Special Session on a Binge

You have to hand it to Senate Finance Committee Chair Steve Ogden. The Bryan Republican warned that the legislative special session would grow as Gov. Rick Perry added more and more issues to the call. In less than two weeks, Perry has expanded the call of issues eligible for discussion three times, each time adding more conservative red meat to the mix and further derailing lawmakers' vacation plans. The Legislature originally came back on May 31 – the day after the regular session ended – to hack at education funding and Medicaid payments. By the end of the first day, Perry had added congressional redistricting to the call. Then, on June 3, after having disrupted attempts to settle Texas Windstorm Insurance Association reform during the regular session, Perry dumped that piece of unfinished business on the to-do list. Four days later he added a panoply of immigration issues, including tougher driver's license regulations, enforcement of the federal Secure Communities Program, and a ban on sanctuary cities. Fortunately for the governor, and completely by coincidence, a slew of bills covering those issues had already been prefiled before he extended the call.