Tx Capitol Report | A view from the Texas state capitol

Updated: Governor blames Senator for failure of Sanctuary cities measure

Gov. Rick Perry released the following statement on the failure of anti-sanctuary cities legislation:

“As the special session appears to be winding down, I am disappointed the Legislature did not address sanctuary cities. Working with legislative leaders last weekend, we worked to include sanctuary city legislation in Senate Bill 1. Unfortunately, SB1 Conference Committee Chairman Robert Duncan ultimately refused to allow language related to the ban of sanctuary cities into the final version of Senate Bill 1. Because of this action, the special session will not provide our peace officers with the discretion they need to adequately keep Texans safe from those that would do them harm.”

Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, responded with this:

"I am a joint author of SB 9, the sanctuary cities legislation that the Senate passed on June 15. This was comprehensive legislation that dealt with the issue of state and federal laws and prohibition of sanctuary cities. The primary purpose of SB 1 was to certify the budget and provide funding for our public schools.

"Combining school finance issues in SB 1 with sanctuary cities issues would have placed both of these important measures in jeopardy. My Senate colleagues on the SB 1 Conference Committee and member of the Senate Republican caucus were clear about their desire to keep these two issues separate. I agreed and held firm on this position."

I will blog more on this later. Stay tuned.

Lt. Gov. Dewhurst on sanctuary cities

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst suggested that the state House is to blame if anti-sanctuary cities legislation does not pass by the last day of the special session on Wednesday.

The legislation is hanging on only by a thread with two days left in the 30-day special session.

Dewhurst, who runs the state Senate, would not directly say that the state House was at fault but he did take several jabs at the lower chamber.

He suggested that the House should not have a problem passing the legislation because Republicans make up 101 of the 150-members. And, he pointed to the lower chamber's dificulty making quorum. The state House officially failed to keep enough members on the House floor to vote on legislation one time during the special session.

“Right now, the House has 101 Republicans and they have a number of others who often times vote with the Speaker," Dewhurst said. "All they have to do is pass Senate Bill 9 in the form that we sent it to them and it goes automatically to the Governor. Done."

He added: "It’s incumbent on each body, the Senate and the House, to have their members here when we’re voting on important bills. All of our Senators are here. We have one member who is not here today but that did not slow down our business and he’ll be here tomorrow. I didn’t go on a 14-day trip to visit Normandy with my wife and little daughter and my two brothers and their families and I expect others to be here."

State Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, the chairman of the House Republican Caucus, took some time off during the special session to go on family vacation in the Bahamas.

Dewhurst said "if I had 21-22 Republicans and we were all on the same page it would be easier to do things over here. You could suspend the order of business which they can do."

Sanctuary cities legislation flailing in Texas legislature

Anti-sanctuary cities legislation appears dead with less than 72 hours left in the special legislative session.

Leading state lawmakers said the clock is running out for the measure, which would allow local authorities to enforce federal immigration law.

Asked Monday if the legislation was dead, state Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, who chairs the State Affairs committee, suggested that time seems to have run out for passage of a stand-alone bill.

Cook said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Gov. Rick Perry and Speaker Joe Straus agreed to add the anti-sanctuary cities language last week on to Senate Bill 1, an important fiscal bill that is necessary to the budget because it frees up billions of dollars and contains a school finance plan.

But Cook said a “Senator has essentially blocked” the addition of the language. He did not name the senator but he is presumably speaking about state Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, who is the author of the fiscal bill, which hit its own snags during the regular session and must pass in order to balance the budget.

“You know we’re out of time, so that’s where we are,” Cook said.

“I don’t see how there would have been time,” Cook said when asked whether the bill is dead. “There certainly would have been time last week if it had gone on Senate Bill 1 but I don’t see how there would be time now.”

The legislation, an emergency item for Perry, would put local governments at risk of losing state grant money if they establish a policy that prohibits employees from questioning the immigration status of people they detain or arrest. But the measure, which passed the House in the regular session but failed in the Senate, has received pushback from influential Republican donors and evangelical ministers.

Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, on Monday confirmed that anti-sanctaury cities legislation was not added to Senate Bill 1.

Two versions of the anti-sanctuary cities legislation are stuck in the House’s State Affairs committee.

One by state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, includes anti-sanctuary cities language, as well as a measure that would expand the federal Secure Communities program and a requirement that proof of citizenship be shown when applying for a driver's license. It has already cleared the Senate.

Dewhurst said in a statement that adding a “reduced version” of the sanctuary cities measure to the fiscal bill was suggested Thursday but no official agreement was reached to do so.

“After a long discussion on Saturday with a majority of Senators, there was no interest in reducing the Senate’s Sanctuary Cities prohibition and attaching it to an unrelated school finance bill, which would most likely jeopardize the passage of both sanctuary cities and school finance,” Dewhurst said in a statement.

Dewhurst said House leaders have had the Senate version of the bill for two weeks and need to pass the measure.

But state House leaders seem to be pushing for their own version of the bill.

The bill, by state Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, would only include the anti-sanctuary cities language. That version has a longer way to go.

Under normal House rules, the House version would have to be voted out of committee today, then head to the full House for debate on Tuesday. After that, it would move to the Senate on Wednesday where Senators could filibuster the measure.  

Solomons said the legislature should be focused on the issue of sanctuary cities, without including the additional provisions that are in the Senate version. He said it will be hard to get the legislation passed if his bill does not get voted out of committee today.

 “Earlier this morning it was a little more optimistic,” Solomons said. “What time is it now? It’s not quite as optimistic because time is running out. Every hour that goes by is difficult.”

Anti-groping bill makes a comeback

Legislation banning invasive airport pat downs will get another chance in the Texas Legislature.

Gov. Rick Perry added the measure to the list of items that can be taken up during the special session, which ends later this month. The legislation was derailed in the Senate during the regular 140-day session, leading to a face-off between state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, who is one of the bill's authors, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

The bill, which had passed the House unanimously, would ban agents with the Transportation Security Administration from performing searches on certain parts of a person's body with their hands without probable cause.

If the bill becomes law, agents who touch travelers in a manner that a "reasonable person" would find offensive or who touch the "anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast" of a traveler would be subject to up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000.

On Sunday, state Rep. David Simpson, the House author of the bill, sent a letter to Perry asking him to add it to the special session agenda.

"With broad bipartisan support for this bill, this is your opportunity to show America that you have what it takes to lead this state and the nation by enforcing the Constitution of this state and the Constitution of the United States which both protect innocent people from unreasonable searches of their person by their own government," Simpson said in the letter.

Questions persist on whether the state can impose such a law to regulate federal employees.

The bill failed to be taken up in the Senate after the federal government issued a letter to state lawmakers during the regular session saying that it would "cancel any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of passengers and crew."

Patrick blamed Dewhurst for its failure. On Monday, Dewhurst said "after working closely with the Attorney General's Office the last few weeks, I'm confident that we can pass legislation that addresses these threats, while protecting innocent passengers and preserving our state's rights."

Perry, who was at the Republican Leadership Conference over the weekend, was asked if he was planning to bring the measure up again during the special session. Perry responded that there was not enough time left in the session.

Watch the video below:

 

 

 

 

Protestors warn Hispanics "will remember"

 

 

Protestors of a Republican-backed bill that would allow local police to enforce federal immigration law on Wednesday acknowleged that they may be fighting a losing battle.

But they warned that Hispanics will consider the anti-sanctuary city legislation, which passed the state Senate on Tuesday and is now on its way to the House, a personal attack and will remember it in the coming elections.

Hispanics, the state's fastest growing population, have long been considered the sleeping giant in elections because they do not vote in proportion to their population.

Immigration rights advocates such as Fernando Garcia, director for the El Paso-based Border Network for Human Rights, who led a more than 300 person rally at the Capitol on Wednesday, believe the legislation may be a wake up call for Hispanics.

"They think that in two years we will no longer remember that they passed a law against our children and against our families," Garcia told the crowd as he listed off the names of each state Senator who supported the bill. "Are we going to forget?"

Protestors yelled "no!" They also screamed "shame on you!"

State Sen. Jose Rodríguez, D-El Paso, a staunch opponent of the bill and one of 12 Democrats who voted against the measure told the crowd that the 19 Republican Senators who supported the bill were "single-mindedly, politically hellbent on passing legislation that appeals to their constituents and their political ambitions."

"My friends, we need to fight back and we need to continue fighting back," Rodríguez said. "We need to register as many people as we can. We need to make as many legal residents citizens as we can. We need to get as many people out to the polls as we can. We need to build coalitions with the teachers, with the workers and the other people who didn't get justice in this Capitol."

State Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, on Tuesday told lawmakers that the anti-sanctuary cities measure was not an attack on Hispanics.

“Whether you are talking about human trafficking, drug smuggling or spillover violence, it’s real and it’s at our doorstep," Williams said, adding that the bill sends a message to "criminal illegal aliens that we will not tolerate their presence."

He added, “This debate is not about political parties, nor is it about race, or hate, or fear mongering."

 

 

 

 

Senator gets mad at man speaking in Spanish

In today's paper we wrote about state Sen. Chris Harris, R-Arlington, snapping at a man who was testifying in Spanish against a sanctuary cities bill. The man said he has been in the country since 1988 and speaks English but felt more comfortable testifying in Spanish.

"It's insulting to us," Harris said. "It's very insulting. If he knows English he needs to speak in English."

Below is a video of the exchange:

 

Texas sonogram bill lawsuit

Texas’ new pre-abortion sonogram law has landed itself a lawsuit.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, an abortion-rights advocacy group, is suing the state to prevent the implementation of the law, which requires women seeking abortions to receive a sonogram, listen as a doctor describes the fetus and wait 24 hours before the procedure.

According to the class-action lawsuit, which was filed on behalf doctors and abortion clinics, the state is violating the First Amendment rights of the doctors and patients “by forcing physicians to deliver politically-motivated communications to women, regardless of their wishes.”

 “This law barges in on the doctor-patient relationship,” Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said. “When you go to the doctor, you expect to be given information that is relevant to your particular medical decisions and circumstances, not to be held hostage and subjected to an anti-choice agenda.”

The lawsuit also says the law "discriminates against women by subjecting them to paternalistic “protections” not imposed on men" and "ultrasound requirements violate basic principles of medical ethics and serve no medical purpose."

 “This law is patronizing to women in Texas," Northup said. "It is based on outdated stereotypes that women are too immature or too incompetent to make important decisions. It’s as if the politician has charged into the doctor’s office and told the woman, ‘Honey, you just don’t understand what you are doing.  Let me explain it to you and tell you what to do.’”

Supporters of the law, which goes into effect Sept. 1, say the legislation could help deter abortions by providing women with full disclosure.

Below is a copy of the complaint:

 

 

TX Complaint FIN

Update: School finance plan approved

The Texas House just passed a school finance plan that spreads $4 billion in cuts to about 1,100 school districts throughout the state.

The plan imposes 6 percent across-the-board cut next year for all districts, no matter how rich or poor they are.

In the second year, the plan makes school districts that get more tax revenue per student take larger cuts.

The measure, which was part of a larger fiscal bill,  passed on an 83-62 vote. State Rep. Dee Margo, R-El Paso, voted for the bill. The rest of El Paso's state delegation voted against the bill.

Education issues on House floor today

Texas lawmakers after a marathon 16-hour debate gave tentative passage to a school finance plan that spreads $4 billion in cuts to about 1,100 school districts.

The plan imposes 6 percent across-the-board cut next year for all districts, no matter how rich or poor they are. In the second year, the plan makes school districts that get more tax revenue per student take larger cuts.

The state House is expected to give the bill final passage today.

 

Gay debate stirs tensions in late-night session

It was late.

People were tired.

And, emotions ran high as state Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center, proposed an amendment to a fiscal bill that said universities could not use appropriated funds or use buildings to "support a gender and sexuality center or other center for students focused on gay, lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, transexual, transgender, gender questioning, or other gender identity issues."

Conservative Republicans rallied behind Christian.

 "I know how my folks back home feel and I know how I feel," state Rep. Jim Jackson, R-Carrollton, said.

Democrats called the amendment discriminatory and warned that such measures lead to violence and hostility against members of the LGBT community.

"This is sickening," state Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, said as she temporarily grabbed the microphone from Christian.

State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, said, if passed, the amendment would land the state in court  fighting civil rights lawsuits with taxpayer money.

"Some of you are going to go away feeling good because you had another group that you could use as a scapegoat," she said "But let me tell you something, you are violating the first amendment rights of these people."

Thompson added, "You may talk about them. You may dog them. You may discriminate against them but they are taxpayers. They go and serve in the military. They happen to be doctors, lawyers and they serve in many, many capacities within our society."

In the end, the amendment was derailed on a point of order by state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio.