Friday, May 29, 2015 83rd Day

522084th LEGISLATURE — REGULAR SESSIONmatter or matters which would be prohibited." As Representative Simpsoncandidly admitted, he is unaware of any time when a house conference committeehas acted in the manner that he says the rule requires.The house Conference Committee on HBi1 acted properly under the HouseRules. The points of order on HRi3315 and HBi1 are respectfully overruled.Representative Simpson s’ comment should be considered in working with thesenate to adopt a joint rule to deal with conference committees.HR 3315 was adopted by (Record 1662): 134 Yeas, 11 Nays, 1 Present, notvoting.Yeas — Allen; Alonzo; Alvarado; Anchia; Anderson, C.; Anderson, R.;Ashby; Aycock; Bell; Bernal; Blanco; Bohac; Bonnen, D.; Bonnen, G.; Burkett;Burns; Burrows; Button; Canales; Capriglione; Clardy; Coleman; Collier; Cook;Craddick; Crownover; Cyrier; Dale; Darby; Davis, S.; Davis, Y.; Deshotel;Dutton; Elkins; Faircloth; Fallon; Farias; Farney; Farrar; Fletcher; Flynn; Frank;Frullo; Galindo; Geren; Giddings; Goldman; Gonzales; González; Guerra;Guillen; Gutierrez; Harless; Hernandez; Herrero; Howard; Huberty; Hughes;Hunter; Isaac; Israel; Johnson; Kacal; Keffer; Keough; King, K.; King, P.; King,S.; King, T.; Klick; Koop; Kuempel; Landgraf; Larson; Laubenberg; Leach;Longoria; Lozano; Lucio; Márquez; Martinez; Martinez Fischer; Metcalf; Meyer;Miller, D.; Miller, R.; Minjarez; Moody; Morrison; Muñoz; Murphy; Murr;Naishtat; Nevárez; Oliveira; Otto; Paddie; Parker; Paul; Peña; Phelan; Phillips;Pickett; Price; Raney; Raymond; Reynolds; Riddle; Rodriguez, E.; Rodriguez, J.;Romero; Rose; Schofield; Schubert; Sheets; Sheffield; Simmons; Smith; Smithee;Springer; Stephenson; Thompson, E.; Thompson, S.; Turner, C.; Turner, S.;VanDeaver; Villalba; Vo; Walle; White, J.; Workman; Wray; Wu; Zerwas.Nays — Miles; Rinaldi; Schaefer; Shaheen; Simpson; Spitzer; Stickland;Tinderholt; Turner, E.S.; White, M.; Zedler.Present, not voting — Mr. Speaker(C).Absent, Excused — McClendon.Absent — Dukes; Krause; Sanford.STATEMENT OF VOTEWhen Record No. 1662 was taken, I was in the house but away from mydesk. I would have voted no.KrauseHB 1 - CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REPORT ADOPTEDRepresentative Otto submitted the following conference committee report onHBi1:Austin, Texas, May 26, 2015The Honorable Dan PatrickPresident of the SenateThe Honorable Joe Straus

Friday, May 29, 2015HOUSE JOURNAL — 83rd Day5221Speaker of the House of RepresentativesSirs: We, your conference committee, appointed to adjust the differencesbetween the senate and the house of representatives on HBi1 have had the sameunder consideration, and beg to report it back with the recommendation that it dopass in the form and text hereto attached.NelsonOttoHinojosaS. TurnerSchwertnerGonzalesHuffmanS. DavisKolkhorstAshbyOn the part of the senateOn the part of the houseHB 1 - POINT OF ORDERRepresentative Simpson raised a point of order against further considerationof HB 1 under Rule 13, Section 9 of the House Rules on the grounds that text ofthe bill that was not in disagreement between the two houses was changed.The speaker overruled the point of order and submitted the followingstatement:Representative Simpson raised a point of order under Rulei13, Sectioni9 ofthe House Rules against further consideration of the out-of-bounds resolution forthe budget, HRi3315, as well as the budget bill, HBi1.At the heart of the matter is Representative Simpson s’ belief that conferencecommittees, once appointed, should never take any action that is not specificallyauthorized in Rulei13, Sectioni9(b) of the House Rules unless the conferencecommittee returns to the house before working on the item and receives approvalto proceed with the change.This matter has been discussed at some length by Representative Simpson.See 84 H.J.iReg.i160 (2015) (Amendment No.i23, a proposed rule change toconform House Rules to Representative Simpson ’s line of reasoning);84iH.J.iReg.i1821 (2015) (Simpson motion to instruct budget conferees to bebound by his interpretation of Rulei13, Sectioni9 of the House Rules); 84H.J.iReg.i4464-4466 (2015) (discussion of Representative Simpson ’sinterpretation of Rulei13, Sectioni9 of the House Rules). Neither Mr.iSimpson s’motion to amend the rules nor to instruct budget conferees to be bound by hisinterpretation of the conference committee restrictions was adopted.The central problem with Representative Simpson s’ argument is that heseeks to construe Rulei13, Sectioni9 of the House Rules and, at the same time,ignore Subsectioni(f) of the rule that allows limitations to be "suspended in partby permission of the house to allow consideration of and action on a specificmatter or matters which would be prohibited." As Representative Simpsoncandidly admitted, he is unaware of any time when a house conference committeehas acted in the manner that he says the rule requires.The house Conference Committee on HBi1 acted properly under the HouseRules. The points of order on HRi3315 and HBi1 are respectfully overruled.Representative Simpson s’ comment should be considered in working with thesenate to adopt a joint rule to deal with conference committees.

522284th LEGISLATURE — REGULAR SESSIONMESSAGES FROM THE SENATEMessages from the senate were received at this time (see the addendum tothe daily journal, Messages from the Senate, Message Nos. 2 and 3).LEAVE OF ABSENCE GRANTEDThe following member was granted leave of absence for the remainder oftoday because of illness:Dukes on motion of Israel.HB 1 - (consideration continued)Representative Otto moved to adopt the conference committee report onHBi1.The motion to adopt the conference committee report on HBi1 prevailed by(Record 1663): 115 Yeas, 33 Nays, 0 Present, not voting.Yeas — Mr. Speaker(C); Alonzo; Alvarado; Anderson, C.; Anderson, R.;Ashby; Aycock; Bell; Bohac; Bonnen, D.; Bonnen, G.; Burkett; Burns; Burrows;Button; Capriglione; Clardy; Coleman; Cook; Craddick; Crownover; Cyrier;Dale; Darby; Davis, S.; Deshotel; Elkins; Faircloth; Fallon; Farney; Fletcher;Flynn; Frank; Frullo; Galindo; Geren; Goldman; Gonzales; Guerra; Guillen;Harless; Herrero; Huberty; Hughes; Hunter; Isaac; Johnson; Kacal; Keffer;Keough; King, K.; King, P.; King, S.; King, T.; Klick; Koop; Krause; Kuempel;Landgraf; Larson; Laubenberg; Leach; Longoria; Lozano; Lucio; Márquez;Metcalf; Meyer; Miller, D.; Miller, R.; Morrison; Murphy; Murr; Nevárez;Oliveira; Otto; Paddie; Parker; Paul; Peña; Phelan; Phillips; Pickett; Price; Raney;Raymond; Riddle; Rinaldi; Sanford; Schaefer; Schofield; Schubert; Shaheen;Sheets; Sheffield; Simmons; Smith; Smithee; Spitzer; Springer; Stephenson;Stickland; Thompson, E.; Thompson, S.; Tinderholt; Turner, E.S.; VanDeaver;Villalba; White, J.; White, M.; Workman; Wray; Wu; Zedler; Zerwas.Nays — Allen; Anchia; Bernal; Blanco; Canales; Collier; Davis, Y.; Dutton;Farias; Farrar; Giddings; González; Gutierrez; Hernandez; Howard; Israel;Martinez; Martinez Fischer; Miles; Minjarez; Moody; Muñoz; Naishtat;Reynolds; Rodriguez, E.; Rodriguez, J.; Romero; Rose; Simpson; Turner, C.;Turner, S.; Vo; Walle.Absent, Excused — Dukes; McClendon.The speaker stated that HBi1 was passed subject to the provisions ofArticleiIII, Section 49a of the Texas Constitution.STATEMENT OF VOTEWhen Record No. 1663 was taken, I was shown voting yes. I intended tovote no.S. Thompson

Friday, May 29, 2015HOUSE JOURNAL — 83rd Day5223REASONS FOR VOTEPassing a budget is the most significant action we take as legislators. Itshould be done with full vetting and transparency. Yet, the summary of theconference committee report for HBi1 was distributed to members mere hoursbefore floor debate. Furthermore, limitations were imposed on members ’ abilityto ask questions of conferees, leaving only a few hours for consideration of a 209.4 billion budget.HB 1 left the house after months of bipartisan work by the HouseAppropriations Committee members with 141 aye votes. However, the bill wewere asked to vote on today took that house-supported budget backward. Publiceducation funding was essentially cut in half, 1.5 billion of sorely neededtransportation funding that the house had included was omitted, andreimbursement rates for physicians providing Medicaid were reduced.Additionally, the final budget included significantly more funding for borderoperations despite the house ’s oft expressed concerns about the lack ofaccountability to support those operations.Though the house made significant headway in addressing the practice ofusing GR-dedicated funds to certify the budget rather than appropriate thosefunds, it is anticipated that the final budget will still be relying on approximately 3 billion of GR-dedicated funds to balance the budget. If the proposed bills arepassed to reduce GR-dedicated reliance, that would still leave anotherapproximately 3 billion under the pay-as-you-go limit as well as 2.9 billionunder the spending cap, plus an estimated 11 billion untouched in the economicstabilization fund.And what was not funded? Public school funding still leaves 31 percent ofour school districts with less funding per pupil than they received prior tothei2011 budget cuts. Pre-K funding at approximately 148 million is still belowthe 200 million appropriated prior to the 2011 budget cuts. Higher educationfunding is still less than the high-water mark of approximately a decade ago, andour TEXAS Grant recipients are receiving smaller grants than previously offered.Therefore, I cannot vote for this budget. It is neither conservative norresponsible to leave so many critical programs underfunded when the necessaryfunds are available, even after considering the proposed tax cuts of 3.8 billion.This budget shortchanges those services that Texans expect state government toprovide in order to ensure the continuing prosperity and well-being of ourcitizens.Anchia, Bernal, Blanco, Collier, Hernandez, Howard,Martinez, Martinez Fischer, Minjarez, Moody, Muñoz,Naishta

Friday, May 29, 2015 HOUSE JOURNAL — 83rd Day 5219. matter or matters which would be prohibited." As Representative Simpson candidly admitted, he is unaware of any time when a house conference committee has acted in the manner that he says the rule requires.