Gavel To Gavel 87th Legislative Session: May 8, 2021

With just 21 days left of the 87th Legislative Session, collective fatigue and the race to the finish line are creating their usual confusion. Some committees have restricted their upcoming meetings to referred or pending business, and others are working through only two or three bills. Monday, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Glenn Hegar issued a revised Biennial Revenue Estimate (BRE), projecting significantly more positive estimates for 2020-21 and 2022-23 ending balances ($113.88 B and $115.65 B, respectively) as well as the Economic Stabilization Fund’s 2022-23 ending balance ($12.12 B). Though uncertainty remains, Comptroller Hegar said Texas is well-positioned to recover from COVID-19 and its accompanying economic crisis. Though we’ve heard no updates from the Conference Committee for SB1, a little extra change can’t hurt, given the relative symbiosis with which they entered deliberations.
 
Following a debate that stretched roughly eight hours, the Senate passed HB 1927 (referred to as the constitutional carry bill) out of the chamber on party lines. Unless the House approves the Senate changes, the bill will travel next to a Conference Committee and then to the Governor’s desk, where Gov. Greg Abbott has already committed his signature.
 
Likely also heading to a Conference Committee is SB 7, the omnibus elections bill. After multiple postponements, another near-fatal Point of Order, and a plethora of amendments, the bill passed out of the full House Friday on a vote of 78-64. At this point it heads back to the Senate, where Senators may concur in House amendments and send the bill to the Governor, or object to House amendments and request a conference committee be appointed.
 
In other news, the Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas has taken the first steps towards making changes in scarcity pricing following the financial turmoil created by Winter Storm Uri. In proposed amendments to Texas Administrative Code Title 16, Ch. 25, the PUC recommends modifying the value of the low system-wide offer cap (LCAP) by eliminating a provision that ties the value of LCAP to the natural gas price index and replacing it with a provision that ensures resource entities are able to recover their actual marginal costs in scarcity pricing situations.  This change follows the enrollment of SR 342, which was passed out of the Senate on a vote of 30-0 and urges the PUC “… to significantly reduce the high system-wide offer cap and evaluate changes to the market structure”.
 
Lastly, with more than a quarter of Texans fully vaccinated, the Texas Senate on Monday joined the House in relaxing COVID-19 restrictions, lifting the mask mandate and increasing the number of staff allowed on the floor.

- Lillian Gerrity