Geren attempting to pull a fast one

"They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work."
Titus 1:16

Last week the Texas House licensing committee approved an absurd bill from Charlie Geren that would ban the sale of "powdered alcohol"; as we noted on our Facebook page at the time:

Two points:a) Yet another waste of time bill from House leadership designed to create a manufactured time crisis at...
Posted by Adam Cahnman on Monday, March 30, 2015

In a VERY interesting development, the bill has been sent to the local and consent committee:

And what, pray tell, is the local and consent committee?!?

In theory, the local and consent committee is where non-controversial bills are supposed to be referred and easily passed.  That being said, leadership occasionally sends bills there over which they're hoping to avoid a floor debate.  As Texas Homeschool Coalition explained last session:

For those who are unfamiliar with the process in the Texas House, whenever a bill is voted out of committee the chairman of that committee can elect to send it to one of two places: the Regular Calendars Committee or the Local and Consent Calendars Committee. Controversial bills are sent to the Regular Calendars Committee, while bills that are expected to pass unanimously in the House are sent to the Local and Consent Calendars Committee.

Is the Local and Consent Calendar ever abused? Yes, definitely. It’s not uncommon for a legislator to try to “sneak” a bill onto the Local and Consent Calendar. If successful, his bill will be brought up early during the day, with possibly a hundred other bills that are quickly glossed over and voted on by legislators who aren’t really paying attention to what’s happening. After all, why should they? The bills are supposed to be non-controversial and would have unanimous support anyway.

Bottom Line: For Geren and Straus to send this bill to Local and Consent instead of Calendars reveals a lack of confidence in the merit of their underlying position.

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Worth noting is that Geren's fellow Tarrant County colleague, Giovanni Capriglione, serves on Local and Consent:

Giovanni Capriglione:
(512) 463-0690
@VoteGiovanni