Speaker 1: This week's episode is sponsored by the Lone Star Economic Alliance,
Speaker 1: the Texas Managed Care Alliance, and the Safer Texas Alliance.
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Texas Tribune trip Cast for
Speaker 1: Tuesday May twenty seventh, twenty twenty five. It is the
Speaker 1: last Texas Tribune trip cast of the regular session.
Speaker 2: We did it?
Speaker 3: We did it? Did we do it?
Speaker 4: You specified regular sessions?
Speaker 3: Yes, we will get into that.
Speaker 1: Parentheses are soon. I am Matthew Watkins, Editor in Chief
Speaker 1: Text Tribune. Next to me is my co host, Eleanor Klebanoff. Hello, Eleanor, Matthew.
Speaker 1: And next to her is jasper Cher, politics reporter, not
Speaker 1: co host, but frequent guest and friend of the podcast,
Speaker 1: Friend of.
Speaker 4: The pod, favored guest, guest to guests, favorite guests.
Speaker 3: How's everybody doing?
Speaker 2: Doing well?
Speaker 5: Tired, very tired, hanging in there? Ready for ready for snyde?
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I was sad to have missed all the
Speaker 1: intense text A and M discussion in last week's podcast.
Speaker 6: Oh, I actually do have some feedback I got about
Speaker 6: that episode.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 6: I would like to offer the audience a male coolpa
Speaker 6: on okay, which is that we got a lot of emails,
Speaker 6: and I'm sure I didn't respond to all of them
Speaker 6: because it's been very busy, So consider this My response.
Speaker 6: The feedback was that we, uh, the average listener listen
Speaker 6: to that episode might have thought that there were only
Speaker 6: two institutions of higher education in Texas.
Speaker 3: Really there's only one text A.
Speaker 6: And M not helping, uh, But yeah, we you know,
Speaker 6: obviously spend a lot of time talking about UT and
Speaker 6: A and M, but we hear your feedback that you know,
Speaker 6: there's that, there's the Texas States and the University of
Speaker 6: Houston's and the couple people email me about RICE. We're
Speaker 6: not gonna spend a ton of time time at RICE, guys,
Speaker 6: because we largely cover state institutions, but we hear your feedback,
Speaker 6: and on a future episode, we'll get Kate and Jessica
Speaker 6: back to.
Speaker 2: Get into the weeds on those systems.
Speaker 1: Listen, Eleanor cannot help it that all those other schools
Speaker 1: are so much more functional than A and M and
Speaker 1: U two.
Speaker 2: Yes, so they just suck all the oxygen out of
Speaker 2: the room.
Speaker 1: But I have lots of takes, but I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: go ahead and keep them to myself because we don't
Speaker 1: need to do another higher education podcast because it is
Speaker 1: May twenty seventh, which means there is less than a
Speaker 1: week left in the legislative session, and we are officially
Speaker 1: at the point of the calendar where things are moving
Speaker 1: so fast and furious that it's hard for even me,
Speaker 1: whose job it is to keep track of these things,
Speaker 1: to keep up. Today, the twenty seventh is deadline for
Speaker 1: the House to pass Senate bills. Tomorrow is the deadline
Speaker 1: for the Senate to pass any bills. All that's left
Speaker 1: off for that is conference committee reports ironing out you know,
Speaker 1: the differences between the chamber bills the chambers past in
Speaker 1: different in different chambers. You know, this is the time
Speaker 1: where people are tired, tensions often run high. Uh be
Speaker 1: worried are things going to break down? And I can
Speaker 1: think of no one better to help us talk this
Speaker 1: through than Jasper, So thank you for being here. Of
Speaker 1: course we are, you know, usually at this time going
Speaker 1: through the list of all the legislative priorities, what's happening,
Speaker 1: what's not What is the thing that is most likely
Speaker 1: to ruin our summer vacation. And so that's the exercise
Speaker 1: I want to go through with you. Where do we
Speaker 1: stand on the big priorities. We're going to start with
Speaker 1: schools education issues. School vouchers obviously passed a long time ago.
Speaker 1: No big issue, it is, it is law. We are
Speaker 1: we are there. But the the second step of the
Speaker 1: Texas two Step s B two, the school Finance Bill,
Speaker 1: remain means somewhat open up in the air. Although both
Speaker 1: the chambers have seemed to made somewhat of a deal here,
Speaker 1: Desper can you tell us a little bit about what
Speaker 1: this deal is around school finance.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I think kind of the top line,
Speaker 5: big picture summary is, you know, both chambers got a
Speaker 5: little bit of what they wanted.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 5: I think we described it in our story as kind
Speaker 5: of a face saving compromise for both folks in the
Speaker 5: sense that, you know, Dan Patrick and the Senate get,
Speaker 5: you know, a big bucket of the money narrowly targeted
Speaker 5: at teacher pay raises, and there's kind of this newly
Speaker 5: created fund that, from what I can tell, kind of
Speaker 5: replicates a lot of the functions of what the basic
Speaker 5: lawment increase would have done, you know, kind of dedicated
Speaker 5: to helping schools pay for overhead costs, giving them some
Speaker 5: of that flexibility to pay for stuff beyond teacher pay raises,
Speaker 5: but still kind of how do I put it, like
Speaker 5: complying with the dan Patrick mandate, the brand and creating
Speaker 5: mandate to you know, have more oversight kind of tell
Speaker 5: schools what they can and can't spend their money on.
Speaker 5: So but from what we can tell, it's, you know,
Speaker 5: eight and a half billion dollar deal that unless there's
Speaker 5: some weird last minute hiccup, it's trending towards being signed
Speaker 5: into law.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so let's break this down.
Speaker 1: I mean, the disagreement seemed to en large part be
Speaker 1: centered around how much to go into the basic allotment,
Speaker 1: which is, tell me, if I'm describing this poorly, like
Speaker 1: sort of the big pot of discretionary money that the
Speaker 1: schools can spend. Dan Patrick wanted to put less in
Speaker 1: the house, seemed to want to put more. What the
Speaker 1: compromise ended up being would be creating a new allotment
Speaker 1: for basic costs that would put one point three billion
Speaker 1: dollars toward that kind of feels like just sort of
Speaker 1: changing the order of the words here from basic elipment
Speaker 1: to allotment for basic costs.
Speaker 5: See how that could get mixed up a little bit? Yeah, yes, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: but it does you know, a lot of the I
Speaker 5: was referring to overhead costs, you know, the kind of
Speaker 5: the list of allowable uses for that fund. It replicates
Speaker 5: a lot of what I think the schools would have
Speaker 5: wanted to spend the basic alowment increase on transportation, utilities,
Speaker 5: insurance cost increases.
Speaker 1: That kind of stuff feels a little bit like a
Speaker 1: distinction without much of a difference.
Speaker 4: I think, so.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And if it does sound like the overall increase
Speaker 5: to kind of the equivalent increase of the basic allotment,
Speaker 5: you know, even with it's going to be a fifty
Speaker 5: five dollars increase to the basic allotment, and then on
Speaker 5: top of that, even factoring in this new fund, it's
Speaker 5: still not quite I think what the schools were looking for.
Speaker 5: But a lot of that extra difference is going to
Speaker 5: be made up with the money going directly to teacher
Speaker 5: pay raises.
Speaker 1: Which is four point two billion dollars for teacher pay
Speaker 1: raise is a pretty substantial increase there to nearly two
Speaker 1: billion for special education four hundred and thirty million in
Speaker 1: additional school safety funds. That was a big issue last
Speaker 1: session where there are a lot of new rules and
Speaker 1: not a lot of money to spend toward them.
Speaker 3: What is the reaction of the schools on this.
Speaker 5: I think it's it's been sort of a grudging, a
Speaker 5: big grudging acceptance of it. You know, they eight and
Speaker 5: a half billion dollars is a lot of money, you know,
Speaker 5: no matter how much how you spend it. And I
Speaker 5: think what I've seen it's generally positive, with you know,
Speaker 5: the caveats that you know, they always would have liked
Speaker 5: to see more, They would have maybe liked to have
Speaker 5: a little bit more flexibility in an ideal world. But
Speaker 5: I think everyone's also just kind of breathing a big
Speaker 5: sigh of relief. You know, you go back to twenty
Speaker 5: twenty three, the school voucher fight. This kind of a
Speaker 5: similar amount of money got caught up in was a
Speaker 5: casualty of that fight. So just I think big sigh
Speaker 5: of relief has been kind of the overarching response that
Speaker 5: I've seen.
Speaker 1: And do we feel like the big hurdle has been crossed?
Speaker 1: I mean, the Big Three put out a press release,
Speaker 1: all of their names, all of their quotes. There are
Speaker 1: even some Democrats in that press release that you know,
Speaker 1: we're not done yet, right, Like the bill has passed
Speaker 1: the House, it's going back to the Senate. They can
Speaker 1: concur on the amendments or request a conference committee. But
Speaker 1: is there anything that you're seeing in that situation right
Speaker 1: now that makes you think that this is at risk
Speaker 1: in any way?
Speaker 4: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 5: I think I think this And if I'm remembering correctly,
Speaker 5: I've there's so many different bills that have been trying
Speaker 5: to track. But I think the Senate has officially signed off,
Speaker 5: so we're like, we're good to go. I think we're
Speaker 5: they have, I believe so, unless I'm mixing this up
Speaker 5: with something else, but they they have. You know, Dan
Speaker 5: Patrick put out a bit when they passed it in
Speaker 5: the Senate the other day. Dan Patrick's up on the
Speaker 5: die is making a big show of, you know, saying
Speaker 5: basically smacking down the haters, saying, you know, people were
Speaker 5: accusing us of holding this hostage and complaining about what
Speaker 5: was taking so long, and sort of touting it as
Speaker 5: you know, you got to work through the details on
Speaker 5: this thing. And so he was taking a big victory lap.
Speaker 5: And I think everyone's considering this this done at this point.
Speaker 1: So around the same time that happened, we also saw
Speaker 1: action in the House on a THHC ban, a previously
Speaker 1: skeptical house in which they voted to essentially ban the
Speaker 1: sale of any substances with you know, a detectable amount
Speaker 1: of THHC that will essentially, you know, starting September first,
Speaker 1: completely erase what you know, you have reported to be
Speaker 1: an eight billion dollar industry in this state. This is
Speaker 1: the House that last session voted to decriminalize marijuana. So
Speaker 1: we're talking about a pretty significant shift from being pretty
Speaker 1: pro marijuana to being pretty anti anything you know, THHC
Speaker 1: related at all.
Speaker 6: Well, and in twenty nineteen being like, you know, open
Speaker 6: for a bit, like you know, yeah on THHC specifically
Speaker 6: like the pendulum swim.
Speaker 5: What happened there, Well, there's a lot going on.
Speaker 4: I mean the kind of the to word answer is
Speaker 4: like Dan Patrick happened.
Speaker 5: You know. He he adopts this as his you know,
Speaker 5: one of his top pet issues, you know, almost six
Speaker 5: months ago now, and was pretty much driving the hardest
Speaker 5: bargain possible from the get go, you know, made clear
Speaker 5: that he was going to go to the mat force
Speaker 5: a special session over this, and the House you know,
Speaker 5: I think this was sort of a frustration of mine
Speaker 5: in reporting on this story throughout the session, it was
Speaker 5: really difficult to get a sense of where the House
Speaker 5: stood on this. Even you know, Ken King, the State
Speaker 5: Affairs Chairman who carried the bill throughout the session, kind
Speaker 5: of was, I think it's fair to say, a little
Speaker 5: bit all over the place, or at least was you know,
Speaker 5: he put out different versions of the bill that you know,
Speaker 5: would have regulated the industry almost to the point of extinction,
Speaker 5: and then sort of went back and it was, you know,
Speaker 5: maybe a little more of a permissive regulatory approach, and
Speaker 5: that was the version that got to the House floor,
Speaker 5: and Tom oliverson another Republican state representative, brought forth an
Speaker 5: amendment that that essentially reverted the the build back to.
Speaker 4: The Senate ban.
Speaker 5: And to my initial point, I think the House was
Speaker 5: pretty ambivalent about this issue sort of from the get go,
Speaker 5: and you sort of saw them falling in line with
Speaker 5: what the Senate wanted on it. And it's I think
Speaker 5: it was a show of Dan Patrick's way over you know,
Speaker 5: kind of both chambers of the Legislature in some points.
Speaker 6: So we're seeing a lot of blowback to this sort
Speaker 6: of anecdotally, right, I mean, a lot of I think
Speaker 6: this is not an issue that falls along partisan lines always.
Speaker 6: I mean, it sort of ensnares a lot of like
Speaker 6: veterans groups are very active around this, a lot of
Speaker 6: you know, older people who use these products sort of
Speaker 6: you know what they would say, like medicinally, like not
Speaker 6: not through like an official medical marijuana program, but they
Speaker 6: just sort of use them that way. And so I
Speaker 6: think this is there's like I'm hearing a lot of
Speaker 6: chatter almost like is this something?
Speaker 2: Is everyone else on board with this? Or is this
Speaker 2: Stan Patrick's thing? Would Abbot veto something like this?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we haven't gotten It's been sort of radio silence
Speaker 5: from Abbot on, you know, not just whether he'll veto it,
Speaker 5: but kind of the issue overall. He's been pretty adamant
Speaker 5: about just letting the sort of the will of the
Speaker 5: ledge dictate what happens.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: I do think that the kind of trying to read
Speaker 5: the tea leaves here. The other part of this equation
Speaker 5: is the expansion of the state medical marijuana program. And
Speaker 5: I think the kind of the cliff notes version is
Speaker 5: that the two chambers seem to have reached deal to
Speaker 5: do a more expansive expansion than what was previously thought
Speaker 5: to be on the table, and I think that maybe
Speaker 5: slightly decreases the odds of Abbot vetoing this. You know,
Speaker 5: the kind of the outrage meter was at its like
Speaker 5: fever pitch when it seemed like we're going to have
Speaker 5: the ban and also, you know, a less permissive expansion
Speaker 5: of medical marijuana. So I think you know now that
Speaker 5: the medical program tea cup is being seems like expanded
Speaker 5: to include chronic pain in some of the you know,
Speaker 5: the things that were on the table that seemed to
Speaker 5: be on the table in the House when lawmakers were
Speaker 5: deciding whether to do the THHC ban. You know that
Speaker 5: the band was sort of sold as going in tandem
Speaker 5: with this major expansion of medical marijuana. I think the
Speaker 5: fact that that seems to be happening now, maybe Abbot
Speaker 5: just doesn't want to ruffle, you know, feathers with with
Speaker 5: Dan Patrick. I mean, he he had that happen on
Speaker 5: property taxes two years ago, and it was a messy situation.
Speaker 5: We're kind of at this point now where all the
Speaker 5: Republicans are more or less on the same page. You know,
Speaker 5: everything's fine. My money would be on no Veto at
Speaker 5: this point. But I also, you know, stranger things have happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the twists in terms of this have been very interesting,
Speaker 1: right because you mentioned the the kind of deal to
Speaker 1: expand the medical marijuana provision. Then you see that measure
Speaker 1: go up in the House and there's the Senate then
Speaker 1: removes chronic pain from the list of those provisions, which
Speaker 1: then creates this whole stir Tom Olliversen you already mentioned
Speaker 1: kind of tweets up against you know, against this decision.
Speaker 1: People seem to think that maybe Dan Patrick has pulled
Speaker 1: a fast one on them and you know, has kind
Speaker 1: of gone back on the deal. Then they come out
Speaker 1: on social media and are sort of having their.
Speaker 3: Little like that.
Speaker 1: It would be quite a twist if Abbott were to
Speaker 1: then come in and veto that.
Speaker 3: But it'll be interesting to see.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, where we land on all this
Speaker 1: will be curious because you know, you've seen times in
Speaker 1: different states where you had a more broad medical marijuana
Speaker 1: program and you could basically just go find a doctor
Speaker 1: to write you a prescription and then.
Speaker 3: You know, do that.
Speaker 1: I think Dan Patrick seems very intent on keeping that
Speaker 1: from happening again in Texas.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he was pretty clear that that was like his
Speaker 5: big the thing that he wanted to make sure was,
Speaker 5: you know, not part of the equation was and he's
Speaker 5: kind of been riding that train for for years now,
Speaker 5: like he just you go back to some of the
Speaker 5: comments he's made over the years. He that's been his
Speaker 5: big sort of line in the sand or sticking point
Speaker 5: that he doesn't want to open this up to you know,
Speaker 5: anyone being able to get their doctor to write this prescription.
Speaker 5: I think also the big unexplored question is what does
Speaker 5: what's kind of the ripple effects of this in twenty
Speaker 5: twenty six, how big of a you know, a backlash
Speaker 5: I guess on both or on either side of the aisle.
Speaker 4: You guys were mentioning just.
Speaker 5: Some of the kind of the opinions on this issue
Speaker 5: within the Republican Party.
Speaker 2: I mean, you've got farmers that.
Speaker 6: Are upsett veterans, You've got small business owners. I think
Speaker 6: it's an example of like, particularly in these final days
Speaker 6: of session, like things that are happening inside the dome
Speaker 6: feels so like like, of course Abbot couldn't veto this
Speaker 6: because like Alliver sin Patrick struck this d and everyone
Speaker 6: is on board finally, and it's like that can become
Speaker 6: so insular that it's like you sort of lose track
Speaker 6: of like what do people outside of this don't want?
Speaker 2: As we get into like the nitty gritty of negotiating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is one of those I mean, we
Speaker 1: were talking about school finance earlier, and it's like, do
Speaker 1: people really understand and notice that, like, you know, however
Speaker 1: much is in or not in the basic a lotment
Speaker 1: determines whether I have like a music teacher in my
Speaker 1: elementary school or whatever. Like there's a lot of different
Speaker 1: kind of steps you have to get to understand that.
Speaker 1: But the number of people, I don't know what that
Speaker 1: number is, but there's clearly enough of a number that
Speaker 1: it allows these stores to pop up pretty much everywhere,
Speaker 1: not just like in downtown Austin, but like every you know,
Speaker 1: rural parts of the state too. You can find these
Speaker 1: these things. And starting September first, those stores are probably
Speaker 1: going to have to close and that you know, product
Speaker 1: that they're selling will be illegal and like in some cases,
Speaker 1: like you could get a felony charge for having it
Speaker 1: and you've got you know, and it's going to be
Speaker 1: very clear who did this, Yeah, right, and that'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to watch. I honestly have no idea of like
Speaker 1: how much of a political impact or penalty this will be.
Speaker 1: It might be fairly limited. And I think in defense
Speaker 1: of the of the Senate of Dan Patrick for this,
Speaker 1: it was never the intent of the legislature to have
Speaker 1: all these stores pop up when they legalized him. They
Speaker 1: were trying to do something very different than what they've
Speaker 1: done right now. But yeah, this will be This will
Speaker 1: be one to watch politically.
Speaker 5: And just on your your last point, this one comment
Speaker 5: that Raphael and Sheia, the Stay lawmaker from a Democrat
Speaker 5: from Dallas, made on the floor as this THHC band
Speaker 5: debate was going on. He he made the comment that essentially,
Speaker 5: you know, we as the legislature kind of you know,
Speaker 5: if you're looking for someone to blame for this, it's
Speaker 5: kind of the legislature's fault for, as you say, sort
Speaker 5: of inadvertently creating this issue, this industry six years ago
Speaker 5: and then basically doing nothing to step in and you know,
Speaker 5: put some at least reasonable regulations on it in the
Speaker 5: intervening time, really laid the groundwork for folks to come
Speaker 5: in and you know, say, we just got to get
Speaker 5: rid of it altogether.
Speaker 1: So yeah, all right, Let's take a break and hear
Speaker 1: from our sponsors. A coalition of more than one and
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Speaker 1: to Texas's courts. That's the Lone Star Economic Alliance. Learn
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Speaker 1: for responsible THC policies that protect public health and safety.
Speaker 1: Learn more at Safer Texasalliance dot com. Texas Managed Care
Speaker 1: Alliance is working to protect high quality healthcare for Medicaid patients,
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Speaker 1: Alliance dot org. That's Texas Managed Care Alliance dot org. Okay, so, Jasper,
Speaker 1: I think one of the big topics of conversation then,
Speaker 1: is is dan Patrick just getting everything he wants here?
Speaker 1: And you know, I think we talked about these two
Speaker 1: bills HB two, the school finance and the THHC ban,
Speaker 1: and I think one of the big questions here is
Speaker 1: how related are these pieces of legislation? Is this a
Speaker 1: part of some kind of big deal struck between the
Speaker 1: big two? We're going to give you your THC band
Speaker 1: if you give us a little bit more on the
Speaker 1: on the school finance.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, uh, you know, Dan Patrick's folks at
Speaker 5: least dispute that notion. But I think it just if
Speaker 5: you kind of look at the timing of you know,
Speaker 5: when these you know, for example, SB three, the THHC
Speaker 5: band kind of getting increasingly postponed and delayed until you know,
Speaker 5: sort of a trust uh, but verify a situation where
Speaker 5: the House was waiting for the Senate to take action
Speaker 5: and on approving the school finance deal. So I think
Speaker 5: clearly those backroom discussions were happening to an extent.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: I also think that HB two school the school finance
Speaker 5: package was always going to pass in some form anyway.
Speaker 5: I don't think, you know, anyone in either chamber really
Speaker 5: realistically saw an opportunity to go back to their school
Speaker 5: districts and say like, we're again giving you zero dollars.
Speaker 5: But you know, I think think kind of the timing
Speaker 5: of how all this came together, maybe certain provisions within
Speaker 5: HB two were potentially tied to THHC. But you know,
Speaker 5: it is wild that after all this, you know, thousands
Speaker 5: of bills, it comes down to these two completely unrelated issues.
Speaker 5: And I should say also a point of correction going
Speaker 5: back to what we were talking about before. HB two
Speaker 5: has passed the Senate, but the House does need to
Speaker 5: sign off on those changes, so they.
Speaker 1: But it seems like they've given the indication that they're
Speaker 1: going to exactly yeah, okay, very good, all right, But
Speaker 1: I mean, let's tick off some of the other dan
Speaker 1: Patrick priorities. The lottery, right, he wanted to abolish the
Speaker 1: Texas Lottery Commission, moved that lottery at least temporarily over
Speaker 1: to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The House
Speaker 1: voted over the weekend to do that. Film incentives passed
Speaker 1: on Sunday, increasing States film incentives to more than five
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars. That passed the House on.
Speaker 5: And they did amend the amount down I believe it
Speaker 5: was to three hundred million or so.
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you for that.
Speaker 5: A bit of a change, but still another check mark
Speaker 5: checked off.
Speaker 1: Ten commandments in the classrooms appears poised to pass and
Speaker 1: be signed into law. Water SB seven past the House
Speaker 1: yesterday in a big infusion. H JR seven, which would
Speaker 1: be the constitutional amendment directing funds to that automatically, is
Speaker 1: on the Senate calendar. I think we could probably expect
Speaker 1: that one to go through as well. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you just tick off the things that Dan Patrick has
Speaker 1: been talking about, maybe unlike any other session, it's hard
Speaker 1: to find something that he was really pushing for that
Speaker 1: is not going to become law of this year.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think he's and he has kind of established
Speaker 5: this pattern or habit of putting out his list of
Speaker 5: top priorities early on at the start of session, even
Speaker 5: you know, getting out right before Greg Abbott's State of
Speaker 5: the State. So he's kind of he's the first of
Speaker 5: the big three to kind of lay out his action items,
Speaker 5: and he put out forty items this year, you know,
Speaker 5: not including the state budget, which always kind of comes
Speaker 5: down to the end, but all the other items. I mean,
Speaker 5: it's they're really only a couple that are still standing
Speaker 5: out there that haven't at least been put on a
Speaker 5: House calendar, you know, And therefore I think we can
Speaker 5: assume our dead like ban on taxpayer funded lobbying, letting
Speaker 5: cities and counties send their own lobbyists Austin. I think
Speaker 5: that was one of the handful that didn't make it through, which.
Speaker 1: A measure that amazingly still has not become given how
Speaker 1: logic considered.
Speaker 5: It is kind of shocking with Dustin Burrows being the speaker
Speaker 5: this year and you know, author of the kind of
Speaker 5: the I guess what critics named the death star bill
Speaker 5: targeting cities last session, kind of shocking that didn't get through.
Speaker 5: But you know, one point that was made to me
Speaker 5: for I published a story kind of looking at how
Speaker 5: Patrick was getting a lot of what he wanted. I
Speaker 5: think the one point of new there is that you know,
Speaker 5: the it's this the House and Speaker Burrows kind of
Speaker 5: they don't put out their own corresponding list to kind
Speaker 5: of it makes it hard to do kind of an
Speaker 5: apples to apples comparison of which chamber is getting, you know,
Speaker 5: more or less of what they want. Just if you
Speaker 5: look at you know, Speaker Burrows is a pretty conservative guy.
Speaker 5: The House has a much more conservative make up this session,
Speaker 5: and the kind of the argument that you know a
Speaker 5: lot of folks are saying the House has been getting rolled,
Speaker 5: or that the you know, the Senate is having their way.
Speaker 5: I think to an extent, there's some truth there, but
Speaker 5: also it's kind of they're they're both growing in the
Speaker 5: same direction on a lot of these things, right right.
Speaker 1: It's is the House getting rolled, if it's if it
Speaker 1: wants the same things the same exactly.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but there is sort of a also a reality
Speaker 6: that's like Dan Patrick, obviously as Lieutenant Governor the House
Speaker 6: spent all this time trying to just pick a speaker,
Speaker 6: like he gets to get out in front, he gets
Speaker 6: to set his priorities, and then how says like, oh, well,
Speaker 6: those are kind of our priorities too.
Speaker 2: There is you lose a little bit.
Speaker 6: Of the bicameral nature of absolutely this when we just say, like, well,
Speaker 6: we'll let Dan Patrick decide for both chambers.
Speaker 5: And that is an important point too, that it's a new,
Speaker 5: first time speaker. You've got the biggest freshman class in
Speaker 5: the House since twenty thirteen, over like one in five
Speaker 5: members in the lower Chamber are folks who are still
Speaker 5: kind of like learning where the bathrooms are, learning the ropes,
Speaker 5: and that is just by nature going to seed more,
Speaker 5: you know, more power to the Senate. And then when
Speaker 5: you on top of that, you've got a guy who
Speaker 5: in Dan Patrick, who is really you know, he has
Speaker 5: firmly established he has shown what he will do to
Speaker 5: make life miserable for past speakers. He's kind of in
Speaker 5: his element more so than any other session. It's a
Speaker 5: recipe for the Senate to really drive the agenda.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you talk about a new speaker, and
Speaker 1: not only a new speaker, a speaker who entered the
Speaker 1: race for speaker quite late in the process, and we
Speaker 1: really didn't know for sure was going to be the
Speaker 1: speaker until at the start of the leg.
Speaker 5: After, you know, we don't even Burrows isn't even a
Speaker 5: candidate for speaker until you know, a bunch of House
Speaker 5: low house bill numbers have been pre filed already, so
Speaker 5: he maybe even has less of a chance to set
Speaker 5: his own agenda this at that point.
Speaker 6: So and replacing a speaker who you know, tried to
Speaker 6: take on Dan Patrick to some extent, exactly got you know.
Speaker 6: I will briefly tell you my allegory, okayis I have
Speaker 6: a personal anecdote that I believe represents actually a couple
Speaker 6: of themes of the legislative session, which is that yesterday
Speaker 6: before my house shift, I as true fans of the Pod, No,
Speaker 6: I've been getting bar into playing tennis. And so I
Speaker 6: went into a tennis clinic and there was a girl
Speaker 6: that I was I had never played with before, who
Speaker 6: was so good. She was like so she was hitting
Speaker 6: from the baseline.
Speaker 4: So powerful, like the Dan Patrick of the Some might
Speaker 4: signe okay.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And I was kept being paired against her, and
Speaker 6: I was like, that's insane.
Speaker 2: I got to get on her side.
Speaker 6: I got to get on her team, and so I
Speaker 6: sort of I moved around so that I was standing
Speaker 6: near her when they were splitting up the teams.
Speaker 4: So you're the Dustin Burrows in this in this allegory.
Speaker 2: Some might say.
Speaker 6: And then when we got on the court, she's hitting
Speaker 6: so powerfully. She's on the baseline. I'm on the service line.
Speaker 6: She sets up, hits the first shot and it nails
Speaker 6: me directly in between the shoulder blades at full speed,
Speaker 6: which was extremely painful.
Speaker 4: And I was like, you know, and this is a true,
Speaker 4: legitally something happened yesterday.
Speaker 6: I've got like a weird bruise on the back in
Speaker 6: between my shoulders and I was like, oh, that feels
Speaker 6: like a metaphor.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know how that applies.
Speaker 1: And then she took all the TSC TCS tennis bag
Speaker 1: and threw it in the trash.
Speaker 2: Right and said, but no more property taxes. I was like,
Speaker 2: I'll take it.
Speaker 4: I'll take How far can we extend this allegory?
Speaker 1: You know, there's there's a long, proud history of tennis players,
Speaker 1: you know, dating back to our founder Evan Smith, our
Speaker 1: current CEO Son Shaw issues. Yeah, our current editor in
Speaker 1: chief JV had a short lived JV tennis career.
Speaker 6: Oh okay, so you're saying I'm being groomed to become
Speaker 6: a CEO of the Texas Tribune.
Speaker 3: That's great.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, it all felt very you know. So yeah,
Speaker 6: I do think there's also to some extent of metaphor
Speaker 6: and there about the Democrats and sort of how they've
Speaker 6: strategized all of this.
Speaker 2: But certainly seems like everyone's kind of.
Speaker 5: They're the folks who are getting served to in that
Speaker 5: in that allegory, I guess.
Speaker 2: Are there being like, hitt it to me and I'm
Speaker 2: getting just knocked over.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And they seem to be the ones who seem
Speaker 1: to be trying to push the House getting rolled narrative
Speaker 1: the most right, Jean Blue, you know, trying to.
Speaker 3: Make that argument and everything there.
Speaker 1: There, of course, is another very powerful person in the Capitol,
Speaker 1: and that's Greg Abbott, who had his own set of
Speaker 1: priorities and has landed a lot of them as well. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, we mentioned a bunch of those water, teacher pay,
Speaker 1: school choice, of course, being like his signature is shoe
Speaker 1: on this issue.
Speaker 3: Property tax cuts.
Speaker 1: Another thing that seems you know, some bills already done,
Speaker 1: others well on their way to being passed. Water, and
Speaker 1: one other one that we haven't talked about yet that
Speaker 1: seems to be kind of crossing the finish line for
Speaker 1: the first time, bail reform.
Speaker 3: Tell us a little bit about that issue.
Speaker 5: Well, this is another issue that kind of falls into
Speaker 5: the genre of stuff that was a perennial priority that
Speaker 5: just kept falling short of the finish line, you know,
Speaker 5: would always pass the Senate overwhelmingly, and then because it
Speaker 5: requires amending the Constitution, Republicans just could not yet enough
Speaker 5: Democrats in the House on board. But you know, the
Speaker 5: short of it is that the this is there's a
Speaker 5: big bail package that kind of the centerpiece of it
Speaker 5: is for certain violent crimes, giving judges discretion to to
Speaker 5: deny bail outright and in other cases requiring judges to
Speaker 5: deny bail. So this was I think Abbott has kind
Speaker 5: of governor Abbot has spearheaded this issue. But you know
Speaker 5: it's also you know, a perennial item on Dan Patrick's
Speaker 5: list of top priorities. So I think what happened here
Speaker 5: was that Democrats sort of saw the writing on the
Speaker 5: wall that this was it was going to happen. You know,
Speaker 5: there were more Republicans in the House than we've had
Speaker 5: in several sessions now, so they only needed a dozen
Speaker 5: Democrats to get on board. And you know, this is
Speaker 5: also kind of a bipartisan issue in some ways where
Speaker 5: you know when this when this issue has come up
Speaker 5: in the past, like in twenty twenty one, there were
Speaker 5: one hundred votes for it in the House, but it
Speaker 5: just happened to die when the Democrats walked out to
Speaker 5: kill the voting bill at the end of the regular session.
Speaker 5: So just and then in twenty twenty three it just
Speaker 5: ran into a a deadline. So it's not really there
Speaker 5: are I will say a lot more partisan issues than
Speaker 5: this in the legislature, and I think it just you know,
Speaker 5: the House and Senate got together earlier, I think, in
Speaker 5: a much more concerted fashion to try to strike a
Speaker 5: compromise that could get at least twelve Democrats on board,
Speaker 5: and it turned out that they I think ended up
Speaker 5: with like one hundred and thirty plus for the constitutional Amendment.
Speaker 5: They did fail to get a more stringent, kind of
Speaker 5: a eleventh hour play to get an even more stringent
Speaker 5: version of that through over the weekend, but still I
Speaker 5: think a huge win for the Republicans on this.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The other thing that didn't make it through this weekend
Speaker 1: was a measure that would make it if you were
Speaker 1: an undocumented immigrant arrested that you were not eligible for
Speaker 1: bail period. That failed would have required two thirds.
Speaker 5: And that could still theoretically pass. They've I believe they've
Speaker 5: postponed that continue nally with I you know, the deadline
Speaker 5: is still coming up, so they still do have a
Speaker 5: little bit more time to try to pass that, I believe,
Speaker 5: but it's not they have postponed it enough. I think
Speaker 5: it's been a full week now that you know, that's
Speaker 5: what you do when you're trying to find the votes
Speaker 5: and they're not coming together.
Speaker 3: Right, And do you think that's enough?
Speaker 1: Do you think that this is enough for Greg Abbott
Speaker 1: to declare victory and say I'm satisfied with this with
Speaker 1: this measure.
Speaker 4: I think so.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's it's something that you know, he can say.
Speaker 5: We still have more work to do in future sessions
Speaker 5: when we come back in twenty twenty seven. But I
Speaker 5: would be surprised if he you know, calls him back
Speaker 5: simply over this issue. But I also haven't have not
Speaker 5: talked to the governor about this, so we'll see what happens,
Speaker 5: all right.
Speaker 3: So one measure eleanor that did not pass.
Speaker 1: Really, the only measure that does not seem like it's
Speaker 1: going to pass, or it has not passed at least
Speaker 1: so far, but seems highly unlikely to pass, is Senate
Speaker 1: Bill twenty twenty eight eighty, Yeah, which is a bill
Speaker 1: to stop the flow of abortion inducing drugs in the
Speaker 1: state using a well, I'm just going to let you
Speaker 1: explain the complicated legal situation here. Tell us about the
Speaker 1: bill first, and then we'll talk about its fate.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So this was a bill as an authored by Representative sorry,
Speaker 6: by Senator Brian Hughes that is a really wide ranging
Speaker 6: crackdown on abortion pills. It's kind of an answer to
Speaker 6: blue states that have passed shield laws that you know,
Speaker 6: protect their providers who mail abortion pills into Texas. This
Speaker 6: is Texas's way of like upping the ante on the
Speaker 6: other side.
Speaker 2: It would do.
Speaker 6: You would be allowed to sue for one hundred thousand
Speaker 6: dollars anyone who manufactures, distributes, produces, or provides these pills
Speaker 6: in Texas. Which and it contains some like very thorny
Speaker 6: legal strategies in it. Sort of that Brian Hughes sort
Speaker 6: of testing the bounds of the judicial system's response to
Speaker 6: to their bills.
Speaker 3: It was seeming dead.
Speaker 6: I was sort of getting the it was stuck in
Speaker 6: the It passed the Senate, it got stuck in the
Speaker 6: State Affairs Committee. Ken King's committee in the House was
Speaker 6: getting the sense that it was not moving. There was
Speaker 6: a big push from like the sort of far right
Speaker 6: in the House to get it moving.
Speaker 2: They called a last minute committee meeting.
Speaker 4: They voted it out.
Speaker 2: It got stuck there again.
Speaker 6: It did not get reported to calendars and sort of
Speaker 6: missed the deadline to make it onto today's calendar. There's
Speaker 6: still optimism I would say among some of the anti
Speaker 6: abortion groups, particularly those were maybe like less burst in,
Speaker 6: like the strictness of the deadlines that you know, Burroughs
Speaker 6: will come through for them in some way, or this
Speaker 6: will get saved last minute, but it seems likely.
Speaker 2: It did.
Speaker 1: All right, So let's review we a prior trip cast.
Speaker 1: We all made our predictions about whether or not there
Speaker 1: would be a special session. I believe it was Eleanor
Speaker 1: who insisted that we make these predictions.
Speaker 3: Who remembers how they voted.
Speaker 5: Jasper, I feel like I predicted that we wouldn't have one,
Speaker 5: but I I, uh, and I'm sticking with that.
Speaker 4: Seems like that's where we're going.
Speaker 3: Eleanor.
Speaker 6: I think I predicted we would largely to be contrarian
Speaker 6: because I think you both voted that we would not,
Speaker 6: and I that's.
Speaker 4: What you say now.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's all a strategy. I think we will not.
Speaker 6: I think if if part of a special session is
Speaker 6: like getting the you know, just getting threatening special sessions,
Speaker 6: like getting compliance, I think everyone got sort of what they.
Speaker 1: Wanted, agreed. I believe I predicted no, I will. I
Speaker 1: think we all. I think we all feel pretty good
Speaker 1: about the fact that this is not going to happen.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: I'm nervous though. This feels like a thing we're going
Speaker 2: to play.
Speaker 4: We'll see some like last minute impeachments that everything.
Speaker 6: You know, we were talking about it yesterday in the house,
Speaker 6: like how crazy it is that yesterday was basically like
Speaker 6: the yeah, like.
Speaker 4: How late that all right to your anniversary?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're talking about went esp the torte Form bill was.
Speaker 2: We were like the fact that this that set into
Speaker 2: motion this series.
Speaker 6: Of events that blied us to you know, Mitch a
Speaker 6: little watering down the TLR bill.
Speaker 2: It's like deep cuts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, another big milestone happening at the end
Speaker 1: of the legislative session is some job changes for both
Speaker 1: of y'all.
Speaker 3: You.
Speaker 1: Jasper will no longer be a politics reporter and Eleanor
Speaker 1: will no longer be a women's health reporter.
Speaker 3: Why is that?
Speaker 2: Eleanor, I am joining the politics team to work for Jasper.
Speaker 5: Yes, and I'll be hanging up my reporting shoes and
Speaker 5: we'll be very excited to you know, take the rein
Speaker 5: of the reins of the politics team and just I
Speaker 5: feel like we have a powerhouse team that we're building
Speaker 5: and want to continue all the good coverage we've been
Speaker 5: doing this session, you know, into into the future. We're
Speaker 5: already already thinking about twenty twenty six. It feels like
Speaker 5: a ways away, but with our March primary system be
Speaker 5: around the corner before we know it. So I'm really
Speaker 5: excited it's gonna I think it's We've got a great
Speaker 5: team that we're building.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that tell us, tell us about the rest of
Speaker 3: that team.
Speaker 5: So we're bringing on Eleanor to to take over a
Speaker 5: the legal affairs beat that she can maybe talk a
Speaker 5: little bit about herself. But it's I think just like
Speaker 5: the perfect fit for Eleanor. She kind of pitched this.
Speaker 5: I don't know, it's just a perfect kind of transition
Speaker 5: from what you've been covering on the women's health beat
Speaker 5: for the last three years. Now. We're also bringing over
Speaker 5: Alejandra Serrano, another internal hire too, you know, kind of
Speaker 5: still figuring out what everyone's purviews will will include. But
Speaker 5: and then we're also filling a vacancy with our DC correspondence.
Speaker 5: Stay tuned for that.
Speaker 3: But uh, and always like Kayla, that's right.
Speaker 5: Kayla Guo will be continuing just you know, she has
Speaker 5: done a lot of great coverage especially of the House
Speaker 5: this session and of the bail fight that we were
Speaker 5: just talking about. So I think you know, just that
Speaker 5: trio of Eleanor, Alejandro and Kayla plus are kind of
Speaker 5: one of our maybe team MVPs Renzo this session. Continuing
Speaker 5: to put out the Blast, our premium newsletter, politics newsletter,
Speaker 5: and then are soon to be announced hopefully DC Correspondent.
Speaker 5: It's a solid five person band right there.
Speaker 1: Absolutely it's going to be great. One other kind of
Speaker 1: internal plug. June eleventh, the Trip Cast will be live
Speaker 1: in Austin from the Austin Central Library seven pm. We
Speaker 1: will be digging into the impact of the legislative session
Speaker 1: on Texas schools and what to expect next school year
Speaker 1: with all these changes. So go to Texas Tribune dot
Speaker 1: org slash events to get more details at that or
Speaker 1: just show up at the library at seven pm.
Speaker 2: It's hanging out at the library.
Speaker 3: But you know, we like it if people are SVP,
Speaker 3: so so do that too. And that is all for today.
Speaker 1: We will see what happens and whether our special session
Speaker 1: predictions hold up. Thank you to Jasper, thank you to Eleanor,
Speaker 1: thank you to our producer Rob, and thank you to
Speaker 1: our sponsors, the Lone Star Economic Alliance, the Texas Managed
Speaker 1: Care Alliance, and the Safer Texas Alliance.
Speaker 3: We'll talk to you all next week.