Today’s Fireworks at the Lege
January 30th, 2007 at 10:05 am
There’s a big vote going down today in the House on whether to suspend the constitution in order to consider legislation before the traditional 60-day waiting period expires. The bar is high, though, requiring four-fifths of all members to suspend the constitution. That’s 120 votes.
Getting rid of the waiting period would open the door, possibly, to legislators hustling through controversial bills or pet proposals early in the session. If today’s resolution doesn’t pass, each bill that legislative leaders want a vote on will need that four-fifths majority in order to pass until March 9, although Perry’s emergency legislation won’t be affected.
Judging by one exchange on the House floor Monday, today’s vote could be tense. Twice Speaker Tom Craddick seemed to cut off Democratic leader Rep. Jim Dunna from Waco, during a parliamentary inquiry about suspending the constitution (you can see it here at the 40:10 mark). After the inquiry, Dunnam made a point of announcing an informal meeting of the Democratic caucus to discuss today’s vote.
UPDATE:Â The House voted against the resolution, 108-34.
February 2nd, 2007 at 9:07 am
The coincidence should not be lost on Tx Observers: Molly is safely through the pearly gates, and Craddick gets comeuppance. Rare heavenly justice.