From the Texas Tribune: Texas House unanimously elects Joe Straus for record-tying fifth term as Speaker

Straus is on route to becoming the most powerful House Speaker in Texas history.

- Click here for the article.

For the first time since he was elected House Speaker in 2009, Joe Straus walked into the lower chamber on Tuesday without a clear leadership challenger.

And two years after facing a rare contested vote for Speaker, Straus was re-elected unanimously by House members on the opening day of the 85th Legislature for a record-tying fifth term. He joins former House Speakers Pete Laney and Gib Lewis for the longest tenures presiding over the House.

Following the 150-0 vote, Straus took the oath of office and made clear in a speech to a packed House chamber what his legislative philosophy would be for the upcoming session.

“Compromise has become a dirty word in politics,” Straus said. “It’s a good word in this House.”

Straus has long been criticized by some in his party as being too moderate, drawing primary challenges from Tea Party candidates. But he’s easily held onto his San Antonio-based seat.

Straus’ easy re-election as House speaker Tuesday was a departure from 2015, when he faced a Republican challenger from Scott Turner of Frisco who forced the first contested vote for Speaker since 1975. All but 19 House members voted for Straus that year.

For more:

- Tribpedia: Speaker of the House.

Here's the language in the Texas Constitution that states how this is to be done:

Article 3. Sec 9. (b) The House of Representatives shall, when it first assembles, organize temporarily, and thereupon proceed to the election of a Speaker from its own members.

Here's a look at how he's been able to stay Speaker for so long:

- Analysis: Speaker Straus breaking a trend seen with his predecessors.

At a point when speakers are generally wearing out their welcomes, Straus faces less opposition than ever before.

He has avoided scandal. His Republican Party is firmly in control of both the state government and, more importantly, of the House itself. Turnover among his lieutenants has been low enough to keep things stable and high enough to allow him to bring new people into the fold. His opposition, almost all of it coming from the most conservative waters in the GOP pool, is noisy but small: In that 2015 contest against state Rep. Scott Turner, R-Plano, the challenger got only 19 votes.

He has quietly become a legislative counterbalance, and the House and Senate have switched traditional institutional roles. The normal formula is that the House is the place for hot passions and the Senate is where things cool off and get more careful consideration. In Texas, it’s now the Senate that chases flashy political issues and the House that slows things down.

. . . and catching up with Joe Straus and Dan Patrick as well

- Grading Straus.

When tea party-aligned Republicans at the Texas Capitol talk about why they can't get any number of bills passed, they reflexively point to one man: House Speaker Joe Straus.

The anti-Straus forces – especially as they have amassed power in the Senate – have been careful about not laying blame at the feet of the whole House. Instead, the tea party crowd alleges a more us-versus-them framework that pits Joe Straus’ coalition of Democrats and so-called liberal Republicans against the tea party sympathizers who are vastly outnumbered in the lower chamber.

- Texas House Speaker Joe Straus to head national push to turn more legislatures red.

Texas House Speaker Joe Straus had to curb his enthusiasm Tuesday when, as expected, he was named the head of the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, a national GOP group that aims to turn more legislatures red.

Republicans have been annihilating the Democrats’ “bench” of state officeholders so rapidly in recent cycles that you could almost read a how-do-I-top-that lament in Straus’ reaction. “We have a lot of ground to defend,” Straus said in a statement. Boy, is that an understatement.

- Important items on Straus’ list.

Among the items Texas House SpeakerJoe Strausis directing the 2017 Legislature to address are some that deserve particularly heightened attention. They go to adequate and effective state spending, transparent government and whether Texas students will be the workforce the state needs to be economically competitive.
They are “interim charges” from Straus. They offer a possible preview of priorities for the House in the next session. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued his directives to Senate committees earlier.

- Patrick says state voters' approval of Proposition 1 a first step in tax relief.

In a news conference Thursday at the Texas Federation of Republican Women convention in Lubbock, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said state voters’ recent passage of Proposition 1 was just the first step in property tax relief. . . . Given the newly approved increase in homestead exceptions, Patrick said the next step should either be to reduce the maximum amount appraisal districts can increase property values or to lower the rollback rate on property taxes that requires cities and counties to hold elections if they exceed it.

 - Texas conservatives look to finally move on ‘sanctuary cities’.

Lawmakers and our law enforcement officials have the responsibility to keep our communities safe. Many security officials say illegal immigration puts us in danger. But will lawmakers try again for a controversial law to get rid of “sanctuary cities.” Lawmakers tackled this issue and waded into this passionate issue at a Senate Border Security Committee at the State Capitol. The debate centered around two issues. The first is who commits crime. The second is what can and should the state do to encourage action from our local police.

- 1-on-1 with Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

Many call it the most powerful position in the State. Nothing passes the Senate without approval from the Lt. Governor. Today that position is held by Dan Patrick, a former sportscaster and state senator. He passed all but one of his priority items out of the Senate last session. But some of his ideas did not pass the House and, as a result, did not become law. But in the interim (time between sessions) he gave Texas’s 31 senators some homework.

“School choice is back,” said Lt. Governor Dan Patrick. Last session he said he’d put his shoulder behind it. While a bill giving tax credits to businesses who paid for kids to leave failing schools passed the Senate, it did not pass the House. He’s bringing it up again.

From the Texas Tribune: Analysis: Dancing With Those Who Brung Ya

Here's a great comparison between what it takes to be a good Speaker of the House in the Texas Legislature as opposed to the U.S. Congress - especially if you have a divided majority. Straus was better able to control the Tea Party than Boehner.

- Click here for it.

Splitting the majority party in the House of Representatives leaves a potential speaker with two routes to the top. Lawmakers did it one way in Texas and another way in Washington, D.C. Right now, the Texas way seems to function better. In the Texas House, Joe Straus, a Republican, built a ruling coalition that included the Democrats and limited the power of the Tea Party Republicans. In the U.S. House, John Boehner, also a Republican, made his coalition out of the Republicans alone, shutting out the Democrats and empowering the Tea Party conservatives.

The 2010 elections were a turning point for both leaders. That election gave Republicans a majority in the U.S. House and Boehner, until then the minority leader, became speaker. Two years earlier, Straus ascended to the speakership by banding fewer than two dozen Republicans with most of the Democrats in an almost evenly divided House.

After the 2010 elections, he could have ditched the Democrats and relied on a large Republican majority to stay in office — that’s what Boehner did — but he stuck with one of the oldest rules in politics: Dance with who brung ya.

Boehner’s coalition has been the much more volatile of the two. U.S. House Democrats are largely shut out — the decisions are made in the Republican Conference, which then attempts to stick together as a ruling bloc. The strength of the most vocal conservatives is increased in the conference.

The Straus coalition, while still conservative, frustrates the loudest and most doctrinaire of the Republicans, giving the Democrats some power and shutting out the far right. Those movement conservatives are just as rambunctious as their federal cousins, but they’re outsiders instead of insiders.

It’s not a perfect comparison. Straus operates in a government with 100 percent Republican leadership. Boehner has to deal with a Democrat in the White House. But Straus has had a longer tenure and had more legislative success than his federal counterpart, in part because he has had more success managing his potential antagonists.

For a bit more on the topic: Analysis: The Hard Way to Win a Speaker's Race.

Texas House adopts rules

At the beginning of each session of the Texas House and Senate, each chamber establishes the rules that will govern how bills will be considered that session. Generally these closely mirror the rules that have evolved in each chamber over time, but occasionally they are modified. The House rules for the 83rd session were recently passed and minor changes were made, not the changes some were hoping for though. As stated in a post below, many of these changes were driven by David Simpson, a Tea Party Republican who has trying to limit the Speaker's power. According to news coverage, his plans backfired, and the Speaker may be actually more powerful than he was previously.

Here's a summary of news coverage of the changes:

- Houston Chronicle : A legislative weapon frequently used by Democrats to delay bills was crippled during the House rules debate Monday. Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, proposed to weaken “point of order” rules, which can return a bill to committees on the basis of an error in the proposed law’s language, including typographical errors in witness affirmation forms, committee minutes and bill analyses.

- The Texas Tribune also discusses the change to the point of order rule: The Texas House's Democratic minority was dealt a blow Monday when the House passed an amendment to the chamber's rules to limit legislators' ability to derail a bill based on clerical errors. Calling "points of order” on such errors is a strategy lawmakers have often used to block measures they oppose.

. . . The vote was 92-56, with only three Republicans joining Democrats against the amendment — Elkins and Reps. David Simpson, R-Longview, and Jim Keffer, R-Eastland.

Some Tea Party lawmakers — led by Simpson, who also challenged the speaker for his leadership position — hoped to punch holes in Speaker Joe Straus' power by reforming some House rules but came away with several tabled or withdrawn amendments.

Simpson proposed initiatives to increase openness, including making conference committees public and adding the exact times for House proceedings, but the first was tabled and the second failed.

But other transparency measures were approved. Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, authored amendments that would allow Texans to submit video testimony on bills, to publish testimony and presentations by state agencies to the public, to quantify the cost and benefit of legislation by a range estimate by the Legislative Budget Board and to add fiscal notes to bills to demonstrate their economic impact.

- The Dallas Morning News: It took 6 hours, a debate about whether God wants lawmakers to have clock-stopping ability and discussion of 33 amendments, but the House did finally finalize their rules of procedure.

In all, the rules will provide a more open look at bills and their costs. The caption that describes each bill will have to say if it raises fees or taxes. The committee witness lists will go electronic, meaning people waiting to testify can see where they are in the order (and feel free to use the restrooms without fear of losing their chance to speak.) Documents provided to the committees and bills that undergo a complete committee substitute will go online so the public and other members can see what’s being discussed. If the Legislative Budget Board can’t quite figure out what the fiscal impact of a bill will be, instead of saying “can’t be determined,” they’ve been instructed to give us a ballpark figure. Public video testimony (under three minutes) is now acceptable.

What didn’t happen is any marked change in the Speaker’s powers. Efforts failed that would have given him less discretion in appointments and given more deference to committee assignments based on seniority. So did efforts to circumvent committee rules and force bills to the floor.

- The Austin American Statesman describes how the Speaker may have emerged as the most powerful of the Big Three in Austin:

Of the Big Three — the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker — Straus is the only one without a recent and humbling loss.

Gov. Rick Perry suffered a crushing defeat in the Republican primary for president last year, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst was throttled by now-Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2012 race for U.S. Senate.

Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, credited Straus’ proven ability over two legislative sessions to be fair to House members.

“The speaker is exceptional in working with members,” said Hunter, an ally of the speaker. “What you’ve seen within the last week is he has a strong, diverse support base.”

And from the Fort Worth Star Telegram:

The speaker has the ability to hold up legislation indefinitely in committee, and Tea Party-backed lawmakers lost their attempt to stop that. Democrats also lost most of their efforts to keep rules that would allow them some power to block bills.

State Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, proposed automatically expelling convicted felons from the House, forcing committee chairmen to hold hearings on popular bills and forbidding rewriting a bill so much that it was fundamentally different from when it was first proposed. All were shot down.

. . . State Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, proposed a rule change that if more than half of lawmakers co-author a bill, it does not have to go through the normal committee process, an important demand by Tea Party-aligned lawmakers. Veteran lawmakers from both parties argued against the bill, saying it bypassed the public lawmaking process. The vote rejecting the rule change was 137-11.

Another proposed rule change would have required any bill to cite the portion of the Texas Constitution that authorizes the action. State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, proposed the measure in his first speech on the House floor but saw it shot down on a voice vote.

Attempt made to limit the power of the Texas Speaker

The attempt is being driven by Rep. David Simpson, who mounted a brief challenge to Joe Straus for the Speakership. Now that he didn't win, Plan B seems to be to limit the Speaker's power. Some people do not like to be backbenchers.


David Simpson

From the AAS:

Simpson said that he would like to “decentralize” the power in the House that is concentrated in the hands of the speaker and his chief lieutenants. Along with Simpson, state Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, will be leading the challenge. Reps. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, and Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, also will be part of the push to give more power to the members.

Although they have an uphill battle, even Straus’ supporters acknowledge that the chamber usually approves some changes in its rules every session.

The challengers are expected to offer more than 30 proposals, ranging from making it easier for members to pass bills that the House leadership might not like, to limiting the speaker’s ability to name committee members, to requiring special treatment of tax bills.

For example, one proposal would require the caption of a tax bill summary to literally spell out that it’s a tax bill — sort of a “truth in advertising” idea, Taylor said. Also, he’ll propose that all tax bills go through the Ways and Means Committee and not get sneaked in via other committees.

Taylor said his motivations are simple: to ensure that the people of Texas are the ones with the real power in government.

“It’s really to empower the members,” Taylor said. “Giving more choices to members empowers the people.”

Straus’ office didn’t have a comment, but Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, a trusted member of his team, noted that the House rules have been tweaked every session and changes should be well thought out. He also said that big changes could result in big problems.

“If you change too much, there are unintended consequences,” he said. Branch noted that the current rules make sure that legislation that comes to the floor is properly vetted in committees.

An Update on Joe Straus

The Texas Tribune has a brief write up on the Speaker. Whatever move against him that was going to happen against him fizzled very quickly. His approach to the session contrasts sharply with both Perry and Dewhurst, especially Perry:

On Tuesday, during his acceptance speech, he called on lawmakers from both parties to work together to make what he called the “core responsibilities of government” a priority.

He said the state’s biggest challenges were “not fiscal in nature” and pointed to its rapidly growing population and changing demographics, with increasing numbers of children with limited English skills and economically disadvantaged backgrounds in public schools.

The remark contrasted with Gov. Rick Perry’s speech that day, which focused heavily on the need to keep spending down. But Straus has stopped short of saying whether the $5.4 billion sliced from public schools during the last legislative session should be restored — a position that would put him directly at odds with the governor, who said recently that the state’s financing for public education has been “pretty phenomenal.”

Straus’ political resilience so far is in part because of the makeup of his district, which includes the well-heeled Alamo Heights neighborhood. His constituents, while conservative, tend toward mainstream Republicanism. He has also learned to wield the power of his position while earning a reputation among his house colleagues as a largely fair and reasonable leader.

Very little is said about ambitious Straus might have beyond the House. Perhaps this explains his positioning on issues. He has a safe seat - the Tea Party probably cannot touch him. Democrats don't mind having him as Speaker - which gives him significant support for the Speakership. And if he is uninterested in higher office - unlike Perry - he doesn't have to work to gain the electoral support of a vocal faction.

He seems to be an unusual figure in today's Texas politics.

Paul Burka writes that Straus seems ready to start leading the House and that Perry sounded like he was mailing in his speech.

Joe Straus reelected Texas House Speaker

From the Texas Tribune:

After the last of his challengers dropped out Tuesday, San Antonio Republican Joe Straus was elected to a third term as speaker of the Texas House.

That last challenger, Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, never found enough support to threaten the incumbent. An earlier challenger, Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, dropped out weeks ago as Simpson entered the race.
Simpson seems to be a gunner - not anxious to sit back and slowly work himself into a position of influence:

The seeds of Simpson’s challenge were planted two years ago. Simpson, in his freshman term, ignored experienced members who advised him to take a back seat and learn his way around, instead battling against legislation that would limit puppy mills and for legislation restricting security searches at airports. He lost both battles, but won a reputation for independence.
Simpson's career will be interesting to follow.

This is Straus' third time to be Texas House Speaker. Straus will now proceed to name committee chairs and members. He is able to do this after the vote - which means that this can turn into a weapon. No one wants to be on record as having oppose the Speaker.

He issued a statement after the vote listing what he sees as being the priorities for the session, he spends a great deal of attention to public education. He also mentions the drought and the need to focus on infrastructure repair.

Here's a snippet (the whole thing is worth a read):

Our rapid growth requires a steadfast commitment to the core responsibilities of government, such as a quality education, a reliable water supply, a healthy transportation system and an honest state budget. These are the priorities that you and I discussed around the state in recent months — the issues that voters expect us to address because they will play the largest role in determining our shared future.

Our priorities should begin where our future does — in public education. More than 5 million children are enrolled in our public schools, which is more than the total population of 29 states. More than 3 million of them are deemed economically disadvantaged, and almost 1 million of them speak limited English. The education of all our students will determine whether Texas is a land of prosperity or lost opportunities.

The race for the Texas Speaker

The Texas House will select a speaker when it convenes in a couple weeks. The presiding Speaker is Joe Straus, but since he was elected last session with the support of House Democrats, he's not especially popular with hard core Republicans. He is being challenged for the position by David Simpson.

More detail will follow, but here are a few stories related to the race so we can keep current:

- Texas Tribune Topic: Speaker.
- Blogging up the race for Speaker.
- Texas Politics: Speaker.

Expect more as the session approaches.

2 - Written Assignment GOVT 2302 and 2305

The job of the Speaker is to preside over the House of Representatives, both in the US and Texas. At least that's what it implies in the Constitution. As we will note as we start looking at the internal structure of Congress the Speaker is selected by the members of the House of Representatives after they have selected their party leaders, and the party with the most members generally gets to vote their leader in.

This means that in addition to presiding over the House, he or she is also responsible for organizing their party. This can pose challenges, especially now since the Republican Party - in the House in both Congress and the Texas Legislature - contains a Tea Party caucus that wants to pull the party further to the right, more so than the Speaker on either level is interested in.

I want you to look at either the Congress or the Texas Legislature and determine how the Speaker on that level is handling trying to keep all elements of the party together. This is good way to get to understand how leadership operates (or fails to) on the national or state level.

This might be a helpful read: King of the Hill: House Leadership.

Texas Speaker Makes Committee Assignments

As my 2302s know, this is one of the major powers the Texas Speaker has.

- Here's the list by committee.
- Press Release from Straus.
- Story in the Texas Tribune.
- Straus gives GOP members the plums, Democrats the crumbs with Texas House committee assignments

- Straus favors GOP in reshuffling of House leaders

- Commentary from Paul Burka:

The Joe Straus who put together these committee assignments was a different Joe Straus from the one who made the appointments in 2009. Straus 2.0 is a much more skilled politician. For those who had labeled him a RINO, he spiked that attack by appointing 27 Republican chairs to only 11 Democrats, a ratio well in excess of the Republican majority of 101 to 49. His enemies had focused on Straus’s appointment of Democrat Rene Oliveira as chairman of Ways & Means as evidence that he was too cozy with Democrats. Straus removed Oliveira as chairman but gave him another chairmanship (Land and Resource Management).

... I don’t see much for Straus’s critics to harp on. He has loaded up on Republican chairs, strengthened the Appropriations committee, and banished his enemies to the dark corners of the Capitol. This guy knows what he is doing.

Notes on the Texas Speaker's Race

From Burka Blog, some background on Joe Straus' Reelection as Texas Speaker. Straus faced a fierce Tea Party inspired challenge, but held on. This is being taken by some that the Tea Party Caucus' influence in the legislature may not be quite as strong as once predicted.

Texas House Committee Assignments Announced

From the Chron, complete with winners and loser. Losers include Craddick and Warren Chisum (the Austin paper weighs in on winners and losers here).

Here's the official list from Straus' office.

The Brazosport Facts discusses Bonnen and Weber's appointments here.

Meet Joe Straus -- Speaker of the Texas House

Perhaps the biggest piece of news out of Texas while we were on our break was the defeat of Tom Craddick to continue as Texas' Speaker of the House. Craddick's iron rule eventually led enough of his precious supporters--or House members he had been able to intimidate--to vote against him.

Straus is a Republican who represents San Antonio, meaning that he will be the first Speaker in decades who represents an urban district. This marks a significant change that will affect not only the process in the House (members are expected to have more input on bills and floor procedure are expected to be more open) but the agenda of the House as well (education, transportation and health care). He is also the first practicing Jew to be Speaker.

Here are links to news articles on the election and on Straus in general:

- Background on the Craddick's problems during the last session.
- Interview with Texas Monthly.
- The Joe Straus Era Begins.
- Straus' Record is Moderate and Independent.
- Governor Perry Supports Straus.
- Google Search for Texas Speaker Joe Straus.

Understanding Craddick's Strength

Clay Robinson's piece in today's Chron helps sort this out:

Speaker Tom Craddick gained power and has held onto it (so far) with strong financial support from the business community, including Houston home builder Bob Perry.

Perry alone has been a major pro-Craddick force, giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican speaker and the election campaigns of legislative candidates backing him.
The home builder and his business colleagues have been rewarded with additional protections against consumer lawsuits and a less-than-onerous regulatory climate.

But what happens to Perry's money if Craddick is unseated? Well — if the poor economy doesn't dry it up — Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Attorney General Greg Abbott, many other Republican officials and selected Democrats will continue to get bushels of it.
And so, perhaps, would the next speaker.

At one time or another, the home builder or one of the political action committees to which he contributes heavily has given money to each of the nine House members — four Republicans and five Democrats — now challenging Craddick.

But two — Democrats Sylvester Turner of Houston and Allan Ritter of Nederland — have received much more of his money than the other would-be speakers.

In direct contributions alone, the home builder has given Turner, Craddick's speaker pro tem, $115,000 since 2002. That is almost double what Perry contributed directly to Craddick during that period. Turner received $31,000 of the total during the most recent election cycle.

Perry has given Ritter $67,000 since 2002. He gave most of that — $49,000 — during the 2003-04 election cycle, when Ritter beat a challenger in the Democratic primary, following the lawmaker's sponsorship in 2003 of the bill creating the home builder-backed Texas Residential Construction Commission.

That agency, designed to protect home builders from buyers' lawsuits in exchange for new state oversight over building standards, has been attacked as weak and ineffective by consumer advocates. And the staff of the Sunset Advisory Commission has recommended that the Legislature abolish it next year.

Ritter, who is in the building supply business, was honored by the National Homebuilders Association as the "State Legislator of the Year" in 2003, the year the agency was created.

There are reasons why some get involved heavily in politics. It pays.

Notice that Bob Perry has given money to each of the current candidates for Texas Speaker.

Speaker Summit

A proposal by one of the candidates for Texas House Speaker to meet to sort through the potential mess.

Click here for all posts in Capitol Annex about the 2009 Speaker's race.

The Texas Speakers Race

Click here for an update from the Texas Ethics Commission on the people who have filed to run for the Texas Speaker.

Click kere for information about the process for becoming Speaker.

The Texas Speaker's Race

It appears to be wide open. Current Speaker Tom Craddick is running for re-election against eight opponents.

On Procedure...

Just in case you thought something as simple as the manner in which a vote takes place is not consequential, consider the aborted attempt to take down Tom Craddick, the once and still Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.

Unlike the United States House of Representatives, which is strongly organized around party lines, the Texas House has rules which allows for firm control by a well placed individual. The key mechanism is the fact that (1) votes for the Speakership are public and (2) the Speaker gets to select who gets on what committees and who chairs them. This puts rank and file members in a bind because they can be punished if they back the wrong candidate. Craddick has a reputation as someone who does not handle dissent very well, and has no qualms about punishing opponents. Since this makes House members nervous, they tend to be vague about who in fact they are going to vote for.

Nevertheless, an apparently autocratic leadership style led to a challenge to his leadership by two fellow Republicans, Brian McCall and Jim Pitts. Pitts was the eventual sole challenger, but his candidacy rested on a proposal that the votes for the Speaker be made public immediately. Pitts argued that either they be made public after committee assignemnts were made, or never. This obviously gives political cover to his supporters. Craddick supporters are arguing that member's constituents deserve to know immediately who their reps voted for, which may or may not be a good point, but Craddick certainly wants to know before making committee assignments or else he has no weapon to use to enforce support.

A move to have a secret ballot was defeated though, causing Pitts to withdraw his bid since there would be no cover for his supporters. Craddick was reelected overwhelmingly 121-27.
Only Democrats voted against him.

Now comes the fun part. Which commitee assignments will Pitts, McCall and the Democrats get?
Welcome to Texas politics.

Note: Though votes for the Speaker are public in the U.S. House, votes for party leader are secret, and held within the party caucus, which means that the leader of the majority party automatically becomes Speaker. And this is not an issue in either the Texas or U.S. since the head of each is elected by the general public.