Inside The House with Naomi Gonzalez

Frequently Used Words and Phrases

I would leave here a very rich woman if I had a penny for every time I have heard the following words or phrases this session:

Unintended consequences

Please don’t cut (insert program or body part here)

Amendment

Amendment to the Amendment

Fiscal Note

This is a good bill

This is a simple bill

All this bill does…

Mr./Ms. Speaker I would like to raise a point of order

Ladies and gentlemen these have been the buzz words of the 82^nd Legislative Session.

Habits of Highly Effective Communicators

In today’s very busy society time is valuable, so when people come to the Capitol efficient use of time is critical to getting your message across.  First, before you get to the representative, do your research on his or her background. What district does he or she represent?  Who lives in that district?  What colleges or universities did the representative attend and what does he or she do for a living? This information is important because it gives you insight into that person is, who he or she represents and what he or she might agree or disagree with.  After you do your research, figure out the key points you want to convey to the representative and you can begin to craft your message to resonate with them.  It always helps if you have a handout of succinct bullet points on why a house bill or a senate bill is good and/or bad.

Also, figure out what committees the bill you care about got referred to.  Once you know the committee the bill is in, find out which members sit on that committee.  Talking to every representative about a bill, in my humble opinion, is not necessarily effective because the first step in the bill passage process begins at the committee level.  Speaking to specific committee members is the highest and best use of your time early in the process.

If you make an appointment to see a representative and he or she is not available do not feel slighted.  Many times we get pulled in all sorts of directions and can’t always honor our schedules.  If the representative can’t meet with you, ask if you can speak to his or her legislative director.  The legislative director is in charge of keeping track of bills that are important.  Meeting with the legislative director in some cases may be more effective than meeting with the representative. 

Finally, know where your votes are. If you find that a representative is not sure how they will vote on your bill then you need to listen carefully on what his or her concerns are.  Those swing votes are key to either getting a bill you care about killed or voted out of committee.

If you cannot make it to the Capitol you may contact the district office and speak with the representative’s district director.  Again, please be sure you are familiar with the contents of the bill and, depending on the circumstances, what you like or dislike about the bill.  If you are asked to send a letter or an e-mail to your representative for or against a certain bill take the time to change the correspondence.  We see the same e-mail circulated on certain bills so it catches our attention when you take your time to change up standard form letters or e-mails.

I hope that this posting is helpful in understanding how you can be very effective in communicating with your representatives.

House Trained

My months in the House of Representatives have taught me many things.  I think the first lesson I learned was that you have to function in the midst of organized chaos.   The House floor looks and feels a lot like the New York Stock Exchange.  There are people all over the floor, dozens of conversations taking place, when Representatives are on our way to our desks to vote we raise our hands and indicate with our fingers illustrating to the Speaker and the floor how we are voting.  The second lesson I learned quickly, is that in the House there are rules and there are rules.  The first set are written down, the rules that tell us how the game is to be played.  The rules are not written.  They are based in tradition and seniority.  Breaking these unspoken rules effect your entire session and possibly your entire career.  As a freshman, the reputation you build for your career is based on not breaking one of the major rules.

Another lesson I have learned, is that the House is designed to kill bills and the Senate to pass bills.  Trying to pass a bill in the House is a lot like a baby sea turtle trying to make it from the beach to the sea.  Any number of things can happen causing a bill to die a horrible painful death.  The death process can start as early as committee.  You can ask the chair of the committee to set a bill for a committee hearing but it is completely up to the chair to decide if he or she wants to hear the bill.  If the chair has no interest or just doesn’t like you or your bill the bill doesn’t get heard and it dies.  Say a bill does get set for a hearing in committee.  You better hope it is a solid bill.  You must make sure your Is are dotted and Ts crossed.  You have to line up witnesses and run traps to see if there is opposition.  If there is opposition you then have to figure out if you can resolve the opposition’s concerns.  If you can solve them you are in great shape but if not, your bill may die.  If, at the committee hearing, there are more people testifying against your bill than in favor for your bill, that is a good sign your bill is going to get stuck in committee and die.

If you have a fully supported bill you are in better shape but you still need to keep the committee members close to you.  You should always go and ask them personally if they will support your bill and if they have any concerns about your bill.  This is where having good working relationships with other representatives and an understanding of the rules comes in handy.  If the majority of the committee members are willing to vote in favor of the bill you ask the it is safe to ask the chairman or chairwoman for a committee vote.  If the chair decides to call a bill for a vote then the bill can get voted out of committee. 

After this, the challenge becomes what calendar on which a bill gets set.  In the House we have two main calendars-the General Calendar and Local and Consent Calendar.  If a bill passes out of a committee without any opposition then it may be placed on Local and Consent, which is a much faster calendar. Bills placed on this calendar usually have a better chance of passing the House.  If a bill goes on to the General Calendar it has the potential to never see the house floor because of the  many rules and procedures (both written and unspoken) governing the entire legislative process.

If a bill makes it to the floor a bill can still die in many ways.  Points of order, issues of germaneness, a lobby group not liking a bill may all contribute to the death of a bill.

The House, at times, can be a rough and tumble place.  As a Representative you have to be fast on your feet, quick with your mind and work well with others. It is not for the faint of heart. We have to make tough decisions that will shape the lives of millions.  I am fortunate to be here.  I am proud to represent the people of District 76 and El Paso. I have learned many lessons and I am certainly a stronger person for being here

Texas Gladiators

On April 27, 2011, the Texas House of Representatives took up the issue of redistricting.  The redistricting experience, for me, has been the worst experience so far in my time in the House. I would rather go through the budget and voter ID debates all over again than deal with redistricting.  What made the experience so bad? It’s simple; we are pitted against each other, colleague against colleague.   As Representatives we know redistricting is business and that we should not take the process personally, but it is so difficult not to.  The 150 members of the House work hard to get elected and we work hard to develop support bases in the districts we represent, so it’s only natural that we come out fighting when we feel those bases are going to be lost in the process. 

Fighting was done, between members in Dallas, Houston and the Rio Grande Valley. Vote after vote was  taken to decide the fate of representatives across the state.  It seems to me that a major flaw in this process is that decisions about community representation are made by people who are not members of the community themselves.  Why should those in Austin or San Antonio, for example, dictate how El Paso is divided when they are unfamiliar with local politics, neighborhoods and issues?

In all honesty, I was not prepared emotionally or mentally for the whole process and how ugly it felt to experience fighting between members. There were times when it felt like I was a spectator at the Roman Coliseum.  Members battled members, other members watching this blood sport and at the end of the fight, being asked to pick a winner and a loser.  Ultimately, no matter what your party affiliation, in the redistricting process, there are no winners.

Committee Madness

The committee assignment process at the Texas House of Representatives is underway. 

The Speaker of the House Joe Straus began the process of assigning House members to committees.  Speaker Straus will assign 150 members to 36 committees.  Most members will sit on three to four committees, depending on the size of the committees and scope of the work required.

Different committees are desirable to different members based on their differing districts, backgrounds, areas of expertise and interests; however, most members of the Legislature share a common interest in landing on powerful committees like Appropriations- which controls government's purse strings- or Calendars- which decides the bills that are heard on the House floor and when.  Of course, all Legislators are interested in landing a committee chairmanship.

Each House member was asked to provide a card to the Speaker that listed their desired committee assignments in order of seniority and preference. Under the House Rules, half of a committee’s membership is based on seniority. Those assignments not based on seniority are made at the discretion of the Speaker.

In the end, it's anybody's guess as to where all the representatives will land and the results of this game of musical chairs will have a large impact on how the legislative process will play out for the rest of session.

Committee assignments will be made in the next few days.  I look forward to this announcement and continuing the hard work I was sent here to do.

 

State of the State Address

Governor Perry will be addressing the Senate and the House of Representatives concerning the state of the State of Texas at 11:00 a.m. central standard time, 10:00 a.m. mountain standard time. If you are interested in watching please go to: http://governor.state.tx.us

The Process

I've been receiving many questions on how the budget process works.  I think it is important to note that the budget draft that was issued last week is a work in progress. Below is an attempt to explain the next steps in the process so that the people of El Paso are informed and engaged.   

The General Appropriations Bill contains the Legislative Budget Board's recommended budget for each state agency, including institutions of higher education.  This last the House Committee on Appropriations introduced the House version of the General Appropriations Bill, this week the Senate Committee on Finance will release their version. 

The House and Senate committees alternate the initial introduction of the bill.  That is why the final appropriations bill is known as House Bill 1 one session and Senate Bill 1 the next.  Since it originated in the House this session, it is House Bill 1.

Once the Speaker of the House Joe Straus and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst assign House and Senate committee members, probably in early February, budget hearings will begin.

During the budget hearings, representatives from all the state agencies will testify on the proposed bill, explaining their funding requests and the effects the proposed budget will have on their agency.    Members from the public can also testify at this time to let the committee members know about the effects this budget will have on their communities and express the changes they would like to see.  Additionally, if your elected representative sits on one of these committees, working with their office provides you an additional opportunity to ensure that your concerns are heard.

Upon completion of testimony, committee members will begin a mark-up process, probably in late February or March.  The mark-ups are an attempt to resolve disagreements during the budget hearings, effectively beginning the process of putting the meat back on the barebones of this budget.  Once this is completed, a committee report will be issued and the bill will be brought to the House floor for a vote.

Sometime in April, members of the House and Senate will debate the bill and offer amendments before voting on the final version.  This presents another opportunity for the public to have a say in the budget process.  Consider contacting your House and Senate representatives to request that they bring up your concerns in debate and propose an amendment to the appropriations bill.   

 After all amendments are considered and voted upon, the House and Senate will vote on the amended bill.  Since there are inevitably differences between the passed House and Senate versions, an appointed conference committee is convened to resolve the differences between the two.  The conference committee members are appointed by the Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House, respectively.

 In May, the conference committees will issue their final bill back to the House and Senate where each house will take a final vote.  When both houses approve the conference committee report without change the bill goes to the Comptroller for certification.

 The final step, upon the Comptroller's certification, is the signature of the Governor.  The Texas Constitution gives the governor line item veto authority.   However, the Legislature may override the governor’s veto(es) by a two-thirds majority vote in each house.  Once the final bill is signed by the Governor, it becomes law, and goes into effect on September 1st of that year.  

 That's  the process in a nutshell. I hope readers find this helpful. 

Budget Issues

 Last night the proposed budget was issued.  There are significant cuts to Health and Human Services and proposed cuts to public and higher education. Now, more than ever, it is important that the El Paso Delegation remain united so that we can navigate through this budget process.

 Today the House of Representative will be given an opportunity to ask preliminary questions about the proposed budget.  Last week, as many of you know, the House voted to cut our budget.  As we are asking other agencies to cut, it only made sense that we cut our budget as well.  But the budget that is before us, is cutting and doing away with programs all together.  When so many people ran on a fiscally conservative platform it will be interesting to see what happens when they realize that their districts are going to be effected by all of this. 

In other news, Governor Perry and Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst were sworn in yesterday.  Both of their speeches shared a common theme: Washington, D.C. has no place in Texas. Topics like smaller government, states' rights and border security were audibly popular with most of those attending the ceremony.

Finally, on the upside the El Paso Delegation is doing well for itself early on in session.  On opening day I was part of the Escort Committee and Representative Marquez was on the Committee to apprise Governor Perry of the business the House had addressed.  Later in week, Senator Rodriguez, Representative Margo and I were appointed to the Canvassing Committee.  This committee verifies the votes for the Governor and Lieutenant Governor's races.  It appears that El Paso's stock in Austin may be going up.

Opening Day

Today was one of the most amazing days of my life. The 82nd Legislative Session began today and I was fortunate enough to be a part of history. I was also lucky to share this important day with my family. I am now officially the State Representative for House District 76. As a new Representative, I took my first vote today as a House member and it resolved once and for all who would lead the Texas House of Representatives as the Speaker of the House.
As many of you know, the race for the Speaker of the House of Representative had become heated over the past few months. There were some members who did not want to see Joe Straus return as Speaker. I was under the impression that the Speaker issue had been resolved yesterday with a Republican Caucus meeting where Speaker Straus received more than enough support from within his own party to retain his position. Granted, that was the rumor around the Capitol but it seemed credible. So I was a bit surprised today when a member called for a public vote regarding Speaker Straus’s nomination. I voted for Joe Straus. He also, by the way, received an overwhelming majority of the House vote.
Finally, I was honored to be asked by the Speaker’s Office to be a member of the Escort Committee. I was part of a small group of members who escorted the Speaker to the front of the House so that he could take his Oath of Office. I was pleased to be a part of the opening day ceremonies. All in all it was a great day.

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