AUSTIN, Texas — With just a week left in the 86th Texas Legislative Session, the House of Representatives faces a major deadline this week. Tuesday is the last day House members can initially vote on Senate bills.
The deadline for them to pass House bills has already come and gone.
There are more than 50 bills on the House calendar for Monday, and as of 6 p.m., lawmakers had just started debating the fifth bill on the list.
The pace of the House isn't going over well with the Senate. Last week, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick expressed frustration that the House hasn't passed more Senate bills. And the pace of the House came into question again Monday when Senator Joan Huffman (R-Houston) had a parliamentary inquiry.
"I'd like to ask how many House bills were passed out of the Senate today," Huffman asked Patrick around 3:30 p.m.
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"I believe there were 25," replied the lieutenant governor.
"And watching the House here on my iPad, I believe they are on the second bill of the day," said Huffman.
"I believe they've passed one bill so far," said Patrick.
After the exchange, the Senate decided to recess until 6:30 p.m. Monday. The lieutenant governor has said he will slow down passing House bills if they don't speed up and pass more Senate bills.
The House calendars for Monday and Tuesday are set and it is worth noting that some controversial bills aren't on the calendar, including Senate Bill 9, which relates to elections, Senate Bill 1663, which would make it more difficult to remove Confederate monuments, and Senate Bills 2485, 2486, 2487 and 2488 related to paid sick leave and employment. Those bills are essentially dead, however, no bill is ever really dead until the last day of the session. This year, that's Memorial Day, May 27.
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