Author Topic: State lawmakers might get new life for dying bills  (Read 386 times)

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Online Elderberry

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State lawmakers might get new life for dying bills
« on: May 26, 2021, 02:28:44 am »
Amarillo Globe News by Ross Ramsey 5/25/2021

The legislative session that ends in a week is just the first chapter for this batch of state lawmakers; the list of things to do when they come back later this year is growing.

With a special session later this year already a certainty, lawmakers have an opportunity to kick some cans down the road. They’ve done it once already, with the governor promising to consult lawmakers about spending $16 billion in federal COVID-19 response money. That averted a budget standoff; the House voted unanimously to require the governor to consult lawmakers on that federal windfall, and the governor’s special session promise made it possible to go ahead and pass the state budget in this regular session without that House provision.

That budget standoff was part of the routine end-of-session collision of the House and the Senate, with deadline threats that big priorities are in danger, that bills under discussion since January are going to come to pieces, and that political alliances are frayed beyond repair.

At the same time, those two big concerns — drawing new political maps and spending $16 billion in federal COVID-19 relief — have already been punted into a special session to take place sometime later this year.

More: https://www.amarillo.com/story/opinion/2021/05/25/ross-ramsey-texas-legislature-may-get-new-life-dying-bills/7423794002/