Today is the 31st day of the 84th Legislature. As previously reported, committee assignments are complete in both the Senate and House, increasing the pace and volume of bills referred and introduced, translating to a more extensive public hearing schedule to follow over the course of the next couple of weeks. For those keeping track, 1,871 bills have been filed in the House so far, while the Senate has filed 536 bills. House and Senate Appropriations and Finance Committees continued hearings on the states biannual budget, while standing committees began hearing testimony or holding their organizational hearings.  In keeping with our weekly legislative summaries, below are the key issues or matters that clients need to know.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Speaker Straus: “Texas House members aren’t going to be bullied”. Speaker Joe Straus pushed back against threats both physical and political Wednesday, saying, “Texas House members aren’t going to be bullied.” In an interview this week, Straus discussed long-standing efforts by conservative groups and activists to use the threat of future primary challenges to move Republican members of the House further to the right. Straus also addressed the recent threats by open carry advocates against lawmakers, who he argued weren’t helping their cause. While the House is broadly in favor of Second Amendment rights, details of any proposed open carry bill will determine its passage. In addition, Straus expressed opposing views to Lt. Governor Patrick on immigration, in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, and border security regarding the Nation Guard’s presence at the border. Historically, public statements such as these, are relatively good indicators of some serious differences of opinion between the House and Senate, which will play out over the course of the session. More specifically, below is a summary of a few topics that Speaker Straus expressed his personal views:

  • Support for in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants
  • Border security should be addressed by the Governor
  • Expects “more discussion” on medical marijuana legislation (despite realization that such a bill would not pass)
  • Support for some funding for the Public Integrity Unit
  • Concern regarding the safety of vaccines

 

Budget Issues.  Budget work continues in both House and Senate, already difference are beginning to emerge, including Lt. Governor Patricks’ push for $12 Million to keep the Texas National Guard on border security, saying that drug cartels are “ramping up” their efforts as the guard prepares to leave the Rio Grande Valley next month.  Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced Tuesday that he supports a $12 million appropriation to keep the troops there through May.  In addition, he has expressed the desire to get a supplemental bill to fund deployments through August, in the hopes that the Texas Legislature would pass a budget that includes deployment funding beyond that.  The Senate’s projected budget includes about $815 million for border security, which is more than the previous seven years combined.  Under former Gov. Rick Perry’s orders last summer, the National Guard deployed 1,000 troops in response to the surge of unaccompanied minors and family units who breached the Texas-Mexico border.  This was in addition to a surge of Texas Department of Public Safety officers, which Patrick says will remain in place.  Patrick has said he would work with House Speaker Joe Straus and Gov. Greg Abbott to fund the extension.  Yet, contrary to his public statements, Straus said, I appreciate Governor Patrick’s remarks, but Governor Abbott is the Commander in Chief and he will decide whether to extend the National Guard’s deployment.”  Abbott’s office has not responded to a request for comment.  Clearly, general revenue expenditures for border security will emerge as a major appropriations topic that will need to be worked out, as dollars spent on any such issue will take away resources from other potential expenditures.

 

Appropriations Subcommittee Appointments. The House organizes its budget deliberations through Subcommittees. On Thursday, the House Appropriations Sub-Committee Chairs were announced, which are as follows:

  • Rep. Sylvester Turner Chairs, Articles I (General Government), IV (Judiciary), and V (Public Safety & Criminal Justice);
  • Rep. Four Price Chairs, Article II (Health and Human Services);
  • Rep. Trent Ashby Chairs, Article III (Education);
  • Rep. Larry Gonzales, Charis, Articles VI (Natural Resources), VII (Business & Economic Development), and VIII (Regulatory);
  • Rep. Sara Davis, Chairs Subcommittee on Budget Transparency and Reform

 

Open carry, campus carry bills advance to Texas Senate floor. This week, the Senate committee on State Affairs approved two high-profile gun bills, campus carry and open carry legislation. This came after a nine hour public hearing filled with passionate testimony from more than 100 witnesses and included on arrest. The Committee considered and adopted only one amendment – changing the campus carry bill to clarify that, even if an open carry bill becomes law, gun owners would be allowed only to carry concealed handguns at the state’s colleges and universities. The party-line votes (7-2) to send the bills to the full Senate came after the panel’s two Democrats, state Sens. Rodney Ellis of Houston and Judith Zaffirini of Laredo, agreed to pull more than a dozen proposed amendments, electing to offer them later on the Senate floor. More specifically,:

  • SB 11, co-authored by 19 GOP senators, would allow those with a concealed handgun license to carry a weapon into buildings on all state colleges and universities, but allowing private and independent schools to restrict guns on their campuses as a nod to private property rights. Current law allows concealed guns only on campus grounds. During the discussion on campus carry, Legislators got dueling views from the chancellors of the state’s two flagship university systems on whether allowing concealed handguns would affect campus safety. In written testimony, Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp said campus carry did not raise safety concerns for him, whereas on the other hand, University of Texas System Chancellor William McRaven cautioned that such a law would create “less safe” environments.
  • SB 17 would allow those with concealed handgun permits to openly carry holstered firearms. The bill would let business owners forbid holstered handguns on their premises by displaying a sign at every entrance, also a nod to property rights.
  • Many gun advocates argue that the bill doesn’t go far enough in expanding gun rights and have urged senators to drop the concealed handgun license requirement and allow what they called constitutional carry.

 

SCHOOL FINANCE. This week, the House’s chief budget writer, newly appointed Chairman, John Otto (R-Dayton) praised a proposal to overhaul the school finance system by grouping the state’s 1,026 regular school districts into a few “school finance districts” — a tax move aimed at equalizing per-student funding statewide. The comment is largely viewed as supportive of Public Education Committee Chairman Jimmie Don Aycock’s (R-Killeen) legislation that would create at least 30 “school finance districts,” with the goal of providing per-student funding that is within $300 of the statewide average. This model is hoped to be a positive step towards ending the decades-long routine of school finance lawsuits over unequal funding. More than 600 Texas school districts filed litigation challenging the state’s school finance system after lawmakers slashed more than $5 billion from the public education budget in 2011. As you know, a Travis County district judge ruled in their favor in August — saying the way the state distributes money to districts is unconstitutional because it is both inadequate and unequal, raising substantial concern over the impact on property tax liability for businesses. The state has appealed the lawsuit to the Texas Supreme Court, which is widely believed to be heard sometime this year, with a court decision in March of 2016. At this juncture, the House appears to be inclined to proactively addressing school finance than their colleagues in the Senate.

 

Today, Friday, February 13, 2015, Governor Greg Abbott announced the appointments of J. Bruce Bugg Jr. of San Antonio and former House member, Tryon Dexter Lewis of Odessa to the Texas Transportation Commission, which governs the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for terms to expire February 1, 2021. These appointments are subject to Senate confirmation.

 

WHAT TO LOOK FOR NEXT

  • The House adjourned until 2:00 p.m., Monday, February 16, 2015.
  •  The Senate adjourned until 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, February 17, 2015.
  •  The deadline for filing non-local bills and joint resolutions is March 13, 2015, which marks the 60th Legislative Day.
  •  Governor Abbott is scheduled to deliver his biannual State of the State Address to a joint session of the legislature on Tuesday, February, 17, 2015. This is traditionally the point at which Governors lay out their emergency item issues for the legislative session. These emergency items are the only items that the legislature is constitutionally allowed to take up in the first 60 days of a session, which this year ends on March 13th.