Walk This Way
May 28th, 2007 at 2:09 am
Tonight was one for the history books, capping an incredible weekend of drama in the Texas House. The tension in the lower chamber built steadily throughout this penultimate day of the 80th legislative session — finally culminating in heated floor exchanges, personal privilege speeches from two disaffected Republicans, and, finally, an apparently spontaneous walkout of at least 56 House members that halted the legislating and forced a hurried adjournment until 2 p.m. tomorrow.
The bipartisan group of lawmakers trying to oust Tom Craddick from the speaker’s chair has squirmed all weekend under the absolute power asserted by Craddick on Friday. There were minor parliamentary skirmishes all day and night. Just after the midnight deadline to pass bills, Democrats Abel Herrero (Robstown) and Jim Dunnam (Waco) peppered the chair with questions about Craddick’s strict, absolutist rules interpretations.
Austin Republican Mike Krusee then gave a privilege speech. Krusee offered an eloquent defense of the House rules, ending his speech by invoking “one of my heroes,” Ronald Reagan. “Absolute power to deny the right to question authority is not a principle of the Republican Party. Or any party. Not in this country.” He said a wall had gone up between the speaker and the membership. “Mr. Speaker, we must tear it down,” he said to an ovation.
Next came a speech from a visibly angry Pat Haggerty, an El Paso Republican. Haggerty began a mock roll call, reading off members’ names and asking how they would vote on a motion to vacate the chair. The very motion Craddick will not allow. After he was asked repeatedly to stop by numerous reps, Haggerty asked anyone who wants to remove Craddick to take their keys (which lock out their desk voting machines) and walk out. And walk out many did — storming out of the chamber and up the steps to the Capitol’s third floor as House staffers gathered to cheer. It was an odd scene, to say the least.
Without a quorum, the House couldn’t pass any more bills and adjourned.
The walkout seemed unplanned. While leaving the House floor with his key, Rep. Jim Pitts, a declared candidate to replace Craddick as speaker, told a colleague, “I really don’t want to do this. I’ve got a really important bill [coming up].”
What happens next is anyone’s guess. There were a number of bills left pending as the speaker in a press release pointed out.
“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.”
Whether Craddick will have a quorum tomorrow to take up bills is unclear. One note of interest, due to the hasty retreat at the end of the night, the House did not sign the budget in the presence of the House. We are not sure whether failing to do this means there will be a need for a special session.
Stay tuned.
May 28th, 2007 at 7:27 am
Dave, did the walk-out have any effect upon the passage of the Faterland Security Acts, SB11 and HB13?
May 28th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Doran,
yes — SB 11 was one of the bills the House couldn’t take up after the walkout. Frank Corte and others hoped to bring up SB 11 after the midnight deadline, which would have required a 2/3 vote to suspend the rules. Abel Herrero and other Ds were clearly trying to kill that bill, though I don’t think the walkout was intended to do that. It really did look spontaneous.
Corte and Co. could try to suspend the rules and bring back SB 11 today — if they have a quorum. We’ll see what happens at 2.
May 28th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
A correction is needed in the third paragraph.Mike Krusee is a Round Rock Republican, not an Austin Republican. There are no more Republicans in the Travis County House delegation, all are Democrats, even if one, Dukes, is a Craddick D. Krusee’s House district is entirely in Williamson County, and while a very few scattered parts of the City of Austin now extend into Williamson County, if Krusee represents any of them, that is insignificant when viewed in context of the total population of his district and the fact that the his official bio on the House Website shows Round Rock as his hometown.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
The RR Commission of Texas is in the pocket of the Oil Industry. The Federal EPA transfers all of their responsibility to the RR Commission of Texas. Texas Lawmakers blantenly over-ride the Federal Constitutional rights of property owners surface rights which allows the Mineral owners to usurp the surface owners property with no compensation to the later. I have to pay the taxes on all the property that the oil interests deem necessary for their function. There are 6 deep oil wells and several miles of large plastic flowlines decorating the surface of my property for the past two years, there is an oil proscesing plant on my land and the oil Co has never paid me a dime for the illegal use of my land. My Airpark has been devalued more than 50% & there is little an individual can do against the powerful oil Co. The Legislation passed by the Lawmakers is a joke when it comes to surface rights vs mineral rights. Excuse me, I should say the mineral rights vs the surface rights. “If a man so much as takes your hat without your concent ; you can follower him to the end of the earth and repleven it using whatever force is required, including taking his life”. Marcus Bates of Batesfield airpark of Odessa Texas