Senate's breakneck pace shows
Democrats challenge details of bills they oppose, propose numerous amendments that are defeated.
After working through the weekend, Texas senators began voting on Gov. Greg Abbott’s priorities Monday afternoon, giving initial approval to a bill addressing the state’s high rate of pregnan- cy-related deaths, as well as several hot-button issues, including abortion regulations and school finance.
The Senate’s breakneck race through the first six days of the special session, however, turned into more of a slog on day seven as Democrats challenged details of legislation they opposed, particularly by proposing a number of amendments, most of which were swatted aside by the majority Republicans.
Democrats also declined to waive a rule requiring bills to receive votes on separate days — even for the maternal mortality bill, which had unanimous support — requiring the Senate to revisit Monday’s bills with a final vote Tuesday.
It also didn’t help that a planned one-hour recess instead lasted almost 3½ hours as Republicans held a long closed-door meeting.
As a result, a day that began with GOP hopes of passing up to a dozen bills ended Monday with consideration of only six, including a debate that began shortly before 7 p.m. on an effort to rein in city and county property taxes by setting automatic elections for rate increases of 4 percent or higher.
The House, meanwhile, continued to proceed at a more relaxed pace, taking its first vote on an Abbott priority — a bill to extend the life of the Texas Medical Board and four other regulatory agencies that received swift approval Monday. The Senate took action on a similar bill last week, but the House is moving forward on its own version.
Monday provided additional reminders that while Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Senate GOP leaders have embraced Abbott’s special session priorities with fervor, Republican counterparts in the House have been less enthusiastic.
Monday in the Senate, one flash point was provided by Senate Bill 10 by Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, to require stricter reporting of abortion-related medical complications.
Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, noted that the state already requires abortion complications to be reported — showing only 25 problems out of 55,287 abortions in Texas in 2015 — a 0.05 percent complication rate.
“Abortion’s already one of the safest procedures available,” he said.
But Campbell said she didn’t trust the 0.05 percent complication rate, noting that several studies have shown higher rates elsewhere.
“I believe that number is absolutely false,” Campbell said. “We are doing something wrong (in data collection) to have 50,000 abortions in Texas yet have such a low complication reporting number, or we are doing a whole lot right. Why not validate that in collecting the data?”
The Senate also gave initial approval to SB 73, which requires abortion doctors to specify which “severe fetal abnormality” allowed for an abortion after the 20th week of gestation. For minors who receive an abortion, the bill also requires the state to be told whether parental consent was given.
Another point of contention was a bill by Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, to create a private school scholarship program for students with disabilities who want to leave public schools.
Taylor said SB 2 was designed to help a small number of students who are not being adequately served by public schools by providing up to $10,000 a year to help pay for tuition.
“Most of our students who have special needs are very happy with their current situation. But ... we have a lot of personal stories from people who say that it is not working for them,” Taylor said.
Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, said private schools don’t guarantee better student performance because they’re not required to administer the same state tests or to follow a federal law designed to protect students with disabilities.
SB 2 received initial approval on a 19-12 vote, with three senators crossing party lines — Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, who voted in favor, and Sens. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, and Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, who voted against.
Senators also gave unanimous initial approval to two bills that would:
Create a commission to propose improvements by early 2019 for the public school finance system.
Extend until 2023 a state task force studying Texas’ high rate of pregnancy-related deaths to identify at-risk populations and offer solutions.