Last Week

House

On Thursday the House passed out HB 4586 – the supplemental appropriations bill. Included in this bill is the $154 million needed to restore funds to the formula for the Governor’s veto. The bill will now go on to the Senate and will be referred to the Senate Finance Committee. A hearing for the bill is anticipated sometime in the next two weeks.

The House spent all of day Friday, and into the early hours of Saturday morning debating the budget - SB1. The bill was finally approved at 2 am by a vote of 149 to 0. What was most remarkable about the process was just how orderly it proceeded and with a lack of drama. Amendments that were controversial were “worked out” or were pulled down before difficult votes were forced. Although the House did vote to essentially defund the budget of the Governor’s Office – though it is expected that the dollars will be restored during the conference committee process. The House added a provision that would require that if the Federal funds for unemployment insurance were not accepted that needed funding would come from the Enterprise Fund. No significant changes were made the budget concerning community colleges. All of the elements dealing with proportionality that were adopted by the Appropriations Committee remain in the bill.

House Higher Education

The committee heard nearly 20 bills and voted out several that had been pending. The focus of the hearing was a number of tuition regulation bills. All of these were left pending.

Senate

The Senate spent most of its time on issues such as a bill by Senator Kevin Eltife that would draw down funds for the Unemployment Compensation fund. The other issue brewing in the Senate was the use of the Stimulus dollars in the budget bill. Eleven out the twelve Democrat Senators signed a letter to Education Secretary Duncan seeking clarification on the use of these funds. The letter mentions some of the same concerns raised by others (Texas Democrat members of Congress and the Superintendents of several large school districts) such as the supplanting of state funds by Federal dollars especially in the area of public education. This issue and the letter led to a long closed-door caucus of the Senate on Friday.

Senate Higher Education

Held a hearing at which they heard nearly 35 bills in a three-hour session. Included among these was SB 857 by Senator West – the community college purchasing modernization legislation. This bill and most of the others was left pending in the committee.

The Week Ahead

House

With both the budget and supplemental bills out of the House most expect that the chamber will now begin to hear a long calendar each day. The concern many around the Capitol have is that the late start of committees and the record number of bill filings has created a huge legislative logjam. This means great pressure from members to get their bills set for a daily calendar.

Among the bills yet to be set by the Calendars Committee is HB 2083 by Solomons (the proportionality bill); once it is set for the House floor we will send out an alert. This could come as early as this week.

House Higher Education Committee

The committee will meet at 2:00 pm on Wednesday to hear 14 bills.

Senate

The Senate will receive SB 1 back from the House it will not concur in the changes made in the House and will appoint conferees for the conference committee. After the House will follow the same process. We expect that the conference committee will begin meeting the last week in April or the first week in May.

Senate Higher Education

The Committee is scheduled to meet on Wednesday at 7:00 am to hear 27 bills (although TACC understands that several will be withdrawn).

Senate Education

The Committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday at 8:30 am – included among the bills to be heard is the substitute for SB3 which is the overhaul of the public school accountability system. TACC is watching this bill closely due to its potential impact upon dual credit courses and workforce/technology courses.