Calendars Committee Racks Up Over $20,000 Tab For End of Year Party

by: Chaille Jolink

Wed May 22, 2013 at 07:40 PM CDT

The Texas Tribune posted an eye-opening article earlier today, part of their amazing regular series "Bidness As Usual," regarding an end of session party that the House Committee on Calendars, one of the most powerful committees in the Legislature, had last Sunday night. The party was held at III Forks Steakhouse and apparently it was a big bash.  

It is very common for committees in the Legislature to have end of session parties and invite staff and friends of the committee. What is not probably too common is the final tab the party racked up, which was $18,584.55, with a 20% tip of $3656.48 added, the total tab was $22,241.03.

Now according to the receipt 121 people had dinner, which is also a considerable amount of people for the 15 member committee, and at $95.00 bucks a pop it totals to half of the entire tab. The other half, around 7,000 was spent on booze, including three $135 bottles of Cabernet, an explicative ton of liquor, some more wine, and one lonely bud light.

According to the article, the tab was split 65 ways, each person paying roughly about $400. However, as tradition, no one from the committee paid, it was all paid for by lobbyists. This is all perfectly legal, and relatively common, but still it gives one pause when as much money to buy a car or a starting salary, is spent in one night on a party celebrating some of the most powerful leaders in the Legislature, making some of the most important decisions in this state.  

The Legislature is currently still in session right now, after working to up to midnight last night, the deadline to pass Senate Bills on the House Floor. The Democrats were successful at killing SB 11, which required drug testing for TANF applicants. TANF is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and is generally treated as an emergency entitlement. No word on if the House has reached a deal on SJR 1, the bill ensuring a budget deal is resolved regarding water funding . Currently the Senate is taking up HB 1025 which is the supplemental appropriations bill.  

If the Legislature cannot negotiate a deal between these two bills, a special session is almost imminent. The last day of session is Monday, May 27th.  

Republicans Vote to Fast Track Keystone XL & White House Pushes Back, Some

by: Joe Deshotel

Wed May 22, 2013 at 03:33 PM CDT

According to the statement, H.R. 3, would,

"(1) declare that a Presidential Permit is not required for the Keystone XL crude oil, cross-border pipeline, including the Nebraska reroute evaluated by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality;
(2) deem that the final Environmental Impact Statement issued by the Department of State on August 26, 2011, satisfies all National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act requirements; and,
(3) deem that Secretary of the Interior actions satisfy Endangered Species Act
requirements enabling the needed right-of-way."  

In a talking points memo obtained by the Huffington Post, Organizing For America is reaffirms its position in support of the President's, stating that, "OFA supports and respects the process as it is currently underway." The organization prefers to work on changing the conversation on climate change and clean energy more generally.

That seems to be smart at least politically, because according to Pew, 2/3s of Americans want to see the pipeline built, and that is up from a Gallup poll taken last year. The political problem with the pipeline, even though it is expected to only create 35 permanent jobs and most of the oil will be shipped overseas, is that it fits neatly into the narrative about "Middle East" energy independence. In reality it only delays how soon the USA itself will be energy independent.

The President promised an "all of the above" approach to energy, so instead of making his stand in tar sands he's going to let the process unfold. Having the lengthy permitting process and opportunity to veto its subjugation from executive approval, allows him to show his diligence to the environmental community and gives them more time to organize against the pipeline. Some groups like Bold Nebraska are organizing at the county level around property and water rights issues and there is a film, "Above All Else", being made about the landowner who did a tree-sit on his property in Texas.  

OFA says that it will, "work with local communities to switch to clean energy and promote the transition to renewable energy in cities and states nationwide.", "expose climate deniers as extreme and dangerous," and probably most important, "ask those in the middle, 'what's your plan?'." The 3rd part is crucial, and until the answer is no longer "build the pipeline", the most you will likely hear from the Administration until the next phase of permitting is mum.

Texas House Passes Three Amendments to CISPA-Like Bill

by: Ben Sherman

Wed May 22, 2013 at 00:00 PM CDT

On Tuesday, the Texas House added three amendments to the CISPA-like bill flying through the Legislature. Clearly, all the attention now directed at this terrible bill is spurring action by state lawmakers. But the amendments completely fail to address the bill's serious privacy violations and some make the bill even worse.

Amendment 2

This amendment changes the target of government seizures from "an electronic communications service" to a "remote computing service". All this does is make it more clear that websites not based in Texas are going to be forced to comply with this bill.

The amendment also appears to remove the limit on how far back the state could seize personal records. The bill previously only applied to electronic communication that was less than 180 days old (so it prevented really old fishing expeditions). Under this version of the bill, it appears the government could seize years - or even the totality - of a person's online communication. This is a terrible change.

The amendment also made an important change by removing the ability of a "Designated law enforcement office or agency" to collect the data, leaving it to authorized peace officers. But this doesn't improve the bill very much - authorized peace officers are state agents who also should not be empowered with these broad abilities to seize private communications. It removes the ability for some political hack in a specific office or agency to file a request for electronic information - which is a good thing - but doesn't address the glaring privacy violations in this bill.

Read about the rest of the amendments below the jump.

House Committee (Including Several Texas Reps) Votes to Cut SNAP Benefits for 2 Million Families

by: Emily Cadik

Wed May 22, 2013 at 09:00 AM CDT

This month, the House Agriculture Committee approved a farm bill that would cut $20 billion from SNAP benefits (also known as food stamps). If enacted, the cuts would result in 2 million families losing their assistance, and over 200,000 children losing eligibility for the free school lunch program.

These cuts come at a time when the Recovery Act's temporary increase in SNAP benefits is already set to expire in November.

The Senate Agriculture Committee also approved cuts to SNAP in its version of the farm bill, but by only $4.1 billion. Fortunately, neither of these are close to where Paul Ryan wants the cuts - his latest budget reduced SNAP by $135 billion.

Read more after the jump.

Legislature Blocks Medicaid Expansion, Guns on Campus Stalls

by: Katherine Haenschen

Tue May 21, 2013 at 05:52 PM CDT

Last night, the House cast a largely symbolic vote blocking the Medicaid Expansion provided by the Affordable Care Act -- though it's not like Governor $10,000-Degree-Oops-Hairdo-"Back Pain" was going to let that happen anyways. Over in the upper chamber, Senator Whitmire claims that concealed carry on campus doesn't have the votes to get to the floor.

Read more below the jump.  

Oklahoma Has Class Act in Former Longhorn Kevin Durant

by: Edward Garris

Tue May 21, 2013 at 04:00 PM CDT

In the midst of yesterday's unspeakable tragedy, Kevin Durant stands out as a class act.  The devastating tornado that swept a path through and around Oklahoma Cityis reported to have left 24 people dead, and 237 injured, with many of the dead children at an elementary school that sat directly in the path of the tornado.  

The fallout has been predictable in some ways; in other ways, not.  As a solid backgrounder in The Atlantic makes clear, the tornado itself is not a surprise to studied observers, many Oklahomans, or others who live in Tornado Alley, notwithstanding the magnitude, horror, and personal loss coming out of the destruction.  

President Obama signed a disaster declaration pledging federal aid to assist with local efforts in getting Oklahoma back on its feet.  

Senators James Inhofe and Tom Coburn found themselves on the defensive, having opposed disaster relief in the past - specifically with Hurricane Sandy - and with Coburn's office today stating that any federal disaster relief to Oklahoma must be offset by cuts elsewhere in the federal budget.

Surprisingly, however, CBS News is reporting that across the Red River, the former Longhorn standout and current star for the Oklahoma City Thunder today gave $1 million to the American Red Cross for disaster relief in and around Oklahoma City.  Although, as CBS News noted, to anyone who's ever covered Durant, this was no surprise either.  

Ted Cruz's Amendment 3 Gutting Citizenship Now in Markup

by: americasvoice

Tue May 21, 2013 at 03:11 PM CDT

Right now the Senate Judiciary Committee (#CIRmarkup) is considering Sen. Ted Cruz's amendment 3, one of the worst amendments that has been proposed to the Senate Gang of 8 immigration bill.  Cruz seems to think that citizenship is a "poison pill" and that the only way the bill can pass through the House is without the pathway to citizenship.  

We ask Ted Cruz: what does he want to do with Eric?

Find out below the jump.

Texas Legislature In Home Stretch

by: Chaille Jolink

Tue May 21, 2013 at 08:30 AM CDT

In an exhaustingly long day in the Texas House yesterday, drama erupted on several occasions.

Earlier in the day during the local and consent calendar, Representative Ruth Jones McClendon killed several bills, one later on the general calendar, that were authored by Senator Huffman. As she stated in her must read op-ed piece yesterday, her intent is to not attack Senator Huffman personally, but to oppose her legislation on the House Floor "not because of policy issues, but because the public deserves an open and fair hearing process."

As Michael Hurta wrote yesterday regarding Representative McClendon's Op-Ed,

"Among the bills stalled in the Senate was Ruth Jones McClendon's bill that seeks to establish an Exoneration Review Commission in order to review and analyze the causes for wrongful convictions, gather objective data, and prevent further wrongful convictions from happening in Texas. McClendon complained on the House floor, and she continues to make her stand here. The Senate sponsor is Rodney Ellis."

Representative McClendon's issue with Senator Huffman holding up her bill is also reflective of a general frustration by House members with the Senate to not pass House bills that easily flew by in the Senate. All the dust has mainly settled, but an inquiry on the back mic yesterday revealed that the House had currently passed 525 Senate Bills and the Senate had only passed 283 House Bills at that time.

Later in the day during a very long debate in the House regarding a bill reorganizing the Texas Ethics Commission, several amendments came up regarding moving the Public Integrity Unity, which is currently housed in the Travis County District Attorney's Office, to be transferred to the Attorney General's Office. The Public Integrity Unit is headed by Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, who was convicted of a DWI last month.

Click on 'There's More' to see what happened.