Thursday, May 21, 2009

The Texas Legislative Session is...

...almost over. The good news is that you will only be called upon to make a few more phone calls and send out just a couple more faxes to the Texas Legislature then we will be done for a couple years. The bad news is that there is not much time to get our bills voted on in the Texas House.

Right now we need to work on getting SB730 (the parking lots bill) out of the Calendars Committee and placed on the House Major Calendar. It is too late in the session for a bill placed on the House General Calendar to reach the floor for debate, so it is very important that SB730 be placed on the House Major Calendar.

SB730 has been in the Calendar Committee for over two weeks. This is unacceptable. Other bills are passing through the committee in 2 to 3 days, and this bill which passed the Texas Senate with a unanimous vote is being held up.

SB730, a bill "Relating to an employee's transportation and storage of certain firearms or ammunition while on certain property owned or controlled by the employee's employer", passed the Senate with a vote of 31-0. The entire Texas Senate voted in favor of this bill, and it sits in a house committee.

Representative Brian McCall is the Republican Chair of the Calendars Committee. Rep. McCall, and all the other members of the committee, need to hear from us right away. Tonight send them faxes and emails, tomorrow give them a call.

Representative Brian McCall - Chair

(512) 463-0594
(512) 463-5896 Fax

Representative Eddie Lucio III - Vice Chair

512) 463-0606
(512) 463-0660 Fax

Representative Norma Chavez

(512) 463-0622
(512) 478-6755 (Fax)

Representative Garnet Coleman

(512) 463-0524
(512) 463-1260 Fax

Representative Byron Cook

(512) 463-0730
(512) 463-2506 Fax

Representative Brandon Creighton

(512) 463-0726
(512) 463-8428 Fax

Representative Charlie Geren

(512) 463-0610
(512) 463-8310 Fax

Representative Jim Keffer

(512) 463-0656
(512) 478-8805 Fax

Representative Lois W. Kolkhorst

(512) 463-0600
(512) 463-5240 Fax

Representative Edmund Kuempel

(512) 463-0602
(512) 480-0391 Fax

Representative Jim McReynolds

(512) 463-0490
(512) 463-9059 Fax
(877) 796-0581

Representative Allan Ritter

(512) 463-0706
(512) 463-1861 Fax

Representative Burt Solomons

(512) 463-0478
(512) 463-2089 Fax

If you have any energy left, please contact the Speaker of the House, Rep. Joe Straus. His contact information: (512) 463-0686 or (512) 463-1000 if the first number rolls over into voice mail, and (512) 463-0675 Fax. We need to let the Republican leadership know that we expect Republican led committees to support legislation that is in accordance with the Texas Republican Party Platform.

If you do not have access to a fax service, email me and I may be able to help.

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