House committees finally named Thursday

Finally. The moment we’ve all been waiting for. TEXAS HOUSE COMMITTEES HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED. Here’s the Texas Tribune piece on what the choices all sort of mean in theory.

House Speaker Dustin Burrows appointed lawmakers to committees on Thursday, announcing a leadership team made up mostly of veterans who had led legislative panels under his predecessors — and appointing only Republicans to chair committees, as prescribed by the chamber’s new rules.

In a news release announcing the committee appointments, Burrows emphasized that the makeup of the committees reflected the GOP dominance in the chamber, noting that all were chaired by Republicans and that every standing committee and subcommittee was made up of a GOP majority. Burrows, however, immediately stirred criticism among hardline conservatives for putting Democrats in charge of half the chamber’s 12 newly created subcommittees.

What it all means in action is anyone’s guess and we’ll spend the next few months finding out. I don’t have many opinions about this stuff, but I will say that continuing to put Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa, of course) in charge of the Environmental Regulation Committee means further erosion of our pitiful state’s environmental regulations. He authored bills for the past two sessions to turn Texas into an oil and gas “sanctuary state,” shielding the state from EPA regulations. I’m positive that every committee chair named today will try dismantle whatever they are put in charge of in some similar fashion, much like Linda McMahon and the Department Education or RFK Jr. and human health.

The Austin Chronicle just published a series on how much Texas Republicans hate sex, and all the bills they’ve filed this session to prevent people from learning about it, watching it, thinking about it, etc.

Annoyed and even frightened by the sex toys on display at Walmart? If you answered yes, you have something in common with Hillary Hickland, a freshman Republican House member representing Temple and Killeen.

This session, Hickland introduced House Bill 1549, a bill to ban retailers in the state from selling “obscene devices” – sex toys – unless they file paperwork to become sexually oriented businesses.

It’s only a matter of time before Ken Paxton starts suing Adam & Eve for mailing vibrators to Texans.

After weeks of Governor Abbott and his toadies swearing up and down that their “school choice” bill doesn’t defund public schools, he admitted on Twitter yesterday that public schools will be defunded by school choice:

The governor is pushing for lawmakers to pass a $1 billion voucher program that would create state-funded “education savings accounts” that students could spend on private school tuition, tutoring and other education costs. The money for the program would be allocated separately from the funds set aside for public schools, and it would be run by the comptroller’s office, rather than the Texas Education Agency, which oversees funding for the state’s public schools.

However, Texas public schools are funded based on the attendance of their students. So if 50 students leave a suburban school district to use a voucher, for example, the district would lose up to several hundred thousand dollars in state funding, based on allotment totals. While the district would be serving 50 fewer students, it would still need to pay for facilities, teachers, support staff and other overhead expenses that remain mostly fixed.

You can see for yourself just how much your public school district will be defunded at https://dontdefundmyschool.com.

I just really, really want to reiterate that this BILLION DOLLAR piece of legislation gives money to just 100,000 students in a state with more than 5 million students.

Speaking of education, the Senate Bible Brigade filed SB13: relating to a school district's library materials and catalog, the creation of local school library advisory councils, and parental rights regarding public school library catalogs and access by the parent's child to library materials.

And yes, it was referred to committee today. Still no word on when the education committee will be meeting next.

The Senate Business & Commerce Committee meets next Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. to discuss, among other things, SB21: relating to the establishment and administration of the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for the purpose of investing in cryptocurrency and the investment authority of the comptroller of public accounts over the reserve and certain other state funds.

I’ll have my popcorn ready for that nonsense.

Moved to State Affairs committee today is SB892 by Nathan Johnson (D-Irving/Mesquite) which would ALLOW PEOPLE TO REGISTER TO VOTE ONLINE. Texas is one of seven holdout states that still doesn’t allow for online voter registration, and it’s completely stupid. I don’t expect this bill to pass, because Texas loves to make voting difficult, but I’m here for the debate when it happens.

Finally, while opportunistic Former Democratic Representative turned Republican Loser Shawn Thierry was at the Capitol today rubbing elbows with Mayes Middleton, her worthy successor, Lauren Ashley Simmons filed HB2792: relating to a study on capital punishment in this state and to a moratorium on executions.

I’m so glad Thierry is out of the lege, but what a bummer that Texas Southern University named her Executive Director for Policy and Counsel this week.

Three Good Things:

1. SSRIs keep me alive.
2. Vaccines keep me alive.
3. Stimulants help me focus, reduce anxiety and get my work done.