Upcoming Texas Special Session in July
The Texas Constitution gives the Governor of the State of Texas the ability to call a Special Session at any time after the 140-day regular Session ends. A Special Session is called whenever the Governor believes there is pending business and the Governor now is tasked with setting a specific agenda for the Texas Legislature (the House of Representatives and Senate) to accomplish within 30 days. Legislators of the two chambers are restricted to introducing legislation that fits within the Governor’s defined agenda. If the Legislature does not accomplish what the Governor has designated, the Governor may call the legislators back for as many thirty-day Special Sessions as the Governor feels necessary to complete the pending business.
Governor Abbott recently called for a Special Session that is set to begin on Tuesday, July 18, 2017. The Governor announced twenty items on his agenda he wants the Legislature to accomplish. Governor Abbott made Sunset legislation a beginning priority for the upcoming Special Session.
All state agencies are reviewed regularly by the Sunset Commission, usually every ten to twelve years, to ensure their operations and efficiency are working properly. The legislation derived from these reviews is referred to as “Sunset legislation”. This legislation seeks to enable an agency to exist, but also to: regulate the agency; improve the agency’s operations; and delegate responsibilities for the agency at hand. If the Sunset legislation specified for the agency is not passed by a certain date, usually September 1st, the agency could be abolished.
Once the Legislature has passed all the Sunset legislation, the Governor has indicated that nineteen other items of business may be addressed. This legislation may include: an increase in teachers’ wages; administrative flexibility in teacher hiring and retention practices; school finance reform commission; school choice for special needs students; property tax reform; caps on state and local spending; preventing cities from regulating what property owners do with trees on private land; preventing local governments from changing rules midway through construction projects; speeding up local government permitting processes; municipal annexation reform; texting while driving preemption; privacy; prohibition of taxpayer dollars to collect union dues; prohibition of taxpayer funding for abortion providers; pro-life insurance reform; strengthening abortion reporting requirements when health complications arise; strengthening patient protections relating to do-not-resuscitate orders; cracking down on mail-in ballot fraud; and extending maternal mortality task force.
The upcoming Special Session will give the Texas Legislature the start time to review and address the issues that the Governor has identified. If you would like to stay informed on what occurs during the Special Session beginning July 18th, please visit Texas Legislature Online.
If you have questions regarding any of the information mentioned in this week’s article, please do not hesitate to call my Capitol or District Office. Please always feel free to contact my office if you have any questions or issues regarding a Texas state agency, or if you would like to contact my office regarding constituent services. As always, my offices are available at any time to assist with questions, concerns or comments (Capitol Office, 512-463-0672; District Office, 361-949-4603).
– State Representative Todd Hunter, District 32
Rep. Hunter represents Nueces County (Part). He can be contacted at todd.hunter@house.texas.gov or at 512-463-0672
