Floor Pass

Jen Reel

The Lead:

We’ll say this for Sen. Dan Patrick: He keeps it interesting.

In an unusual move, the Houston Republican  pushed the Senate yesterday to take back a campaign finance bill by Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo) that the senators had already passed and sent to the House.

Seliger’s SB 346, which he said has “everything to do with transparency,” would require 501C(4) and 501C(6) organizations—IRS designations used for social welfare and lobbying groups—to disclose their donors. The Quorum Report mentions this would include groups like Texans for Fiscal Responsibility run by Michael Quinn Sullivan who’s been enforcing tea party orthodoxy the past few sessions, marshaling money to go after Republicans he deems insufficiently conservative.

Patrick actually voted for the bill when it passed the Senate but then tried to undo that, arguing he didn’t realize the bill’s impact. Some folks might say, well, that’s too damn bad—he should have read the bill more closely the first time around or found another way to kill it (there are, of course, many ways to derail legislation at the end of a session). But Patrick won the vote, and the Senate tried to bring the bill back.

But the House, which had already technically taken possession of it, denied the request. By the time the Senate vote was over, the House had already referred it to State Affairs for hearing next Wednesday.

Rep. Charlie Geren has picked up the bill in the House. “Sen. Patrick is welcome to come testify against the bill if he feels the need to,” Geren told Quorum Report.

Yesterday’s Headlines:

1. Many jokes hit the Twittersphere yesterday warning Texans to text, Tweet and drive while they still can. The Observer’s Emily Mathis reports after 11 amendments and much discussion, Rep. Tom Craddick’s texting-while-driving ban passed through the House.

2. The Observer’s Olivia Messer reports that 10 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Texas’ designation of “homosexual conduct” as a criminal offense was unconstitutional, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee took up SB 538, which would finally remove the language from the Texas Penal Code.

3. The Austin American Statesman reports Rep. Byron Cook laid out a bill in House State Affairs yesterday that would allow undocumented immigrants to get a driver’s licenses and car insurance.

Line of the Day:

“How can you be in one part of the Capitol advocating for best practices in cancer research … and then on the other end arguing on behalf of industry saying tobacco companies need regulating a certain way?… That seems to be the story of the CPRIT Foundation. It’s just one conflict of interest after another.” —Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer on the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute’s (CPRIT) choice to hire a tobacco company to lobby on its behalf, as reported by the Texas Tribune.

What We’re Watching Today:

1. The House is scheduled to debate seven bills today on the floor, including HB 788, which would direct the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to regulate greenhouse gas permits and emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency does so currently.

2. The Senate State Affairs Committee has one bill on the menu for today: a redistricting bill that would would make the interim district maps used in the last election permanent.

3. The House Appropriations Committee started early this morning to discuss revenue bills, including HB 11 that would pull money from the rainy day fund to use for water projects, and a few other bills that discuss transportation and highway project financing.

House members considered a pair of bills Wednesday rooted in social conservative ideas about what’s wrong with universities, before briefly delving into a plan to let students access unspent state loan money. The first two got most of their attention.

We mentioned Fort Worth freshman Rep. Matt Krause’s House Bill 360 earlier this session, for its proposal to cut off state money to any school that requires its student groups to let any student join, regardless of their beliefs, status, race, gender and sexual orientation. Before the House Higher Education Committee, Krause’s defense of his bill was in line with what he told the Observer in February.

“We want a bill that allows all organizations to freely assemble and not be forced to accept members they don’t want to,” Krause said. “Even a momentary chill of free speech can do irreparable harm.”

He offered a committee substitute that, he said, removed “overly broad” language in the bill, and cut out “status, race, gender and sexual orientation”—leaving only “beliefs.”

Jason Hoyt, president of a national Christian fraternity, said the bill would help clarify organizations’ rights to pick and choose their members. His group, Beta Upsilon Chi, has taken fire before for only including Christian males, but Hoyt said they’ve resolved those issues at the university level.

Rep. Donna Howard (D- Austin) thought the entire conversation a waste of time. She said it “doesn’t sound like there’s some overwhelming discrimination” going on in student organizations that can’t be resolved on a case-by-case basis. She was concerned about formalizing the right to discriminate.

“I am proud to be part of the United States of America to have all these privileges,” she said. “I don’t know why we’re having all these discussions today, quite frankly. … This [issue] doesn’t seem to merit doing something here at the Legislature.”

Next up was another freshman Republican, Southlake’s Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, whose HB 1938, which would only allow courses offering a “comprehensive survey” of American history to count toward an undergraduate student’s six required history credits. Race, gender, and other special interest history courses wouldn’t count.

It’s the House version of a bill that Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) has introduced, in response to a report from the conservative National Association of Scholars, which said courses at the University of Texas and Texas A&M spend too much time on Latino and African-American history.

Tony Diaz, the founder of Librotraficante who sounded the alarm about the Senate bill earlier this session, told lawmakers it “appears to be part of the GOP attack on ethnic studies. … To me, House Bill 1938 would take us back to 1938 in ethnic studies.”

Capriglione said that sort of criticism comes from a small group of activists whose complaints are misplaced. “This is not about race. This is not about ideology,” he said. “This is about academic quality.” Capriglione said he was not trying to exclude ideas, or remove any courses. He said his intent is to enhance civic engagement.

Rep. Roberto Alonzo (D-Dallas) wondered who had asked Capriglione to author this bill. Capriglione said no one in particular. Later in the hearing, the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Thomas Lindsay admitted to having had something to do with it.

“The first duty of government is to defend the citizens,” Lindsay explained. “There’s a physical defense, but there’s also a metaphysical defense.” Lindsay said when we teach American history, that’s when we teach what it means to be American, and all students need a grounding in those same principles.

“It doesn’t matter what you look like, where you came from, or what religion you have,” he said. “America’s essence is an idea and you can’t defend what you can’t define.”

Having considered allowing more discrimination and discouraging ethnic studies, the committee turned to a more practical question: student loans.

Dan Weaver, assistant commissioner of the Higher Education Coordinating Board, told lawmakers that within a few months, $100 million will be sitting in a fund for the Texas B-On-Time loan program, which the board manages, but that there aren’t enough eligible students to spend it on. The program offers loan forgiveness to students who finish their degrees quickly.

Rep. Chris Turner’s (D-Arlington) House Bill 3265 would give the board the chance to spend that money on a financial aid program for veterans. Unused Texas B-On-Time money could be spent on the Hazelwood Act—a state benefit that provides qualified veterans and their family tuition for up to 150 hours of credit. Turner said Hazelwood has been so successful that demand has even outpaced what universities expected.

“This bill is about finding a two-fold solution. First, help schools collect more than what they’re using B-On-Time,” Turner said, “and second, try to find a solution to the funding gap we are facing.”

After the hours of testimony over the afternoon’s more controversial proposals, far less was said about Turner’s bill.

Weaver said since 2004 the coordinating board has been accumulating the extra B-on-time funds because the Legislature only appropriates so much for each year. For example, this next year the coordinating board is allowed to spend $40 million for B-on-Time loans, but will have collected $56 million in loan repayments. Weaver said that’s $16 million extra funding just sitting there, waiting to be spent.

All bills were left pending in committee.

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/member-page/?district=82

After a long debate and a slew of amendments,  the Texas Legislature is closer to banning texting while driving. The House passed Rep. Tom Craddick’s bill Wednesday with a vote of 98 to 47.

HB 63 imposes a $100 fine and misdemeanor traffic ticket for drivers caught texting and a $200 fine for repeat offenders. Much of the debate focused around proposed amendments by Rep. Harold Dutton Jr. (D-Houston) and Rep. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock).

Rep. Perry argued that texting shouldn’t be the sole reason for pulling over a driver, worrying that it gave too much power to law enforcement.  But his amendment ultimately failed.

Dutton stepped up after Perry’s failed amendment with a similar amendment. Dutton argued that if a police officer pulls a driver over for texting while driving, it would ensure that the government is much too involved in the lives of its citizens. And he worried that it could lead to racial profiling.

At this point, representatives continually brought up examples of those who had been directly affected by distracted driving.

After close votes and two recounts, Dutton’s amendment failed as well.

Bills have been proposed in past sessions to prohibit texting while driving with little success.In 2011, the legislature passed HB 242, which banned texting while driving. Governor Perry vetoed the bill on the grounds that it was “a government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults”.

But over the years, several cities have passed citywide ordinances to ban the use of cell phones. The patchwork of laws regarding cell phone use across the state can often lead to confusion for drivers, said Rep. John Smithee (R-Amarillo) during the debate. “Whatever we do, let’s make it uniform,” he said.  ”Part of making it understandable is making it consistent.”

The bill now moves on to the Senate for debate.

Sen. Jose Rodriguez (D-El Paso)

It may appear that gay marriage is a long way off in Texas, but at least an unconstitutional “sodomy law” is finally being repealed. (Admittedly, this a low standard.) Ten years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas that section 21.06 of the Texas Penal Code, which designates “homosexual conduct” a criminal offense, violated the privacy and liberty of adults.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee took up Senate Bill 538, authored by Sen. Jose Rodriguez (D-El Paso), which would “repeal ‘homosexual conduct’ as a criminal offense.” The legislation would remove section 21.06 and any other references to the section in Texas law.

Rodriguez says that this law is unenforceable and needlessly costing the state money. The immediate impetus for repeal was an unconstitutional arrest in 2009. “This defunct law was grounds for the police to arrest patrons in a restaurant in my district, resulting in a suit against the city of El Paso,” Rodriguez said. “Not only is the continued existence of this law on the books a source of misinformation for law enforcement, but in my own district local governments have been forced to spend their limited resources due to this misuse.”

Charles Spain spoke on behalf of the State Bar of Texas. “The confusion in El Paso came from two people who were kissing,” he said. “The police officers thought that was ‘homosexual conduct.’”

Rodriguez explained that the legislative program of the State Bar of Texas requires, as of 1963, that the state change any “statutes that have been revised or declared invalid. Well, this is exactly what the state bar has recommended here with regard to this particular provision.”

Chuck Smith, Executive Director of Equality Texas, spoke in favor of the bill. “This week the Montana Legislature has passed a similar repeal legislation, and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is expected to sign it into law. That would leave only the states of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas as the only three states in the country that still have the statute on the books,” he said.

Update: The bill was voted out of committee 5-0.

[This post was updated at 10:30p.m. on April 17, 2013.]