The Texas House today passed the Texas Youth Commission sunset bill.

The House made a few amendments to SB 653, but the heart of it remains: abolish the Texas Youth Commission and the Juvenile Probation Commission, and combine their functions under the single Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

Ruth Jones McClendon (D-San Antonio), a former juvenile probation officer and administrator, supported the bill, even though in previous sessions she has advocated maintaining TYC and TJPC as separate agencies.

Today the House passed on second reading HB 1451, a bill that would create more regulation of "puppy mills" in the state. It had some 44 no votes, which was more opposition than appeared to exist last week, when one representative took to the back mike to delay the bill's passage. ...

A bill that could come on the House floor Tuesday would save teachers’ jobs across the state, according to the bill’s author Education Chairman Rob Eissler (R-The Woodlands). Teacher unions, however, are saying that the bill will cost teacher jobs.

HB 400, among other things, repeals mandated teacher pay increases. Under current law in Texas, Eissler told LSR at a press conference for his bill this morning, teacher salaries cannot be lowered. Either school districts must follow the state mandated teacher salary schedule, or they must lay off the teacher. Eissler’s bill allows for something in between, as he sees it.

The bill allows for teacher furloughs – maintaining the 180 instructional day requirement for students but allowing reduction of staff development days. It also allows districts to increase the district-wide class size average in kindergarten-4th grade to 25. But Eissler plans to amend the bill to maintain the class size limit and instead direct the education commissioner to grant exceptions from the limit under certain circumstances.

It tries to save school districts money by ...

We may be in for a showdown between the Texas Senate and the Texas House on the budget.

Dewhurst today announced that the Senate subcommittee charged with finding non-tax revenue to help close the state's budget hole will meet tomorrow to discuss about $10 billion worth of ideas, including $2.5 billion to $3 billion whose support is growing among the Senators.

He said he does not want to dip any deeper into the state's Fiscal Stabilization ("Rainy Day") Fund. If no more is taken out, the balance should be a little over $6 billion at the end of the budget deliberations. With a billion or so being added per year, he suspects about $8.5 billion in the fund come 2013, when the Legislature will write its next budget.

Dewhurst bragged that the Senate budget puts almost $6 billion of new money into public education spending.

On healthcare ...

The Texas Senate today passed the Texas Department of Transportation sunset bill, which required TxDOT to take steps to be more transparent in its road construction contracting process and granted more flexibility to pursue those projects.

In the process, Ogden attached to the bill an amendment on a 22-6 vote which the Senate had previously passed, to streamline the environmental review process.

The amendment was opposed by a couple of Republicans, including Sen. Glenn Hegar (R-Katy). Hegar told LSR that although he believed the amendment was good policy that had been vetted, he voted no to attach it because the bill being amended was a sunset bill that he wanted to keep clean. He said he did not want a “trend to develop” in which every sunset bill became a vehicle for other legislation – good or bad.

Hegar observed Ogden’s amendment had already been passed out on another bill (Nichols’ SB 548, which passed unanimously). The amendment was originally a stand-alone bill filed by Kirk Watson. ...

Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) today tried to amend the Sunset Scheduling bill SB 652 to place the State Board of Education under the review of the Sunset Commission starting in 2013 and every 12 years thereafter. Although the amendment was ultimately struck down 19-12, it made for one of the more lively discussions of the day.

The amendment was "not about politics," or curriculum standards regarding sex education, or American exceptionalism, Ellis insisted, but rather "about efficiency, transparency and good government." He said that under his amendment the "Sunset Advisory Commission will not review the members … Just the procedures under which they operate can be reviewed."

The Sunset review process already occurs for agencies that have statewide elected officials, including the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Railroad Commission – the latter of which the Senate has recently voted to substantially change.

SBOE's authority over curriculum content is explicitly given to it by the Legislature, Ellis argued. He said it is "absolutely critical" that the Legislature review how those powers are exercised. Only the authority to manage the Permanent School Fund and provide free textbooks to Texas students is afforded to the SBOE under the Texas constitution, he said.

Of course, Republican Senators disagreed. ...

The House Insurance Committee today passed Texas Windstorm Insurance Association reform, and sunset bills for the Texas Department of Insurance and the Office of Public Insurance Council.

Those last two have gotten through committee with relatively few fireworks, and so have seen few permutations. No big fights on credit scoring or prior approval versus file-and-use have broken out.

But TWIA reform has been contentious. The committee substitute brought by Chairman John Smithee (R-Amarillo) sports a few changes from the originally filed HB 272. He said it is “still a bit of a work in progress.”

The new version tries to strike a balance in the tort wars by allowing litigation of TWIA claims disputes, but only after a series of alternative dispute resolution processes are exhausted. ...

“It does not expand gambling in this state,” said Rep. Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas), about the bill he carried this morning to continue the Texas Racing Commission for six years. By the time nearly two dozen amendments had been heard, the legislation indeed did not.

The Racing Commission sunset bill, and for that matter any Racing Commission bill, has historically been watched closely for attempts to sneak amendments on that would expand the footprint of gambling in the state.

So what did it do? It addresses problems of “perpetual” licenses. Some of the state's licensed race tracks have not held races in years or even decades, yet the Racing Commission has not had the authority to revoke those licenses. ...

This morning House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie) laid out the House’s version of the budget. He fielded questions from House colleagues of both parties for over an hour before the first amendment was offered. It is going to be a long day.

"Today we take up House Bill 1, the state budget for 2012-2013,” Pitts said. “This budget does not raise taxes. It does not rely on any spending and any new tax revenue to pay for programs or services. This budget does not spend any federal stimulus money. This budget does not spend any of the rainy day fund on any ongoing programs or services in the next biennium. Finally, this budget does not grow government."

"This budget reflects the economic realities facing our state, and it only spends available revenue. This bill, combined with the votes we took yesterday on HB 4 and HB 275, fulfills our constitutional responsibility to have a balanced budget. The budget we drafted would also reflect not only the spending cuts taken in 2010-11, it also reflects the 10 percent reductions we required in 12-13 and much more." ...

The budget currently includes ...

This morning the long back and forth over the House version of the budget began more or less as can be predicted, except for one amendment brought by David Simpson (R-Longview).

His amendment sought to zero out the general revenue funding for the Texas Commission on the Arts for the next two years, about $3.5 million, and move it into the Department of Aging and Disability Services. It would leave untouched about $1 million of GR-dedicated funding for the Commission. The amendment proved very controversial and led to a record vote that did not break along party lines. Some Republicans voted yes, others no. Some Democrats voted yes, others no.

It passed 67 to 61, with some 17 present not voting.

The amendment had some Democrats in the chamber sounding curiously like Republicans sounded all day yesterday, saying that they are very supportive of services for the elderly and disabled of Texas, BUT …

Sen. Royce West's (D-Dallas) Committee on Intergovernmental Relations has passed out a bill by Dan Patrick (R-Houston) that would prohibit the City of Houston from forcing churches, schools and other non-profits to pay a drainage fee as part of a project passed by Houston voters (some say unwittingly) in November.

SB 714, reported to the full Senate today, also restricts the city from transferring the load of drainage fees to homeowners and business owners to make up the difference. Patrick will have the full support of the Houston delegation on the Senate floor, he reported. Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston) is slated to carry the bill in the House.

"This is not a partisan issue," Patrick said in a statement today. "Republicans and Democrats agree that these unprecedented fees on schools and churches in Houston violate important financial and moral principles … I applaud those on the Houston City Council like C.O. "Brad" Bradford who are pushing the Council and Mayor to do the right thing." ...

Note: This blog post has been updated to include comments from Chairman Rob Eissler in response to criticism of his HB 500

A group of education and business policy experts held a press conference today to urge that the Legislature forge ahead with full implementation of the end-of-course exams passed in the 2009 legislative session. Delaying it, as would some legislation filed this session, would amount to lowering the state’s graduation standards, said members of the coalition, which included the Texas Institute for Education Reform (TIER), the Governor’s Business Council, and the Texas Association of Business, were on hand.

Those end-of-course exams, intended at the time to be phased in starting this coming school year, are meant to replaces the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Test.

Several bills would delay the full implementation of the end-of-course exam system, including HB 500 from House Education Chairman Rob Eissler (R-The Woodlands), according to the coalition. HB 500 bill would require students to pass a mere four out of 12 end-of-course exams in order to graduate, the coalition members lamented. Students would have to pass English III, Algebra II, one social studies course and one science. Each student could – theoretically, anyway – fail everything else.

Eissler, of course, does not see it that way. He told LSR that current law already requires only that students pass four of the 12 exams. What his bill would strike, he said, is simply the requirement that the end-of-course exams be worth 15 percent of a student's final grade. The state already holds those school districts accountable for student performance on those exams, he said. The bill simply gives "local control" to the school districts to determine how much they want to make the test worth.

Currently there is no minimum amount in his bill. It can be less than 15 or more than 15. But however much it is worth, Eissler emphasized, "they still have to pass the course."

As of March 31, Eissler had gathered the signatures of more than 100 House members to sign on as co-authors.

Hammond argued ...

Gov. Rick Perry yesterday appointed Elsa Alcala of Houston as judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal court in the state. Her term expires at the next general election.

Alcala replaces Charles Holcomb, who hit the age limit. She is a justice on the first court of appeals in Harris County, amd former judge of the 338th District Court in Harris County.

She is a member of the State Bar of Texas, Houston Bar Association Appellate Section, Fort Bend County Bar Association, and Mexican American Bar Association of Houston, and a fellow of the College of the State Bar of Texas. She is also vice chair of the State Bar of Texas Criminal Pattern Jury Charge Committee, board secretary of the Reed Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization, and a troop leader for the San Jacinto Council Girl Scouts.

She received a bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University at Kingsville and her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law, board certified in criminal law.

This is the first new judge on the court of criminal appeals since Nov. 5, 2002.

Today the Senate Finance Committee heard two bills that would lower appraisal caps and another that would lower revenue caps. Suffice to say government-funded lobby groups are big fans of neither cap, and have claimed for years that both such caps would severely restrict the ability of local governments to provide services to their local citizenry. (Many fiscal conservatives believe the only thing it would make it more difficult for local governments to do is raise taxes on their local constituencies.)

An appraisal cap is basically a limit on how much the appraised value of a property can be raised by an appraisal board for taxing purposes in a given year. A revenue cap is a limit on how much revenue can be amassed by a local government without opening the door for a local election.

Lobbyists representing local governments, as well as local government employees, and elected officials, came before the committee to oppose the bills, arguing (in not so many words) that if the any one of them were to pass, the sky would proverbially fall. The two bills that would lower the appraisal cap for local governments are ...

Yesterday we reported that the committee substitute HB 12, the bill by Burt Solomons (R-Carrollton) prohibiting sanctuary city policies, passed out of the House State Affairs Committee. Today we caught up with Solomons on the House floor and chatted with him briefly about how the bill has changed since it was originally filed.

“It would clarify the unlawful detention to be in connection with the investigation for a criminal offense,” Solomons said. “That was the first. Our last change we made was that we listened to the school districts’ concern about some federal law and concern about some other issues that they feel is an issue for them. But we maintain still the issue about he commissioned peace officers.”

The bill includes an exemption for school districts, which applies to non-commissioned peace officers who work for the school district. In other words,

Two bills backed by major conservative constituencies – gun rights groups and proponents of illegal immigration crackdowns – got passed out of committee in the House today.

The State Affairs Committee today passed out a committee substitute to HB 12 from Burt Solomons (R-Carrollton). The bill, among other things, prohibits municipalities or any agents or agencies thereof from adopting a policy that prohibits inquiry into the immigration status of a "person lawfully detained," i.e. a suspect. The bill has been called the "anti-sanctuary city bill." ...

Today about three dozen Republican elected officials, including Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, heralded the resolutions recently filed in the House and Senate affirming the Texas’ sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and, in the words of the bill’s caption, “serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist from certain mandates, and providing that certain federal legislation be prohibited or repealed.” Rep. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) brought the resolution first in April 2009. It passed the House but not the Senate. He carries it again this year, with the same number -- HCR 50. Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) is carrying the companion resolution, SCR 14, in the Senate.

UPDATE: Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) criticized the resolution, calling it "divisive states' rights rhetoric" and saying it "stirs up reminders" of Jim Crow policies, slavery and other evils.

Here are some highlights from the presser. ...

Today House Corrections Chairman Jerry Madden (R-Richardson) and Senate Criminal Justice Chairman John Whitmire (D-Houston) held a press briefing on the Sunset bill that will, if it becomes law, merge the two major state agencies dealing with juvenile justice – the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission and the Texas Youth Commission. The bill would combine TYC and TJPC into a single Texas Juvenile Justice Department, which Madden said would be a smaller state agency, with less centralized administration in Austin and a more regionalized focus.

The idea is to continue the reforms initiated when SB 103, the omnibus TYC reform bill, was passed in 2007. Among its goals was to lower the incarcerated youth offender population at TYC and enhance community-based diversionary and rehabilitative services for youth offenders. TYC's prison facility population has shrunken considerably since that legislation was passed and today stands at about 1,400. Experts say that full-on incarceration has been shown more costly and less effective at lowering the chances of re-offense than diversions like probation and community supervision and rehabilitation. ...

Following the meeting of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association governing board this evening, a few things are clear. First, Jim Oliver will not be the TWIA general manager much longer, but he is apparently not being fired. A transition team will work with him to find a replacement. Second, no more vehicles will be awarded in severance packages to employees who are leaving TWIA. Third, TWIA staff must cooperate with TDI and its staff in their investigations into how TWIA handles the claims process.

After more than three hours in closed session this afternoong, the TWIA board of directors tonight passed three resolutions. Here they are, in a nutshell. ...

A letter today addressed from Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin to Texas Windstorm Insurance Association General Manager Jim Oliver places the state’s windstorm insurer under administrative oversight.

The letter reads: “This opinion is based, in part, upon information gathered by or submitted to staff of the Texas Department of Insurance (the “Department”), including that: (a) in multiple instances, an outside claims adjuster was paid for adjusting work that appears not to have been performed and that TWIA paid claims based on that outside adjuster’s recommendation; (b) TWIA management was aware of this and failed to report it in writing to the Department’s insurance fraud unit not later than the 30th day after the date of making the determination or reasonably suspecting that a fraudulent insurance act had been committed; and (c) TWIA has failed to adequately address issues identified through the recent financial examination and subsequent financial analysis indicating a lack of adequate controls over accounting, personnel, and material decisions affecting day-to-day operations, as well as communications with staff, the board of directors, and the Department.”

While under oversight, the Texas Department of Insurance’s director of Rehabilitation and Liquidation Oversight, Angel Garrett, will serve as the insurance commissioner’s representative.

Under the administrative oversight, TWIA management will have to: ...

The House Insurance Committee started off with a bang yesterday, pressing Texas Windstorm Insurance Association general manager Jim Oliver with questions regarding management of the quasi-governmental windstorm coverage provider.

The questioning of Oliver covered over two hours and covered a myriad of both ongoing and recent developments that give lawmakers reservations about the management of the what is intended to be the insurer of last resort in Texas, but is considered by some to be more like the insurer of only resort.

Issues covered included ...

An emergency item that has not been passed out of the Senate is Gov. Rick Perry's call that the Legislature do something about "sanctuary cities." Yesterday SB 11, authored by Tommy Williams (R-the Woodlands), was referred to the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee he now chairs.

The companion legislation HB 12 was filed in the House Feb. 16 by Redistricting Chairman Burt Solomons (R-Carrollton). The two appear to be exactly the same. You can view the text of SB 11 is here. It's nice and short.

In a joint statement by Williams and Solomons, the legislators said: "The purpose of this legislation is to establish a uniform and consistent standard for all Texas law enforcement when it comes to enforcing federal immigration laws."

The bill basically says ...

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst released this statement today in response to the joint Senate hearings: "We need to determine what measures we can take in a deregulated market to ensure that our plants are adequately prepared for extreme cold weather conditions and that we have sufficient natural gas to provide additional generation if plants trip and go offline. My preference is always to find a free market solution; nevertheless, we must ensure this does not happen again."

The possible policy initiative that Natural Resources Chairman Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay) and others repeated throughout the day was to require natural gas suppliers to maintain a backup supply for extreme weather situations like the one February 2 that resulted in rolling blackouts. ...

The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce jointly convened this morning for a (mostly) friendly chat with leaders of some major state agencies on what the blazes happened February 2 that led to the rolling blackouts leaving many Texans in the cold.

The committees have recessed for the morning but will reconvene after the Senate floor session adjourns.

Big names on the docket this morning included Chairman Barry Smitherman of the Public Utility Commission, Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Chairman Bryan Shaw, Electric Reliability Council of Texas President and CEO Trip Doggett, and Office of Public Utility Council Public Counsel Sheri Givens.

Here are some quick highlights.

The Texas Senate today passed SB 18 from Craig Estes (R-Wichita Falls), the bill that looks to enhance protections for landowners in eminent domain cases.

Although Sen. Leticia van de Putte (D-San Antonio) expressed concerns that a particular provision of the bill may put too much burden on landowners in litigation, the bill passed with no nay votes and no amendments offered.

Likely a big reason the bill passed unchanged is because it already contained provisions to mollify the concerns of Senators including John Whitmire (D-Houston), who said last session that provisions in the bill would make it impossible for the port authorities like the one in Houston to engage in the long-term planning necessary to develop infrastructure crucial for economic development. ...

The Texas House’s new rules passed moments ago will make it impossible for any member to use the local and consent calendar to stall bills to death, as well as grant seniority to any incumbent member whose re-election is being contested.

The new House rules, HR 4 presented by House State Affairs Chairman Burt Solomons (R-Carrollton), make a few changes to the committee structures. For starters, it creates the Government Efficiency and Reform Committee.

The new rules regarding the Local and Consent calendar will basically cap the amount of time lawmakers can waste time on that calendar to midnight of the day that the stalling (or “chubbing”) begins. No Democrats (or Republicans) brought amendments to this new part of the rules.

Here’s how it would work. ...

Today the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation bid farewell to Justin Keener, promoted David Guenthner, and hired Joshua Treviño.

Justin Keener, TPPF's vice president of policy and communications, is leaving to start a public affairs practice with Kris Heckmann. TPPF president Brooke Rollins congratulated Keener and thanked him for helping expand the Foundation's ability to influence the public policy debate.

Guenthner, TPPF's director of media and government relations—and former managing editor of The Lone Star Report—has been promoted to senior communications director. He will now manage the Foundation's communications initiatives, reporting to TPPF executive director Arlene Wohlgemuth. Rollins commended his efforts to expand TPPF's social media and traditional media outreach.

The Texas Senate today passed rules that will govern its business for the 82nd session, without changing the "two-thirds" rule to a simple majority or a three-fifths rule, as was the hope of Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston). The Senate also made changes that will affect the way the budget is deliberated down the stetch.

The two-thirds rule requires the consent of two-thirds of the Senators to consent to suspend the necessary rules to take up and consider a bill on the Senate floor – even though only a simple majority is needed to pass the bill.

However, the rules do include a special order from last session exempting voter ID legislation from the two-thirds rule – meaning the Senate will be able to pass legislation requiring a photo ID to vote in Texas. ...

Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst both lambasted the overreach of the Obama Administration and extolled the virtues of Texas' business-friendly regulatory and tax climate in their inauguration speeches.

Both said that the state must and will balance the budget without raising taxes, echoing the proposals released earlier today by the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute.

Highlights from Perry's speech:
*He touched on federal issues including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
*"Washington has America on a collision course with bankruptcy."
*He said the state must cut spending to keep its economic engine on track. Government will have to "prioritize" and "justify every penny."
*He praised state programs like the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, whose authority to issue bonds for cancer research was approved by voters in 2007.
*He said drug-related border violence has "arrived at our doorstep," and while it is a federal issue, state leaders can't stand idly by while citizens are threatened.
*He said the state must continue to invest in education.
*He said that he believes Texas will lead the way out of the country's present "turmoil." He said Texas is the best hope for entrepreneurs and small businesses. He called this Texas' time in history. "We must seize the day."

Highlights from Dewhurst's speech: ...

The Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute today released a general proposal outlining cuts it says the state can make to close its considerable projected shortfall – without raising taxes. Among their suggestions: cutting public employees.

The release comes just hours before House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts is expected to release his budget, which TCCRI president and budget task force co-chair Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) said will contain about $15 billion in reductions.

The report focuses entirely on cost containment opportunities. It does not contain proposals to reform any of the state’s sales, property or other tax laws

“After months of careful review and hard work, we can confidently claim that, even if the shortfall is as high as some estimate, the budget can be balanced without increasing the burden on Texas families and businesses,” Chisum said. The left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities on Jan. 10 estimated the revenue shortfall at $26.8 billion. “Our budget report provides legislators with a principled blueprint to overcome the defining challenge of the 82nd Texas Legislature: balancing the budget without raising taxes.”

The report calls for: a broad range of possible General Revenue reductions, totaling nearly $18 billion, plus additional policy reforms which total an estimated $3.5 billion; a “broad range of recommendations to reform and reduce bureaucracy.”

Chisum cited high costs in the state’s public sector workforce “at all levels of government, especially when compared to other states.” “Reducing and reforming our public sector workforce is our first priority in addressing the revenue shortfall,” he said.

Currently the state has ...

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison announced Jan. 13 that she will not run again for the U.S. Senate. She will, however, serve out the remainder of her term.

"I intended to leave this office long before now, but I was persuaded to continue in order to avoid disadvantage to our state," she said in a statement. "The last two years have been particularly difficult, especially for my family, but I felt it would be wrong to leave the Senate during such a critical period. Instead of putting my seat into a special election, I felt it was my duty to use my experience to fight the massive spending that has increased our national debt; the government takeover of the our health care system; and the growth of the federal bureaucracy, which threatens our economy. I will continue that fight until the end of my term in 2012."

Sen. John Cornyn called it "an honor and privilege" to serve with Hutchison during his time in the U.S. Senate.

The Sunset Advisory Commission adopted a not-so-limited scope recommendation this morning to combine the Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, calling the new statewide juvenile corrections agency the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. The recommendation indicates a continued focus by the Legislature on promoting efficiency in state juvenile corrections and a favoring of parole, probation, and other diversionary programs over what is considered costlier incarcerations.

In the 2008 interim, Sunset staff had recommended combining the two agencies into a single Juvenile Justice Department. But in 2010 Sunset staff was given only authority to do a “limited scope” review of the agencies whose sunset bills were not passed in the 2009 session. Under that limited scope review, Sunset staff recommended last year continuing the two agencies separately for six years.

That limitation of scope, though, applied only to Sunset staff, not to the 12-member Sunset Advisory Commission itself, which includes 10 lawmakers.

The recommendation ...

The speech of the President Pro Tempore in the Texas Senate on Day One of the Legislative Session is conventionally long on pleasantries and graciousness and short on cold hard policy. Today, it was not conventional.

Sen. Steve Ogden (R-Bryan) arguably set the tone for the coming session by 1) calling for the Legislature to call a national constitutional convention to require the federal government to balance its budget, and 2) laying out a list of things the Legislature must fix, particular in education and health and human services funding, in order to address the budget shortfall.

“One of the things that I think has made our state better and stronger than other states and to a certain extent the federal government is that in our constitution we are required to balance our budget and we also in our constitution generally have asked people for permission before we borrowed their money,” Ogden said. “The federal government has neither of these requirements; it needs to change. The federal budget deficit is over $14 trillion. Trillions are numbers that are so big it’s hard to imagine. We associate them with space travel. And the reason that we don’t use trillions in space is that it’s too big. We use light years. A light year by the way is $5.6 trillion miles.”

On the state level, Ogden said ...

Gov. Rick Perry just spoke to the freshly gaveled in Texas Senate. Here are some highlights:

Perry expressed offered continued sympathy and prayers for those affected by the shooting in Arizona. He called it a "stark reminder of the fragility of life and the importance of making one’s positive mark on those around us, importance of living our lives to the greatest extent we can everyday, as elected leaders we’re called to even a higher mark … asked to make decisions about economies and social issues, that affect the people across this state and touch the lives of the people we’re elected to serve."

He called the Texas House and Texas Senate a "nice balance," since there are a lot of new faces in the House and a lot of seasoned ones in the Senate.

Texas citizens "expect us to balance the budget without taking more money" from employers, and to "make government leaner, more efficient," Perry said. ...

Commissioner Mike Geeslin, head of the Texas Department of Insurance, wrote Gov. Rick Perry yesterday requesting that he not be reappointed. His term ends on Feb. 1, 2011.

"This request is based on many considerations; the foremost being my family, and the other being the simple realization that it is time for someone else to lead," Geeslin wrote.

The commissioner has said that he will serve until the governor appoints someone else. In a phone interview with LSR, Geeslin said that means he is prepared to stay through the legislative session if need be.

Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott was sworn in for an unprecedented third term today, during which he commended the work of the state agency's employees over his eight years in office so far, and said one of his leading goals is to push back against "federal government overreach" – exemplified by Obamacare and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to take over air permitting for greenhouse gas emissions from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn spoke at the swearing in, wishing Abbott "great success" in both cases.

The latest on the EPA front: on Thursday Dec. 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit issued an administrative stay to the EPA's plan to take over greenhouse gas permitting in Texas. ...

Lots going on in the speaker's race today. Rep. Ken Paxton (R-Plano) got two endorsements today: one from a pro-life group, the other from the board of directors of a state Republican grassroots organization. Meanwhile a Texas House Republican caucus has been scheduled for Jan. 10, and Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa), still a candidate in the race who thinks the Republican supermajority mandates a more conservative speaker than Straus, wants to make sure that caucus leader Rep. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood), will call for a vote to determine the Republican preference for Speaker of the Texas House.

First the pro-life endorsement. ...

Texas House Speaker Joe Straus today announced that he is appointing Rep. Will Hartnett (R-Dallas) as the master of discovery – somewhat like a judge – in the contested election for state representative in House District 48, which covers the northwest portion of Travis County. Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) was recently declared the winner by the very thin indeed margin of 12 votes over Republican challenger Dan Neil.

Quoth the Speaker:

As speaker of the house, acting under the authority of Section 241.009, Election Code, I hereby appoint Representative Will Hartnett as master of discovery in the matter of the contest of the election for state representative, District 48, that was held November 2, 2010.
In accordance with Section 241.009, Election Code, the master shall supervise discovery proceedings, issue any necessary process, receive and report evidence, and perform any other assigned duties in assisting the committee to which the contest is referred and the house of representatives in disposing of the contest in accordance with Chapters 221 and 241, Election Code.

The election contest will begin when session begins. ...

With barely a week before Christmas, two state agencies -- the Texas Workforce Commission and the Office of the Attorney General have issued reports having to do with Texas' job market. Both give something of a reason for continued hope in Texas' continued economic recovery.

The Workforce Commission announced on Friday that employers in Texas added 19,100 jobs in November. The Child Support Division of the Attorney General's office announced that Texas employers reported 385,059 new hires in November.

Some may wonder: what's the difference between "jobs added" and "new hires"? ...

While it is customary to give during the Christmas season, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in a letter to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, announced yesterday that it plans to take.

Specifically, it will take over permitting for the state's Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program that regulates greenhouse gas emissions.

Not that TCEQ ever was particularly gung ho about regulating greenhouse gases to begin with. The state agency is challenging the EPA's rules calling for the regulation of greenhouse gases in court.

"Earlier this month," reads the letter from EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy, "EPA issued a final rule with a determination that the permitting programs for thirteen states, including Texas, are not adequate because they do not apply PSD to greenhouse gas emissions." EPA gave each state an opportunity to set a deadline to include greenhouse gas regulations in their PSD programs, but state officials in Texas have "made clear, in letters to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, in statements in the media, and in legal challenges to EPA's greenhouse gas rules … that they have no intention of implementing this portion of the federal air permitting program." ...

Rep. Allan Ritter (formerly D-Nederland) and Rep. Aaron Pena (formerly D-Edinburg), flanked by the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Speaker, two Railroad Commissioners, and a couple dozen or so GOP House members, announced today that they are switching parties from Democratic to Republican.

No matter what happens in HD 44, the late Edmund Kuempel's former seat (probably stays R), and no matter what happens in HD 48, where Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) holds a very slight edge over Dan Neil (probably stays D), the Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives will have a two-thirds -- i.e. "super-" -- majority.

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie's response to both switches has been a) to say that the Reps are abandoning their districts, and b) say both should resign and run as Republicans.

Ritter and Pena both said they were switching to the GOP to better represent their districts, and neither Pena nor Ritter will resign to run. Pena remarked that a tragedy of today's politics is that elected officials are expected to represent their party. "I run to represent the people in my community," he said. Both said that if any of their donors wanted their money back, they could have it. Neither received financial help from the Texas Democratic Party, they said. Pena said that was part of the problem.

There is a lot to say here. For now, a few highlights from the press conference:

U.S. Dist. Judge Henry E. Hudson, a 2002 George W. Bush appointee, ruled today that Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's requirement that individuals purchase health coverage is unconstitutional. Here's his ruling.

Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott today praised the decision, which specifically ruled on a case that was brought by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Texas is signed on to another case that, with 19 other states, also challenges the individual mandate.

Abbott held a press conference announcing that he will be in Florida on Thursday for his own lawsuit which is separate from the Virginia lawsuit. Abott's case includes Texas and 19 other states, and it is similar to Virginia's case because the main point of contention, according to Abbott, is the (un)constitutionality of the individual mandate to purchase health insurance.

What is different about the cases is that Virginia already had a prohibition in state law against an individual mandate. Texas has no such law, which means, according to Abbott, that it is too late for Texas to create such a law because the federal requirement already exists. But the legislature can, Abbott suggested, adopt laws that prohibit other types of individual mandates.

Abbott said the case of the 20-state coalition is that the individual mandate is unconstitutional but also that Obamacare amounts to a federal "commandeering" of state Medicaid programs "by forcing it to expand in a way that will be a tremendous burden to our taxpayers in the amount they have to pay in the Medicaid system." The goal of Abbott and the other state attorneys general is not just an overturning of the individual mandate, but the whole package. [...] Said Abbott in a statement released today:

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee has released its interim report on all charges with one noteworthy exception -- the first, asking the members to study the health care policy changes including Obamacare and the impact to Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the state budget, and make recommendations for the efficient implementation of programs. That's a joint charge with State Affairs.

After a cursory review, here's what jumps out at me from the interim report.

Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler), a longtime opponent of Speaker Joe Straus, sent the following letter earlier today to Gary Polland, whom we reported in today's Lone Star Report endorsed Straus.

Berman shared his letter with us. We post it below:

Dear Mr. Polland:
Your report in Texas Insider did not answer the question, Speaker's Race UPDATE: Should There Be One, and Is There a Real Race?

In fact, your report sounded more like a one-sided love fest between two best friends and could have been written by Joe Straus himself. If you really want to answer the question, ask why the Democrats elected Joe Straus Speaker. It could be the pledges made to Democrats by Straus that promised:
1. No bills on illegal aliens on the House floor
2. No pro life bills on the House floor
3. No voter ID bill on the House floor
4. No incumbent Democrats will be challenged ...

Greg Coleman, who was picked to serve as the state's first solicitor general in 1999, died in a plane crash near Destin, Fla., last night.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who during his service as Texas Attorney General first hired Coleman as solicitor general, issued the following statement today:

“Sandy and I are deeply saddened by the news of Greg’s tragic passing. He was a dear friend, a first-rate lawyer, and an even better human being. This is a tragic loss for his wife, family, friends and the State of Texas. Our prayers are with Stephanie and their family during this difficult and sad time.”"

More on the crash at Texas Lawyer and the Austin American Statesman.

 

On this the day before Thanksgiving, the State Auditor's Office has dropped a highly critical report on the Texas Department of Insurance's Division of Workers' Compensation. The report finds that the division maintains unreliable information and has weaknesses in complaint processing, the medical quality review process, and the enforcement and sanction process.

Those problems increase the risk of injured workers receiving unnecessary medical procedures and overutilization within the workers' compensation system, the report finds. In other words, Texas employers that pay for the workers' compensation system are at risk of paying for a lot of unnecessary stuff, which will hinder their ability to keep Texas creating more jobs.

Here's the summary and full report. Lawmakers will be considering sunset legislation in 2011 for TDI and the Division of Workers’ Compensation -- and these findings may well come up. ...

Today the jury in the Tom DeLay money laundering trial has posed a total of four questions to Judge Pat Priest regarding the substance of the law. The answer from Priest has been essentially the same each time: refer to your charge, jury.

The latest was a request for the definition of “money fraud.” Before calling in the jury to answer the question, the defense argued that the judge should point out to the jury that DeLay is not being accused of money fraud. The state said the judge should simply refer them to the existing charge before them. Priest ultimately told the jury that if there were an allegation of money fraud it would be contained in their charge, and that he is afraid the jury may be straying away from the decisions that they must make.

UPDATE: The jury informed Priest at about 4:45 p.m. that they were making progress but would like to go home for the evening and return at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Priest, the defense, and the prosecution all agreed to let the jury go. At about 4:52 p.m. the jury was dismissed for the night.

The jury earlier requested some phone and email records that had been entered into evidence over the course of the trial.

It took over an hour for the defense and prosecution to sort out which exhibits would and would not go back to the jury. Priest ultimately ordered that a couple boxfuls of evidence including voluminous email records from Russell Anderson, an accountant for Texans for a Republican Majority PAC. ...

The Coalition for the Survival of Charitable Bingo today announced a new slate of lobbyists with several big names, including former Sen. Kip Averitt (R-Waco) and former Rep. Pat Haggerty (R-El Paso). Also joining are former Sen. Dan Shelley, and veteran lobbyists Jennifer Rodriguez, Mike Higgins and Glenn Deshields. Their mission: to persuade lawmakers to pass legislation to allow video lottery terminals at charitable bingo halls.

Why? Because with the 11-figure budget shortfall expected for the next session, the lawmakers may well allow video lottery machines at racetracks, Indian reservations, casinos, and other facilities. If that happens, then charitable bingo halls wil not be able to compete unless they are able to feature video lottery terminals as well. Thus the coalition for their "survival." The release does not consider the odds of gambling expansion of any sort making it out of either chamber this session, particularly the uber-Republican House, where the GOP has a 99 to 51 majority. Casinos themselves are prohibited in Texas, and allowing them would require a constitutional amendment.

Judge Pat Priest said this morning that he had struggled for an hour last night to come up with a way to answer the question the jury asked last night – whether money can be illegally laundered even if the transaction began legally. Jurors have been deliberating since closing arguments were completed yesterday in the tral of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for money laundering.

Ultimately, Priest told the jury this morning that they basically would have to make do with the information they currently have on the law and on the facts of the case.

This is not what the prosecution wanted. ...

In today's article, I wrote that the Sunset staff review calls for many of the Railroad Commission's duties to be passed to a new Oil and Gas Commission, which would consist of five part-time appointed members, rather than the Railroad Commission's current three full-time elected commissioners.

"Such a change would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, as the three-member elected Railroad Commission has been enshrined in the state's constitution since 1890," the article said.

This afternoon a member of Sunset staff contacted us and said that abolishing the Railroad Commission would not require a two-thirds vote of the legislature because it would not require a constitutional amendment to do so. The sunset staff member cited Art. 16, Sec. 30 (b) of the Texas Constitution. It says: