Edited by Robert Bryce Another Double Filibuster: As Sunday night faded into Monday morning,
Sen. Carlos Truan (D-Corpus Christi) had been talking for more than
eight hours. Shortly after midnight, House members, their work completed for
the evening, invaded the Senate chamber. Truan brought the legislative
locomotive to a standstill
and other legislators were none to happy about it. Dozens of bills were being
delayed by his talkfest, and as Truan continued talking, many of the less
important bills in the legislative queue were quietly exterminated. If any of
that bothered Truan, it didn’t show. “Someone at some times has to slow this
train down,” said Truan, the dean of the Senate.
For cheap drama, it was hard to beat. Truan’s filibuster
ambushed Sen. Teel Bivins (R-Amarillo) the author of SB 14, and Rep.
Susan Combs (R-Austin), the House sponsor of the measure, which allows
landowners to sue governmental entities if regulations reduce their property
values. Bivins and Combs were expecting the Senate to give final approval to
the measure with little fanfare. But Truan felt the bill went too far, with too
little explanation of its potential costs to the state. “We don’t have enough
information to present this to taxpayers and say this is a benefit to them,”
Truan said. Just before he began speaking on the measure, Truan said he wasn’t
going to filibuster. “When I filibuster, it means staying up all night.”
Everyone was expecting Truan and/or Sen. Gonzalo
Barrientos (D-Austin) to go all night. Barrientos, who had already
filibustered twice, had his white Reeboks on. A mixture of dread and
anticipation could be felt in the chamber. Environmental lobbyists went out for
food, expecting to be up all night. Just 23 hours remained in the session.
But Truan didn’t go all night. Instead, at 1:15 am, he
agreed to give up the floor for one hour. During that 60-minute interlude,
Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock put the 74th Legislature’s version of high-speed
rail back on track, passing more than a bill per minute, some 64 in all. As the
bills flew past, Bullock repeated his favorite refrain of the session “31 ayes,
no nos.” By 2:15 Monday morning, Truan had the floor again, but decided to take
his seat. The Senate gave final approval to the property rights measure and
everybody went home.
Less than 10 hours later, the Senate was back in session
with
lots more bills to be considered (many, perhaps, better off unconsidered). When
Sen. Ken Armbrister (D-Victoria) brought up a bill that would make state
regulation of landfills less stringent than federal requirements, Truan began
his second filibuster in less than a dozen hours. His move effectively killed a
number of bills that environmentalists were opposing. Rather than stay ’til
midnight, Bullock accepted a motion from Sen. Don Henderson (R-Houston)
to adjourn and the Senate called it quits at 5:33pm.
n TUITION BILL HITS THE BOOKS: It was pronounced dead on arrival
weeks ago. But many bills were resurrected in the final hours of the 74th
Legislature and HB 1214 was one of the best of the bunch. The bill, written by
Ted Kamel (R-Tyler), will allow the Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board to establish prepaid tuition contracts – in which families can start
paying for college for their young children, locking tuition rates in at
current prices – to state universities.
Lots of credit for reviving the bill goes to Barrientos, the
Senate sponsor of the measure, who got the bill out of committee and onto the
Senate’s intent calendar. The
Senate approved the measure by a vote of
31-0 even though at least two members were at the Houston Rockets game when
the vote occurred. Eight other states have pre-paid tuition programs and
several others are developing them.
n AUSTIN BASHING: WHAT DIDN’T PASS? During the past 140
days, few terms were used more often at the Capitol than “local control.” If it
involved schools, then legislators were quick to do all they could to assure
that local school districts can control their rules and regulations.
But there’s local control, and then there’s Austin. In all,
the Lege passed at least nine bills adversely affecting Austin. The most
far-reaching may be HB 3193, the bill that prompted Barrientos to filibuster
twice. Despite Barrientos’ efforts, the bill, which creates a autonomous
district for residents of Gary Bradley’s Circle C development, passed
anyway.
Two bills now awaiting the governor’s signature could cause
yet more lawsuits against the city of Austin. SB 14, the property rights
measure, makes it easier for citizens in Austin’s ETJ to sue the city. HB 2758
by Robert Saunders (D-LaGrange) allows residents that have been annexed
by the city to sue for services. One of the few bits of Austin-bashing that
didn’t pass was Combs’ HB 564, which would have limited Austin’s ability to
annex residential territory.
On Sunday afternoon at the Capitol, Dick Brown wore a
dark suit and a wide smile. The laconic lobbyist pushed a spate of bills that
allowed his client, New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan, to create utility
districts and escape Austin’s water quality regulations. With just 36 hours
left in the session, how did the veteran lobbyist feel? Brown smirked and said
sarcastically, “Oh, I had a hard time this session.” Wasn’t he happy with
getting the Freeport Austin-bashing package through unscathed? “Well, we were
hoping to add some strengthening language.” Like the Lege needed to give Austin
any more subtle hints. More on the results of the Austin-bashing session next
week.
n SAY “CHEESE,” LENA: A few years ago, Lena Guerrero was
having her picture taken all the time, and loving every minute of it. As an
appointed member of the Texas Railroad Commission (TRC) she was
everywhere, working the oil, railroad, and trucking industries for all they
were worth.
Then she was forced to admit she had lied about having a
college degree. She resigned and lost a run for her old seat on the TRC. Now a
lobbyist, Guerrero apparently doesn’t want to have her picture taken at all. By
anybody. During Barrientos’ filibuster on HB 3193, photographer Alan
Pogue attempted to get a picture of the former Democratic legislator from
Austin, who was conferring with Rob Johnson, a lobbyist for Bradley.
Several legislative aides told the Chronicle that Guerrero was lobbying
on Bradley’s behalf, a fact that she denied. “I am not registered to lobby for
Bradley,” she told the Chronicle. “But I live at Circle C and I will do
anything I can to help my neighborhood.”
According to Pogue, when he tried to get a picture of
Guerrero, she ran up to him, grabbed his camera, and began threatening him to
give up the film.
On Sunday, while working the lobby on behalf of a
horse-racing client, Guerrero refused to comment on the matter. “What happened
is between me and Alan,” she said. A few minutes later, Guerrero decided she
would comment, but not on her threat to Pogue. “I am tired of being a victim of
the free press in the name of free speech,” she said. “Whether it’s
photojournalists or print journalists, I simply wish to be left alone.”
If she wants to be left alone, why does she hang out at the
Capitol? n
This article appears in June 2 • 1995 and June 2 • 1995 (Cover).