Gavel To Gavel 87th Legislative Session: March 26, 2021
Legislative focus shifted this week to the other priorities enumerated in Governor Greg Abbott’s list of emergency items. Logistical scuffles resulted in the delay of House Bill 6 and Senate Bill 7, two controversial elections bills filed in accordance with Gov. Abbott’s emergency item regarding “elections integrity.” Monday, Democrats pushed back against SB 7 by “tagging” the bill, meaning they delayed the hearing for 48 hours. However, the bill has since passed out of the Senate State Affairs Committee and is headed to the full Senate. HB 6 was caught up in a procedural error when Rep. Briscoe Cain, Chair of the House Elections Committee, recessed for lunch without officially declaring that they were doing so or setting a certain time for them to return. This could generate a “point of order” or violation of the chamber rules, requiring him to cancel the hearing and start the process for this bill over. Currently, the bill is scheduled for a hearing in the House Elections Committee on April 1st.
The Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 6, the COVID-19 liability bill, was heard in a meeting of the Senate Committee on Business & Commerce on Tuesday, generating extensive stakeholder input before it was left pending. Author Sen. Kelly Hancock’s expressed intent “… is to protect the well-meaning health care providers, first responders, large and small businesses, religious institutions and non-profit entities and education institutes from frivolous lawsuits related to COVID-19.” The bill protects individuals and entities unless they knowingly or maliciously acted in a manner that would compromise health and safety. Support for the bill is extensive and diverse, including entities such as the Texas Assisted Living Association, the Texas Hotel and Lodging Association, the Texas Oil and Gas Association, and more. Given its scope, this is a bill to watch.
Thursday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) released its final Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy (SARA) for the spring season and its preliminary assessment for the summer season. The preliminary summer SARA holds that they are well prepared for the summer. However, “with continued economic growth across the state, ERCOT anticipates… a new system-wide peak demand record.” After Uri, ERCOT has developed additional steps to ensure the protection of the system during the summer’s extreme heat. These include: coordination with transmission companies to limit planned outages, requesting generators to contact gas suppliers to identify any pipeline activities that would affect gas availability, and communications coordination with market participants.
The U.S. House Committee on Energy & Commerce this week conducted a hearing on Texas’ energy grid failure. Witnesses included Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, ERCOT’s Bill Magness, and Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick. Find their written testimony to the Committee here.
The Texas Department of State Health Services announced that on Monday, March 29th, Texas will expand COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to all adults in Texas. Additionally, the state will receive more than 1 million first doses of COVID-19 for Week 16 of distribution. The federal government is expected to directly distribute more than 200,000 first doses to pharmacy locations and federally qualified health centers.