'A Little More Warning'

Rep. Howard: "It certainly would have been nice to get a little more warning"

So there everyone was thinking it would be a couple of weeks before the town would be deluged with lawmakers, and Gov. Rick Perry goes spoiling everyone's short-term vacation plans.

State reps are already responding to Perry's attempt to engineer an ultra-short special session by giving members a whole six days notice that they need to be back. Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, said, "It's not a total surprise, but it certainly would have been nice to get a little more warning."

Howard said she'd been hearing the same rumors as everyone else. "We all knew that something was going to be happening, probably in July." However, earlier this week she said she "started hearing inklings" that rather than the mid-July start that had been heavily rumored, it would be "the First of July, with a very short time frame and with the Fourth of July holiday as an incentive to get this short order of business done and get out on time."

But as for the items on the call, Howard said she was "extremely disappointed" that Perry ignored the letter from 75 lawmakers asking him to bring back the children's health insurance measures in House Bill 2962. "We has such a unique opportunity, with bipartisan support and leadership support – other than the governor – and money in the budget. It was the perfect good storm to put 80,000 more kids on the CHIP rolls."