment for inflation for its health education, primary prevention” program, and what he identified as amendment 62, a $1,900,000 recurring appropriation to TennCare to support an evidence-based community health worker infrastructure. According to Yeager’s presentation, the TennCare funding would generate a federal match and provide funding to 17 organizations and 150 workers across the state; the transcript attributes the 17-organization and 150-worker figures to his remarks.
Committee members asked a limited number of clarifying questions. One member asked whether the bridge was on a state or county road; Yeager replied it was a county road. Senator Weiss cautioned about relying on federal matching funds, saying, “I think we need to be careful in the current phase of federal government that we're in that we're relying on federal matches.”
No formal votes or final committee actions on any of the presented amendments were recorded in the transcript. The committee did not transact further business; members agreed to wait until 12:15 and then adjourned. A motion to adjourn was made and the meeting ended without votes recorded on the amendments.
The transcript does not record sponsor amendment numbers consistently for all items (Yeager referenced amendment "73" for the bridge and used several numbers in quick succession when listing his priorities). Where the transcript was unclear, the article notes that the amendment number or precise county-road number was not specified.