Windstorm insurance bill passes House committee

I've mentioned the prospect of a special session several times lately. One of the issues that could be the cause of a special session is windstorm insurance, as the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association took it on the chin last year thanks to Hurricane Ike. Governor Perry even came to the floor of the House yesterday to threaten that he'd call a special session for June 2, the day after sine die, if a bill didn't get passed. Apparently, that was enough to make something happen.

Windstorm insurance reform legislation suddenly got voted out of a House committee Wednesday after Gov. Rick Perry threatened to call a special session on June 2 if the bill does not pass.

Both inland and coastal lawmakers expressed concerns about the bill they voted on, but said they needed to get something to a House/Senate conference committee if there is any hope of reaching a compromise to avoid a special session.

Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, complained that he was being forced to vote on a 51-page bill that he had not read. He said the House has had the entire session to work on a compromise and now was being presented a "false choice" of voting on an unseen bill or having it die in the Legislature's closing crunch.

"The House is on fire! Let's vote it out," Martinez Fischer said.

"I don't care what you do. If you want to vote it down, vote it down," replied House Insurance Committee Chairman John Smithee, R-Amarillo.

Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, joined Martinez Fischer in voting against the bill, also complaining that she had not had a chance to read it.

"I'm not trying to slow the process down, but don't I have a right to read this stuff?" Thompson asked.

Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, urged his fellow committee members to vote for the bill just to keep it moving and not let it die. He said there are many things in it that still bother him.

"We have been told we will be called into a special session on June 2 if we do not get this matter resolved," Hunter said. "Get the process moving so we do not kill the issue."

The bill in question is SB14, which was approved by the Senate on April 30, but which has been revised since then. One hopes everyone will have the time to read the bill before it gets voted on again, not that this has ever been a requirement for getting stuff passed; if it were, we might never have heard the words "Trans Texas Corridor". One also hopes that this bill will be given priority over clearly less-important things like voter ID. Finally, one hopes that this is the only thing that's on Governor Perry's list of reasons for which to call a special session, and not just the cudgel of the day. I don't want the Lege to come back this summer any more than they do.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on May 21, 2009 to Hurricane Katrina