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March 25, 2019 5:18 PM
Bitter partisan fight breaks out ahead of this week’s budget debate, Leach apologizes on behalf of the entire House for the delay
Four
female Democrats clashed with a Republican committee chairman today when they
boycotted a hearing on a bill they said hurts
reproductive rights. The four members and the absence of a Republican denied a
quorum in the Judiciary and Juvenile Justice Committee as Chairman Jeff Leach, R-Plano, tried to get to
work this morning. After lunch, Leach was able to move ahead after suspending
the 5 day posting rule in the House.
An
additional member, General Investigating Chairman Morgan Meyer, R-Highland Park, was unable to make the meeting
because of a delayed flight.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Andrew Turner and James Russell
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Copyright March 25, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 25, 2019 5:12 PM
Subscribers
can download the committee’s rules as handed out during a briefing today.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
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Copyright March 25, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 25, 2019 4:29 PM
Changes were requested by Reps. Sarah Davis and Gio Capriglione, but lawmakers still need to come up with money to pay for the changes; Rep. Capriglione says “I get that it costs money…I’m doing what I can.”
Lobbyists
at the Texas Capitol could soon have to start disclosing with state
regulators whether they are registered to peddle influence on behalf of a
foreign government. That’s after the Texas Ethics Commission voted
unanimously Friday to require state-level disclosure for lobbyists with ties to
foreign interests.
But
before lobbyists start identifying if they are registered foreign agents under
federal law, the Legislature must give the commission more money.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By David Saleh Rauf
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Copyright March 25, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 25, 2019 3:56 PM
Pattern emerges: Big bill passes Senate unanimously, Patrick says it's "a principled conservative approach to pension reform" as TPPF and allied organizations say it's the wrong thing to do fiscally
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Copyright March 25, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 25, 2019 10:59 AM
Noting the GOP has a majority on the panel the Dems say "While some members of the Texas Legislature insist on attacking as well as offending women directly and indirectly, we will not join this charade"
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Copyright March 25, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 25, 2019 9:24 AM
JCJ Committee lacks a quorum, Dems are apparently boycotting the meeting while Rep. Meyer is delayed in Dallas. Leach apologizes on behalf of the "entire Texas House" for the delay
A frustrated Chairman Jeff Leach, R-Plano,
on Monday morning “humbly” implored Democratic members of the Judiciary
& Civil Jurisprudence Committee to show up and register their
attendance so that he could move forward with laying out the Born Alive
Protection Act. Leach said he knows members have busy schedules and even
said he’d be fine with it if they showed up, registered their attendance, then
left to do other things.
The
committee, for now this morning, lacks a quorum and Rep. Morgan Meyer, R-Dallas, hasn’t flown in yet because his flight was
delayed, Leach said. He also noted that “abortion survivors” had traveled to
the Capitol this morning to testify on the bill.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright March 25, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 24, 2019 10:45 AM
Almost 100 fewer than 2017, which saw 402 amendments pre-filed for the budget
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Copyright March 24, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 22, 2019 4:00 PM
Appointments, key hires, and staffing up for 2020
Folks
are working through the weekend on budget amendments, reading bills that are
set for hearings, and Sen. Bob Hall’s
being accused of carrying a RINO version of the red light
camera ban.
This
session just keeps getting better.
Meantime,
folks are already gearing up for reelection efforts since there’s absolutely no
separation between campaigns and governance anymore. There are also more
appointments to tell you about as well as key hires at big firms.
Share
your career news anytime at ksbraddock@gmail.com
and put POTM in the subject line. Nothing is too big or too small and yes, you
can share the news of others. That’s why it’s called a gossip rag. Thank you.
Here’s
this week’s edition of People on the Move:
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright March 22, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 22, 2019 3:44 PM
In school finance debates, impacts to individual districts often create winners and losers under major system shifts. Chairman Huberty has urged members to trust the process and principles behind the bill
Texas House leaders are decidedly tight-lipped
on the actual impact their school finance plan will make on individual school
budgets, a departure from past sessions. The House has a school finance bill
with many moving parts, the most complicated school finance bill since the
passage of then-Rep. Scott Hochberg’s
HB
3646 in 2009.
At this point in the passage of a school finance bill,
the first runs – a spreadsheet of the impact of the bill on school district
budgets – would be circulating among House members. Both the Texas
Education Agency and the Legislative Budget Board produce
these runs, although it will be the work of the LBB that will ultimately guides
final numbers.
To be clear, school finance runs currently do exist. The
point of contention is over who has seen them.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright March 22, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 21, 2019 4:29 PM
TMA argues the root of the problem is “the networks that the insurance companies have set up which are inadequate”
Doctors
and patients squared off before the Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee
on Thursday over the issue of "surprise billing."
The
Texas
Association of Health Plans supports the bill by Chairman Kelly Hancock
but the group stayed in the background during the hearing as Hancock confronted
the Texas
Medical Association in an often testy exchange.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Andrew Turner
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Copyright March 21, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 21, 2019 4:25 PM
As Hall's bill stalls out in the Senate after compromise language was offered, Rep. Stickland's bill with supermajority support starts moving
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Copyright March 21, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 20, 2019 4:22 PM
“One thing that people say is ‘I’m not here to make friends I’m here to get stuff done.’ Well, if you want to get stuff done you better make friends”
There’s
a whole new crop of freshmen members of the Texas House this session,
including a number of younger leaders and an increase
in the number of Democrats who made incursions into Republican territory last November.
Erin Zwiener D-Driftwood is one the roughly
30 new members of the House and one of the 12 Democrats that flipped formerly
Republican seats. In an interview with Quorum Report, the freshman and new
mother told us about the realities of the new job from her perspective.
“We,
like any other freshman office, have to take this one day at a time,” she said.
“There are a lot of unknowns for us freshmen.”
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Andrew Turner
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Copyright March 20, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 20, 2019 4:20 PM
Meeting will be "an overview of policies and procedures as they relate to inappropriate workplace conduct."
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Copyright March 20, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 20, 2019 4:18 PM
Per the fiscal note, if the bill was effective immediately, the state’s trauma center fund, which the cameras benefit, would lose $28 million. If implemented in September, the fund would lose $21 million
Edgewood
Republican Senator Bob Hall’s ban on
real light cameras hit a bump in the road in Senate Transportation Committee
today after he rolled out substitute language allowing cities to honor current
contracts.
That
change drew opposition from some of those who had been the bill’s most ardent
supporters.
Red
light cameras, Hall said, deny due process and are not proven to improve public
safety. One of his issues is what he says is an unconstitutional
appeals process automatically painting the driver as guilty.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By James Russell
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Copyright March 20, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 20, 2019 4:00 PM
Lt. Gov. Patrick says SBs 6, 7, and 8, "are key to our rebuilding effort following Hurricane Harvey and mitigating future flood disasters across the state."
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Copyright March 20, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 20, 2019 9:18 AM
128,000 donors contributed in the first 24 hours of O'Rourke's bid, his campaign announced this morning
Via
Todd
Gillman at
the DMN:
Beto O'Rourke announced Wednesday that more than 128,000 donors contributed to his
record breaking first day haul of $6.1 million, for an average of $47 per
donation.
The
former three term El Paso congressman jumped into the presidential race last
Thursday and detractors had alleged that high dollar donors rather than a
grassroots outpouring may have padded his tally.
Sen.
Bernie Sanders' brought in $5.9
million during his first 24 hours last month, from 223,047 donors, with an
average of $27.
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Copyright March 20, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 19, 2019 5:47 PM
Veterans calling HB3 the most significant school finance legislation in nearly 40 years
The House view of the school finance system in House
Bill 3 is a subtle, yet significant shift away from the current
rationale that has pitted poor against rich school districts.
The House school finance bill passed the House
Public Education Committee on a 13-0 vote today, with lawmakers of both
parties lavishing praise on the bill. Rep. Harold
Dutton, D-Houston, lamented the absence of Houston ISD at the
hearing last week, but called HB 3 the most significant school finance
legislation passed in his 18 terms in the House.
That current Robin Hood rationale behind school finance has
been challenged on a number of fronts: School
districts with high-dollar property often have low-wealth schoolchildren. Quirks
in the code would show preference to property-wealthy districts, such as
reducing recapture during disasters but leaving property-poor districts waiting
for the state to dedicate dollars.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright March 19, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 19, 2019 2:32 PM
Texas Aspires laments the fact merit pay provisions were removed by Texas AFT says it "sends an important signal that educator salaries should not be tied to standardized tests..."
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Copyright March 19, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 18, 2019 5:14 PM
Chair Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, guided House Appropriations to
approval of substitutes of a House budget bill and the Senate
supplemental budget bill this morning.
The approval process was fairly smooth,
although multiple members of the Texas State Employees Union reminded
the panel about low pay and insufficient pensions for state employees, pensions
even smaller than those currently offered to retired teachers.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright March 18, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 18, 2019 4:18 PM
Those close to the drafting process say most sections around teacher pay have been struck from HB 3, replaced with a simple pay raise tied to increases in the basic allotment offered in the bill
The most ambitious language around
teacher pay appears to be scrubbed from the substitute of the Texas
House’s school finance bill to be discussed in House Public Education on
Tuesday.
The model for teacher pay
in the original House Bill 3 was an ambitious, but somewhat problematic, model.
But it was, for all intents and purposes,
the preferred model for both lawmakers and teacher groups in the early weeks of
session because of two claims: the bill would not rely on test scores to reward
teacher performance and would not be a “merit pay” bill.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright March 18, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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March 18, 2019 4:09 PM
After Appropriations today voted out the budget and supplemental, pre-filing of amendments for HB1 will end at 10am this coming Sunday
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Copyright March 18, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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