More HB 1 Liveblogging (Getting Messy! Laubenberg Is Screamin’)

7:24: Villarreal is up with a question.

VILLARREAL: The name of the program that is the target of having the money swept away from it is what?

KOLKHORST:…the Educator Excellence Program.

VILLARREAL: But it started before House Bill 1.

KOLKHORST: There was a governor’s executive order that started it with little money.

VILLARREAL: You said this was working well, the data you have to back that up is?

KOLKHORST: [Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 data from TEA, whatever that is]

VILLARREAL: {about the program] instead of trying to incentivize teachers, it is targeting already high-performing school districts…it picked campuses that were already high performing in poor neighborhoods. How do we know that this program is going to be effective if we’ve already id’d high performing campuses and picked them. It’s be one thing to pick low-performing schools…but we started off with schools that are already high performing.

KOLKHORST: When you look at the percentage…[POO Time Expired]

Now, John Otto:

OTTO: Would this, if adopted, strip money from a program that has not [been fully tested?]

KOLKHORST: Yes..

7:19 p.m.: Hochberg is up now to ask Kolkhorst questions. Asks if HB 1 has a teacher payraise across the board. “Well, no” is how she responds.

Hochberg: Is there more money for the school districts, on their discretion, to give a pay raise over what we voted on in HB 1 last summer?

Kolkhorst: That’s a local decision.

Hochberg: But is there any new money?

Kolkhorst: There is new money, but not for that.

7:17 p.m.: Kolkhorst is up in opposition.

KOLKHORST: It appears his money is the Excellence Fund…[Merit Based Teacher Pay!]

So, evidently Noriega was taking the money from the useless merit-based teacher pay program and done something useful with it…and she is in opposition.

7:16 p.m.: Noriega is up on his admendment that would allow all public school teachers, librarians and counselors to get raises of $800 in ‘08 and $900 in ‘09.
7:14 p.m.: Laubenberg pulls the amendment but says, “I will be back!”

7:06 p.m.: Laubenberg has another CHIP amendment she claims it keeps the same eligibility criteria but is fiscal accountability. Can’t wait to see how this is spun. She yields to Anchia.

ANCHIA: How many children would be kicked off the plan with the amendment you are proposing?

LAUBENBERG: If they qualify, they are on the plan.

ANCHIA: I have a document before me that says 95,000 children would be kicked off…

LAUBENBERG: [Screaming at Anchia] That is simply untrue! (and a lot more).

ANCHIA: I can hear you without you yelling.

[...]

ANCHIA: You have an anti-life amendment!

ANCHIA: Explain to me how this amendment doesn’t hurt children in utero.

7:03 p.m. 136-5, motion to table prevails!!!!!

7:02 p.m.: Harper Brown wanted to withdraw; Dukes moved to table, and won’t withdraw that (you go, girl!) so now they have to vote on the motion to table. Awesome move by Dukes.

6:55 p.m.: Harper-Brown is closing. Now, Fred Hill (R-Richardson) has asked her to yield. He says he can’t get his arms around what she wants to do. He asks her about the 16,000 per month. She says she doesn’t know. Now Hill asks if we are asking legal permanent residents on the program. She says they are supposed to be doing something else for the first five years.

HILL: I don’t think this is going to set well with the memebrship for one thing, but this creates a problem for all of us with our hospitals. It doesn’t seem to be the right approach.

6:54 p.m.: Dukes has moved to table. This will be a very, very important vote. (Also, they left the mic on on the webcast and I just heard someone say “this is stupid!” in regard to the amendment. Amazing. The same person just said, “I’m glad to see most people are coming around.” This may be Geren’s voice but I’m not sure.
6:53 p.m.: Geren is now questioning Dukes and appears to be in opposition to the Harper-Brown amendment as well.

6:43 p.m. Martinez Fisher’s “lipstick on a pig” amendment was adopted. Now Dukes is speaking in opposition.

DUKES: The Harper-Brown amendment to move the $20 million a year from the legal immigrant strategies to the FQHC’s…16,000 legally documented residents in the state of Texas will lose coverage under this amendment. In Dallas County, 1,174 children who are legally lawfully residents of the state of Texas will lose coverage and have limited access to FQHC’s…Parkland Hospital will now have a loss of [couldn't hear the figure]…Texas CHIP does not cover undocumented children! CHIP is required by law…to include children after their five years in the U.S.

How cold hearted can we be?

There was a lot more, too. It was a great floor speech in oposition.

6:41 p.m.: Ok. Turner clarifies it is 16,000 kids per month who will be dumped from CHIP who have no medicaid or anything else. Without Federally Qualified Health Centers, they’ll be forced to go to local ERs.

MARTINEZ-FISHER: I’m not on the side of the Harper-Brown amendment. I’m just trying to put some lipstick on a bad piece of legislation.

TURNER: Well, it needs more lipstick, because a pig is still a pig.

6:40 p.m.: Ok. So we now have more information on Harper Brown’s current amendment. It will remove 16,000 kids (or 16,000 kids a month, not sure which) from CHIP.

6:09 p.m: The amendment was adopted.

6:02 p.m.: Menendez just said there were 17 receipts submitted for reimbursment for Starbucks, Hooters and steakhouses. Oh, lord…

5:47 pm.: Menendez has an amendment now (and an amendment to the amendment) that will prevent police unions like CLEAT from using tax dollars for lobbying.

Byron Cook has a question to clarify that any organization that receives the grant monies should realize that the intent of the grant money is not for lobbying.

Right now there are a number of amendments being considered which relate to statistical data collection. We’ll advise you if something more exciting happens. Refresh as needed. It’s about the police unions competing for grant funds, evidently. A lot of this is a pissing match between CLEAT and Texas Municipal Police Association.

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