Day 2: Sunset and Rules

Sen. Leticia Van De Putte

Today is the 2nd day of the 83rd regular session of the Texas Legislature. The House convenes at 10:00 am, the Senate at 11:00 am.

Yesterday's opening ceremonies largely went off without a hitch. On the Senate side Sen. Leticia Van De Putte (D - San Antonio) was elected the senate president pro tempore, a largely ceremonial position (although it means that if both the Governor and Lt. Governor are out of state she can act as governor). Last session Sen. Van De Putte co-authored a comprehensive anti-bullying bill with Sen. Wendy Davis (D - Fort Worth) that included non-discrimination protections for both sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (which unfortunately did not pass). She also co-sponsored HB 1942, the anti-bullying bill that went into effect last year, but which did not include non-discrimination protections.

If you were watching the Senate's swearing-in yesterday morning and felt a chill go up your spine it's likely because you caught a sight of failed presidential candidate and former U.S. Senator Rick Sanatorium (he of the infamous same-sex relationships = "man on dog" sex quote). Sen. Santorium was in attendance as the guest of freshmen Sen. Ken Paxton (R - McKinney).

This morning the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission meets in public hearing. Most state agencies in Texas are subject to "sunset review" on a regular schedule. The review is required in order for the agency to continue its operations and is an opportunity for public input on the agency. The Advisory Commission consists of twelve members of the Legislature who then make recommendations to the whole body about needed changes. A list of the agencies under review this cycle is available here.

Meanwhile we're waiting for both the House and Senate to adopt rules. The Texas Constitution allows the bodies of the legislature to figure out for themselves how to go about their business. For the most part both the House and Senate start with last year's rules and make a few adjustments based on issues that have arisen. There has been some debate about whether to keep the "two thirds rule" in the Senate, which requires most legislation to receive 2/3 support before passing (normally this means 21 of the 31 senators, because of the recent death of Sen. Gallegos (D - Houston) and the current vacancy of his seat only 20 senators are required for the time being). Senate leadership has indicated that the two thirds rule is likely to remain intact for the time being.

On the House side yesterday Rep. David Simpson (R - Lubbock) withdrew his nomination for Speaker of the House (the Speaker is the leader of the House, elected by the entire body from among their own membership), clearing the way for Speaker Joe Strauss (R - San Antonio) to be re-elected to a third term by acclimation.

In his concession speech Simpson quoted President Thomas Jefferson's first inagural address:

"All...will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions."

There is a particularly appropriate irony to Simpson quoting Jefferson. Our nation's third president was a brilliant man: the architect of the Declaration of Independence, one of the progenitors of the American belief in government only by the consent of the governed, a dedicated and talented statesman who piloted our nation through some of its earliest trials.

He was also a profoundly racist and sexist person.

Jefferson was a product of his time, perhaps, but it can not be argued that a belief that the rights of individuals should be restricted based solely on the color of their skin or their sex is anything other than the definition of racism and sexism.

Likewise when Rep. Simpson speaks of the rights of the minority his concept of the minority is limited, perhaps as much as Jefferson's. Simpson is not speaking of communities that are denied a voice at the table of power because of the circumstances of birth. His concept of "minority" is restricted to people who lounge at the tables of power, gorged on the buffet it offers, but whose extreme views and arrogance make it impossible for them to win the hearts of their fellow power brokers.

This inability to understand the difference between not having power and having power, but being too inept to wield it, undoubtedly explains why, during the last legislative session, Simpson supported removing LGBT student resource centers from college campuses. It explains why Simpson voted against requiring schools to report instances of bullying based on anti-LGBT bias, and why he believes that insurance companies should be allowed to continue discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, even when that discrimination is not based on actuarially sound principles.

Like Jefferson, Simpson is a product of the time and place he lives, and like Jefferson that doesn't make him stupid, or evil... it makes him unaware of the consequences of his actions. It's too late to educated our nation's third president -it's not too late to educate Rep. Simpson.

If you live in the Lubbock area, please give the representative a call. Help him to understand that his voice at the table can be a powerful tool for insuring that the the rights of the minority are not trampled by the majority. Ask him to support efforts to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Texans.

Rep. Simpson is currently in his Austin office. He can be reached at (512) 463-0750) 

Homophobia At Play in Speaker's Race

Speaker Joe Strauss

In four days the 84th Texas Legislature will convene in Austin. The first order of business is for all members to be sworn into office in a lovely ceremony with proud parents and spouses, everyone in their Sunday best, cake and punch to follow.

The second order of business will be the selection of the Speaker of the House and an increasingly nasty and impotent attempt by Rep. David Simpson (R - Longview) to unseat current Speaker Joe Straus (R - San Antonio).

Political Commentators expect Straus to easily retain the Speakership, but Tea-Party-associated groups supporting Simpson maintain the race is still winnable. Recently one Burleson group has charged Straus of pushing a "pro-gay" agenda in an attempt to rouse conservative lawmakers to oppose him.

Shapiro Will Not Seek Re-election to Senate, Paxton To Seek Seat

Florence Shapiro

State Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) announced yesterday that she will not seek re-election to the Texas Senate.  Shapiro, who has served in the senate since 1993, told the Texas Tribune that she is in  final negotiations for a job with a Texas Based education company.

Shapiro currently serves as chair of the Senate Education committee, a crucial bottleneck for any legislation dealing with anti-bullying efforts in Texas.  Her support of both HB 1942 (the "super" anti-bullying bill) and HB 1386 (teen suicide prevention) during the 82nd regular legislative session last spring was crucial to both bills passing.  Shapiro also voted in favor of legislation by Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) that made the Texas HIV Medication Advisory Committee statutorily permanent.

Historically Shapiro's support of the LGBT community has been limited to bills which did not explicitly acknowledge the existence of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgender people (for example the two anti-bullying bills mentioned above).  In 2001, when the James Byrd Hate Crimes Act was debated in the Texas Senate, Shapiro offered an amendment that would have completely rewritten the legislation to remove an enumerated list that included "sexual preference" as one of the characteristics bias against which would allow prosecutors to pursue tougher sentences.  The amendment failed.  When the Senate finally voted on the bill, with the enumerated list intact, Shapiro was one of 10 Senators who opposed it. Shapiro also supported both the 2003 "Texas Defense of Marriage Act" and the 2005 constitutional amendment prohibiting marriage equality in Texas

Rep. Ken Paxton (R-McKinney) has announced he will run to replace Shapiro. Paxton has served in the House since 2003. Since legislation in Texas must pass both the House and Senate in order to become law his long career creates an opportunity to compare his voting record directly against Shapiro's.  Like Shapiro, Paxton opposes marriage equality, but his opposition to LGBT equality extends further. In the 19 record votes on LGBT issues taken during Paxton's 8 year career he has consistently voted against the community on all but one vote. In 2007 Rep. Coleman attempted to amend the state budget to require schools receiving state funds to file reports documenting instances of harassment or discrimination on the basis of an enumerated list of characteristics that included sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.  Paxton was out of the room at the time the vote was taken, but his opposition to even reporting that LGBT students were being bullied (let alone doing anything to stop it) was so strong that he entered a note in the official House record explaining that, had he been in the room, he would have voted against Coleman's amendment.

Paxton's record reveals an elected official who will oppose any legislation that even hints at being good for LGBT people. While Shapiro is by no means a staunch ally of the community her potential replacement by Paxton would be disastrous for future attempts to achieve equality.

Author and former Air Force Pilot Scott O'Grady has also announced plans to run for Shapiro's seat. O'Grady is new to electoral politics but has been courting Tea Party support since last year, speaking at various DFW area events.  O'Grady's campaign has not made a public statement regarding his positions on LGBT issues.

Day 2: Down to Business

Today is the second day of the 82nd regular legislative session.

The Senate will reconvene at 11 am and will likely begin the process of adopting their rules. The rules in the Senate are very similar to the House's with a few noted exceptions. Chief among these is that the House can consider bills on the floor in any order it deems fit. The Senate, however, has a rule that bills must be considered in the order they were filed. So SB1 should be first, then SB2 and so forth.

Of course the Senate never follows this rule. A two thirds majority of Senators can set aside their rules and take up a bill out of order. So each session what's known as a blocker bill is filed first. The blocker bill sits at the front of the line and never gets voted on, this requires every other bill to get two thirds of the Senators to agree to set aside the rules and consider it out of order.

The blocker bill is generally credited with creating a more civil tone in the Senate since every bill must garner at least two-thirds of the senators favor to pass. Last session Sen. Dan Patrick engineered a loophole into the Senate Rules to allow voter suppression legislation to bypass the blocker bill without the two-thirds support. That loophole resulted in a backlash that nearly brought the entire session to a halt. The Senate rule making process will be watched closely this session to see if any similar shenanigans are attempted.

Also this morning the Sunset Advisory Committee is meeting at 8 am. Texas law requires that every state agency undergo a "Sunset Review" every 7 years. The legislature must re-approve the existence of the agency or it will automatically be dissolved. The Sunset process began at the end of the previous session and involved hearings held around the State on each agency under review.

The House will convene briefly today but don't expect much beyond some minor congratulations and ceremony. The real action will be in the Legislative Conference Center which is underground behind the capitol building. House members will be meeting in heated sessions to hash out the specifics of this session's House rules.

Arch conservatives in the House are likely still stinging from yesterday's relatively smooth reelection of Joe Straus as Speaker. Rep. Ken Paxton, the teabagger favorite for speaker, withdrew from the Speaker's race just before the vote was to begin.

A motion was made to elect Straus by acclamation, when Rep. Leo Berman requested a record vote. Only 15 members voted against Straus: Berman, Burkett, Christian, Cain, Flynn, P. King, Landtroop, Laubenberg, C. Perry, Paxton, Parker, Simpson, V. Taylor, White and Zedler. There are a few extreme old timer right-wing hardliners in that list but almost half (7) of those voting 'no' are serving their first term in the House. Which would seem a foretaste of things to come in a House of 34 freshmen, most of whom were sent to Austin by teabaggers who demand only obstinance and pig-headedness.

The discussions should be interesting. The House Rules are extremely complicated, some members who have served for years still to not have a full understanding of them. If the freshmen recalcitrance brigade tries to muck up the works with their default rejection of order and civility they will likely get taken to task by even the most conservative of the senior members. The House has 150 members, each of whom is answerable first to their constituents, not to a party, and not to a hissy fit disguised as a national populist uprising.

Today the grown-ups get to work and if the wet-behind-the-ears whipper snappers don't behave they may find themselves spending the rest of the session sitting in the corner.

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UPDATE: The Senate voted to delay adoption of rules until next week (via Quorum Report)

Day 1: The 82nd Legislature Gets Underway

Today is the first day of the 82nd Texas Legislative Session. The legislature meets every other year for 140 days. In that time they must handle all of the business of the State for the next two years.

Most of today's activities are ceremonial or procedural. Both the House and Senate will convene at noon. You can watch the proceedings live on-line HERE (House) and HERE (Senate).

The on-screen action today will be minimal. Members of both houses will be sworn in and the House will likely elect its speaker (which may involve some fireworks as Rep. Ken Paxton is refusing to back out of the Speaker's race (more info HERE)).

Mostly today is a party. Lobbyist will be dropping off gifts at the officials offices (none worth more than $75), staffers will be getting to know each other and lawmakers will start, in earnest, conversations about their legislative priorities. There are a number of parties thrown by lobbying and interest groups around Austin tonight to celebrate the beginning of session.

But don't be fooled. The deadly seriousness of the tasks before them are not lost on the officials or their staffers. Today is a day to eat, drink and be merry, because for the next 139 days they will get little sleep or peace as they go about the business of the people of Texas.

UPDATE: Chisum Remains in Speakers Race

UPDATE: Chisum has stated on his facebook page that he has not dropped out of the race:

"There is no two ways about it: the Republican House members must caucus and unite behind a single conservative candidate for Speaker. If there is no caucus I will remain a candidate for Speaker when the Legislature meets on January 11, 2011."

The "caucus" he's referring to is a proposal being supported by some conservative Republican House members that the Republican members of the House agree to meet by themselves, vote for a Speaker candidate, and agree to all vote for whoever wins that vote. This is very similar to how the Speaker of the United States Congress is selected, but is an unprecedented way to select a Speaker of the Texas House.

Frankly it would set a dangerous precedent. The current system of selecting a speaker based on the votes of the whole house insures that the person selected is, generally speaking, to the center of the ideological spectrum of the body. If one party, any party, requires it's members to vote for the party's selected candidate, rather than for the candidate members believe would best protect the priorities of their constituents, it will guarantee the election of a partisan ideologue as Speaker, rather than the statesman (or woman) the House needs to run effectively.

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Original title: Chisum to Drop Out of Speakers Race, Support Paxon

The Ellis Herald reports that notorious bigot Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) will drop out of the race for Speaker of the Texas House and support Ken Paxton (R-McKinney) in his attempt to unseat Speaker Joe Straus.

Chisum, you may remember, is the father of the Texas version of the "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA) and perhaps the most rabid homophobe in the State of Texas (more HERE).

According to the Rules of the Texas House the speaker is elected by the 150 members of the House, from amongst its members, by a simple majority vote. The speaker is responsible for the day to day operations of the House and appoints all committee members and chairs. 'Speaker of the House' is the third most powerful position in Texas Politics, right behind Governor and Lieutenant Governor.

Traditionally the speaker is a member of whatever party has the most members in the House, although that is not required, a speaker from the non-ruling party has never been elected. Starting with the close of the previous legislative session any member of the house may begin to collect "pledges" from other members, promising their votes for speaker.

Chisum declared his intention to run for speaker shortly before the November election. I spoke with one House member (it was a private conversation, so I'm going to leave their name off) who said that Chisum's record on queer issues is part of what prevented them from supporting him: "My Gay constituents would kill me!"

The current Speaker, Joe Straus, was elected by an almost evenly divided house (74 Democrats and 76 Republicans) and with significant Democratic support. He is a moderate who was widely praised for his bipartisan even-handed handling of the affairs of the House. Which is why the far right hates him.

The current House is not nearly so evenly divided (it will probably be 51 Democrats and 99 Republicans - but there is still one race that may face an additional recount and one special election to fill the seat of a member who died shortly after the election). To maintain his speakership Straus will need to collect 76 pledges from members, but those members can be of any party.

One might assume that all 51 Democrats will pledge to Straus, but with a tight two person race it may be tempting for some to pledge to Paxton in exchange for prime committee appointments and preferential treatment for their legislative agenda. That's how the speaker previous to Straus, Tom Craddick, came to power. Several of the vilified "Craddick Ds" who supported him are still serving and may be willing to make a similar deal with the devil this session.

Paxton is affiliated with the Teabaggers, although not the arch-conservative Chisum is, he did vote for the Texas version of DOMA during his first term in the House (so did Speaker Straus). There really haven't been any other "test" bills to make it to the floor since then and since he has, for the most part, served on financial committees so he does not have a committee voting record that can be analyzed to understand where he stands on other queer issues.

That said, Paxton's rhetoric about being a "true" conservative and his strong Teabagger ties would seem to indicate that few, if any, of the legislative priorities of queer Texans would see the light of day in a Paxton House.

General consensus is that Straus has a good chance of hanging on to the speakership, but with 34 freshmen members of the House without a record to base predictions on, it's still anybody's game.