HR 4 Debate Continued

Hodge is up.

Hodge: I like you, I voted for this in the past too, but maybe I didn’t understand it as much as I did now….Do we not do that so it isn’t so easy that we can’t come switch and change things?

Turner: Yes.

Hodge: Why do we continue to have this hassle at every session about suspending the rules, if something is in the constitution? Why would we not put it on the ballot and let the same people take it from the constitution who put it in the constitution?

Turner: With all do respect to what happened in 1930, what we have found in the modern day era is that you cannot conduct the people’s business in that fashion. I will agree with you that we need to revisit it…

Hodge: Are we saying that, Texas lawmakers, that we ourselves are not showing respect to the Texas Constitution?

Turner: The way things are set up, we can bypass it by a 4/5ths vote. That’s in the constitution. We are consistent with it. We just recognize that we cannot conduct business [the way they did in 1930]. We are remaining consistent with the constitution.

Point of order, time expired.

Geanie Morrison has moved to extend time. So ordered w/o objection.

Morrison: If I have legislation that is important to my district but is not a major state issue, do you believe the process would be slowed down, and everything backs up, and that bill never gets to the floor. What would happen to a bill that isn’t a major state issue but is important to my district.

Turner: It gets pushed back. The longer we push things back, the pipeline gets real, real tight.

Joe Heflin is up. Says he is undecided but has questions. Asks what the difference is between a county commissioners court suspending legislative rules and this.

Turner: says we are still operating in peramaters as authorized. In 1930, we didn’t have the communciations we had now. They were coming from the Panhandle, South East Texas. They didn’t want people to be voting on bills [until they got there].