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May 11, 2021 7:21 PM
HJR 4 allows judges to deny bail to certain defendants
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Copyright May 11, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 10, 2021 8:59 PM
In addition to the Pandemic Disaster Legislative Oversight Committee, the amended version of HB3 requires the entire Legislature to meet after 120 days of a declared pandemic to weigh in on the governor's actions
At the conclusion of a
debate that lasted into the evening hours, the Texas House on
Monday voted 92 to 45 to approve a plan to give the Legislature
more of a say in the state’s response during a future pandemic. Many amendments
were offered and added to House Bill 3, authored by Calendars
Committee Chairman Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, who accepted quite a few of them with little debate.
But there were some sharp
points of contention including some high drama over who – the governor or the
legislature – should be able to order a mask mandate.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright May 10, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 10, 2021 3:04 PM
A conservative/liberal coalition was forming against the legislation, including an attempt to allow local voters to weigh in on the incentive deals in their communities
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Copyright May 10, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 10, 2021 1:12 PM
"He is outstanding and has my Complete and Total Endorsement!"
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Copyright May 10, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 10, 2021 9:13 AM
Says he will challenge Gov. Abbott because "I’m tired of being lied to. We all are. Texas deserves real leadership. No excuses."
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Copyright May 10, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 8, 2021 4:16 PM
It’s not a shock that petty vindictiveness is part of the legislative process, but Dean Craddick’s behavior on Saturday can serve as a reminder that it eventually catches up to you
Around 1am Friday, while Texas
House members sped through bills and the fate of the omnibus election
legislation hung in the balance, one word was being muttered on and off the floor
as rumors started to swirl that Public Education Committee Chairman
Harold Dutton would revive a measure targeting transgender youth in sports:
“Retribution.”
As you read first in Quorum
Report, Dutton was planning to again hold a vote in committee on SB29,
which critics have decried as unnecessary targeting of a misunderstood
minority. The bill had failed earlier in the committee. What became clear later
Friday was that Dutton was doing it because Rep. Alma Allen, one of his
fellow Houston Democrats and a member of Public Ed, had successfully taken down
Dutton’s HISD takeover bill on the floor with a point of order.
By the time Saturday’s Local
and Consent Calendar rolled around, Chair Dutton was sort of joking in
an exchange with Rep. Erin Zwiener "I have a sheet here with all
the Democrat bills on it and I was gonna knock em off." Apparently some Democrats had been planning to knock off some of his bills, too.
Under the radar, similar retribution
was playing out on the House floor.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright May 08, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 8, 2021 4:12 PM
Statesman columnist Ken Herman tweeted out the sad news: "Among other things, Read was an aide to John Connally and a witness to the Kennedy assassination. And much more, perhaps none more important than gentleman."
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Copyright May 08, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 7, 2021 5:20 PM
“We need to provide certainty to the markets when we can and approach these signals in a systematic way,” Commissioner McAdams said. “The rule, as proposed by staff, I believe, provides that certainty for the market in the near term.”
The reconstituted Public
Utility Commission has proposed sharply reducing the maximum totals for
scarcity pricing of energy, following the lead of disgruntled lawmakers who
criticized the massive costs of Winter Storm Uri.
The biggest winners of
scarcity pricing were those companies positioned to deliver natural gas when
plants were down and lines were frozen. Yesterday, Bloomberg
reported Energy Transfer LP – the pipeline company owned by Kelcy Warren – reaped a
$2.4 billion profit from its delivery of natural gas during Uri.
Two additional companies –
Kinder Morgan and BP – are expected to post $1
billion in profits, followed by other smaller energy companies.
Under the policy
amendment, the new low system-wide offer cap – or LCAP – will be tied to actual
marginal costs in scarcity pricing situation. The source of the high costs
during Uri – tying LCAP to the natural gas price index – is eliminated.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright May 07, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 7, 2021 12:15 PM
Here is the
arrest warrant, first reported by Terri Langford at KUT
public radio in Austin.
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Copyright May 07, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 7, 2021 3:14 AM
Around 2:30am, the GOP and Democrats came together to soften the bill’s language considerably with an eye toward avoiding criminalizing much of what happens associated with voting
After what we will politely
call some fits and starts, the Texas House in the early morning
hours of Friday gave initial passage to Senate Bill 7, the omnibus
elections bill carried by Chairman Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park.
But not before Democrats
and Republicans came together on the floor in the middle of the night to adopt
a slew of amendments aimed at ensuring the Texas Legislature isn’t criminalizing many things that often happen associated
with voting.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright May 07, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 7, 2021 12:57 AM
The bill previously failed to receive adequate support in the committee, but sources indicated Chairman Dutton plans to hold another vote in the morning
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Copyright May 07, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 6, 2021 3:53 PM
He is vaccinated and has no symptoms per his office. H/T to Lauren McGaughy who broke the news.
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Copyright May 06, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 5, 2021 6:40 PM
The bill would clear the way for individuals to sue over abortions they object to; Rep. Slawson struggles to explain medical facts underlying the bill and the standard of standing for lawsuits
The so-called Texas
Heartbeat Bill – which could roll available abortions back to six weeks
gestation – cleared a major hurdle in the Texas House this afternoon on a vote
of 81-63.
In the pantheon of
abortion bills that have made it through the House in recent sessions, Senate
Bill 8 would qualify as the quickest to a vote and one that carried the
fewest amendments, three of them, when it reached its vote tally on initial
passage.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright May 05, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 5, 2021 6:37 PM
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Copyright May 05, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 5, 2021 5:54 PM
Debate on the permitless carry bill was momentarily paused while Creighton received some help; Sen. Gutierrez noted that Creighton had an accident and may have suffered a concussion: "I hope our friend is okay."
Erin Daly Wilson, Spokesperson for Sen. Brandon Creighton, provided
this comment:
“On Thursday evening
Senator Creighton was involved in a vehicle collision and sustained minor
injuries. He spent the last few days resting, and
returned to the Capitol for the critical work of the legislature and to ensure
a majority to approve H.B. 1927.
He wants to thank DPS
and the physicians who treated him, and will be back
working for Senate District 4 as soon as possible.”
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Copyright May 05, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 5, 2021 4:44 PM
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Copyright May 05, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 5, 2021 2:35 PM
From the scoop by Dallas
Morning News reporter Lauren McGaughy
Two former business
partners have successfully pulled Ken Paxton into yet another securities
fraud dispute, adding to the attorney general’s mounting legal problems. The
case dates to 2016, when the man who oversees Paxton’s financial assets accused
a company called Unity Resources and two of its investors of
defrauding him. The two men denied the allegations and pointed the finger back
at Paxton, arguing he was responsible because he too was an investor and served
as the company’s lawyer.
Last week, the Fifth Court
of Appeals in Dallas agreed with the two men that Paxton could be named a
“responsible third party” in the suit. The 11-1 opinion by the
Democrat-dominated court reversed its previous decision that initially found
Paxton could not be added to the case.
Full story
here.
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Copyright May 05, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 4, 2021 5:18 PM
Late in the day, House members were being pulled off the floor by those lobbying hard on the bill trying to flip votes while the bill itself had been postponed to the end of the day’s agenda. The bill was again postponed before the House gaveled out
The Texas House
later today is set to debate what some consider nuclear waste policy with
national implications.
House
Bill 2692 by Rep. Brooks
Landgraf, R-Odessa, would essentially put a stop to a controversial plan to
use a site in Andrews County to store the most dangerous level of radioactive
waste. That type of waste is made up of spent fuel rods from nuclear power
plants. That waste is said to stay dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands
of years.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright May 04, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 4, 2021 5:15 PM
HB6 is on Major State for Thursday
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Copyright May 04, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 4, 2021 5:00 PM
“We must urge the PUC to significantly reduce the high system-wide offer cap,” said Sen. Schwertner; but it’s unclear how meaningful his resolution might be to the PUC’s agenda
The Texas Senate yesterday
passed a last-minute resolution to instruct the Public Utilities
Commission to act on scarcity pricing at its meeting on Thursday, but it’s unclear how meaningful that resolution might be to the
PUC’s agenda.
SR
342 – which wasn’t posted online at the time it was discussed by the
Senate – was described by sponsor Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown,
as “an important demonstration of our commitment to Texans.”
“Ahead of the Commission’s
hearing this Thursday, we must urge the PUC to significantly reduce the high
system-wide offer cap,” said Schwertner, noting that Senate Bill 3
and Senate Bill 1278 also addressed the issue. “This resolution
is another step in correcting ERCOT’s pricing algorithm so that we can
fine-tune a viable competitive energy market that ensure reliability through
dispatchable generation.”
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright May 04, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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May 4, 2021 1:03 PM
The bill failed to pass after a vote at the end of today's Public Ed meeting
Democrats failed to soften the blow of the transgender UIL
bill in the House Public Education Committee this morning, but
then managed a swift kill of the bill altogether when it came to the final
vote.
Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, needed a 7-vote
majority to pass his bill out of committee That didn’t
happen when Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Kingwood, declined to vote on any of the
bills that were up for a vote and Chairman Harold Dutton, D-Houston,
voted present.
That gave the committee a final vote of six Democrats
against five Republicans. Without a majority, the bill was declared dead. There
was, however, chatter around midday that the bill could still be revived.
It’s that time of session, after
all.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright May 04, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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