Hot List

Day 57 of the 82nd Texas Legislature

LINE OF THE DAY
“Where are these people going to go? They will go to the streets. We’re cutting every other place they can turn.”
State Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, on nursing home clients after proposed cuts to Medicaid.

FLOOR PLAY BY ABBY RAPOPORT
“The Democrats’ strategy is clear: Make the Republicans own this budget mess. After all, Democrats say, the GOP proposed much of the taxing structure, they got credit for giving out tax cuts, and now they should take the blame for the consequences. The problem is that this makes Democrats look like they’re sitting on their hands, playing some version of nobody-likes-me-everybody-hates-me.”  

OBSERVED
Yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Hank Skinner case will allow prisoners to request post-conviction DNA testing of evidence under federal civil rights law. According to Dave Mann, the ruling will provide, “another way to catch mistakes in the system. And that can’t be a bad thing.” 

BEST OF THE REST
State Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, has filed legislation that would take control of Texas’ enterprise and emerging technology funds out of Gov. Rick Perry’s hands and give it to two different oversight committees. Perry has been criticized for using the economic development funds to reward political supporters, but according to the Austin American Statesman, Carona claims that his bill, “is not an indictment of Perry’s staff.” 

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Planned Parenthood supporters will rally on the south steps of the Capitol today at 11 a.m. to protest funding cuts to their organization and to oppose the pre-abortion sonogram bills the House and Senate have passed.

Day 56 of the 82nd Texas Legislature

LINE OF THE DAY
“It would have a lot of implications for a lot of families. What are they going to do about child-sitting in days off?”
Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, on a bill by state Rep. Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, to shorten the school week to four days

OBSERVED
“In a time of high unemployment, is it really necessary to stigmatize laid-off workers as addicts? Then again, balancing budgets by targeting the poor and downtrodden is a longstanding political tradition.” Eileen Smith explains HB 126 and HB 139.  

BEST OF THE REST
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice spends nearly $1 million giving their employees perks—from free cell phones to $7-dollar haircuts to free and reduced rent. But as the Austin American-Statesman reports, that may not continue, as legislators examine ways to balance the budget this session. 

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
After weeks of invited and public testimony, the House Appropriations Committee will make its official budget recommendations to the Health and Human Services Commission and its four departments, while the full House will take its final vote on the sonogram bill. Something for everyone.

Day 53 of the 82nd Texas Legislature

LINE OF THE DAY
“Based on what I’ve read we don’t have any, so I don’t see what the big deal is.”
—Carrollton Republican Rep. Burt Solomons, author of the sanctuary city bill, on sanctuary cities.

FLOOR PLAY BY ABBY RAPOPORT
With all this talk about sanctuary cities and vaginal probes, one might forget that we have a $27 billion dollar budget crisis on our hands. Comptroller Susan Combs told budget writers Thursday there’s no way to pay the state’s bills for fiscal year 2011 without using part of the Rainy Day Fund—to say nothing of the looming deficit for 2012-2013.  

OBSERVED
House Democrats put up a long and arduous fight against the contentious pre-abortion sonogram bill last night. But after seven hours of debate, the bill passed on a 103-42 vote. The bill is even stricter than the version passed in the Senate last month.  

BEST OF THE REST
“Conservative groups told state lawmakers that a bill meant to prevent cyberbullying in schools may result in special protection for gay students,” reports the Dallas Morning News. Jonathan Saenz, of the conservative Liberty Institute, told lawmakers he feared the bill would “create special categories” for gay students. “It’s about gay rights,” he said. Apparently that’s a bad thing. 

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
The Legislature is out for the weekend, but first thing Monday the House Appropriations Committee will take up a number of health and human services items, including budget recommendations from the Department of Aging and Disability Services and the Department of Family Protective Services.

Day 52 of the 82nd Texas Legislature

LINE OF THE DAY
“I’d rather go to jail than die in a nursing home.”
Bob Kafka, state leader of disabilities rights group ADAPT, reciting one of the chants activists yelled while camping outside Gov. Rick Perry’s office in protest to budget cuts.

FLOOR PLAY BY ABBY RAPOPORT
We love when representatives bring props to the House floor, and perhaps the highlight of yesterday’s pre-abortion sonogram bill debate was when one Democrat whipped out a vaginal probe to help her squash the legislation. But it was a procedural technicality rather than the probe that helped the Democrats delay the sonogram debate—by one day. 

OBSERVED
While University of Texas president Bill Powers offered the university’s proposed budget to the Senate Finance Committee, over 100 students took to the capitol hallways to protest. They argued against the Legislature’s proposed cuts to higher ed, and Powers’ particular choice of cuts in liberal arts and language programs. 

BEST OF THE REST
After the House had a long morning discussing but ultimately stalling the sonogram bill, State Affairs Committee members turned right around and headed for a long night taking up “sanctuary city” legislation. As the Dallas Morning News reports, emotional testimony lasted into the night regarding bills that would allow local law enforcement officers to ask for immigration status, something critics believe will inevitably lead to racial profiling. 

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
After a delay for a technicality, representatives will have it out today over the most stringent pre-abortion sonogram legislation filed this session. Supporters say the bill just heightens existing informed consent law, while critics call the procedure invasive, unnecessary and governmentally intrusive. Expect fireworks.

Day 51 of the 82nd Texas Legislature

LINE OF THE DAY
“The superintendents tell me in private meetings, ‘Boy, if you could do that, I’d come cut your grass every Sunday,’ to which I reply, ‘You don’t have to do that; I live in a high-rise.”
-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to Houston Chronicle reporters on his belief that we can provide adequate funding for public schools without raising taxes.

FLOOR PLAY BY ABBY RAPOPORT
“A bill to close a technical tax loophole and save the state a scant $20 million drew supporters from a variety of advocacy and policy groups not normally found paging through the tax code. What did the groups have in common? They’re all part of Texas Forward, a coalition promoting “balanced” approaches to the budget.” 

OBSERVED
It turns out water policy can be some pretty murky business. During a Senate Natural Resources Committee hearing yesterday, Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock drilled witnesses on fellow Republican Sen. Troy Fraser’s S.B. 332—legislation that critics fear could diminish the state’s ability to manage our groundwater resources.  

BEST OF THE REST
Turns out Texas Democrats still have some muscle to flex. Yesterday, Senate Democrats, led by state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, blocked Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley’s nomination for chair of the Forensic Science Commission yesterday.  

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

Today the House will take up H.B. 15, a stricter version of the much contested pre-abortion sonogram bill passed in the Senate. Despite the air of inevitability, the debate promises to be lively and is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m.