We are about to find out just how much power the Texas Governor in fact has.
The House Public Health Committee is set to hold hearings on a bill that will overturn Perry's executive order mandating that all Texas girls be immunized for the virus (my wife pointed out that boys--who presumably would be infecting the girls--are not being immunized when they probably should be, but that's another story). Here's the story from the Chron.
In addition, concerns are being raised about the costs of the procedure, which may or may not be covered by insurance.
Has Perry overplayed his hand? Remember that he only won the election with 39% of the vote. Does he have something up his sleeve?
-An aside from my previous post on this subject. I mentioned that an Austin lawyer claimed that the governor has no power to issue executive orders because it is not in the Constitution, but then I remembered that no such power exists in the U.S. Constitution for the president, but he still issues them, and they seem to be accepted. I believe in that case it fall under a broad definition of the president's executive powers. But considering that the state executive is plural, and executive power is disbursed among a variety of individuals elected separately, perhaps this logic does not apply.
