Also On The "House Has A LOT Left To Do Tonight and Senate's Way Far Ahead" List
1) The Senate already passed a major TDCJ reform bill that permits early release for certain prison inmates and gives those on parole a chance to shorten their terms. The bill aims to reduce prison populations and prevent the state from having to build new lock-ups. The House won't have trouble with it -- but they certainly haven't done it yet.
2) An oft-debated measure to protect the state’s border and crack down on drug and human trafficking is also awaiting a House vote -- though it's failed there before. After getting killed on a technicality in the House, the border security measure was slapped on a Senate homeland security bill, on that chamber already passed tonight. It'll be a while before it comes up in the House, and we'll see what happens there.
The measure has a better chance than before at passage: the border part wouldn't include hotly-debated language over who will oversee a database that contains personal information about everything from criminal investigations to traffic violations on thousands – maybe millions – of Texans.
It still would create a governor-appointed border security council to make recommendations on funneling more than $100 million to authorities along the Mexican border. That money would fund hiring hundreds of new law enforcement agents, as well as high-level equipment to help patrol the border.