WTF?
Texas' much-ballyhooed raise-the-age legislation - HB 1205 by Dutton increasing the age of adult criminal culpability in Texas from 17 to 18 - passed unanimously out of the House Juvenile Justice and Family Matters Committee on April 8th. But, as of today, with just ten days left until the last House calendar, the committee report still hasn't made its way to the Calendars Committee, which sets bills on the agenda for a vote by the full House.
Grits cannot recall in my experience a committee report ever taking longer to get from the originating committee to Calendars after a positive vote. Usually, a week is considered a long time. More than that and in my experience somebody is f%^#ing with you. But who? It's the committee chairman's bill! Grits' sources tell me the delays stem from Legislative Council's apparent inability to compile a valid bill analysis, which hardly seems credible. Yes, they're understaffed, but nothing justifies that long a delay!
Barring an intervention by leadership, this staggering hiatus probably killed the bill. Grits can't say who's behind this unprecedented postponement, but I call shenanigans!
UPDATE: Amazing what an effect a little sunlight can have. Today (5/4) the bill finally made it from the Juvenile Justice committee to the Committee Coordinator who will transmit it to Calendars. With a mountain of luck, in theory there's still time for the bill to make it onto the House floor. As a practical matter, though, probably not unless leadership in the lower chamber decide to make it a priority. One day, it'd be fascinating to learn the backstory behind this mess.
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17 comments:
Oh come on "Grits" sure you can remember come bail bond bills that passed unanimously, but often took longer than this as was much shorter in the legislative process. Did you happen to work in leg council back in the 80's and 90's? Just wondering
I don't doubt that it happened before, but still, Shenanigans!
And no, I never worked at Lege Council. But they've been slow as Christmas all year.
Perhaps more work should be done by the individual proposing these Bills before they are submitted in the first place?
SW, this doesn't have anything to do with prep work by proponents, they've been prepping for two years. We're talking about the committee staff doing the paperwork to document the vote, and apparently Legislative Council not giving them what they need. Usually it takes days for the bill to move to Calendars. A month is ridiculous.
I'm sure it will get to Calendars, and in Calendars' graveyard it will die.
That doesn't sound like something that would take more than a few minutes and a photocopier. And I assume that it is what the committee staff are paid for?
Sounds like there are a lot of people in Texas getting paid from the public purse for doing a lot less than their job description.
No, really. 'Lege council is worse than even that this session. LC staff are too busy arguing policy and constitutionality to get things done. Wanna make sure your bill is bulletproof? Get a scrubber 'cause anything LC puts out is gonna have more holes than 10 year old tighty-whities.
Does the witness list and testimony give hints towards who or why it is being stonewalled?
Perhaps, 7:17, but the power to influence Lege Council probably lies beyond the witness list.
I've seen bills delayed a few days or even a week as an opposition tactic before. I've also seen them delayed because of bureaucratic bungling and Lege Council ineptitude. But I've never seen one spend a month in the space between a unanimous vote and a Calendars referral, much less on the Chairman's own bill!
You're surely right the delay is political, not bureaucratic. But the questions of "who is carrying the opponents water?" and "how?" remain unclear to me.
Never underestimate the influence of your opponents. It does not matter how far in advance preparation occurs if the right subset of individuals are not in favor as written. Suggestions were offered to advocacy groups including your employer but were ignored.
Which suggestions, 9:00? Offered by whom? Don't speak in euphemisms, say what you mean.
Otherwise, I don't underestimate the influence of opponents, I'm documenting it.
Politics at it's finest hour. This will probably be a bill that dies on the vine only to be replanted next session.
Anonymous 5/03/2015 12:52:00 PM:
I took it to be in reference to their preparation bill analyses to be included in a committee report. Can you explain your comment about the Legislative Council's "arguing policy and constitutionality"?
The Research Division of the Legislative Council is staffed by non-lawyers and a bill analysis is merely reflective of what's in the bill.
I used to argue that these are just innocent children but OMG the three page rap sheets!
Grits, Little late getting to the discussion, and I am not sure how you feel about Whitmire, but one thing he has always done in juvenile bills is try and make sure the people that do the work are at the table so the bill makes sense. This session there have been a deluge of bills pushed by groups that have never done any work in the field and the bills are not well thought out. The Juvenile Probation budget proposal is for a cut in funding, yet SB 1630 to put more kids in the system is moving and HB 1205 is now moving. These three things happening all at the same time could really hurt the juvenile systems ability to provide all the services for kids and it might be wise for the legislature to realize this and either fund all of SB 1630 and HB 1205 or hold off on the 17 year old issue and give the system time to figure out the Regional plan in 1630 before it has to figure out how to serve the 17 year old. Maybe it is not monkey business just a good well thought out strategy for change?
I acknowledge your concerns, but find laughable the idea that what's going on is a "good well thought out strategy" or that "it is not monkey business."
Anyway, as it stands, 5/11, it looks like none of those bills will pass.
BTW, I would dispute your characterization of raise-the-age as an example of "bills pushed by groups that have never done any work in the field and the bills are not well thought out." In fact, the issue was the result of an interim charge by a House committee which brought in stakeholders, studied the issue, and recommended it.
The Texas Probation Association opposed the bill but their membership is split (e.g., Bexar County Juvenile Probation testified in favor). And their concerns are funding based, which are soluble in the current budget environment.
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