Capital Highlights
Abbott renders opinion on House speaker's powers
Ed Sterling Texas Press Association

Ed Sterling is director of member services for the Texas Press Association in Austin.

A USTIN - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott released a long-awaited

opinion on Dec. 14,

regarding the powers of the speaker of the Texas House.

Questions arose over the limits of a speaker's power, and soon after the session ended, two Republican House committee chairs asked the state attorney general to address a list of issues and render this opinion.

In summary, Abbott said the Texas Constitution and Texas statutory law are silent as to whether the speaker, and likewise, the president pro tempore of the Senate, are subject to removal from office.

"Any interpretation of this question must be governed by court decisions," Abbott wrote.

In the closing days of the 80th session of the Texas Legislature, a number of Democratic and Republican state representatives tried to remove Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, as speaker of the House.

It didn't work. Craddick fired one set of parliamentarians, then hired new ones to help him hold the powerful post.

It is normally a courtesy to allow members to address the whole House at appropriate times, and to make motions.

But a tactic used by Craddick under the advice of the new parliamentarians was to refuse to hear motions from the House floor, unless those motions came from members he considered friendly to him.

Certain members stood at the microphone repeatedly in hopes of being recognized by the chair (Craddick or his designee) to make motions, but were denied.

Texas not chosen for FutureGen

The U.S. Department of Energy selected Illinois, not Texas, to host the FutureGen project, hailed by some as a near zero emissions coal-fired power plant.

In losing the bid, Gov. Rick Perry on Dec. 18 said though Texas was not selected, "our teams in Jewett and Odessa and our state officials deserve to be commended for developing impressive proposals to attract this project to the Lone Star State."

Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael L. Williams, who chaired the FutureGen Texas team, said, "There are many clean energy projects on the drawing boards and I, for one, am ready to get busy."

Teachers to be checked by state

SB 9, passed by the 80th Texas Legislature, directed the State Board for Educator Certification to create rules that would set a deadline for a certified educator to submit fingerprints in compliance with the law and provide sanctions for failure to do so.

Starting in January, the state will begin fingerprinting or conducting criminal history background checks on about 1 million certified and noncertified Texas school district employees over the next four years, the Texas Education Agency said.

A teacher's certificate would be placed on "inactive status" as a consequence for non compliance, causing the person to become ineligible for employment in a Texas public school in a position that requires educator certification.

Perry names TYC conservator

Gov. Perry on Dec. 19 announced the appointment of Richard Nedelkoff as conservator of the Texas Youth Commission.

Nedelkoff, a former federal agency chief in the Bush administration, succeeds Ed Owen, who resigned as conservator in October.

The TYC houses minors convicted of criminal offenses. Last spring, the agency was put under conservatorship after various media published details of abuse of inmates by guards and by other inmates, and of administrative mismanagement at several TYC facilities.

DPS steps up patrol duties

Texans who expect to take to the roads during the Christmas and New Year holidays can expect to see more DPS troopers than usual.

Troopers will be looking for drunken drivers, speeders and seat belt violators.

The Texas Department of Public Safety reports that over the same period last year, troopers made 1,253 DWI arrests and issued 27,032 speeding tickets and 1,183 seat belt citations.

TxDOT to address billboad issue

The Texas Department of Transportation plans to hear public testimony on a proposal to allow digital billboards along state roadways.

The Texas Transportation Commission - the governing body of TxDOT - will conduct the hearing in February.