We are in the second week of the 83rd session and, not even counting weekends, legislators have had more days off than on. They worked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the first week, then Monday and Tuesday the second week. They’ve taken off the first Friday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the second week, and now Monday and Tuesday of the third week. For those counting, they have met five workdays out of 11, and all they did the first Thursday was vote themselves permission to take their first vacation.
The first few months are always pretty leisurely. The wasted time creates an atmosphere at the end of the session in which bills and amendments fly around too fast to follow. This makes it much easier to do things voters wouldn’t like.
If people complain about the reckless pace of legislation that the end of session brings, establishment politicians, on cue, blame the fact that the Texas legislature only meets six months out of every two years.
Additionally, a new amendment carried by Phil King makes these last-minute bills and amendments harder to stop because it gives the speaker discretion to override points of order brought against the bill.
On the day the King’s speaker-empowering amendment passed , other amendments designed to make the legislative process more fair and transparent failed. Legislators who opposed them argued that they simply don’t have enough session days to burden themselves with passing such legislation. One wonders how such legislators spent their early vacation.