Getting Out ' the House
The House adjourned about two hours ago. Final tally of Floor Hours - about 9.5 hours nonstop. Hardworkin reps, right there. And they debated 40 some-odd amendments, had some weighty discussions on ethics, open government, religion, and freshmen legislators. As much as everyone complained about the unexpectedly long day ( /what, me? guilty?), they did make some waves in interesting places:
Final updates:
- The House members decided to put "In God We Trust" on the electronic board at the front of the chamber (where they put the words to the Texas flag pledge, because the members always forget it). Rep. Richard Raymond, Laredo Democrat, proposed it and two people voted against it. One was Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, and the other was freshman Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, who said it was just "not the kind of business I want get into." We asked Speaker Craddick when it would appear. He shrugged.
- The House members realized that they'd misunderstood Rep. Juan Garcia's record-votes bill. They actually don't want to have a record vote - as defined in the law - on second reading of bills because, they say, it would take too long and trigger complications on bills that take immediate effect. None of that part's been explained too well yet. But they killed his amendment 84 to 57.
P.S. You have to know Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, was disappointed - I don't think he realized that the House misunderstood when they first let it pass without objection. He high-fived another House member before they brought it back up and then killed it.
An aside: "Record vote" is defined, in this discussion, like this. Members go to their desks, hit the button, the board at the front lights up and the vote gets recorded in the journal. Currently, a single member can request that. When it's a voice vote, everyone gets an automatic "yes" recorded in the journal unless they tell the journal clerk.
- Rep. Jim Dunnam, Democratic Caucus Chairman, said he was proud of the Democratic performance today, going "on the offensive" with ethics efforts that he says might not see the light of day in actual legislation. They did actually pass some of them, too - which Rep. Pete Gallego, an Alpine Democrat and fellow party leader in the House, said could signify that members were ready to start considering some legislation "based on merit" instead of politics. The measures they passed went on largely without objection - which meant they got the approval of 81 Republicans as well.
Everyone's now adjourned until Tuesday. Looking forward to an actual weekend.
Cheers!