Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Heading into the home stretch

A key deadline passed last night at the Texas Lege; as of today, bills filed in the House which have not been scheduled for a floor vote (and do not have a Senate companion) cannot pass, barring their resurrection as amendments to other legislation. By rule, all bills originating in the House must be passed from that chamber by midnight Thursday, at which point the home stretch of the session begins in earnest.

Only 51 bills out of more than 7,000 have been finally passed and sent to the Governor. Most of these bills are dead, though with a few exceptions, for the most part that's probably a good thing.

The pace this session has been achingly slow, and last night was stalled further by a legislator's health crisis when Edmund Kuempel of Seguin was found unconscious, not breathing and with no pulse in a capitol elevator. He was revived by fellow legislator Dr. John Zerwas and is reportedly in a "stable, guarded condition" at a local hospital. (UPDATE: He is reportedly in a medically induced coma.) Kuempel is an affable, good humored fellow to whom I wish a full and speedy recovery.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is there a listing of the bills that are moving forward so far?

Don Dickson said...

Kudos to Dr. Zerwas for quick and effective resuscitation measures, and more kudos to the two Capitol Troopers who assisted with CPR, mouth-to-mouth, and the AED.

God bless Rep. Kuempel, I pray for his full recovery.

Anonymous said...

HB 22 is currently awaiting Calendaring... Why in the world is Texas attempting to pass a bill that is even MORE restrictive than the one in Utah that was found to be against the 1st amendment in District court?

Doe v. Shurtleff, 2008 WL 4427594 (D. Ut. Sept. 15, 2008)