East Texas legislators give progress report on session with seven weeks remaining – Tyler Morning Telegraph

The Texas House is lagging behind the Senate on some key legislation, said state Rep. Matt Schaefer. And with only seven weeks to go in the session, hopes are dimming that some conservative objectives will be accomplished in this biennium.

From the Senates perspective, the states budget is close in final numbers - but not in just how the states priorities will be funded,said state Sen. Robert Nichols. Working out a final budget with the House will be a major priority.

In other words, its a typical session of the Texas Legislature, a body that was never designed to function very well.

GOALS

I think the major observation at this point is the Senate has passed multiple, major pieces of conservative priority legislation and the House has not moved on any of those yet, said Schaefer, R-Tyler. And that is a source of frustration for conservatives in the House.

Those goals include school choice legislation, outlawing sanctuary cities, banning certain types of abortion, property tax relief and some ethics bills, according to Schaefer.

I think many, many Republicans are really frustrated with just how much time has been wasted, when we could have been moving major pieces of legislation, he said. Most wont say that publicly, but theres a lot of frustration out there on bills that flew out of the Senate. And all the second- and third-tier bills - things important to members home districts - arent moving in the House, either.

School choice legislation - which could include vouchers or education savings accounts - is an example, he said.

School choice is dead in the House, according to the chairman of the House Education Committee, Schaefer said. So although the Senate made it a priority, theres apparently no path forward in the House.

The House is apparently moving forward on sanctuary cities, though. On Wednesday, a tough bill that could put county sheriffs and small-town constables in jail if they refuse to help enforce federal immigration law passed out of committee, setting it up for a floor debate soon.

But a bill regarding abortion - banning dilation and evacuation abortions, in which a fetus is dismembered and removed - seems to be going nowhere in the House. The bill would require doctors to be sure the fetus is no longer alive before the procedure takes place.

The ban on dismemberment abortion is very important to conservatives, said Schaefer. Its one of the most heinous practices imaginable. We believe we can end this in Texas, and we believe it will present a unique question to the U.S. Supreme Court. Even Justice Ginsburg says its a barbaric practice. When youre looking at the body of abortion jurisprudence before the Supreme Court, this would bring an important challenge to the Roe v. Wade framework.

The House also is making little progress on the so-called bathroom bill, which would require transgender people to use public bathrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate.

BUDGET

From the Senate side, its all about the budget now.

If you look at the overall spending levels, were not that far apart, said Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville. But then you look at the methods of how we obtain those funds, and its very different.

The House version of the budget takes money from the states Rainy Day Fund, while the Senate version does not.

Here, Schaefer is in agreement with Nichols and the Senate.

I, along with 15 Republicans in the House, voted against, because it takes money out of the savings account, when there is no revenue shortfall, Schaefer said. Theres no compelling reason to dip into that savings account when we have more overall revenue to spend. Theres no budget crisis.

Nichols, however, is confident a compromise will be reached.

Youd have to go back to the 1960s or so to find a Legislature that wasnt able to get a budget passed, he said. Well get there.

One of Nichols priorities this session was funding for mental health.

Theres a critical shortage of resources out there for the mentally ill, Nichols said. And in Northeast Texas, we have the highest suicide rate in Texas, and the lowest number of mental health professionals per capita. Those are not unrelated.

Hundreds of people are in jail because of mental health issues, he added.

Many havent even broken any laws, he said. Theres just nowhere else to put them. We have to address that.

Nichols helped to amend the Senates budget to add millions for mental health facilities and services.

CPS

But the Senate and the House have made substantial progress on reforming the states foster care program.

Both the House and the Senate are in agreement that we need to fix this, said Nichols.

Added Schaefer, CPS legislation is a very a positive note. Were not finished, but there have been some good things happen. Theres a pay raise for CPS workers who work directly with children. And some significant changes in how the agency is run have been made. But one of the big pieces left to be addressed is the biggest problem - the shortage of child care providers. Faith-based organizations could be a big help here, but they have kept their distance because of the states regulations.

All in all, its an average session. The Texas Legislature - a body of citizen lawmakers who only meet every other year - was never designed to be efficient.

Every so often, a member will put forth a bill to increase the amount of time the Legislature spends in session - by mandating sessions each year, or extending the time limit of a regular session.

In 2013, Rep. Richard Pena Raymond, D-Laredo, offered just such a bill.

As big a budget as we have, as big a state as we are, as diverse of an economy as we have, we really should be looking at annual budgets, Raymond told The New York Times. Theres no business in the private sector that does two-year budgets. Its a very outdated idea.

That bill died ignominiously in committee.

The governor believes we need to limit government in peoples lives, not expand it, said Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for then-Gov. Rick Perry. A part-time Legislature allows lawmakers to come in and complete the business of Texans and then go out and live under the laws that theyve passed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Twitter: @tmt_roy

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East Texas legislators give progress report on session with seven weeks remaining - Tyler Morning Telegraph