10am: House and Senate supposed to gavel in
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:
House Bill 1: The Prop. 12 bond money bill, including the Texas Transportation Revolving Fund. Already out of the Appropriations Committee, but there are rumblings about the fund’s details, mainly caused by the fact the House has never debated this on the floor. As Appropriations member Rep. Helen Giddings, D-DeSoto, said, “This is a major piece of legislation. I’m not at my comfort level yet, and the specificity that adds to my comfort level does not necessarily seem to be there yet.” That said, the House Calendars Committee has scheduled it for debate on Thursday, and Chair Brian McCall, R-Plano, said he hoped they can get the four-fifths vote necessary to suspend rules and take it up at 10am.
HB 2: Passed out of State Affairs in 12 minutes. Seems members will accept the Sunset rescheduling, and Calendars scheduled the bill for full hearing Thursday morning.
HB 3: The happy train just derailed. Rep. David Leibowitz, D-San Antonio, has promised amendments on the comprehensive development agreement legislation. The House Transportation Committee faced a pulverizing amount of public testimony over handing Texas roads to private toll companies. Chairman Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, left it pending, but this is starting to look like an uphill slog.
HB4: The other part of the CDA bill, changing the Sunset date for the projects in question from 2011 to 2015. Its fate is caught up in that of HB 3.
As for the Senate versions of these bills, all three were heard in the Senate Finance Committee. SB2 was voted out of committee 14-0 and then the full Senate suspended all rules to get it to final reading, passing it 30-0. Meanwhile SB 1 went smoothly through testimony and was left pending action in the House. But the story of SB3 was the same as HB3: There were a lot of questions about toll road cash, and the hearing closed with public testimony being closed but no further discussion.
Both chambers return Thursday, House at 10am, Senate at 11am.
This article appears in June 26 • 2009.
