Governor calls for Special Session

And we just thought the Legislature was done convening for two years. Today Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for a session to begin July 18th. Below is a write-up from Angela Hale, the Chamber's legislative consultant in Austin. 

SPECIAL SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT TODAY
 
Now, we have a Special Session that will run 30 days beginning on July 18 and ending on August 18th.
Governor Greg Abbott made a bid to reclaim control at the statehouse when he called a summer special session that will feature an agenda that's unprecedented in sheer length.
Abbott vowed that he would not add any other issues to the Legislature's plate until the Senate has approved legislation that's necessary to keep the Texas Medical Board and several other smaller licensing agencies in business. 
Governor Greg Abbott today announced a legislative special session that will begin on July 18th, 2017.  In his announcement, Governor Abbott identified 20 items that will be included on the special session call.   
"Considering all the successes of the 85th legislative session, we should not be where we are today," said Governor Abbott.
A special session was entirely avoidable, and there was plenty of time for the legislature to forge compromises to avoid the time and taxpayer expense of a special session. As Governor, if I am going to call a special session, I intend to make it count.
Special session agenda items will include:
1.   Sunset legislation
2.   Teacher pay increase of $1,000       
3.   Administrative flexibility in teacher hiring and retention practices
4.   School finance reform commission
5.   School choice for special needs students
6.   Property tax reform
7.   Caps on state and local spending
8.   Preventing cities from regulating what property owners do with trees on private land
9.   Preventing local governments from changing rules midway through construction projects
10.                Speeding up local government permitting process
11.                Municipal annexation reform
12.                Texting while driving preemption
13.                Privacy
14.                Prohibition of taxpayer dollars to collect union dues
15.                Prohibition of taxpayer funding for abortion providers
16.                Pro-life insurance reform
17.                Strengthening abortion reporting requirements when health complications arise
18.                Strengthening patient protections relating to do-not-resuscitate orders
19.                Cracking down on mail-in ballot fraud
20.                Extending maternal mortality task force