Richard M. Briggs

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 359, enacted in 2025, allowing confidential private advocacy orders that require certain healthcare-license applicants to participate in approved peer-assistance programs.

May 13, 2025Supports Healthcare Affordability

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 624, enacted in 2026, generally prohibiting a local elected official from simultaneously holding another elected office in Tennessee.

March 23, 2026Supports Anti-Corruption

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Voted to pass HB 618. Starting in 2027 it bars a person who holds a local elected office from holding a second elected office in Tennessee at the same time. Anyone already holding two offices on January 1, 2027 may keep them and run again, and party executive committee seats do not count. The Tennessee Senate passed it 21-10, and it became law.

February 26, 2026Supports Anti-Corruption

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 6, 2026

Wrote a campaign-finance law the governor signed (Senate Bill 229, Public Chapter 415). It charged registered political campaign committees a $150 yearly fee starting in 2026 and raised, from $100 to $250, the value of food and invitations allowed before it counts as a contribution.

May 15, 2025Supports Anti-Corruption

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 623, enacted in 2025, requiring the Office of Open Records Counsel to facilitate meetings of the Advisory Committee on Open Government.

May 13, 2025Supports Anti-Corruption

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Voted to pass HB 773. It requires that a website carrying official legal notices be free to view, with no fee or subscription, and that it be separate from the newspaper's own site and owned by someone else. The Tennessee Senate passed it 23-8, and it became law.

April 22, 2025Supports Anti-Corruption

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 6, 2026

Voted to adopt the compromise version of SB 229. It charges political campaign committees a $150 fee each year to help pay for the agency that regulates them, while candidates pay nothing. It also makes a candidate in a local election that crosses county lines file treasurer paperwork with each county's election commission. The Tennessee Senate adopted it 23-6, and it became law.

April 22, 2025Supports Anti-Corruption

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 6, 2026

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 1944, enacted in 2026, authorizing local governmental bodies to conduct certain community meetings electronically.

May 18, 2026Supports Government Efficiency

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Voted to pass HB 2219. It requires every county sheriff to sign a deal with federal immigration agents under a federal program called 287(g), which lets local officers do some federal immigration work. The sheriff does not need the county's approval, and the state can hold back money from a county that does not sign. The Tennessee Senate passed it 24-7, and it became law.

April 23, 2026Opposes Immigration

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 6, 2026

Voted to accept the House's version of Senate Bill 1915, the final Senate vote on the bill. The law makes counties, cities, and towns check that each benefit applicant age 18 or older is a citizen or lawfully present. Local forms and automated phone systems must carry that notice after their first update following July 1, 2026. An agency may not delay a benefit only because the check is still pending. It must stop a recurring benefit once a final check shows the person is not a citizen or a qualified immigrant. Agencies must also report people who are not lawfully present and receive benefits to a state immigration enforcement office. An employee who knowingly fails to report commits a Class A misdemeanor. The attorney general may investigate local governments and withhold their state funding. The Senate agreed 24-6 and it became law as Public Chapter 1106.

April 22, 2026Opposes Immigration

Source: legiscan.com · researched August 27, 2026

Voted to pass HB 2502. It applies Tennessee sales tax to the service of sending money from this state to a place outside the United States through a licensed money transmitter. The Tennessee Senate passed it 21-7, and it became law.

April 16, 2026Opposes Immigration

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 6, 2026

Voted to pass SB 6002. It creates a new immigration enforcement office inside the state safety department, run by an officer the governor picks. That officer directs how state and local police work with federal immigration agents, hands out money from a new grant fund, and runs the state's part in federal programs. The Tennessee Senate passed it 26-7, and it became law.

January 29, 2025Opposes Immigration

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 6, 2026

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 2285, enacted in 2026, requiring school safety plans when an order of protection separates two students enrolled at the same public school.

May 4, 2026Supports Public Safety and Crime Control

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 1415, enacted in 2025, creating felony penalties for knowingly exposing a child to fentanyl or related analogues.

May 27, 2025Supports Public Safety and Crime Control

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 940, enacted in 2025, extending overdose-related immunity from prosecution to specified alcohol offenses.

April 29, 2025Supports Public Safety and Crime Control

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Voted to pass SB 1868. It says a child placed in state custody for treatment stays only as long as the treatment needs, and that the treatment must be evidence-based and given by a qualified provider. Custody is capped at six months, which a court may extend once by six more after a hearing. The Tennessee Senate passed it 22-11, and it became law.

April 15, 2026Supports Social Programs and Welfare

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 6, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1093. Machine gun now includes parts meant only to convert a gun; making, having, moving, fixing, or selling one rises from a Class E to a more serious Class C felony, and post-felony possession rules add ammunition. Aggravated assault by firing from a vehicle gets no probation and requires the full sentence with no early release. The Tennessee Senate passed it 23-8, and it became law.

April 22, 2025Supports Gun Control

Source: legiscan.com · researched August 27, 2026

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 1004, enacted in 2025, clarifying the medical-emergency language in Tennessee's criminal-abortion statute.

April 29, 2025Supports Women's Reproductive Rights

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Briggs co-sponsored Tennessee's 2019 abortion trigger law and later acknowledged he had barely read it and did not expect it to take effect; after it did, he pushed to clarify medical exceptions and protections for patients and doctors.

November 15, 2022Opposes Women's Reproductive Rights

Source: propublica.org · researched July 18, 2026

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 621, enacted in 2025, expanding campaign-finance reporting rules for corporate independent expenditures that expressly support or oppose candidates.

May 15, 2025Supports Election Integrity

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 626, enacted in 2025, prohibiting internet-connected voting machines and internet submission or tabulation of marked ballots while revising other election procedures.

May 13, 2025Supports Election Integrity

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Voted to pass HB 1271. By January 2027 every city and county must rewrite any ordinance, rule or policy that mentions a person's sex or gender so those words mean the physical traits a person is born with. The Tennessee Senate passed it 24-6, and it became law.

April 22, 2026Opposes Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 6, 2026

Voted to pass HB 601. It opens a late-stage appeal, the writ of error coram nobis, to people who pleaded guilty, no contest or best interest. Before this the route was open only to those convicted at trial, so new evidence of innocence could not be raised the same way. The Tennessee Senate passed it 24-6, and it became law.

April 10, 2025Supports Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 6, 2026

Voted for the Senate version of Senate Bill 336. It removed one certificate condition and replaced full child-support payment with twelve months of following all current orders, including overdue-payment orders. The Senate passed it 24-8; the final House rewrite instead changed the general restoration law, removed all court-cost payment, kept twelve-month child-support compliance, and became law.

April 10, 2025Supports Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched August 27, 2026

Voted to pass HB 1237. It bars state boards from keeping anyone off because of race, color, ethnicity or national origin. It also bars race-based rules for who sits on a board, naming affirmative action, racial preferences and racial quotas. The Tennessee Senate passed it 24-6, and it became law.

March 31, 2025Opposes Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 6, 2026

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 621, enacted in 2025, expanding campaign-finance reporting rules for corporate independent expenditures that expressly support or oppose candidates.

May 15, 2025Supports Corporate Accountability

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 306, enacted in 2025, allowing administrative dissolution of entities that knowingly file materially false information or are controlled by a designated foreign adversary.

April 8, 2025Supports Corporate Accountability

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Briggs won the 2022 District 7 general election with 32,925 votes against Bryan Langan's 19,894.

November 8, 2022

Source: sos-prod.tnsosgovfiles.com · researched July 18, 2026

Briggs retired as a colonel in the United States Army after service that included work as a combat surgeon and commander.

November 4, 2014

Source: onyourballot.vote411.org · researched July 18, 2026

Before joining the Senate, Briggs served seven years on the Knox County Commission and held leadership roles with a local medical society and hospital board.

November 4, 2014

Source: onyourballot.vote411.org · researched July 18, 2026

Briggs sponsored Senate Bill 1922, enacted in 2026, requiring state and local government employers to verify prospective employees' work authorization through E-Verify.

April 27, 2026

Source: wapp.capitol.tn.gov · researched July 18, 2026

Voted against Senate Bill 2040. Starting July 1, 2028, an owner above five percent generally cannot control a pharmacy plus both a health insurer and drug-benefit manager. Hospital pharmacies are not benefit managers, independent pharmacies keep mail, specialty, and delivery services, certain rare drugs are excluded, and a violating pharmacy may operate through December 31, 2028 during a real sale to an independent buyer. The Tennessee Senate passed it 24-9, and it became law.

April 20, 2026

Source: legiscan.com · researched August 27, 2026

Voted against HB 1971. It narrows a law that let people ask a court to declare a government action unlawful. The claim now reaches only cities, counties and other local bodies, and can no longer be used to challenge a state law. Other routes to raise constitutional claims are left in place. The Tennessee Senate passed it 18-13, and it became law.

April 2, 2026

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 6, 2026

Voted against HB 1194. It extends Tennessee's work authorization law to almost every private employer. The law had applied to businesses with at least six employees; it now applies to those with at least one. The Tennessee Senate passed it 19-13, and it became law.

March 12, 2026

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 6, 2026