Session pace picks up
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Feb 15, 2006 Posted by Bill Luckett
The budget session is beginning to hit its stride. Enough bills have now been introduced that most of the committees have enough work to keep them busy during their scheduled meetings. And Wednesday was the first day that the full House or Senate got their first looks at some bills that have made it out of committee. These weren't exactly what you would call "high-visibility legislation." The House discussed three bills related to workers' compensation, while the Senate had eight bills on various topics (such as electrical board membership and drivers' education course certification). This is not unusual. Legislators generally start their sessions off with less controversial or difficult topics, and they save the more heavy lifting for after they've had a few days to warm up. Still, in a 20-day budget session, there always seems to wind up being more work to do than human beings can do in that time, so things can get quite intense by, say, the middle of Week Two. This is why the Legislature's budget sessions sometimes seem to take a larger physical and mental toll on everyone involved than the 40-day general sessions.
Wednesday is caucus day, at least in the House, so the Republicans and Democrats meet by themselves to talk about the session. The Republicans close their caucuses to the public, but the Democrats' caucuses are open. Democratic legislators met for lunch at the Hitching Post Inn. A little disclaimer here: I won't reveal certain details of the discussion for reasons related to strategy. Yes, the caucus meetings are open to the public, but there weren't exactly any strangers in the room, and certainly no reporters, so I think a certain amount of discretion is appropriate here.
Among the main topics of discussion were tax relief and the budget. Rep. Ann Robinson reported that the House Republican leadership told her all the utility and other tax relief bills are expected to come up for introductory votes tomorrow (Thursday). There was a brief discussion on the various merits of the various types of tax relief proposals being introduced, and some people offered their opinions on which ones did or didn't have a good chance of passage. The budget discussion will continue next Wednesday as that will be the last caucus meeting before both chambers begin to work on the budget bill the following Monday.
It's about 7 p.m. now, and tomorrow's floor schedules for the House and Senate are not yet online. It's only Day Three, and I left the Capitol Building just after 5 p.m., but there still may be a committee meeting taking place, and tomorrow's schedule may not yet be firmed up. These lawmakers work hard, to say the least. Committee schedules are posted, however, and the House Judiciary Committee meets at 8 a.m. to work on three sex-offense-related bills that have generated some publicity in the last couple weeks. At least, that looks like the most interesting thing on the schedule to me. The strange thing is, no matter how boring or irrelevant a bill may look to most people (electrical board membership?!?!?), to someone else in the state, that could very well be the most important piece of legislation in the session. That's just one more part of what makes the legislators' jobs so difficult.
In case you haven't heard, Vice President Dick Cheney will be visiting the Legislature on Friday. He made a similar visit four years ago. Access to these events is highly restricted, and I don't know if I'll be there. These kinds of visits generally fall under the category of "fun" instead of "vitally important to public policy." It's not likely that Cheney will make a major policy announcement on the domestic spying program or our relations with Iran. But then again, you never know. Whether I can give you a first-hand account or whether I collect the impressions of people who were there, I'll give you a report on his visit after it's over on Friday.