Posted on 01/30/2003 3:06:50 PM PST by Diddle E. Squat
AUSTIN – Speaker Tom Craddick overhauled the committee structure of the Texas House Thursday, with appointments that favored like-minded Republicans, supportive Democrats and an unprecedented share of political rookies.
The Dallas area was well represented in key posts, as lawmakers learned their likely roles in a cash-strapped session.
Mr. Craddick and the state Republican party described the appointments as fair and balanced, backing that up with statistics that suggest that the new speaker treated minorities and women at least as well as his predecessor, Rep. Pete Laney, D-Hale Center.
“We looked at committees as a whole. We looked at what they requested and tried to place them where they wanted,” said Mr. Craddick, a Midland Republican. “We tried to balance it across the board, which we said we’d do. And I think we did really well.”
Democratic opponents of the speaker said the panels are packed in a way to ensure dissenting voices do not prevail.
“Any semblance of fairness or bipartisanship is just a façade,” said Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. “The core committees, where the power is are totally dominated by … a hard-core ideological partisans that, from this structure, have the ability to dominate the discussion and the decision making process.”
A GOP press release suggested the new speaker is less partisan than Mr. Laney, judging by membership on the powerful budget-writing Appropriations Committee.
The budget committee appointed by Mr. Laney last session was one third Republican, less than that party’s 48-percent share of House membership, according to a Republican Party news release. This year, 12 Democrats make up 42 percent of the budget-writing panel, equal to their party’s share of House seats, the release noted.
Mr. Laney, though, could claim he had much less freedom to choose appropriations members than Mr. Craddick has, since House rules Mr. Laney helped pass let half of the budget panel claim their seats by seniority, a criteria that favored long-term Democrats.
New House rules passed on Mr. Craddick’s watch eliminated the seniority privilege, calling for the budget panel to include a chair and a vice-chair, plus budget liasions from each of 27 other committees.
Mr. Craddick used that freedom to clean out the budget committee and appoint short-timers, Republicans and political supporters. Only the chairman, vice-chairman and six of the 27 other members were on the panel last session.
Some displaced budget panel members theorized they were bumped because their expertise would enable them to knowledgably challenge the Republican budget strategies. Others lamented that for the first time in recent history, the House leadership is disregarding invaluable institutional knowledge.
“They’ve got a lot of learning to do with a big budget problem,” said Rep. Irma Rangel, D-Kingsville, former chair of the Higher Education Committee. “I just hope the members on that committee will be able to give the assistance that’s needed, otherwise we might be here for six special sessions.”
Supporters of the speaker said the new committee structure will assure that experts from every other committee are on hand as Appropriations tackles the expected two-year, $9-billion shortfall And,.
“New people can learn a new way, a new budget scheme “It will help to have fresh ears and fresh minds that have never heard the explanation before,” Rep. Kenny Marchant of Coppell, who was named chairman of the influential state affairs committee. “In the corporate world, every once in a while a brand new consultant or brand new personnel or brand new people are brought into look at old problems that have never really be resolved properly.”
One of the biggest winners was Dallas freshman Republican Rep. Dan Branch, who in his first session is positioned to be a point man on the critical issue of education funding.
Mr. Branch will serve on the Public Education Committee, in the heavyweight role of liaison to the Appropriations Committee. A lawyer whose district includes the Park Cities, he is the first freshman Dallas-County legislator to be appointed to the budget panel. His experience includes seven years on the board and a stint as chairman of the Texas Public Finance Authority, the state agency that oversees funding of long-term state capital projects.
The Calendars Committee, which has long been one of the most powerful because it schedules which bills are heard on the House floor, may lose that stature if Mr. Craddick fulfills his promise to schedule a vote on any bill that has the votes to pass. The new chair of that committee is Rep. Beverly Woolley, R-Houston.
Mr. Craddick denied there was any payback for his political supporters, and that his enemies didn’t suffer his wrath.
“I think they did very well,” he said of his political opponents. “We did a real mixture, a lot of those people are involved in the leadership.”
Mr. Laney got no chairmanships and was appointed to the low-profile Transportation and Agriculture and Livestock Committees. Rep. Lon Burnham, D-Fort Worth, was the only House member to vocally criticize Mr. Craddick and then vote against him for speaker. Though his district is largely urban, he lost his chair on the Urban Affairs Committee and landed instead on Agriculture. He also lost his seat on the Insurance Committee – a power position in a session promising insurance overhaul.
Rep. Helen Giddings, a black Democrat from Dallas, was named chair of the influential Business and Industry Committee. And Rep. Ron Wilson, a Craddick supporter and a black Democrat from Houston, will chair the Ways and Means Committee. That panel would handle the hottest of political hot potatoes – any tax or fee increase.
Rep. Senfronia Thompson, who supported Mr. Laney’s bid for speaker, lost her chairmanship and membership on the Judicial Affairs Committee to Dallas Republican Rep. Will Hartnett.
E-mail pslover@dallasnews.com
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