2016 Legislative Update for the
Tennessee Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers
The Tennessee General Assembly has recently made changes to statutes which may impact you as a holder of a license with the Tennessee Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers. Pursuant to Tenn. Code. Ann. § 4-3-1306(d), you are receiving this notice because you have elected to receive notification by e-mail of certain changes or potential changes to the law applicable to your profession. These new changes set out in the following Public Chapters specifically amend the Tennessee Code Annotated as follows:
Public Chapter 838 permits applicants for a funeral director’s license to substitute an associate’s degree from a college accredited by the American Board of Funeral Service Education for one (1) year of apprenticeship. This Act took effect on July 1, 2016. A copy of the new law is available for review on the website of the Tennessee Secretary of State here: http://share.tn.gov/sos/acts/109/pub/pc0838.pdf.
Public Chapter 915 amends what fees may be charged for the interment of a veteran by the Tennessee Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Specifically, the law prohibits any fee to be charged for the interment of an eligible veteran in a state veteran’s cemetery and limits the fee to $300 for the interment of an eligible veteran’s spouse. This Act took effect on April 2, 2016. A copy of the new law is available for review on the website of the Tennessee Secretary of State here: http://share.tn.gov/sos/acts/109/pub/pc0915.pdf.
Public Chapter 911 defines funeral merchandise for pre-paid funeral merchandise, allows the Commissioner to issue a contract that must be used for funeral and cemetery pre-need contracts that include funeral merchandise, replaces the definition of “merchandise” with a definition for “cemetery merchandise” in the Cemetery Act, and requires a seller providing both cemetery and funeral merchandise on a single contract to pay only one consumer protection fee. This Act took effect on April 27, 2016 for the purpose of promulgating rules and will take effect on January 1, 2017 for all other purposes. A copy of the new law is available for review on the website of the Tennessee Secretary of State here: http://share.tn.gov/sos/acts/109/pub/pc0911.pdf.
Public Chapter No. 1053, known as the “Right to Earn a Living Act”, requires that on or before December 31, 2016, each state licensing authority (state board, commission, council or committee) submit all existing or pending regulations to the chairs of the Government Operations Committees and that the committees perform a study of all submitted regulations and, at their discretion, conduct a hearing regarding any such regulation. During the review of the entry regulations, the committees shall consider whether an entry regulation is not required by state or federal law, is unnecessary to protect the public health, safety or welfare, has the purpose or effect of unnecessarily inhibiting competition or arbitrarily denying entry into the profession, if such regulation could be accomplished by less restrictive means or if the regulation is outside the scope of the licensing authority’s statutory authority. If a regulation meets one of those factors, the committees may disapprove of the regulation and request that the authority amend or repeal it. If the licensing agency does not initiate compliance with the committees’ request within ninety (90) days or does not comply within a reasonable amount of time, the committees may then vote to request that the General Assembly suspend all or part of the agency’s rulemaking authority. Beginning January 1, 2018, each licensing authority must submit all new entry regulations to the committees prior to a “Sunset” hearing being held. This Act took effect on April 28, 2016. A copy of the new law is available for review on the website of the Tennessee Secretary of State here: http://share.tn.gov/sos/acts/109/pub/pc1053.pdf.
If you have any questions or concerns about these new laws, please contact us by email at reg.boards@tn.gov.
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