May
29
Written by:
William Lutz
5/29/2009 10:22 PM
Despite a fair amount of debate, the House voted to go to conference on the sunset safety net bill (HB 1959).
Rep. David Leibowitz (D-San Antonio) tried to argue that the clause in the Texas constitution that prohibits reintroduction of defeated bills precluded reintroducing the Texas Department of Insurance into the safety net bill, which would extend the TDI sunset two years without passage of a sunset bill. The Speaker told Leibowitz that he does not interpret the constitutional provision that way. (Traditionally, only bills defeated on third reading are prohibited from being introduced twice on the House floor.)
Rep. Craig Eiland (D-Galveston) said the state needed a sunset safety net bill and therefore supported going to conference but said he opposed adding TDI to the bill. Leibowitz then made a motion to instruct the conferees not to add TDI to the safety net bill.
After Leibowitz made his motion, Rep. John Otto (R-Dayton) gave Leibowitz a lesson in how to debate bills on the House floor. Otto noted that he voted against the amendment to add TDI, but cast that vote under the assumption that the House would actually consider the TDI bill. Under the current facts, he would have voted differently.
Left unstated – but known to everyone on the floor – was the reason the House did not consider the TDI sunset bill – the Democratic chubfest at the end of the session. In other words, Otto said – without saying – you could have taken this bill up if you had wanted to, Democrats. He never questioned the motives of another House member but still got his point across.
After Otto, Rep. John Smithee (R-Amarillo) took to the floor and made the case for putting the TDI into the safety net bill. Smithee noted that the department has thousands of employees, and many of these talented employees might look for other work if the Department is abolished.
After Smithee and Otto’s speeches, the House rejected the motion to instruct 54-89.
The speaker then appointed Reps. Carl Isett (R-Lubbock), Jim McReynolds (D-Lufkin), Byron Cook (R-Corsicana), Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi), and Brian McCall (R-Plano) to the conference committee. The bill now goes to the Texas Senate for appointment of its conferees.