Subject:
Solomons Denies Responsibility
Some subscribers
have been getting pushback from Burt Solomons' office claiming he
did not deserve any blame for the failure of important immigration
legislation this session. The following from our friends at IRCOT
demonstrates Solomons' claim is deceptive at best:
While it is difficult to prove that Solomons was responsible for
killing immigration related legislation this session (the system is
designed to prevent such), a review of committee actions in the
following table provide pieces to the puzzle:
KEY: IRB = Immigration
Related Bills
|
Committee
|
Total Bills In
|
Total Bills Out
|
# IRB In
|
# IRB Hearings
|
# Hearings w/Start-End Dates
|
IRB Rpt Favorably Out/Comm
|
# IRB Placed on House
Calendar
|
IRB Passed to Law
|
|
House State Affairs
|
361 |
137 |
*38 |
5 |
24
(2/24 - 5/22) |
1 |
None |
None |
|
Senate Trans. & Homeland
Security |
315 |
216 |
**13 |
13 |
21
(2/18 - 5/22) |
10 |
6 |
2 |
*This is approximate
number and it includes several House Joint & Concurrent Resolutions
which were not listed in Google spreadsheet.
**This is approximate
number as a couple of Carona's bills referred to "organized crime"
vs. "criminal street gang."
Most notably, only 1
out of 38 immigration-related bills filed in Solomons' committee
were reported favorably out of committee (fewer than 3%), whereas
Senator Carona in the Senate passed over 75% of immigration-related
bills out of his committee.
It is obvious (from a review of the table) that Sen. Carona was
actively engaged in seeing that bills were
passed this session to protect Texas families. The position of
Committee Chairman is a powerful one and while Solomons' staff is
trying to imply that was not the case, my conversations with other
staffers clearly place blame with Solomons. Their statements
confirmed what we believed all along - he (knowingly) held
hearings too late and then allowed the bills to sit in his committee
and die. While his staffer mentioned that it was the author's
responsibility to gather votes for bringing a bill up in committee
for a vote, one question keeps coming to mind. Did Solomons
not feel it was in the best interest of Texas families to pass ANY
immigration related bills out of his committee as quickly as
possible? If he truly did everything possible
to make sure immigration bills moved (as his staffer implied) then
he would have done more to get as many of those bills as possible
out of committee and on to Calendars early on to make sure they had
a chance of getting to the floor for a vote. He clearly did
not. WHY?? Some believe he was
strategically placed by Speaker Straus to kill all immigration
related legislation and that is exactly what he did.
Of course, we cannot forget the fact that many legislators did not
want to vote on immigration related bills with the upcoming election
- so they were happy to see them die.
I hope this info is helpful to you as you try to put your arms
around what happened this session. It is much like a maze and while
I hate to admit it, I think it was designed that way to make it hard
to place the blame on any one person when the "powers-that-be" are
up to no good.
PO Box 8742, Lumberton, TX 77657, USA
