Voter ID, finally a victory

Republican Activists and Texas voters have made passage of a Voter ID bill one of the defining issues of this legislative session. In January, the Governor designated this issue an “emergency” and the Legislature has taken quick steps to pass a bill that will restore integrity to our elections process in Texas. For Republicans Voter ID is about fair and credible elections but the Democrats fear it will disenfranchise their voters. For the past two legislative sessions, we’ve had a healthy debate on the issue and we’ve seen the gamut of delays and parliamentary maneuvers, points of order, amendments and “chubbing” from the opposing side, all tactics to delay the inevitable.

But finally we can celebrate. Our side has prevailed. In a party line vote of 101-49, the Republican led Texas house passed SB 14, the Senate’s bill on voter ID, sending it to the Governor for his signature. They say elections have consequences and and they do. Because of your hard work during the election, we now have a policy victory we can celebrate. But even more importantly, we have a electoral system we can trust.

From the Lege – March 1, 2011

We are now more than 40 days in to the 140-day session of the 82nd Texas Legislature. Committees are meeting regularly, the budget is being worked on by the budget writing committees in both houses and members are spending several hours a day on the floor debating and voting on bills that have made it through the process. March is the month that things really start to heat up. Here’s an update on what’s been happening since my last report.

Update on the Governor’s Emergency Items

Balanced Budget Amendment – The Balanced Budget Amendment Legislation by Shapiro and Duncan (SJR1) says that Congress must call a constitutional convention to pass a balanced budget amendment. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of Sonogram Bill – The Senate passed the Sonogram bill (SB 16) on to the House last already, but the House decided to have a hearing and move HB 15 by Sid Miller as the vehicle in for the Sonogram Legislation. HB 15 passed the House State Affairs committee and was placed on the Emergency Calendar for immediate action on the floor. The House bill seems to be more stringent at this point.

Voter ID (SB 14) – The Voter ID bill which passed the Senate by a vote of 20-12 was heard in the House Voter ID & Voter Fraud committee today. The house considered language in committee that makes the bill stronger. They are still considering and taking testimony on the bill.

Eminent Domain (SB 18) – The eminent domain bill passed the Senate and how now been referred in the House to the Land and Resource Management committee where it awaits a hearing.

State Budget Update

While Texas is not experiencing the type of interest over the budget that they are facing in Wisconsin, the steps of the capitol are being graced each day with a group begging to keep the state taxpayer money that feeds them. The Republicans seem to be weathering the storm and are taking a hard look at ways to cut the budget and still maintain priorities for Texans. In the end, it will come down to some tough decision making in education and in general government. Healthcare spending, which accounts for more than 1/3 of the overall state budget, is an area where it is tough to find savings, because of the mandates by the federal government. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for reports to come back from the Senate and the house. Each body has spent the last 3 -4 weeks in working groups whose purpose are to find savings to meet the revenue available. The reports are due out within the coming weeks and then bills on the budget will begin to move through the process.

Healthcare

Last week, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and Senate Health Committee Chairman Jane Nelson introduced Senate Bills 7 and 8 to increase health care savings for the State of Texas, create flexibility for providers, enhance transparency & improve medical outcomes for patients. Unlike Obamacare – which grows government, raises taxes, increases regulations and mandates individuals to purchase health insurance – Senate Bills 7 and 8 take a free market approach by changing the way doctors and hospitals are paid, and ultimately, changing the way we look at health care. One of the major goals of the program is to create accountable care organizations that would focus on quality not quantity of patient care.

Redistricting

The official numbers for Texas have been released by the Census and Travis County comes in at over 1,024,266 making us the fifth largest county in the State. The redistricting hearings are beginning now that the official numbers are known and soon the House and the Senate will produce plans. The Legislative Districts will likely be drawn first, because they are constitutionally mandated to be drawn this session or they will go to the Legislative Redistricting Board to be drawn. Congressional lines will come next. Now that the numbers are official, the work of redistributing people in districts so that each Legislative district is at the “ideal population”. This process means taking people from districts with position deviation and moving them into districts with negative deviation. The process is like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. For the Texas Senate, the ideal population will be 811,147, for the State House the ideal will be 167,637 and the Congressional ideal is 698,488.

Travis County District Deviations:

SD 14 (Kirk Watson- D) +61,000

HD 47 (Paul Workman-R) +30,674

HD 50 (Mark Strama -D) +29,119

HD 48 (Donna Howard – D) -5,820

HD 51 (Eddie Rodriguz – D) -8,863

HD 49 (Elliot Nashitat – D) -26,493

Spotlight on the Republican Women Legislators

When you are at the Capitol this week, be sure to thank the Republican Women Legislators for what they are doing. Our amazing Women are doing the heavy lifting on many of the major issues this session. Senate Chairwoman Jane Nelson on healthcare and Chairwoman Florence Shapiro on education have been given the task to work on funding for their respective areas of the budget. The House committees Public Health and Pensions and Investments are being chaired by Lois Kolkhorst and Vicki Truitt, respectively. These leaders are all doing a good job, where proud to have them representing us and need more of them!

From the Lege – weeks 3 & 4

Below is the Legislative update for the past couple of weeks — between a child’s flu and weather set backs, I’m just able to get this update posted,  so here is goes.

GOVERNOR’S STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

Governor Perry gave his State of the State address to a joint session of the Texas Legislature on Tuesday.  You can click here to read and here the Governor’s  entire Speech:  http://governor.state.tx.us/sots

VOTER ID

One of the biggest stories over the past two weeks was from the Senate with action on voter ID. The Senate fulfilled their commitment to fast track voter id and passed the bill through both a committee of the whole and the full senate body and sent it on to the House to begin work on the bill.   Senate bill 14 by Senator Fraser — with only minor / non-controversial changes to the bill — passed the Senate by a vote of 20-11 after 3 days of public testimony and some spirited debate.

EMINENT DOMAIN

 Also of importance since my last update, was the passage of an eminent domain bill out of the Senate State Affairs committee and the Full Senate unanimously.  The bill now moves to the House.  It was the second bill approved in the legislative session, on an issue that Gov. Rick Perry had designated as an emergency item to allow it to be fast-tracked.  Senate Bill 18 by state Senator Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, would prohibit a government agency or private entity from taking property through eminent domain “if the taking is not for a public use,” would give property owners more rights concerning easements through their land and would allow property owners to buy back property if an intended project was not started in 10 years.    It would also require a bona fide offer, to prevent lowballing of landowners, and would require entities who want to use eminent domain to register with the state.

SONOGRAM BILL

Today, the Texas Senate is hearing in State Affairs committee  Senate Bill 16 by Senator Dan Patrick (R) – Houston.  SB 16 requires doctors to perform a sonogram when an individual seeks to get an abortion and requires that the procedure is explained as it’s performed and requires a woman see the image and hear the heartbeat.  Language was added to the bill in committee this morning and it now contains language that allows a woman to refuse seeing and hearing the sonogram altogether.  This bill is another of the Governor’s Emergency Items.

POWER OUTAGES

Another big story across the state last week was the issue of “Rolling Blackouts”. Lt. Governor Dewhurst has taken a lead on this issue and is asking tough questions about why the black outs happened and what we can do to prevent them in the future.   The Texas Senate will begin hearings this week to determine an appropriate course of action.

From the Lege – Week #2

INAUGURATION CEREMONY

On Tuesday, the Lt. Governor and Governor were sworn in at a scaled down inauguration ceremony on the front steps of the Capitol.  Here are links to the speeches given by each:   Governor Rick Perry | Lt. Governor Dewhurst

STATE BUDGET

The big news this week from the Lege this week is once again….the budget.  The House opened the conversation on state spending Tuesday with the release of their budget, which is $156.4 billion;  that’s $31.1 billion smaller than the budget for 200-2010, a drop of 16.6 percent from the current two-year spending plan.  Unlike the federal government, the Texas budget only spends what it has — we do not deficit spend.  So in essence we either shrink government by $31.1 billion or we find additional revenue — gambling, new taxes & fees, tapping the Rainy Day fund — are some of the options for new revenue.

The House budget recommendations are posted here:  http://www.lbb.state.tx.us/Bill_82/1_Recommend/Bill-82-1_House_Recommend.pdf.

The Republicans are already taking a lot of heat from the Democrats and big government advocates about the tough choices they will need to make.  I’ll do my best to keep us engaged in this budget process, so we can support our Team as they roll out real budget changes which will have a real impact to shrinking government.  This first bill is just the beginning and there will be much more to come.

VOTER ID

As many of us had hoped, Voter ID will be one of the first issues taken up at the Capitol this session.  Gov. Rick Perry designated voter ID an emergency item Thursday, meaning it is a priority bill and allowing it to be placed  on the fast-track.  The first 30 days of session are generally reserved for referral of bills, but this “emergency” designation allows the House and Senate to move on it immediately.

Governor Perry has also designated sanctuary cities, sonograms, eminent domain and call for us balanced budget as “emergency items”.  As these bills begin to move, I’ll put out an analysis and information.

Following the voter ID announcement by the Governor, Lt. Governor Dewhurst told Senators by letter that they will take up the voter id bill on Monday, the bill they will hear testimony on is SB 14 by Senator Troy Fraser, Republican of Horseshoe Bay.

I have posted an information on the Senate process and the voter ID bill here: https://suzannebellsnyder.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/analysis-of-sb-14-senate-voter-id-bill/ if you would like to read the details of the bill.

CALL TO ACTION:

You can get make your voice known on the voter id bill on this week at the Capitol.  On Monday, you are invited to observe invited testimony on SB 14 from the gallery (3rd floor Senate Chamber) on Monday beginning at 1:30pm.  Senate will be taking public testimony on Tuesday, beginning at 8:00am.  Be prepared to stay a while if you want to testify, last time they had this hearing it continued for 24 hours!  Below are the official postings about the meetings.

Please read carefully if you plan to testify so you understand what you need to be prepared to do.

Notice of Monday’s hearing information

Notice of Tuesday’s hearing information

You can also watch the proceedings on Austin cable television or the internet on the access channels.  You’ll need to check your local provider for channels.  Via internet, you can use this link, which will be live when the hearings begin: http://www.senate.state.tx.us/bin/live.php

Analysis of SB 14 – Senate Voter ID bill

The Texas Senate will take up SB 14 on Monday, January 24th in the Committee of the Whole (aka COW). The COW is a special situation where the 31 members of the Texas Senate resolve to act as the Committee of the Whole Senate to consider legislation in a public hearing with invited and open testimony.

Usually, a bill will go before a committee, which then takes testimony on the issue, followed by debate and then a committee vote taking it to the full Senate. Bills or resolutions passed by the Committee of the Whole must still be taken up and considered by the full Senate to move forward through the legislative process, but by having the whole Senate consider a bill, it greatly accelerates the process so a bill can get out of the Senate quicker.

According to Senate sources, there will be invited testimony on the bill Monday and citizen testimony on Tuesday. I’ll post more information over the weekend.

(Redistricting bills are historically also taken up in the COW, so you’ll likely see this process used again later in the session.)

SB 14 by Senator Troy Fraser will do the following:

• Requires voters to show a photo ID in order to vote but makes an exception for people 70 or older as of January 1, 2012, by allowing them to may continue to vote with only their voter registration card.
• Acceptable photo ID includes any unexpired card issued by DPS (for most this will be a driver’s license), a military ID, a passport, or a citizenship certificate with photo.
• Requires DPS to provide a free photo ID to any registered voter who requests an ID.
• Allows a voter to cast a provisional ballot if he/she does not have a Photo ID with them and then provides a process by which they can return within 6 days with Photo ID to have the ballot counted.
• Requires the Secretary of State and voter registrars in the counties to educate the public and train election workers on the new requirements, including mailing notice to each voter and posting notice outside all polling places.
• Increases criminal penalties for illegal voting to mandatory jail time.