By Cyrus Reed
After some delay, the Legislature is moving fast. Last week, new Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows selected his roster, naming the chairs (all Republicans) and Vice-Chairs (all Democrats) of all the committees. A complete roster can be found here. Want to know which committees your legislator is serving on? See here.
New Texas House Committee Chairs and Vice-Chairs Announced
Any surprises? Well there are some new chairmen.
On State Affairs, Todd Hunter is no longer the chair as he has been pegged as the chair of the very powerful House Committee on Calendars, which helps determine which bills make it to the House floor. Taking over for Hunter is Ken King from the Panhandle, while democrat Ana Hernandez maintains her vice-chairmanship.
Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa) maintains his chairmanship of Environmental Regulation with democrat Claudia Ordaz from El Paso as Vice-Chair. Midland Republican Tom Craddick is chair of the House Committee on Transportation while Terry Canales is Vice-Chair.
Natural Resources, which deals with mainly water issues, is headed by Cody Harris, while democrat Armando “Mando” Martinez takes over as vice-chair. Dr. Greg Bonnen maintains his leadership of the House Committee on Appropriations, with Dr. Mary Gonzalez as Vice-Chair. Finally, Drew Darby from San Angelo heads up the House Committee on Energy Resources, which deals with oil and gas issues, with Eddie Morales, Jr. as vice-chair.
Overall, the committees are fairly balanced between Democrats and Republicans, urban and rural, though with a decided West Texas flair, given Burrow’s Lubbock roots. Most chairmen, it should be stated, are White males.
Texas Senate Moves Quickly on Budget and Key Legislation
As expected the Senate is moving fast. Last week they finished public hearings on SB 1 - the budget bill - and then named working groups to dig into those proposed state agency budgets.
Senate Budget Hearings and Working Groups Established
Three senators - Senator Robert Nichols, Senator Charles Perry, and Senator Bob Hall - were named to the working group dealing with natural resource and regulatory agencies - known as “Article VI, VII and VIII.”
The Sierra Club was there last week to provide testimony on a number of agencies. Our comments can be found here. We expect the working group to meet - in private - next week and make initial decisions on the proposed budgets and then for the whole Committee on the Senate to approve those recommendations in about two weeks.
The Senate also took major action on issues such as school vouchers, property tax relief and bond reform. Committees also began to meet, notably the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce, and Sierra Club was there in the first hearing to oppose two bills:
- SB 21 - which would have the state invest in cryptocurrency by establishing a Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and
- SB 495 - which would prevent the Department of Insurance from adopting any rules or policies that involved “ESG” or suggestions from national insurance organizations, essentially putting blinders on our insurance regulators.
Copies of our testimony can be found here. To see our testimony on bitcoin, click here and see minute 28
Legislative and Conservation Director Cyrus Reed speaks out against SB 21, a bill that would create state investments in bitcoin, leading to more stress on our water and electric infrastructure.
House Begins Budget Deliberations
Having just named the committees, the only committee meeting this week was the House Committee on Appropriations which took up big picture items like transportation, water infrastructure, and education along with a general discussion of the state revenues. They also named the subcommittees on different parts of the budget, with hearings scheduled already for next week.
It’s important to note even though the committees have been named and one committee - appropriations - has begun meeting, the House will not take up any other bills until March 14th at the earliest, given their rules. The House by nature is designed to move slower than the Senate.
Key Bills to Watch in the Texas Legislature
There are a lot. In fact, more than 4,500 bills have been filed.
- SB 6 - a major electric grid bill by Senator Phil King - was not only filed but it is expected to have a hearing next week. SB 6 has some good in it and would establish a procedure for large loads over 75 MWs to go through to interconnect to the ERCOT grid, including paying some additional upfront costs and potentially greater transmission costs. Stakeholders including the Sierra Club were told to provide comments on the bill earlier this week, which we did.
While the major water infrastructure bill -SB 7 - has yet to be filed, a number of other water bills were by Senator Charles Perry, including: ones related to water loss (SB 1190), produced water (SB 1399), and moving the Flood Infrastructure Fund under the Texas Water Fund (SB 1289), that was created last session, as well as additional funding options through the Texas Water Plan (SB 1261)
How the Sierra Club Is Advocating at the Texas Legislature
We are working to get our priority bills filed before the March 14th deadline for filing bills, meeting new members and their staff, testifying at budget and other hearings and often meeting with other stakeholders.
Lobbying for Environmental Policy
This includes meeting with some powerful interests that often oppose our bills like the Texas Association of Builders, the Texas Oil and Gas Association, and the Association of Electric Companies of Texas. Establishing relationships with both elected officials and major associations is key to being successful at the Legislature. But it’s not the only game in town - we need our legislators to hear from people throughout Texas and not just those powerful interests.
What’s Next for the 89th Legislative Session
While visits and lobbying will continue in the coming weeks we will also be spending time to make sure the legislature hears from you. Here are some ways to get involved!
- Join our Legislative Action Team
- Come join our Lobby Day on March 24th (more information to come!)
- Tell the Senate and House to pass a good budget