Over the cries of Democrats except for Brownsville's Eddie Lucio — the Texas Senate voted to break from an almost 70-year tradition intended to encourage compromise among its 31 members.
Now the approval of only 19 senators instead of 21 will be required to bring legislation to the floor for debate.The change — passed on a vote of 20-10 — has the practical effect of allowing Republicans to consider a bill without a single vote from one of the chamber's 11 Democrats.
Lt. Gov. Dan Ptrick, who presides over the Senate, has targeted the tradition known as the "two-thirds rule" since he first entered the Legislature in 2007.
Fighting to preserve the rule, Democrats said the change would strike a blow to the democratic process.
“I think it’s a sad day for the Senate, and one that we will look back on with regret,” said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston.
In the past, senators have used the rule to scuttle measures on voter identification, abortion and redistricting.
But thanks to Lucio, now the Democrats can't fight education cuts, the militarization of the border, rejection of midwife-issued birth certificats and other issues important to his district's overwhelming Democratic constituents.
4 comments:
If I swore I spent $70,000.00 I didn't, could I become a Texas State Senator? Google is an enemy of an elected official, if you know what to Google!
El que no Transa no Avanza, that has been the Lucio way and Oliviera way too for the last 30 years. Time to change that pamper, too much dodo in bot of these dudes. Im voting on Tuesday for the new guys.
I sharted
looks like they are about to exchange tongue
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