Lege Lines: Elsewhere Under the Dome

Photo by Jana Birchum

Tick, tock, tick, tock, the session is in its last 20 days, and important bill-killing deadlines come and go fast. First up: today, May 11, the last day for second-reading of House bills and joint resolutions on the daily and supplemental calendar. Expect priority bills that died in committee to pop up again as amendments on the floor... Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, continued his race to be the most hated legislator ever by spending May 9 killing bills just because he could. After tweeting "There are a lot of bad bills on today's local and consent calendar. Not for long...," he spent hours throwing points of order at bills from both parties, including HB 1158, intended to cut maternal mortality rates… Looks like the right's dirty-tricks operatives may be targeting Texas' moderate GOP lawmakers again. First, convicted felon James O'Keefe appeared at the Capitol after "citizen journalist" Amy Hedtke was removed from the State Affairs Committee, then Quorum Report's Scott Braddock reported seeing Adam Sharp (one of the camera operators for O'Keefe-linked group American Phoenix) around the pink dome... The "Trust. Respect. Access." campaign, a coalition of pro-choice progressive groups, delivered 15,000 signatures to Todd Hunter, chairman of the House Calendars Committee, on May 4, to demand the Lege halt its attack on reproductive health rights. Lawmak­ers filed nearly 40 anti-choice bills this session and at least six have been voted out of the House State Affairs Com­­mittee and await a vote by the Calendars Committee.