More On The Dunnam Resolution

1. Providing “real time” internet access to all floor amendments and record votes

This would enable the public and press to have timely access to floor amendments being considered by the House while House members are debating the amendments. Currently, it is impossible for the public to follow floor debates or have meaningful input as decisions are being made if they cannot read the proposed changes to the law.

2. Requiring Chief Clerk to retain a copy of all pre-filed amendments

This rule would prevent the re-occurrence of a very disturbing incident from a recent legislative session where a member’s pre-filed amendment was “missing.” The amendment was never located and therefore was not eligible for consideration. By requiring the Chief Clerk to retain a copy of all amendments, a process would be put in place to preserve an official copy of each amendment should this situation ever arise again.

3. Requiring “real time” record votes

Quite simply, the public deserves to know how their elected officials vote on specific legislation. During the upcoming special session, legislators will be voting on extremely important legislation dealing with taxes and school finance. It is imperative that voters have the ability to hold their elected officials accountable, and they cannot do so without access to their voting records. Although advocates would prefer a constitutional amendment requiring record votes, it is unlikely that Governor Perry would open the call of the upcoming special session. At this time, a change in the House rules is the only way to ensure that all votes are recorded. The public should be able to see how their elected representatives vote on these amendments and important measures.

4. Requiring 2/3 vote to adopt Calendar rule for specific legislation

Special rules proposed by the Calendars Committee that govern floor debate on specific legislation have thwarted previous attempts to provide meaningful tax reform, reduce property taxes for the majority of Texas homeowners and provide additional investment in our schools. In the case of school finance and property tax legislation, a handful of committee members pre-determined what amendments members were even allowed to even bring up and debate on the House floor. Special rules limiting debate on specific legislation should require the support of at least 2/3 of the members.

5. Requiring the House to follow the open meetings laws

According to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, House committees are not subject to the open meetings laws because the Texas Constitution allows the legislature to establish its own rules under which its meetings are conducted. Therefore, the House rules should be amended to require committee meetings to be consistent with the open meetings requirements for all other governmental meetings. Laws that the legislature put in place to ensure open government should apply to the legislature. To preserve the House’s ability to complete its work during the special session, formal meetings and work sessions could still be held with two hours notice.

6. Requiring conference committees to meet in public, provide proper notice, sign reports in a public meeting, and require an actual copy of conference reports to be available at the meeting

Conference committees routinely circumvent the public by circulating conference committee reports among the members and obtaining signatures one at a time without ever conducting a public meeting. Small groups of conference committee members may meet in numbers just short of a quorum so that the public does not have to be notified. Because a conference committee is making the final decision for what will be included in legislation, the public should have the opportunity to attend and participate in the decision-making process.

This is important stuff, folks. Stuff we’ve needed for a long, long time. The Texas Daily Newspaper Association ran a major campaign on recorded votes a while back. The Dallas Morning News had some of the best coverage of the recorded votes issue, which can be found here. As of earlier this year, a massive list of newspapers, individuals and organizations had endorsed the campaign. A list can be found here. A piece here partially discusses the electronic maze one must go through right now to find recorded votes, when taken.
Number Five above causes me a slight hiccough of concern, though. After an AG’s opinion that came out in the late 1990s or early 2000s, the Texas Municipal League and Texas Association of Counties started encouraging their member cities and county commissioners courts to stop hearing public comment unless an individual was specifically on the agenda of a meeting, because it was felt this might violate open meetings laws if the bodies discussed these matters. Given that committees hear testimony and most of the individuals giving that testimony aren’t specifically on the agendas of the committees, the House needs to make sure that they don’t run into the same problem.

I’ll look for that AG’s opinion this evening, and post more on this.

Overall, though, these are excellent reforms that Democratic candidates should make an issue of in the November elections.

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