Texas House committee chairman declines to hear Senate bills due to lack of 'respect'

A rift at the Texas Capitol widened Wednesday as a House committee refused to vote on Senate legislation, accusing the upper chamber of not respecting or moving on House bills quickly enough.

In a 15-minute meeting, the House Committee on Transportation considered one of its own bills before Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, made clear the panel he chairs has no current plans to move on any Senate bills.

"And the reality is, it is not my intention to call or hear or vote on any Senate bills until the House members' bills start to move in the Senate," Canales said.

Canales said his committee had expected to vote out 10 Senate bills during the meeting, which followed a marathon House session Tuesday that ended early Wednesday just hours before the committee convened.

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He then changed course on the dais and ripped up the bills' voting cards.

"The work that we put in doesn't seem to be respected in the manner in which I would like to be respected, and I want my colleagues to be respected," Canales said.

Canales did not specify which House bills he wants to see advanced as he lamented the difficulty of moving bills through the legislative process to simply receive a committee hearing.

A spokesperson for House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, did not have a comment for the American-Statesman in response to Canales' position on Senate bills in the committee he chairs.

As of Tuesday, 29 House bills and joint resolutions had been passed by both chambers compared with 159 for the Senate.

Last week, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick conveyed a similar frustration to the House, complaining the chamber was moving too slowly in placing bills on the floor calendar that had received affirmative House committee votes.

"I previously expressed concern the House was far behind in the passage of bills and a train wreck was coming," Patrick tweeted last Thursday. "As of this morning, the House has moved 1,142 bills out of committees but has not set them on the House calendar. The Senate is ready to help, but time is growing short."

Patrick's concern comes from an impending Thursday deadline for the House to place on second reading all that chamber's bills and joint resolutions on its daily and supplemental calendars, which is required for a bill to become eligible for further legislative consideration.

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Friday will be the deadline for the House to consider on second and third reading any bills listed on the chamber's local and consent calendar, where bills that receive unanimous support and niche bills affecting specific localities are placed.

The corresponding Senate deadline on second or third reading doesn't come until May 24, which is also in the same period the House will have to close considerations on Senate bills.

However, legislative deadlines are more like guardrails than hard and fast rules, as legislation can still be introduced and worked into floor amendments. Additionally, both Phelan and Patrick keep broad authority and discretion on what bills arrive for a vote and when.

Patrick's office did not respond to a Statesman request for comment about Canales' comments during the committee hearing.

As both chambers met again Wednesday, the House worked through several Senate bills at the same time the Senate voted out a few House bills. House Bill 4, a Phelan priority bill seeking to regulate the collection and use of consumer data, was one of the bills the Senate advanced.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Legislature: House chairman refuses to hear Senate bills