Senate defangs Travis County DA; House dithers on "Pre-K"

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
But when a wicked man rules, the people groan."
Proverbs 29:2

Yesterday was another revealing day in the Texas Legislature.  The Texas Senate passed another meaningful reform that serves the people of Texas.  The House, meanwhile, did what the House has done all session.

We arrived at the Capitol shortly before 11AM.  After running a few errands in the building, we entered the Senate gallery.  They were discussing Senator Huffman's bill to transfer "public corruption" away from the Travis County DA.  Kirk Watson was having a conniption fit.  He took several puerile shots at Michael Quinn Sullivan and Ken Paxton.  Senator Huffman addressed Watson's gibberish with ease.  The Senate passed the bill before 1PM.

The House, meanwhile, was emerging from slumber.  They had begun to consider HB 4, Governor Abbott's strange attempt to separate young children from their mama under the guise of "high-quality pre-K."  Jonathan Stickland called three separate points of order to whittle the bill into something manageable.  Unfortunately, Joe Straus overruled each of them.  We left while Dan Huberty was presenting his unconvincing argument for the bill.

Following the U.T. regents meeting, we received this press release from the Lt. Governor's office:

PR 04 08 2015 Lt. Gov. Patrick on Public Integrity Unit Legislation

Meanwhile, the farce on the House side continued:

Unfortunately, sanity failed to prevail and the measure passed.

Over the past five years, Texas voters have been clear about what they expect from their legislature.  Slowly but surely, we've replaced legislators who refused to listen.  While they haven't been perfect, the new Senate has been responsive.  The House, meanwhile, sinks deeper into the abyss of bad governance and cronyism.  More ammunition for the bloodbath of a primary season that cannot come quickly enough.