‘Game of chicken’ snags Capitol

Abbott’s agenda in jeopardy amid slow pace between House, Senate

AUSTIN — With the special legislative session now more than halfway to its end, the four key must-pass bills that got lawmakers called back to Austin in the first place have passed one chamber but are going nowhere fast in the other, fueling growing concerns that the slow pace may be a “game of chicken” between the House and Senate.

If true, a chorus of legislators predicted Wednesday that could spell trouble for other bills that Gov. Greg Abbott has demanded be approved before the fractious summertime session ends in two weeks.

As concerns mounted, the House State Affairs Committee on Wednesday left pending a Senate bill approved July 25 to continue the operations of the Texas Medical Board and related medical-licensing agencies.

It is one of Abbott’s 20 priorities that were approved at record speed by the Senate.

The other “sunset” bill relating to the medical agencies was assigned Tuesday to the House Appropriations Committee, after passing the Senate on July 20. No hearing has been set for it to be discussed and perhaps approved, after which it would come to the full House for a vote.

At the same time, two House-passed bills accomplishing the same goal were still awaiting assignment to a Senate committee.

“It would appear we’ve got a game of chicken going on with these bills and probably others,” said one veteran lawmaker who, echoing the concerns of several colleagues in both the House and Senate that time could run out in the special session before Abbott’s priorities are passed.

Highlighting that grow-

ing concern: House committees on Wednesday were holding public hearings on bills not included on Abbott’s agenda, as the governor accused some House members of “showboating” with an ethics-reform push and as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus continued their weeks-long standoff over meeting face to face to work out the differences between the two legislative chambers.

Sunset bills may pass

“It’s clear the House is slowing down the bills they don’t agree with, and probably won’t pass, but the downside of that is that it reduces the margin of error in passing the important bills as the session gets to its end,” said Mark Jones, a political scientist at Houston’s Rice University who has watched Texas’ legislative politics for years.

“With two weeks left, the Legislature is still a long way from getting anything done — especially getting done what the governor wanted them to,” he said.

And while the sunset bills are likely to pass, the odds are increasing that controversial measures such as the bathroom bill, revenue caps on cities and even sweeping new restrictions on the powers of cities may not win legislative approval, more than a dozen lawmakers predicted.

When the session ends, they expect that the sunset bills, some version of property-tax reforms, continuation of a stateside study of Texas’ high maternal mortality rates and some pro-life bills will pass.

In the House, state Rep. Todd Hunter, a Corpus Christi Republican who chairs the powerful Calendars Committee that schedules which bills will be considered by the full House once committees approve them, said it’s up to the Straus’ office to decide when to assign bills to committee — although he expects the Senate-passed bills to be assigned soon to House committees for consideration.

Education bill assigned

Example: SB 19, a major education bill that would authorize pay bumps for teachers and pour money into the state’s teacher retirement system, was assigned Wednesday to the House Appropriations Committee.

In the meantime, state Reps. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, and Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, launched a public push for Abbott to add ethics reform to the special session agenda. Two House committees are scheduled Thursday to hold public hearings on those bills, which appear to have no chance of passing.

Davis said she has bills in the works to ban former lawmakers from getting paid to advocate for issues immediately after leaving office, increasing the power of the state’s ethics enforcement agency, requiring more state officers to report their conflicts of interest and to ban lawmakers from fundraising during a special session.

While Straus and Patrick said they would not accept contributions during the special session that runs through mid-August, Abbott has aggressively continued to solicit donors.

‘Showboating’

“Instead of working to advance items on the special session agenda that could reform property taxes, fix school finance, increase teacher pay and reduce regulations, Reps. Davis and Larson are showboating over proposals that are not on the Governor’s call,” said John Wittman, Abbott’s press secretary. “Their constituents deserve better.”

In an interview with Austin’s KUT Radio, Straus acknowledged that he has intentionally blocked some legislation that lacks support in the House.

“I use the office and the authority that the members have given to me on occasions where I think it’s necessary,” he said. ”This bathroom bill is a perfect example of that.”

For his part, Patrick said in a Facebook Live video that Senate committees will begin vetting House bills in meetings beginning on Friday, with just over a week left to go in the session.

Despite the concerns echoed by senators and House members, Patrick insisted it was not important which chamber’s bill on any issue ultimately passes.

“It really isn’t important if it’s a Senate bill or a House bill,” he said. “I don’t expect every bill to be a Senate bill just because we passed them first.”