Lens on the Legislature: One Special Session Ends; Another Begins

By Len Riley, Strategic Partnerships

This column has previously discussed the rules for calling a special session, the proclamation ordering the first special session, and the observation that, presumably in anticipation of the scope being broadened, legislators were filing bills on a variety of subjects. The first special session ended Wednesday. Apart from the two highly publicized education and tax bills (neither of which passed), 200 additional bills were filed:

• 118 House bills were introduced. Only HB 1 passed both chambers.
• 84 Senate bills were introduced. Only SB 20 passed both chambers.

There has been no word from the governor's office yet on what action he will take on the two bills that passed.

On Wednesday, the governor issued a proclamation for a 2nd special session, which began Thursday. Three tax-related items comprised the scope of the special session. On Thursday, the governor issued three additional proclamations expanding the scope of the special session to include education, judicial pay raises, and telecommunications. By Thursday evening, 16 Senate Bills and 9 House bills had already been filed. Not all of these bills are within the current scope of the session. For instance, SB 15 relates to contracting and ethics issues of governmental entities and several bills relate to eminent domain.

Both chambers have adjourned until Monday.

[Editor's Note: During the 79th Session of the Texas Legislature, we brought you a 27 article series called Lens on the Legislature, which discussed key legislation and processes and provided nearly 300 links to important legislative information and resources. It is archived online. Additional articles in that series will continue from time-to-time as legislative events occur that we think will interest our audience. Today we begin a new series, Lens on State Government, which will discuss other state government agencies, policies, and processes with emphasis again on providing links to important information or resources. This column will appear bi-monthly.]