TexasCHLforum.com

joe817 wrote:

Bladed wrote:This is not accurate. The House is not required to hold public hearings on bills and does not do so on bills that are substantially similar to bills on which they've already held hearings. The Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee will vote on SB 17 and shelve HB 910.

They do have to wait for SB 17 to go through first reading and be assigned to the committee, though. If that doesn't happen before Tuesday, I suspect they'll wait and vote on SB 17 at their next meeting. The alternative would be to vote on HB 910 at this meeting and then vote on SB 17 at the next meeting, which is kind of pointless.

Not arguing with you, but that contradicts the flow chart on P.20 of the link posted above. But that's a minor point, I'm not willing to debate.

My statement isn't based on a flow chart; it's based on the official House Rules and my own years of experience.

The House committee never would have scheduled a committee hearing on HB 910 if that had meant they would also have to hold a hearing on SB 17.

TexasCajun wrote:So how does it work when each chamber is working on companion bills? The Homeland Security Committee already heard testimony on the companion bills of those that just passed from the Senate to the House?

If a bill is on the House or Senate calendar when its companion bill gets passed out of the opposite chamber; that companion bill can--after being voted out of committee--be called up in place of the bill on the calendar. Basically, the companion bill takes the place of the bill already scheduled for a vote, but it still has to be approved by the second chamber's committee.

If a House bill is on the House calendar when a Senate bill is passed by the Senate, it still has to be passed by the House committee to which it's assigned, but it doesn't have to be scheduled by Calendars. The House author can simply call up the Senate companion bill when the House reaches his bill on the Calendar.

But once the amendments get tacked on, I don't think they are companions like that any more...

RogueUSMC wrote:But once the amendments get tacked on, I don't think they are companions like that any more...

Amendments and committee substitutes don't affect "companion" status. In fact, the Speaker or the Lieutenant Governor (depending on the chamber) can make a companion bill of a bill that wasn't originally listed as a companion bill.

Bladed wrote:

RogueUSMC wrote:But once the amendments get tacked on, I don't think they are companions like that any more...

Amendments and committee substitutes don't affect "companion" status. In fact, the Speaker or the Lieutenant Governor (depending on the chamber) can make a companion bill of a bill that wasn't originally listed as a companion bill.

Cool. That is good to know.

OK. I am a little bit confused. HB 910 is not on the House calendar because it has not been approved by Homeland Security and has not gone to Calendars Committee for scheduling. How does that impact the process just described?

Srnewby wrote:OK. I am a little bit confused. HB 910 is not on the House calendar because it has not been approved by Homeland Security and has not gone to Calendars Committee for scheduling. How does that impact the process just described?

It doesn't. TexasCajun asked how companion bills work.

What matters right now is that the House has already held a hearing on open carry and won't hold a separate hearing for a virtually identical bill. Assuming SB 17 is read and referred on Monday, the House Committee on Homeland Security & Public Safety will most likely vote on it at their Tuesday meeting.

The same goes for campus carry.

Thanks Bladed.

Bladed wrote:

TexasCajun wrote:So how does it work when each chamber is working on companion bills? The Homeland Security Committee already heard testimony on the companion bills of those that just passed from the Senate to the House?

If a bill is on the House or Senate calendar when its companion bill gets passed out of the opposite chamber; that companion bill can--after being voted out of committee--be called up in place of the bill on the calendar. Basically, the companion bill takes the place of the bill already scheduled for a vote, but it still has to be approved by the second chamber's committee.

If a House bill is on the House calendar when a Senate bill is passed by the Senate, it still has to be passed by the House committee to which it's assigned, but it doesn't have to be scheduled by Calendars. The House author can simply call up the Senate companion bill when the House reaches his bill on the Calendar.

Thanks for the explanation, Bladed. So it looks like Homeland Security was trying to cut a week or two out of the process by holding hearings on the House companions that were being passed out of the Senate.

In the House the biggest obstacle to overcome is the Speaker of the House. He lost sight of his role many years ago, and likes to be a dictator, without the tator...
He likes to kill bills in the calendars committee...

dac1842 wrote:In the House the biggest obstacle to overcome is the Speaker of the House. He lost sight of his role many years ago, and likes to be a dictator, without the tator...
He likes to kill bills in the calendars committee...

The thing about Straus and his minions in the Calendars Committee is that they generally like to maintain plausible deniability. They want to be able to deflect blame or claim they just ran out of time. With Calendars (presumably, depending on the actions of the Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee) getting the major gun bills so early this session, the members of the Calendars committee (and, by proxy, Straus) are going to have to decide whether they're willing to leave their fingerprints on the corpses of open carry and campus carry.

Bladed wrote:

dac1842 wrote:In the House the biggest obstacle to overcome is the Speaker of the House. He lost sight of his role many years ago, and likes to be a dictator, without the tator...
He likes to kill bills in the calendars committee...

The thing about Straus and his minions in the Calendars Committee is that they generally like to maintain plausible deniability. They want to be able to deflect blame or claim they just ran out of time. With Calendars (presumably, depending on the actions of the Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee) getting the major gun bills so early this session, the members of the Calendars committee (and, by proxy, Straus) are going to have to decide whether they're willing to leave their fingerprints on the corpses of open carry and campus carry.

We'll see
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/03/ ... arry-bill/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Calendars Committee Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi) has told this writer repeatedly he will move any pro-gun bills through Calendars to the House Floor for a vote."

TexasCajun wrote:

Bladed wrote:

TexasCajun wrote:So how does it work when each chamber is working on companion bills? The Homeland Security Committee already heard testimony on the companion bills of those that just passed from the Senate to the House?

If a bill is on the House or Senate calendar when its companion bill gets passed out of the opposite chamber; that companion bill can--after being voted out of committee--be called up in place of the bill on the calendar. Basically, the companion bill takes the place of the bill already scheduled for a vote, but it still has to be approved by the second chamber's committee.

If a House bill is on the House calendar when a Senate bill is passed by the Senate, it still has to be passed by the House committee to which it's assigned, but it doesn't have to be scheduled by Calendars. The House author can simply call up the Senate companion bill when the House reaches his bill on the Calendar.

Thanks for the explanation, Bladed. So it looks like Homeland Security was trying to cut a week or two out of the process by holding hearings on the House companions that were being passed out of the Senate.

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/03/ ... o-passage/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Phillips expects bipartisan support for his open carry bill. The Senate version passed along a strict party-line vote. He said his committee will vote on the bills in about two weeks."

did anyone catch the first 30-45 minutes of the Homeland Security committee meeting. Was any action taken on 910? (or any other pending bills for that matter)

TVGuy wrote:did anyone catch the first 30-45 minutes of the Homeland Security committee meeting. Was any action taken on 910? (or any other pending bills for that matter)

Testimony was taken, but the Bill was not voted. All bills in that committee are "left pending" until the next committee hearing. Then some bills are voted on, some are not. Those that are not are either undergoing changes, or are dead.

Chas.