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Sun May 24, 2009 at 08:09 PM CDT
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Watch the current proceedings of the Texas House live here.
While the chubbing of the local and consent calendar continued today, it was allowed to be sped up as Democrats began limiting their questioning to Democratic authored bills and resolutions.
But the larger news is the revelation of potential points of order by the Democratic caucus that could threaten the Voter ID bill.
Via the Dallas Morning News Trailblazers blog.
Dunnam said the minutes for the Voter ID committee hearing were not filed within the requisite three days. He said the timestamp on the minutes shows they were approved four days after the hearing - a violation of the rules. He said he has shown Speaker Joe Straus the minutes and the timestamp, and that the speaker is considering them....Dunnam said he is so confident about the technicality - called a "point of order" - that "we've asked them to go ahead and bring the bill forward." No word on whether Straus thinks it will stand.
Quorum Report provides an update that notes how Republicans can play a role in ending the slowdown of the local and consent calendar.
In it, Straus affirmed that committee minutes must be submitted within three days or the bill becomes ineligible. Democrats subsequently brought the Speaker the time stamped minutes indicating a seven day delay in turning in the minutes of the voter id hearing.
Democrats have requested the Speaker recognize them for a motion to suspend the rules in order to take up voter ID specifically for the purpose of offering up and getting a ruling on this and other points of order. If the point of order is sustained, they will stop slow-boating the Local and Consent Calendar.
Elise Hu has posted the memo from Dunnam here. A clip below.
This morning, after the parliamentary inquiry, the minutes were presented to the Speaker showing the time stamps. He was also presented with another Point of Order on Voter ID which is, if possible, stronger than the one on the minutes.
We have proposed that the Voter ID bill be brought forward so that the Points can be called and sustained immediately and the House proceed with other business. We are informed that the House Republican Caucus would prefer to continue on the present course in part to avoid them having vote on the TDI Sunset bill.
There is another Point of Order that is stronger as well though one would think this one is sufficient. And now it's interesting to see that it's the Republican caucus that might not be willing to move forward because of other major bills that they don't want to deal with. |
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