By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX – It's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!
It took Rep. Beverly Woolley (R-Houston) approximately an hour to bring her proposed rule regarding pre-filing of amendments to HB 3398, the Congressional redistricting bill, back to the House floor Friday night.
Woolley's first attempted motion to pass the rule, which would require amendments to HB 3398 to be pre-filed by noon Sunday, was stalled by a parliamentary inquiry that sent it back to Calendars Committee for a "do-over."
Woolley has maintained that the rule she proposed and that was approved in Calendars not once but now twice, is the same rule that has been used for previous redistricting debates.
Rep. Barry Telford (D-Dekalb) said if the rule were adopted, it would give members a day and a half to get their amendments pre-filed. Two years ago, he said, a rule with the same wording was adopted, but members also had had six days to file amendments.
"The wording is the same...but the effect is totally different," he said, asking Woolley if she agreed with him.
"That is your opinion," she said to Telford, "and you are certainly entitled to it."
Rep. Rick Noriega (D-Houston) warned members that voting for the proposed rule would be an affirmation of a process "that has limited a significant number of Texans from having any input into the process" relative to Congressional redistricting.
He said the Texas Legislative Council (TLC), which drafts amendments for members, is telling members that they must have their information for those amendments to the TLC by 10 p.m. Saturday for them to "guarantee" the amendments will be drafted in time to meet the noon Sunday deadline. He said that he and other members of the House "do not believe that is a fair and open process."
He said the process by which Congressional redistricting is being considered is "completely out of the norm," and because no field hearings were held, a vote for the Woolley rule would result in "squashing the process" by which the public becomes involved in the legislative process.
Despite numerous speeches and pleas by Democratic members to vote against the rule, the Woolley motion passed, setting a noon Sunday deadline for pre-filed amendments to the bill.