Voter ID coming Saturday?

By Jason Embry
Austin Statesman
Friday, May 22, 2009, 07:30 AM

The elephant in the room is the voter ID bill, which the House Calendars Committee has scheduled for the floor on Saturday. Democrats hate the bill and say the chamber should be more focused on other issues, such as reforming the Texas Department of Insurance. And that may be why the Calendars Committee also put the Department of Insurance bill on Saturday’s calendar.

The deadline for the House to give preliminary approval to Senate bills is midnight Tuesday, and the prevailing question seems to be, how far back will the voter ID debate push other bills? The House also has not acted on Senate bills to cap tuition, allow guns in buildings on college campuses for students carrying the proper permits, reform eminent domain laws (that one is scheduled for today), reform windstorm insurance or allow a local-option gas tax, although senators are trying to make that one part of other legislation.

As Gardner Selby wrote Thursday evening on the Postcards blog, “It’s worth watching Friday to see if House Democrats, most of them opposed to the ID proposal, exert special effort to slow action even more on the bills piled up on the calendar already, including the unresolved proposals affecting college admissions and whether Texas should take in at least $555 million in offered federal unemployment compensation aid.â€