A tip of the hat to the folks at hashemian.com, where we got the code for this countdown timer.
(And by the way, we're counting down to 6 p.m., since the Lege has been gone by sunset on the last day for the last several sessions.)
(And by the way, we're counting down to 6 p.m., since the Lege has been gone by sunset on the last day for the last several sessions.)
After a relatively mild debate and a series of closing speeches that lasted more than two hours, the House easily passed a state budget for 2008-09.
The vote was 114-35, with Democrats split 39-30 in favor of the bill and Republicans voting 75-5 in favor of it. (That's no drama at all, and it's not particularly historic; in 2005, the House approved a budget with a 104-40 vote, with the Democrats going 33-29 and the Republicans going 71-11. In 2003, it was 105-41, with 86 Republicans on board and the Democrats split 19-41 against it.)
A little after midnight, the Senate passed the budget 25-6, sending it to Gov. Rick Perry, who has about three weeks to peruse it and to use his line-item veto where he wants.
The Legislative Budget Board has a copy of the budget available online, as well as a summary of the conference committee report, if you prefer the Cliff Notes version.
Sunday night's anticlimax capped a weekend of intrigue in the House, with mutinous legislators trying to pry Midland Republican Tom Craddick out of the speaker's chair. Their last big chance was to derail the budget, force a special session of the Legislature and use that extra 30 days to unseat Craddick.
But the reality of voting against the state spending bill — one that would force a special session, to be sure, but a vote that would expose members seeking reelection to all sorts of uncomfortable questions at home — outweighed the desire to throw out the speaker.
At one point, lawmakers had a shot at a vote that would have tested their strength. Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, called a point of order on the bill saying it included general law provisions not allowed in budget bills. Craddick overruled him, and Talton asked for permission to challenge that ruling. Craddick agreed to that, but other members told Talton they weren't willing to make their stand on that issue. He withdrew, and the mutiny never came together after that.
The state Senate didn't get to the budget until almost 11 p.m., waiting to see what the House did before diving in. Rumors of insurrection didn't come true, though, and senators finally got to work on the bill. Something else didn't come true: Two senators decided not to talk the spending bill to death. Rodney Ellis and Kyle Janek, a Democrat and a Republican, respectively, from Houston, had talked Saturday about filibustering the budget because of programs they wanted that weren't included. In the end (after some assurances), both decided to get out of the way.
The early attacks on the bill centered on pork handed out, allegedly, to members who support Craddick (we ran a list earlier in the week of some of those items). Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, a former appropriations chairman who covets Craddick's job, complained that the new budget is too big and said members ought to vote it down and try again. And Yvonne Davis, D-Dallas, wondered why the state will be spending $1.6 million to do research on the Zebra Chip Disease that affects potatoes when other programs she thinks are more important were left wanting. Others questioned dramatic increases in spending at the University of Texas Permian Basin — general revenue funding for that institution will rise more than 90 percent, they said — and why projects in and around Craddick's Midland district did so well in the appropriations bill.
Closing speeches gobbled up more time as the clock rolled toward final legislative deadlines, but the tension around the budget vote ebbed as time went on. When it was over, Appropriations Chairman Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, got his bill and with about the same margin budgets have received in recent sessions.
A third of the members of the House walked out early Monday morning to protest an ignored motion to adjourn, and in response, the House adjourned.Rep. Pat Haggerty, D-El Paso, turned a personal privilege speech into a roll call vote on House Speaker Tom Craddick. When he was cut off from calling members names one by one to ask where they stand on Craddick's future, he told members to take the keys to their voting machines and walk. Enough of them did so to stop business in its tracks. That doesn't kill any bills, but it put a bunch of legislation in jeopardy. The list of things left on the gurney (but not yet at the morgue) includes HB 3, a major water bill; HB 12, the omnibus parks bill; SB 482, the revived electric regulation bill; HB 3249, the "safety net" bill to keep agencies from expiring because their sunset bills weren't considered; SB 8, which would require steroid testing of high school athletes; SB 11, the revived homeland security bill; and SB 12, the air quality bill. Saying "it's time to find out where we stand on this," Haggerty called off the names of members one by one and asked whether they want Craddick to remain in the chair. Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, was in the chair at the time (though Craddick sat nearby on the dais) and interrupted Haggerty a couple of times before successfully getting him to stop calling the roll. Haggerty had made it to members whose last names begin with the letter D when Turner broke in for the last time. "I would ask that you speak for yourself... respect the members for choosing to speak or not to speak," Turner said. Haggerty said members should take their keys and leave, and so they did. Turner called up a conference committee report and the record vote on that came up 94-0. It takes 100 votes to make a quorum in the 150-member House, and Turner — rather than putting a call on the House and forcing everyone to come back — shut things down at that point. "The record vote shows the absence of a quorum. Therefore we will stand adjourned until tomorrow at 2," he said. Craddick's press secretary, Alexis DeLee, issued a statement: "Once again, some members chose to divert the House away from important matters and instead tried to drag the members into a Speaker's race while we are in session. Speaker Craddick made a promise to the members of the House that he would make sure their bills would be heard so their constituents concerns would be met. This evening a number of bills were put into jeopardy -- bills that would protect our water, fund our parks and historical sites, lower electric rates, enhance air quality, and require steroid testing in our public schools. It is his intention to take up and consider these and other pieces of legislation before the session ends tomorrow at midnight." That could kill more than two dozen bills that were awaiting consideration, but it's not yet fatal. There's another day left and lawmakers, if they want those things to pass, can suspend their rules and pass them. The record to watch was set in 1997, when then-Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth, R-Burleson, killed 52 bills with a point of order in what became known as the Memorial Day Massacre. This round started with a motion to adjourn by Rep. Abel Herrero, D-Robstown. In the House's rules, a motion to adjourn is the highest-ranking of all the privileged motions. Turner refused to recognize it, prompting a back and forth between him and Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco. Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, made a personal privilege speech asking Craddick to reconsider his decision that he doesn't have to recognized members for privileged motions — like a motion to vacate the chair. He called it undemocratic and said the speaker should be accountable to the voters — lawmakers — who elected him.
Krusee's Sunday night (Monday morning) personal privilege speech to the House.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for recognizing me to speak. Members, I wish to speak on the Chair's ruling regarding recognition.
The Speaker has ruled that he has the absolute right to refuse recognition of any member, and to refuse recognition of any motion, no matter how privileged.
I disagree with the ruling, and I disagree with its implementation.
The ruling is wrong, because on matters of privilege, the Speaker does not have the right to deny recognition.
The implementation is wrong, because even if you agree with the ruling that the Speaker has absolute discretion on all matters, and I do not agree, it is an abuse of discretion to withhold recognition on matters of the highest principle. To refuse to recognize members is against our tradition and our practice. Mr. Speaker, you have daily used your discretion to recognize members on a routine basis. Why not on this one?
Since the days of Thomas Jefferson, the father of parliamentary law in the United States, questioning the leadership of the presiding officer has been the most fundamental right of the members who elected that leadership.
And just as the power of government comes from its people's consent, the power to conduct the business of our body, the power to govern our body, comes from the consent of our body.
Mr. Speaker, we can disagree on many things, but you cannot disagree with the fact that you are here because we put you here.
Inherent in the granting of power to the Speaker is the retention of our right to speak and to question the presiding officer.
This rules interpretation denies us that right.
I again emphasize: questioning leadership is the highest privilege this body has. And it belongs to the body, not to the presiding officer.
To my former colleagues and my current friends, sitting behind me, who advised the Speaker on his ruling, I ask you to put yourself in my position. How would you feel as a member?
As former members, you both have unique perspectives, you walked in our shoes. Would you find this acceptable?
Mr. Keel, in one of your last moments on this floor, you addressed this house as a matter of personal privilege. You were in the minority, having killed the pay raise that the majority favored. Now you sit there, advising the Speaker that it is within the rules to deny us that right.
How would you have felt if the Speaker had denied you that right? How can you advise the Speaker that he may do that to us?
The Republican Party is now engaged in trying to spin this into, of all things, a partisan issue.
They are saying that the Republican position is to uphold the Speaker's right to deny the right to speak, to vote. What a perversion.
Especially for a party in the minority in Washington.
Absolute power to deny the right to question authority is not a principle of the Republican party, or any party. Not in this country.
Not in this country.
One of my heroes, Ronald Reagan, once said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. "The wall was physical and it was metaphorical. It was a barrier to freedom. It silenced people's voices.
This interpretation of our rules has erected a wall between leadership and the membership. Mr. Speaker, we must tear it down.
Krusee, a Round Rock Republican, represents House District 52.Texas Weekly's Soapbox is a venue for opinions, spins, alternate takes, and other interesting stuff sent in by readers and others. We moderate submissions to keep crazy people out, and anonymous commentary is ineligible. Readers can respond (through the moderator) to things posted here. Got something to submit? We're interested in everything from full-blown opinion pieces to short bits to observations or tidbits that have escaped us and the mass media. One rule: Your name goes on your words. Call or send an email: Ross Ramsey, Editor, Texas Weekly, 512/288-6598, ramsey@texasweekly.com.
The explosive last weekend of the 80th Legislature's regular session ended with a whimper and not with a bang.
Tom Craddick is still the Speaker of the House (which is on the West end of the Capital, prompting our headline). The Senate's relatively mild set-tos healed over when the voter ID bill was declared dead.
The Senate closed the books at about 8 p.m. on Memorial Day. The House went until the midnight deadline, with Craddick gaveling out as his wife, Nadine, cheered behind him.
The governor, meanwhile, is entering the period of his greatest power. That's the time between now and June 17 — the 20 days following the session when he can veto bills without threat of a veto override.
Some legislators are expecting a long list of vetoes, and lawmakers wrote part of the budget in a fashion that allows gubernatorial vetoes that weren't possible in previous appropriations bills. Rick Perry has a chance to make some noise with his veto pen.
Lawmakers — particularly in the House — packed their last two days with major bills, most of which actually passed. Bills that looked a little green around the gills on Sunday came back to life on Monday.
Several major pieces of legislation didn't get passed until the last day. A water bill was voted down, then voted back to life, suffered through a procedural challenge and finally approved. Parks legislation made it through both the House and Senate after getting in trouble in both places. A homeland security bill that looked dramatic for a bit won House approval. And so on.
Legislators who wanted to force a special session to keep Craddick on the grill for 30 more days didn't get their way. Both sides will now go out and regroup and start the machinery of the 2008 elections. One seat will certainly be in play; Rep. Anna Mowery, R-Fort Worth, doesn't plan to seek reelection. (It's not part of this, but while we're on the subject, U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, plans to run for reelection in CD-22. He'd flirted with the idea of challenging U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-San Antonio.)
Craddick survived the first open challenge to a sitting speaker in years. He displaced Democrat Pete Laney in 2003, after the 2002 elections produced the first GOP majority in the lower chamber since Reconstruction. The session opened with a challenge to Craddick. He won that election — his third — but new challenges emerged in the last two weeks of this session. The actual floor battles didn't erupt until the final weekend, but Craddick hung on. Barring a special session or Something New and Completely Different, he'll remain in his post until the next speaker election in January 2009.
Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, says he'll run for speaker in 2009. He's the Speaker Pro Tem under Tom Craddick, but has apparently decided to leave the fold.Turner joins several House members — supporters of Craddick and opponents — who've said they want to be speaker. That list includes Craddick himself; Fred Hill, R-Richardson; Jim Keffer, R-Eastland; Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock; Brian McCall, R-Plano; Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie; and Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston. Turner's press release follows:
The Legislature is gone and we cut Patrick Brendel loose to recap what they did for the last 20 weeks. This is in no way a full recounting of the session, which saw 953 House bills and 525 Senate bills win passage. But there's plenty here to talk about, ranked by their condition as we put this issue to bed:
Passed, Effective Immediately
• Human Papillomavirus: House Bill 1098 by Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, reversed Gov. Rick Perry's executive order and prohibits mandatory immunization of Texas public schoolchildren against HPV. It contains specific text that "This subsection preempts any contrary executive order issued by the governor"... HB 1379 by Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, requires state health officials to disseminate information on HPV and the vaccine to the general public and to schools.
• Education: HB 566 by Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton, R-Mauriceville, extends truancy laws to students over the age of 18... HB 2176 by Deshotel adds parenting and parenting awareness classes to the high school curriculum.
• Hollywood: HB 374 by Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, gives permission to filmmakers to shoot on state property.
• Katrina Fallout: SB 112 by Carona prohibits law enforcement from seizing guns and ammo during disasters.
• Guns: HB 991 by Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, makes information on concealed handgun permit holders "nonpublic."
Passed, Effective in September
• Guns: SB 378 by Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, the "castle doctrine bill," removes the obligation to retreat when killing an intruder in self-defense.
• Potpourri: SB 369 by Williams clarifies what constitutes an "obscured" license plate... SB 1287 by Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, mandates posting in bars of warning signs about human trafficking... SB 1315 by Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, institutes a "Silver Alert" for missing seniors, much like Amber Alerts for missing kids.
Sent to the Governor
• Trans Texas Corridor/Toll Roads: Senate Bill 792 by Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, puts a two-year moratorium on most Comprehensive Development Agreements, where the state contracts with the private sector to build roads, sometimes in exchange for toll receipts. Most CDAs in metro areas and populous counties on the Texas-Mexico border are exempt from the moratorium... SB 718 by Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, requires TxDOT to consider existing highways first when selecting routes for the Trans-Texas Corridor, and to explain their reasons in writing.
• Water: HBs 3 and 4 by Robert Puente, D-San Antonio, and SB 3 by Kip Averitt, R-Waco, comprise a comprehensive water policy. The bills are designed to protect environmental flows (from aquifers to rivers to bays) and encourage water conservation. The conference committee on SB 3 made a gambit by striking language naming 19 sites where reservoirs may or may not be built. They replaced it with a paragraph stating that unique reservoir sites are determined by the state water plan (which determined the 19 sites in the first place). The omnibus water legislation had several riders, the most noticeable hitchhiker being Edwards Aquifer amendments raising the pumping cap and establishing a consortium among aquifer pumpers, metro dwellers, people downstream and environmentalists.
• Air: SB 12 by Averitt aims to reduce engine emissions by getting old cars off the road and by retrofitting diesel engines. It encourages the use of high efficiency appliances and sets efficiency standards for public schools and agencies.
• Texas Youth Commission: A handful of bills by Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, and others, overhaul the troubled agency. TYC has new top brass, and investigations into the agency are ongoing. Kids won't go to TYC for misdemeanor offenses anymore... HB 1111 by Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, was signed in the Senate and keeps TYC inmates from participating in medical or psychiatric studies.
• Automated Traffic Cameras: HB 922 by Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, bars cities from issuing speeding tickets based upon a camera's testimony... HB 1052 by Bill Callegari, R-Katy, requires cities to post warnings about the traffic cameras at each intersection with a camera... SB 1119 by John Carona, R-Dallas, sets up a study of traffic cameras and attempts to make sure the cameras aren't simply a moneymaking scheme.
• Religion: HB 167 by Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, says Bibles can't be seized for debts (unless your Bible's a rental)... HB 1034 by Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, adds "Under God" to the Texas pledge.
• Schools: HB 323 by Hamilton requires seat belts in school buses... HB 1287 by Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, allows elective Bible courses in public high schools... HB 1418 by Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, prevents Texas State University regents from changing the name of Sam Houston State University... HB 3564 by Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, transfers Angelo State University to Texas Tech University... HB 3900 by Geanie Morrison, R-Victoria, brings back the Texas Tomorrow Fund in a new form... SB 8 by Kyle Janek, R-Houston, institutes random steroid testing for high school athletes.
• Crime & Punishment: HB 8, also called Jessica's Law, by Riddle, toughens punishments for child molesters and prescribes capital punishment for serious repeat offenders... HB 530 by Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, expands drug courts to counties with more than 250,000 people... HB 586 Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles, D-Alice, says you can't have a ticket dismissed for speeding if you were going over 95 mph... HB 1355 by Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, punishes owners of dogs who attack people... HB 1586 by Ismael "Kino" Flores, D-Palmview, makes it a crime to aim a laser pointer at an airplane... HB 1766 by Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, makes theft of wire a state jail felony... SB453 by Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, mandates HIV testing of state prison inmates.
• Hollywood: HB 1634 by Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, offers financial incentives to encourage film production in Texas.
• Health: HB 109 by Turner eases eligibility requirements for the Children's Health Insurance Program in an attempt to re-add kids dropped from CHIPS in the past 5 years... HB 1082 by Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, creates a pilot program for the reporting and tracking of MRSA (antibiotic-resistant staph) infections... HB 1297 by Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple, creates a wellness program for state employees... SB 760 okays telemedicine for Medicaid reimbursement... SB 994 by Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, allows a physician to prescribe controlled substances via fax or email.
• Katrina Fallout: SB 1658 by Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, extends to 30 days the time that pharmacists can refill unsigned prescriptions during disasters (it's currently three days).
• Public Information: SB 129 by Royce West, D-Dallas, requires lawmakers to report the actual value of gifts received... SB 255 by Carona requires TxDOT to post agency information on the Web.
• Potpourri: HB 581 by Deshotel allows 16-year-olds to sell newspapers... HB 1248 by Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, allows mixed drinks to be sold on cruise ships... SB 791 by Williams declares that oysters are "an inherently unsafe product for personal consumption."
• Highways Named: The segment of I-20 from Arlington to Louisiana is now the Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway, pending a veto... A stretch of U.S. 287 in Tarrant County will become the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Freeway, on Sept. 1... SH 130 in Williamson, Travis, Caldwell and Guadalupe Counties is now called the Pickle Parkway, in honor of former U.S. Rep. J. J. "Jake" Pickle.
Sent to the Polls
• Cancer Research: House Joint Resolution 90 and HB 14 by Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, would authorize $3 billion in bonds for cancer research.
• Record Votes: HJR 19 by Dan Branch, R-Dallas, would require the Legislature to keep track of their final votes for the public's eyes.
Dead
• Top 10 Percent: SB 101 by Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, would have capped automatic admissions to Texas colleges, letting them fill 40 percent of their openings with students who didn't finish in the top 10 percent in their high school class.
• Voter Identification: HB 218 by Betty Brown, R-Terrell, would have required voters to present photo identification at the polls.
• Gambling: Bills to legalize casino gambling and slot machines at racetracks all failed... Gov. Perry's proposal to sell or lease the Texas Lottery died. The estimated $14 billion in proceeds would have gone toward a cancer education, prevention and health insurance program.
• Journalist Shield Law: Several bills would have provided protections for journalists who do not wish to reveal their sources in court.
• Health: Funding for stem-cell research.
• Potpourri: Electronic fingerprint identification systems for of age verification or monetary transactions.
— by Patrick Brendel