House reaches deadline on Senate bills

As the session approaches its end, deadlines for bills to reach certain steps in the legislative process have begun to pass. At midnight last night, the House reached a deadline after which bills received from the Senate can no longer be read on second reading. As a reminder, bills must be read three times before passage.

When unpopular bills are scheduled on the House calendar, the minority party (for the foreseeable future, Democrats) often employ a strategy called "chubbing" to slow down the debate on bills when certain deadlines approach. Beginning late in the afternoon, Democrats rose to speak against certain bills for the maximum allowed 10 minutes, raised points of order against certain bills that can take over half an hour to resolve, and asked complicated questions of bill sponsors to delay advancing through the calendar. 

About five minutes before midnight, the House members who were near the top of the calendar were packed around the front microphone to lay out their bills as quickly as possible. Both the members and the speaker spoke with the pace of a livestock auctioneer to pass as many Senate bills as possible before midnight, and despite the earlier delays, the chamber was in good spirits as each member tried not to get tongue tied speaking as quickly as possible.

When midnight passed, Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston) approached the back mic and raised a ceremonial point of order against further consideration of Senate bills, which the speaker cheerfully said was well-taken and sustained. 

Any Senate bills not heard on second reading by that point died on the spot.

With the surviving Senate bills remaining and possible concurrences/conference committees for House bills, there is still much to do in the last few days of session. TCTA will keep you updated on the latest as sine die approaches.