Bill filing starts next week at the Texas Legislature for the 80th session that runs from January till May 2007. I have no way to gauge its accuracy, but I heard a staffer's rumor that more than 1,400 bills have already been sent by legislators to the Texas Legislative Council, which drafts bills for pre-filing.
That means the Texas capitol was already buzzing well before Gene Seaman's political corpse entered the ground.
Personally, I'm still hoping to see some of these ideas in the mix.
Legislators may continue to file bills until mid-March. During the 79th Texas Legislature in 2005, around 5,500 total bills were filed.
Sounds like everybody up there is hankerin' to get past these elections and onto the lawmaking. I guess it's on, then. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.
UPDATE: It really is on. Reports say Democrats have actually resorted to fisticuffs to settle internal squabbles.
Let's hope the legislature does something this session to close the salary gap between public defenders and prosecutors.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the leg could act to prohibit Bexar County's reverse contingency fee in criminal cases, where they pay a "fixed fee" for plea cases, and a substantially less hourly rate for dismissals. Nothing garners pleas more quickly than rewarding the attorney for a job poorly done.
ReplyDeleteanonymous2: What would you suggest would be the fix to the fee issue - how should it be structured, in your opinion?
ReplyDelete