Shown verbatim: the complete text as captured from the official PDF posted by the Tennessee General Assembly, fetched 2026-09-25. Page and line markers are part of the official record; nothing is edited or removed. This is the chaptered version. The official bill page.
....
.-<si:F:
•.",,./.t.,.:..f.'.~<"::~~
• V)f/,.l!lh. - ·1·
~: E - , / i A ~ " " ! ; r r J o
~t\ --'- (
...... ~ (~ "•~..:,";
'•-
~tate of \lrennessee
PUBLIC CHAPTER NO. 768
HOUSE BILL NO. 548
By Representatives Cochran, Zachary, Todd, Reeves
Substituted for: Senate Bill No. 377
By Senators Rose, Roberts
AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4, Chapter 56, relative to the
"Tennessee Procurement Protection Act."
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4, Chapter 56, is amended by adding the
following as a new part:
4-56-201.
(a) This part is known and may be cited as the "Tennessee Procurement
Protection Act."
(b) The purpose of this act is to ensure that suppliers to the state and to political
subdivisions of this state are safe, reliable, and free from undue influence and control
from foreign adversaries.
4-56-202.
(a) As used in this part:
(1) "Chief procurement officer" means the chief procurement officer within
the department of general services;
(2) "Company" means a sole proprietorship, organization, association,
corporation, partnership, joint venture, limited partnership, limited liability
partnership, limited liability company, or other entity, including all wholly owned
subsidiaries, or majority-owned subsidiaries of such entities, that exist for the
purpose of making profit;
(3) "Domicile" means the country in which a company is registered, where
the company's affairs are primarily completed, or where the majority of ownership
shares are held;
(4) "Final product or service" means a technology service or software that
may contain information and communication technology;
(5) "Foreign adversary" means a country designated by the United States
department of commerce under 15 CFR 791.4 on January 1, 2025, and as
amended thereafter;
(6) "Foreign adversary company":
(A) Means a company that:
(i) Is domiciled, incorporated, issued, or listed in a foreign
adversary;
(ii) Is headquartered in a foreign adversary;
(iii) Has its principal place of business in a foreign
adversary;
HB548
(iv) Is controlled by the government or an instrumentality
thereof of a foreign adversary; or
(v) Is majority-owned by an entity or is board-controlled by
an entity that is under the jurisdictional control of the government
of a foreign adversary; and
(B) Does not mean a parent company solely because one (1) or
more subsidiaries or affiliates meet the definition of a foreign adversary
company, if the parent company does not meet the criteria in subdivision
(a)(6)(A) and does not recognize more than fifty percent (50%) of the total
annual global revenue of the parent company and subsidiaries from
China and Hong Kong combined; and
(7) "Information and communication technology":
(A) Means the following electronic, digital, or telecommunications
equipment, systems, software, or services used to create, convert, store,
process, transmit, receive, display, distribute, or otherwise make
information available:
(i) Computers, laptops, tablets, mobile devices, and
peripheral equipment;
(ii) Software applications, operating systems, databases,
and cloud-based services;
(iii) Internet and intranet websites, web applications, and
digital content;
(iv) Telecommunications equipment and services, including
voice, video, messaging, and data communications systems;
(v) Electronic documents, multimedia, and audiovisual
materials; and
(vi) Any related hardware, firmware, or embedded
technology integral to the operation of the foregoing; and
(B) Does not include standalone mechanical systems or
equipment that do not electronically process or transmit information.
4-56-203.
Except as provided in § 4-56-204, it is the policy of this state to:
(1) Prohibit the public procurement of final products or services from a
foreign adversary company, whether those final products or services are sold
directly by the foreign adversary company or through a third-party vendor; and
(2) Authorize the public procurement of final products or services from a
company that has operations, affiliates, and subsidiaries in a foreign adversary
so long as the company is not a foreign adversary company.
4-56-204.
(a) Except as provided in subsection (e), a foreign adversary company is
prohibited from bidding on or submitting a proposal for a contract with a state agency or
political subdivision of this state for information and communications technology.
(b) For the purpose of complying with subsection (a), a company shall not, as a
third-party vendor, knowingly sell final products or services to a state agency or a
political subdivision of this state that include information and communication
technologies if such final product or service is manufactured or produced by a foreign
adversary company. The restriction does not apply to information and communications
2
HB548
technologies which have inputs from a foreign adversary company but that are not final
products or services of a foreign adversary company.
(c) A state agency or political subdivision of this state shall require a company
that submits a bid or proposal for a contract for information and communication
technology to certify that the company is not a foreign adversary company as described
in subsection (a) and is not knowingly selling final products or services of a foreign
adversary company to a state agency or political subdivision as described in subsection
(b).
(d) If the commissioner determines that a company has submitted a false
certification under subsection (c):
(1) The company is liable for a civil penalty in an amount that is equal to
the greater of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) or twice the amount
of the contract for which a bid or proposal was submitted;
(2) The state agency or chief procurement officer shall terminate the
contract with the company; and
(3) The company is prohibited from bidding on a state contract for sixty
(60) months.
(e) Notwithstanding the prohibitions in subsections (a) and (b), a state agency
may enter into a contract for a final product or service or information and
communications technology produced by a foreign adversary company if:
(1) There is no other reasonable option for procuring the final product or
service or information and communications technology; and
(2) The contract is preapproved by the chief procurement officer, state
agency, or political subdivision after a determination that not procuring the final
product or service or information and communications technology would pose a
greater threat to the state than the threat associated with the information and
communications technology itself.
SECTION 2. If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance
is held invalid, then the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of the act that
can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to that end, the provisions of
this act are severable.
SECTION 3. This act takes effect July 1, 2026, the public welfare requiring it.
3
HOUSE BILL NO. 548
PASSED: April 7, 2026
N,SPEAKER
HOUSE OF~PRESENTATIVES
0- ~--. '{\A., ~,◄,R~AN\''-dav\ncNALLY
\
SPEAKER OF THE SENATE
Apr; APPROVED this J. J51" day of I 2026
ta -
BILL LEE, GOVERNOREvery fact on this page links to its source, starting with the official bill record.