Watson Takes What He Can Get

Sen. Kirk Watson (right) chatting with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the 2007 session (photo by John Anderson)

Austin state Sen. Kirk Watson definitely understands lawmaking sometimes requires taking half a loaf. Or in his case, two-fifths. Rather than getting the five days he wanted for the public to examine the final state budget bill before senators could vote on it, he secured a promise of two days to look at the CliffsNotes.

Before the session started, Watson called on the Senate to implement a rule that would mandate a five-day waiting period between the drafting of the conference committee’s version of the budget and the Senate voting on it. The wait was necessary, Watson said, because when bills go into the conference committee – which is charged with resolving differences between House and Senate bills – they often come out with substantial differences, and both the public and legislators don’t have enough time to analyze what got changed.

When the Senate voted on its rules for the 82nd Session on Wednesday, Watson couldn’t wrangle up enough support for that, but he got what he called a “very good compromise”: 48 hours for people to see the “Outside the Bounds” resolution. That resolution is a document describing all of the changes that were made by the conference committee.

Of course, the budget itself will be available for that 48 hours, but that is usually a huge document, so the two days isn’t nearly as good as the five Watson wanted. Then again, it’s better than the 24 hours that is usually the norm.

It at least gives two days to read what Watson said is “a Cliffs Notes version” of what got changed between the budgets that respectively left the House and Senate and what then emerged from conference. “It outlines what the changes were so that we know what we’re voting on,” Watson told reporters on the Senate floor. “This is a real win for honesty and transparency in government budgeting.”

Interestingly, Watson (along with the rest of the Democrats) ended up voting against the new Senate rules overall because the senators voted for an exception to the two-thirds rule – a tradition that requires at least 21 senators to agree before legislation can be brought to the floor for debate – that would allow a simple majority to bring up Voter ID bills. Voter ID – shorthand for requiring photo ID in addition to a voter registration certificate at the polling place – was declared “emergency” legislation by Gov. Rick Perry, which means bills can be debated and approved in the first 60 days of the session, something normally not allowed. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said the Senate will take up Voter ID this Monday.

That Voter ID carve-out of the two-thirds bill allowed it to get through the Senate last year, but House Democrats killed it by "chubbing" the bill, a legislative delaying technique similar to filibustering. This year, that tactic will be tougher because of the emergency designation and the fact that Democrats' numbers in the House have been reduced from 74 last session to 49 this year.