To each and every current and former member of our armed forces THANK YOU, not just on this special day, but every day.  Thank you for your service and sacrifice so that we may live in freedom in our beloved United States of America.

 

 

To the fallen we honor on this Memorial Day, and to the families of the fallen, we appreciate the sacrifice of your loved one and your family, and we owe you a debt of gratitude which can never be repaid.  Thank  you from the bottom of my heart.

 

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I'm writing this from the floor of the Texas House on Monday morning.  We worked until midnight most of last week, including Saturday and Sunday.  Yet for all that time, we accomplished very little.

 

This is so frustrating because there are some very important bills on the Calendar which we have been unable to get to because the Democrats are "chubbing" on the Local & Consent Calendar. 

 

Chubbing is a procedural stall tactic and simply involves talking or asking questions on every bill for the full time allotted by rule.  Questions and thorough deliberation of each bill is an important part of the process, but this is happening on bills that have been identified as being purely local in nature, or noncontroversial enough to be placed on the Local & Consent Calendar.

 

Typically, we can finish a Local & Consent Calendar in a matter of hours.  But not this time.

 

The Democrats' leaders do not want to hear the Voter ID bill, which has been on the Major State Calendar since last Saturday.  Because they have spoken the maximum time allowed on almost every Local & Consent bill, we have yet to finish a simple calendar we began last Thursday morning.  We can't get to anything else on the calendar until we get past this Local & Consent Calendar.  I think it is important to note that quite a few of the Democrats, themselves, are very upset over the use of this maneuver.

 

Our deadline for passing non-local House bills ended on May 15.  Since tomorrow is the last legislative day the House can consider Senate bills and joint resolutions, this stall tactic jeopardizes everything on the calendar following the Local & Consent Calendar, including:

 

Nonetheless, the rules under which the House operates do allow for what is being done, and so we endure, respectfully answering countless, inane questions relating to noncontroversial bills opposed by few, if any. 

 

The Democrats offered to stop chubbing if we would suspend the rules and consider other bills out of order, ahead of the voter ID bill.  But there is no need to do that.  All they need to do is stop the chubbing, and let us move on to consider the important business of the people of Texas. 

 

Sine die (Latin meaning "without day") is next Monday, June 1, the last day of the Regular Session of the 81st Legislature.  Under the rules, most of the time between now and next Monday we will be able to vote only on the final, remaining local & consent Senate bills, and conference committee reports (i.e., terms that have been worked out to resolve the differences between the Senate and the House on bills where their actions differed).

 

Tomorrow, midnight is D-Day for many of this session's important bills.  I am truly hopeful that reasonable minds will prevail.  Yet, we are so close to the deadline, I fear a Special Session is looming.