Gavel to Gavel 87th Legislative Session: April 30, 2021
The Conference Committee for the House and Senate committee substitutes to Senate Bill 1 convened this week to hear a brief overview from the Legislative Budget Board on the differences in the two bills before recessing to get to work. Senate conferees are Sens. Jane Nelson (Chair), Joan Huffman (Articles I, IV and V), Lois Kolkhorst (Article II), Larry Taylor (Article III), and Robert Nichols (Articles VI, VII, and VIII). On the House side, Rep. Greg Bonnen serves as Chair, and the remaining conferees are Reps. Mary Gonzalez (Articles I, IV and V), Giovanni Capriglione (Article II), Terry Wilson (Article III), and Armando Walle (Articles VI, VII, VIII).
Hopefully lending optimism to the Conference Committee’s proceedings, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Glenn Hegar announced that he will issue a revised Biennial Revenue Estimate (BRE) next week. He will hold a virtual press conference at 2:00 PM on Monday, May 3, 2021 to discuss the estimate. Details can be found here.
Another significant piece of legislation that moved this week was SB 7, the Senate’s leading elections bill. After being emptied of many of its original provisions and refilled with the language in HB 6, it was voted out of the House Elections Committee on party lines. The inevitable tension this will create between the House and Senate could exacerbate the conflict surrounding one of this session’s most controversial issues.
Thursday, the House voted 99 to 46 to remove the requirement to that Members must wear masks in Committee meetings and on the House floor. The Senate has not indicated that it will vote on a similar measure.
The U.S. Census Bureau announced the delivery of the 2020 Census Apportionment results to the President, finally giving Redistricting committees some current information to work with. Texas’ new resident population is 29,145,505, up from 3,999,944 in 2010. As a result, Texas will gain two new seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Earlier this week, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) announced the Board’s selection of Brad Jones as Interim President and CEO, effective May 4, 2021. Jones previously served as former ERCOT Vice President of Commercial Operations and later as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
Last night’s special election in Congressional District 6 to fill the unexpired term of recently deceased U.S. Rep. Ron Wright resulted in a runoff election between Republicans Susan Wright (19.21%) and State Rep. Jake Ellzey (13.85%). Wright is the widow of the former Congressman and Rep. Ellzey currently represents Texas House District 10.
- Lillian Gerrity