There is big news out of the Texas Senate, where members voted yesterday to do away with the two-thirds rule, a longstanding Senate tradition that delayed campus carry legislation in 2009 and killed campus carry legislation in both 2011 and 2013 (NOTE: the Texas Legislature meets only in odd-numbered years). The two-thirds rule, which required the approval of two-thirds of all Senators present (21 Senators if all 31 were present), to bring a bill to the floor for a vote, has been replaced by a three-fifths rule, which will require the approval of only three-fifths of all Senators present (19 Senators if all 31 are present). The current Texas Senate comprises 20 Republicans and 11 Democrats. During the 2009, 2011, and 2013 Texas Legislative Sessions, campus carry legislation stalled (once temporarily, twice permanently) with only 20 votes. In 2009, Senator Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio) managed, after several weeks of negotiations, to secure 21 votes (17 Republicans and 4 Democrats) to bring the bill to the floor. After being passed out of the Senate, that bill was killed by an unrelated filibuster in the House. In 2011, Senator Wentworth was able to secure only 20 votes but managed to attach the bills language to another Senate bill as an amendment. The House later struck down that bill, on the point of order that the campus carry amendment violated the states constitutional single-subject rule. In 2013, Senator Brian Birdwell (R-Granbury) was unable to secure an extra vote, and that bill—which had already passed out of the House—died without a vote in the Senate. Although campus carry advocates should be happy that the new rule will make it easier for campus carry legislation to reach the Senate floor, they should also be disturbed by a revelation that emerged during yesterdays debate over the rule change. In arguing that the two-thirds rule had never killed a bill that was universally supported by the majority party, Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston), who supported campus carry in both 2009 and 2011 but chose to oppose it in 2013, said that his about-face on the issue was encouraged by Republicans who wanted the bill to die but who had too much to lose by voting against it. Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Whitmire—the longest-serving member of the Texas Senate—said, Senator Birdwell, it wasnt a Democratic group using two-thirds that blocked your bill. I had a number of Republicans ask me to please keep your campus carry [bill] off the floor, using the two-thirds rule. It is disheartening to learn that self-proclaimed supporters may have simply paid lip service to campus carry while secretly working to kill it; however, campus carry advocates can find solace in the fact that this type of parliamentary double-dealing will be much more difficult under the revised rule.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 13:00:01 +0000
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