AUSTIN Update - Week 6 Legislative Update

The following is an update from the Chamber's Legislative Consultant in Austin, Angela Hale.

Week 6 of the Legislative Session

Nearly 2,700 pieces of legislation have been filed so far at the Texas Capitol, and we are busy tracking and analyzing that legislation. The Texas Legislature may be on pace to exceed the 6,041 bills and joint resolutions filed in 2013, and the 6,476 filed in 2015. We also are working on preparations for the annual Collin County Days Capitol Day, scheduled for March 28 & 29, 2017.  We are tracking about 150 bills right now and continue to add more bills and monitor on a daily basis as legislators continue to file bills until the filing deadline in March 11, 2017

Governor’s Emergency Items
Three of the Governor’s Emergency Items have been passed out of Senate Committees. The first two-Immigration and Ethics Reform have also passed the Senate. Now, the third the Convention of States is also headed to the full Senate.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s emergency item, calling for a national Convention of States to amend the U.S. Constitution, cleared its first hurdle Thursday, with the Senate State Affairs Committee sending the resolution to the floor on a 6-2 party-line vote.

“We are on the precipice of history we have not seen before,” said Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, the lead Senate sponsor, arguing that the convention was needed because the “federal government has been usurping state power,” leaving the states little more than “subcontractors.” A new Convention of States to amend the U.S. Constitution under a process envisaged by Article V of the Constitution is critical to restore the states to their rightful place in the federal system, Birdwell said.

In order to avoid a runaway convention, Birdwell said that under Senate Joint Resolution 2, the only amendments that could be considered would be ones “to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government and to limit the terms of office of federal officials and members of Congress.”

Bills dealing with the first emergency item on the governor’s priority list-CPS Reform will be heard in the House Human Services Committee on Monday, President’s Day.
CPS life or death issues. Last year 100 children died in foster care. The goal is to reform the system so that no more children die - more workers, better training, better strategies, better accountability.