Will Two-Thirds Rule Be Moot?
By Vince Leibowitz on Jan 18, 2007 in 80th Legislature | | Sphere: Related Content |
The Dallas Morning News is suggusting that the two-thirds rule in the Senate, which has long allowed Democrats to block legislation would be a moot point with the absence of Mario Gallegos (D-Houston), who will be out of the capitol for a while awaiting a liver transplant.
Of particular interest is that it would be difficult to block voucher and anti-abortion legislation without Gallegos.
My thought is that Dewhurst and other Republicans in the Senate (save Dan Patrick) would not try to take advantage of this situation. After all, how bad would it look for them to be taking advantage of a colleague’s medical misfortune to pass polarizing legislation that’s bad for Texas like school vouchers.
Hopefully, Lt. Governor Dewhurst will honor the senate’s traditions even with Gallegos absent, to a degree, and not push for any of this kind of legislation to be brought up.
Anyway, it would likely be late in the session before anything seriously controversial came up, unless someone like Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) wanted to push the envelope of decorum and taste and rush through a controversial measure like his abortion bill while one Democrat is ill.
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