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Well, Gov. Rick Perry said he wanted a short special session, and the Legislature gave him one.
He said he wanted them done in three days: They went one better, and got done in two.
He wanted four measures passing and, well, they gave him two.
It was a real session. Bills were passed, plus a stack of resolutions. There were some press conferences, a gig by the Bad Precedents, and even a sine die party, courtesy of the Legislative Study Group.
However, Perry had asked for four measures to be dealt with: Release the Prop. 12 transport bonds; Set up the Texas Transportation Revolving Fund; Pass the Sunset rescheduling bill; And extend the moratorium exemptions for a handful of private-equity toll roads.
Lawmakers gave him the bonds and the Sunset bill, which everyone agreed were essential state business, and went home. Not that Perry seemed to notice. Based on his Twitter feed, the state's top politician spent the day spent the day with some puppies.
So was it worth coming back? "You mean driving all of the 17 minutes from my house to the Capitol?" said Rep. Valinda Bolton, D-Austin.
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Ever since local filmmaker Casey Porter left the military, he's been sifting through all the footage he gathered on his time in Iraq and Kuwait, and the trailer for his next web documentary, Fire Mission, is now online.
The full documentary will be online on July 20, and the rest of Porter's videos can be found on youtube, liveleak and vimeo.
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Here's what seem to be the situation. House Bill 2, the Sunset rescheduling bill, will go through on the nod. The Prop. 12 bonds part of HB 1 seems to be going through fine, but there have been some railside discussions about the Texas Transportation Revolving Fund and whether the state should pick up the financial slack for municipalities and localities. There are also some concerns that the language may allow the Texas Department of Transportation to effectively order borrowers to raise taxes to cover debts
But the comprehensive development agreements in HB 3 seem to be the real sticking point, as libertarian groups and anti-toll roaders are already claiming a premature victory.
The muttered options on the table are
1) Pass HB1 and HB2, then let HB3 quietly die and go home, or
2) Pass HB1 and HB2, go home today, then wait to see if the leadership (ie Gov. Rick Perry) has the stomach to get everyone back on Monday.
Either option seems plausible at this stage. When House Transportation Committee Chair Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, was asked whether HB3 could ever get to the floor, he shrugged and said, "Well, we've got 30 days."
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Perry has said he can't do so without a constitutional amendment -- although the family and a contingent of lawmakers disagree with that position, they say that if that's the case, Perry should add to the special session's call a proposed amendment for lawmakers to consider. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and his staff have done the research, Ellis said at an afternoon press conference, and, "in my judgement," the need to amend the Texas Constitution does not exist.
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10.07am: House gavels in
10.49am: Senate gavels in
No surprise, even with all the claims of a quick trip to the Capitol, there's push and pull on the speed of the Special Session.
First up was the headcount: Both chambers are quorate, but the House is down three members today. Reps. Allen Vaught, D-Dallas, John Smithee, R-Amarillo, and Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, are all excused because of business in the district. Similarly, Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, was off the floor today. In addition, Valerie Corte is subbing for her husband Marine Capt. Rep. Frank Corte, R-San Antonio, who is on active duty.
Now, the bills:
Totals filed:
House: 35 (6 HBs, 4 HCRs, 25 HRs)
Senate: 14 (10 SBs, 1 SR, 1 SCR, 2 SJRs)
Now for the ones that are actually going somewhere:
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Allaying some fears was why there was an information session Tuesday afternoon for House members and their staff. Reps. Donna Howard and Valinda Bolton from the Travis County delegation were joined by around 20 other legislators, including Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, Diana Maldonado, D-Round Rock, and Jim Jackson, R-Dallas, to be walked through the bills.
There was little need to go over the Sunset bill, or the enabling legislation for the Texas Department of Transportation Prop. 12 bonds. But there was a long round of questions about the rest of the call, especially the establishment of the Texas Transportation Revolving Fund.
Bolton summed up House members' concerns. "If you know anything about it," she said, "you know more about it than we do."
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Oregon is poised to join the growing number of states that have reauthorized industrial hemp farming -- the environmentally-friendly, non-narcotic cousin of marijuana. On Monday, lawmakers there overwhelmingly voted in favor of the legalization measure, which now awaits the signature of Gov. Ted Kulongoski. If signed, Oregon would become the ninth state to remove legal barriers to its production.
Reefer Madness has written extensively about the growing movement to reintroduce hemp farming, once a staple of the American agricultural landscape, so I won't go over and over the virtues of the crop again here.
Still, it is worth revisiting several key points -- including the fact that the only reason -- only, only, only reason -- the crop is illegal to grow in the U.S. is that the Drug Enforcement Administration stands steadfast in maintaining that because hemp is the same plant as marijuana, it must be dope, and dope, as you know, is illegal. Alternately, they argue that allowing farmers to plant hemp would help pot growers hide their crop -- this argument is just bull; because of cross-pollination, any pot grown amid a sea of hemp would become completely useless as a drug.
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Break out the parkas and scarves, it's about to get chilly in here.
Talking to Education Austin President Louis Malfaro, the issue of outgoing Superintendent Pat Forgione came up, and his old union nemesis had this to say. "To give him his due, Pat Forgione put Austin on the map. His tenure was a positive one."
With the district's head honcho heading out the door for the last time today, to be replaced in the morning by Superintendent Meria Carstarphen, Malfaro had some thoughts about his tenure. "He cut a high profile nationally because he'd come from a national position. He wasn't a parochial guy who'd worked through one district," he said.
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Although former national drug czar John Walters liked to say – often with a smirk on his face – that no one in America goes to jail for marijuana possession, the truth is that they do – routinely.
And, sometimes, they die there.
That was the case earlier this month in Harris County, when 29-year-old Theresa Anthony who was in jail for two-and-a-half weeks on a minor pot possession charge, died in custody.
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"I'm pretty pumped about it," Rep. Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, said drily. Why wouldn't he be? "It's 80 degrees here in Lubbock. Maybe 85." (When that figure was mentioned to a senior staff member to another lawmaker, his only response was, "Maybe we should have the session there instead.")
However, Isett's having to leave those relatively balmy climes for the Capitol mid-heatwave because he'll be responsible for House Bill 2, the Sunset rescheduling bill that is one of three issues on Gov. Rick Perry's call. Along with Appropriations Committee Chair Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, and House Transportation Committee Chair Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, Isett will be leading an information session for House members on Tuesday afternoon. This will be their first opportunity to see and discuss the pending business that has brought them back to town.
But the big question is why they're just bring back the terms of HB 1959, the Sunset Safety Net bill that the House failed to pass, rather than taking up the full Sunset bills?
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