Archives for 2021

Texas Desal Legislative Update from Kyle Frazier | November 2021

November 15, 2021 By Janet Jaworski

POST SESSION REPORT | November 2021

SPECIAL SESSION RECAP

After numerous Special Sessions this summer the final session (3^rd called) came to an end on October 20^th. As a reminder, the Governor is the only official that can call a Special Session and also determines the content. For this 3^rd session the main areas of interest were redistricting and spending additional Federal Covid 19 or ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money that was allocated to Texas but had not yet been budgeted or spent.

Redistricting

Every 10 years at the conclusion of the decennial census (required by the US constitution) the state must re-apportion all US Congressional seats, state Senate seats and state House seats. They completed the process during this special session. Because of the increase in population during the past 10 years Texas was allocated 2 new congressional seats. The number of state Senate and House seats remains constant but the population size for each district changes to reflect the population increase.

This increase in population requires that the district lines be altered to reflect those changes as well. In Texas, as in many other states, this is a purely political exercise with the party in power doing everything possible to create seats that protect its majority. The results are the creation of districts that are often very unusual in shape.

There are a set of rules governing this arcane process but of course they are open to interpretation. This “interpretation” opens the door to lawsuits, lots of lawsuits. In fact, lawsuits were filed even before the bills were signed into law at the conclusion of the special session.

How this might impact you? The district lines as they are currently envisioned at this moment may not be the district configuration a year from now. Should any of the various lawsuits challenging these maps be successful then the district or districts in question will have to be altered to reflect the outcome of the lawsuit. If you change 1 piece of the puzzle then you impact the pieces of the puzzle next to it which can impact the pieces next to those pieces and so on…

Bottom line, finalizing this process can take quite some time. All we can do is react to the maps as they are currently configured, passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor and allow the legal process to move forward.

ARPA (AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT)

This was the other major issue considered during the past special session. Money allocated by the federal government in response to the COVID pandemic. The funds ($16 billion) allocated under the ARPA act were released to Texas earlier this year. For a variety of reasons these funds were not included during the normal budget process that was undertaken during the past regular legislative session, instead it was determined that the allocation of these funds would be withheld until this fall and considered while the redistricting process was also addressed.

How these funds could be utilized was limited in scope and determined by the federal government. 6 basic categories were outlined and all expenditures must fall within those categories. (more on this)

The final bill, SB 8 made several specific allocations of money corresponding to the categories as laid out in the ARPA rules. A basic review of the allocations is below:

Replenishment of the Texas Unemployment Compensation trust fund. This is the fund that all Texas employers must pay into that underwrites and pays unemployment benefits. The fund was completely exhausted during the Covid pandemic shut down. SB 8 allocated $7.2 billion into the fund and reestablished its solvency. If this had not been done, Texas employers would have had to foot the bill with increased unemployment taxes.
Tourism, travel and hospitality grants $180 million. Hospitality industry members can apply for one time recovery grants up to $20,000.
Children’s advocacy center information technology system improvements $1,200,000.
Department of State Health Services to be used for surge staffing and drug purchases $2 billion.
Broadband infrastructure $500,000,000.
Department of Criminal Justice $360,000,000.
Texas Department of Agriculture Food Banks $95,000,000.
Higher Education Coordinating Board Child Mental Health Care Consortium, $113,000,000.
Texas division of emergency management $300,000,000.
Higher Education Coordinating Board, University Construction $325,000,000.
Health and Human Services Commission, Dallas State Hospital, $237,000,000.
Health and Human Services Commission, Rural Hospitals, $75,000,000.
Health and Human Services Commission, Internet Portal, $20,000,000.
Health and Human Services Commission, Technology updates, $5,000,000.
Health and Human Services Commission, Texas Civil Commitment Office, $14,250.
Department of State Health Services, Rio Grande Valley, $16,700,000.
UT Health Science Center Houston, Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute, $40,000,000.
Higher Education Coordinating Brd, Texas Reskilling and Upskilling through Education Program, $15,000,000.
Higher Education Coordinating Brd, Performance Based Funding for At-Risk students
Texas Department of Agriculture, Home Delivered Meals, $5,000,000.
General Land Office, State Veteran Homes, $35,000,000.
Health and Human Services, Sunrise Canyon Hospital, $15,000,000.
Historical Commission Washington on the Brazos improvement project $20,000.
Office of the Governor Crime Victims Fund $160,000,000.
Depart of Information Resources $200,000,000
Permian Basin Behavioral Heath Center $40,000,000
Sexual Assault Program $52,000,000
AG Crime Victims Fund $54,000,000
Court Fees $7,000,000
State Emergency Communication Fund $150,000,000
Presidio Custom Station $15,000,000
TRS Care $286,000,000
Health and Human Services Surge staffing $378,000,000
DSHS $20,000,000
DSHS Emergency Services $21,000,000
Parks and Wildlife $40,000,000
Brazoria Co Beach and Dune Maintenance $5,000,000
GLO Coastal design study $300,000
A&M Institute for disaster study $1,000,000
Texas Tech & U of H $100,000,000
Comptroller Safe Keeping Trust $100,000,000
Parks and Wildlife Aquarium $3,000,000
UT Marine Sciences $3,000,000
TEA $3,000,000
UT Briscoe Museum $235,000
Higher Education Coordinator Board Rural Vet Program $1,000,000
State Preservation Board $25,000,000

The Governor signed the bill on November 8^th and goes into immediate effect.

Texas Desal Legislative Update from Kyle Frazier | July 2021

July 15, 2021 By TXD Customer Service Manager

POST SESSION REPORT | July 2021

As of this morning 385 bills and resolutions have been filed by members of the House and Senate. The majority of these bills deal with state and local elections in some fashion. The remainder deal with a host of other issues, most of which are on Governor Abbott’s Special Session call, but not all. Property tax, bail bond reform, transgender athlete issues, abortion, banning critical race theory curriculum, and addressing possible censorship by social media companies, among several other issues comprise the majority of the rest of the filed legislation, all of which are within the call of the Special Session. If a bill is brought up on either the House or Senate floor for discussion that is not contained within the Governor’s order it is subject to a point of order. Typically, these bills do not make it that far.

But there is no rule that bills outside the call cannot be filed.

Over the weekend there were hearings on election bills in both the House and Senate committees with jurisdiction over elections. Several hundred people attended and many waited until early in the morning to testify on these proposed bills. HB 3 was voted out of committee along party lines on Sunday, SB 1 was voted out of committee on Monday, also along party lines.

On Monday afternoon, at least 51 Democratic members of the Texas House left Texas and flew to Washington. This exodus effectively breaks the quorum needed to convene the Texas House of Representatives.

According to House rules adopted at the beginning of the regular session, two-thirds of the 150-member chamber must be present to conduct business. When the House is in session, legislators can vote to lock chamber doors to prevent colleagues from leaving and can order law enforcement to track down lawmakers who have already fled.

While much hay has been baled regarding “arresting” the House members who left, they of course would have to be in Texas to be arrested by Texas law enforcement, AND if they return, law enforcement would have to find them. Texas is a big state, lots of places to hide.

Expect lots of political activity for the foreseeable future. Both sides will use this situation to attempt to raise money. As to what happens next…

Since the House cannot meet (or conduct any type of business) no actions can be taken. The Senate may continue to meet, hold hearings and even pass legislation. Until the House convenes that is where it will end, at the Senate door.

This Special Session ends at midnight on August 7th. The Governor has the ability to immediately call another Special Session beginning at 12:01 August 8th if he so chooses. He can include all of the same issues and anything else he wants to add.

This issue will probably come to a head around mid-August during the 2nd called Special Session, someone will have to blink. The Governor already has 2 primary opponents and this is all about getting reelected (on all sides). As you will recall, the Governor used his line-item veto authority to veto the portion of the state budget that pays legislators, but also pays all legislative and many other capitol and research staff. This is several thousand working folks who may or may not be particularly political. They will begin working for free September 1st. The current quote from a House Democrat spokesman was that the Governor vetoed the funding that’s his problem.

While the rest of the Special Session issues are not time sensitive, certainly people getting paychecks is and will be at some point.

Also, don’t forget, sometime this fall the Legislature will have to redraw the district lines that each of them and all Congressional candidates must run in. They will have to meet to do that.

I’m sure there will be more to come.

NAWI Alliance Spring Meeting 2021

June 28, 2021 By Communications Coordinator

Texas Desal Legislative Update from Kyle Frazier | June 2021

June 22, 2021 By Communications Coordinator

POST SESSION REPORT FOR TXD 6-21-2021

The 2021 legislative session has come to a close (87^th for those counting). While all legislative sessions are unique, this version may eventually prove to be more unusual than normal. I use “prove to be” because we probably are not quite finished despite the May 31^st deadline having come and gone.

There are a number of unanswered questions (depending on to whom you listen) that might be considered unfinished business for the Texas legislature. Without question, they will need to return in a special session early this fall to pass redistricting legislation. The necessary information is still being developed by the Federal government and they must wait for receipt of that data to complete their work.

In addition, a number of “high profile” partisan issues were left unresolved that the Governor could include as issues to be addressed during some future special session. As a reminder, the Governor calls a special session and determines the issue(s) to be discussed. A special session lasts no more than 30 days and he may call as many as he wants. With the June 20^th deadline for signing, vetoing or allowing to become law without signature now passed, we have a more complete picture of this past session and what the future may hold.

The Governor vetoed 20 bills including a line-item veto of Article X of the state budget. The vetoed bills represent an interesting variety ranging from bail reform and increasing the offense of hazing to use of hypnotically induced testimony in a criminal trail and unlawful restraint of a dog. By far one of the more interesting vetoe is the line-item veto of Art. X of the upcoming state budget. A governor targeting the Legislature’s budget would be unprecedented in Texas history, according to the Legislative Reference Library of Texas. The only other comparison would be in 1971 when Governor Preston Smith vetoed all appropriations made for the second year of the 1972-73 biennial budget and forced the legislature to redo the budget for that year during an already planned upcoming special session.

In addition to funding the two chambers of the Legislature, Article X of the state budget also funds nonpartisan agencies that are crucial for policymaking, including the Legislative Reference Library, which conducts research for the Legislature; the Legislative Budget Board, which develops policy and budget recommendations and provides fiscal analyses for legislation; the Legislative Council, which helps draft and analyze potential legislation; the State Auditor’s Office, which reviews the state’s finances; and the Sunset Advisory Commission, which reviews the efficiency of state agencies. The Governor vetoed this section in response to the Democrats breaking quorum during the waning days of the legislative session to defeat a proposed election bill.

This veto will not impact these expenditures until the new budget comes into effect on September 1, 2021.

As of today, the Governor has not yet decided on a date for the Special Session. It is assumed that he will call the Special Session sometime after July 4^th but nothing definitive yet.

TXD

While we tracked a number of bills during the legislative session our main interest was passage of SB 601 (Perry/Burrows) SB 601 passed the Senate by a vote of 31-0 and the House by 143-0. It is unusual for water centric legislation to pass unopposed but with a great author/sponsor it always helps. While the bill was amended in the House the bill went to conference and the amendment was removed. For the most part the bill passed as originally drafted. The Governor signed SB 601 on June 18^th and because of the language and the overwhelming support in both House and Senate the bill goes into immediate effect.

This was not really a “water centric” legislative session. (For good or ill)

Besides SB 601, the only other “water” bills we were tracking that actually passed and signed were:

HB 1322
Requiring agencies to publish brief summary of proposed rules on website
HB 1904
To ensure that equity that can no longer be used under the water infrastructure fund (WIF) can be used for other programs in the Texas Water Development Fund II (DFund II)
HB 1905
Relating to relieving regional water planning groups of certain duties.
HB 2361
Amends the Health and Safety Code to include projects that reduce flaring emissions and other site emissions among the projects for which the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is required to give preference in awarding grants under the new technology implementation grant program
SB 669
Relating to certain reports created by the Texas Water Development Board.
SB 905
Directs the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to create a direct potable reuse document so that entities will be able to understand the process for having such a project. It does not create new rules or permitting.

Unless something dramatic changes, there do not appear to be any possible water issues that would be included in any of the likely upcoming special sessions.

Texas Desal Legislative Update from Kyle Frazier | April 2021

April 22, 2021 By Communications Coordinator

April 2021

The legislative session has only 40 days remaining. What began as a unique session because of the Covid pandemic evolved into something quite a bit different because of the severe winter weather that struck the state in mid-February. A statewide power curtailment along with public water supply interruptions posed significant problems for large portions of the state, including Austin. The legislative session went on hold for several days in mid-February, delaying any and all legislative activities.

The word that seems to best describe this session is WEIRD. All legislative sessions are odd or even strange in their own ways. But this one is just weird.

Having said that, we have now fallen into something of a normal, if not accelerated pattern more akin to past legislative sessions. The Senate has passed their version of the budget and the House will consider its version on Thursday, April 22^nd. With the influx of federal money, initial budget concerns appear now to have been unfounded. There are still significant amounts of federal funds to be distributed, how remains to be seen.

It is certain that the legislature will return for a special session sometime this fall to consider redistricting. The delay in receipt of the national census numbers is the cause of this situation. Right now, this issue appears to be the only matter that will not be addressed during the regular session.

More specifically, our support for the Produced Water Consortium legislation (SB 601 Perry) is moving through the process and should be voted out of the House committee on Natural Resources on Thursday April 22^nd. We have had 2 good hearings. Steve Walden spoke on behalf of TXD and very effectively represented our position in both hearings. In addition, experts from a number of other organizations have added additional expert testimony. Even some of the environmental organizations have “grudgingly” been neutral on the bill cautiously agreeing that something productive needs to be done with this resource. My guess is ultimately they will be opposed but not as vocal as usual.

With only 40 days left bills will begin to die at an alarming rate. Pre-determined deadlines in both Houses ensure a steady decline in the issues and bills that still wait to be considered. So far, our priorities appear to be on track and moving in the right direction.