ASAN- With the Democrats remaining in Texas in the House of Representatives outside the state to prevent the draft law to re-divide the controversial circles, the governor of the state threatened Greg Abbott to contact a second special session in a row, which raised questions about the meaning of these legislative sessions already and how it restored the form of the political process in Texas.
With the control of Republicans in the Legislative Commission in Texas, they lack the quorum to pass legislation due to democratic withdrawal, the state finds itself in a dramatic confrontation with unique powers and restrictions on private sessions in the Texas government.
Unlike the regular legislative session constitutionally assigned for 140 days, every two years, special sessions are gatherings that the ruler cannot contact. These sessions are limited to a maximum of 30 days, and legislators are limited to addressing issues that have been specifically called in the ruler’s declaration.
More importantly, there are no limits on the number of special sessions that the ruler can summon between regular legislative sessions. The sessions can be tightened back or even on the same day one ends.
How the legislative process changes
The compressed timeline changes for 30 days how the legislation moves via the Capitol. Unlike regular sessions, which have multiple final dates for bills to advance through committees or floor votes, the sessions for an accelerated schedule designed to focus attention on the priorities of the ruler work.
The main differences include:
- There is no deadline for submitting an invoice: Unlike regular sessions where legislators must provide bills during the first 60 days, the special session bills can be presented at any time within a 30 -day period.
- Abandoned notification requirements: General hearing notifications decrease from five days to 24 hours at home
- Limited discussion on the floor: Talking time is reduced to 10 minutes for each member during the last five days.
- Concentrated agenda: only subjects can be considered in the ruler’s announcement
Perhaps the most important thing is for the current situation, all bills must be reformulated when calling a new special session. The legislation between the sessions does not continue, even if identical laws are presented in the previous session, they must be presented as new laws and new numbers are appointed to the following session.
What does this mean exactly for the committee’s operation? The bills will be referred to the committees and voting on them again. When it comes to re -dividing the circles, we may not see the same field listening sessions to re -divide the circles as we saw in Houston and Erlington. This is a decision for the chairman of the committee. However, if the committee will vote on a draft law, it will allow the public comment.
If the current private session ends without passing the circuits re -dividing plan, ABBOTT promised “the Return of the Legislative Commission immediately to the Special session No. 2” with the same agenda. For the legislative process, this means:
- All bills will need to be renovated with a new number and overcoming the introduction process again
- The schedule will be restarted for 30 days completely
- The committees will need to hold general listening sessions that allow their testimony before voting on bills, although they will not be required to repeat the field hearings that were already conducted during the current session
Although the session is scheduled to end on August 19, it is heading to an early result, as the spokesman Dustin Buroz announced on Tuesday that they will postpone Friday if the Democrats did not return, and Abbott pledged to contact another special session immediately. For voters in Texas who are watching the drama, the confrontation shows how the state’s legislative rules and procedures enlarge political conflicts.