Time chips away at Abbott’s agenda
As clock ticks in Austin, lawmakers cast doubt on governor’s priorities
AUSTIN — As the special legislative session entered its final week with the controversial bathroom bill and other high-profile measures considered all but dead, lawmakers questioned Wednesday whether Gov. Greg Abbott has enough time left to win approval for even half of the 20 measures he declared must pass.
Leaders in both legislative chambers predicted privately that as few as five bills of Abbott’s priorities will be approved when the final gavel drops next Wednesday.
That’s down from predictions two weeks ago that as many as 12 would likely go through, and below the six that most lawmakers said Monday were likely to pass.
So far, Abbott has no bills on his desk to sign or veto. “The clock is ticking and if some of the major bills are not out of the House by this weekend, at that point, I think the time-
line will be collapsing to get them done,” said Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston.
Even so, Abbott remained confident that a good number of his priority issues will be approved — even though his aides would not predict how many. They cautioned that predictions of dire consequences are common at the end of legislative sessions, as House and Senate leaders rush to broker last-minute deals, and that agreements on top-priority bills are often forged at the last minute.
“We remain optimistic about his agenda,” said Abbott press secretary John Wittman.
So far, Abbott’s agenda has fared better in both chambers than the doomsday predictions might indicate, with the Senate passing bills on all but two of the governor’s 20, and the House passing bills related to about half. The problem, say lawmakers, is that those versions are in many cases dissimilar — and a compromise bill must be negotiated in just a few days for it to get to Abbott and become law.
Heightening tensions were rumors that if Abbott did not get enough of his agenda passed, he would call lawmakers back into another special session next year, right before the March primaries where conservative voters might hold Republican legislators accountable for not passing the agenda. Abbott aides would not speculate on the rumors.
‘A lot of heartburn’
Members of both parties in both chambers agreed that a key to how the final days of the session could play out will come Thursday, when the House will debate whether to allow amendments to Senate Bill 1 — the flagship property tax reform bill — before it debates passage on Saturday.
The measure would block cities and counties from raising effective tax rates above a certain threshold by requiring a voter referendum. Although the Senate set that rollback trigger at 4 percent, the House lowered the rate to 6 percent. Currently, voters can petition for a rollback election if municipalities raise their effective tax rate higher than 8 percent.
The bill was earlier passed by the Senate, but the House changed its wording, and the House Calendars Committee, which determines the scheduling of bills, on Wednesday announced it would allow no amendments.
Conservative House Republicans seeking changes to make it closer to the Senate version immediately announced they will challenge that decision.
Several senators said they see the no-amendment rule as a takeit-or-leave-it move by the House, which they said the Senate may not go for. And because it would not come back to the Senate for consideration until Sunday or Monday, time could well run out to get a final version agreed to by both chambers.
Blocking amendments to the bill protects Republican members from having to cast a vote on a tougher version of the property tax bill that the Senate has pushed. It also signals to the other chamber that it wants to keep the bill the House passes as is.
“There’s a lot of heartburn on this floor about this bill, anyway,” said Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, a member of the Calendars Committee. “Right now the way Senate Bill 1 is, (it) is a livable, doable bill for most members on this floor, I think. Any lower or any more prescriptive, and it becomes a vote that I won’t be taking.”
House leaders insisted there is still time to get all bills passed that have the votes.
Asked if Saturday is the last functional day for the House to pass bills on second reading, House Speaker Joe Straus’ spokesman, Jason Embry, said he wouldn’t say so. The House has no clear rules on when bills can be passed, and House members can suspend rules to hear bills as lawmakers approach the end of the session, he said.
While the House and Senate have been at odds on many issues, they appeared closer to agreement Wednesday on a bill that would crack down on mailin ballot fraud amid voting irregularities in Dallas this spring that led to hundreds of mail-in ballots being sequestered from the city’s elections in May.
Bathroom bill fight continues
Senate Bill 5, which passed 9037, makes it a fourth-degree felony to intentionally submit false information on a mail-in ballot application, or knowingly submit or alter an application without the voter’s knowledge. Punishment is up to two years in prison.
SB 5 also would make it illegal to try to influence a voter when a mail-in ballot is present, which could include family members talking politics with the ballot on the table. That action, along with obtaining voting documents by false pretenses, would constitute a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison and as much as a $4,000 fine.
Both penalties increase if the action included a voter at least 65 years old. State law allows people with disabilities, 65 or older, or people who will be out of the county to request a mail-in ballot in order to vote.
The House defeated amendments brought by Democrats, including proposals to require mailin ballots be mailed by the state, require all eligible voters receive a mail-in ballot application and study voter fraud. None passed.
The bathroom bill all but died on Monday when House State Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, said he would not give the bathroom bill a hearing. Rep. Ron Simmons, RCarrollton, the measure’s author, said it would be difficult to tack the bill onto another measure to get it out of the House.
On Wednesday, opponents of the Senate-passed bathroom bill that would require Texans to use the bathroom based on their birth-certificate gender continued to ratchet up their public opposition, even as supporters continued their push to get a final version passed into law.
The interfaith group Texas Impact released four public-service videos, featuring a Pearland mother of a transgender daughter and a Houston minister, and three groups — the Women’s Sports Foundation, Human Rights Campaign and TransAthlete.com — delivered a letter to lawmakers asking that the bill be rejected as discriminatory against transgender Texans.