Round and Round, Round and Round
March 29th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
By now we know the issues that stir up the House like stepping on a pile of fire ants: abortion, immigration, law enforcement, school buses.
About that last one. Things must be getting a bit loopy as the midnight hour approaches when a fight breaks out over something as seemingly harmless as Ms. Frizzle’s get-around.
It started off goofy enough. Rep. Lon Burnam, the Fort Worth Democrat, began proposing an amendment that would install particulate-reducing filters in the front and back of every bus. He introduced this amendment by saying, “We have a very — serious — problem with school buses.” And every time he punctuated a word, he pulled out a small yellow school bus and placed it on the podium as a prop. As he described the plan, which would have put $33 million toward filters to reduce carcinogenic particulate emissions by 90 percent, his fellow legislators ambled to the podium to drive the tiny buses around the podium and up the microphone stand.
Then Rep. Ana Hernandez (D-Houston) appeared at the back mic to offer some friendly support for the plan. But wait. Uh oh, who’s lurking in the background? It was Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton), the Grinch who stole the HPV vaccine.
“I don’t want to talk about preventing death, I want to talk about preventing cancer,” Burnam said, firing the first shot, referring to the Repbulican’s preference for pap smears over the vaccine.
Bonnen took the mic and accused Burnam of not using the money in the most cost-effective way to fight nitrous oxide in non-attainment zones, a point Burnam concedes. There followed an oblique, yet fiery, debate about TERP funds, which Burnam’s amendment would utilize, and meeting future SIP standards, which is where Bonnen wanted to put the money. The whole exchange was difficult to transcribe, since the two kept talking over each other, but suddenly Rep. Warren Chisum, the budget man himself, stepped up in opposition to the bill.
Taking the front mic, where Burnam had been. Of Burnam’s plan, he said,”If we use this money this way, we will not get there. You need to use that money where it will do the most good.”
Almost immediately Burnam moved to the back mic to start asking questions. “Mr. Chisum, you know and I know that we’re not going to get there (to SIP),” he said.
Chisum disagreed.
Burnam told him to go check the public record and asked, “How long were you chairman of Environmental De-reg — I mean Environmental Regulatory Committee of the Texas House of Representatives?” That’s about as good a burn as you’ll see on the floor, so you can imagine what kind of day it’s been.
In the end, after more of the same back-and-forth, Burnam finally said he would take his opponents more seriously if they hadn’t frequently opposed legislation to reduce NOX emissions for years. Then his amendment was easily shot down.
I’m guessing House Dems won’t mind. The big headlines tomorrow should read in their favor: an across-the-board pay raise for teachers (at the expense of an incentive-based plan) and a resounding vote to prohibit vouchers. Within hours, the Dems issued a press release calling the vote the death of vouchers. They still have to send the coffin to the Senate for approval, though.
