From Jessica Luther, a guide to Monday’s Senate hearing on their version of the omnibus anti-abortion bill.
On Tuesday, the House Committee had their hearing for HB2 (what a sham that was, huh?).
The Senate version of that bill – SB1 – will be heard by committee this upcoming Monday at 10am. Here is the Facebook event for the hearing.
(Note: I will NOT be in Austin on Monday so I will miss the hearing all together.)
What time does everything happen?
Doors to capitol open at 7am.
[…]
Registration for the hearing opens at 9am.
The hearing begins at 10am.
Where is the hearing?
Capitol Extension, Room E1.036. A MUCH smaller room than normal.
It is one floor above where we were this week for the House committee hearing. When you get to the capitol, take the elevators in the North wing DOWN to level E1. Walk down the long hallway and E1.036 will be at the end on the right side.
According to the Senate’s site, these will be the overflow rooms on Monday:
Capitol Auditorium, E1.004
E1.012 (Hearing Room)
E1.016 (Hearing Room)
E1.028 (Hearing Room)
What is different this time from the House committee hearing?
1) How you register.
Unlike the House, which uses an electronic system to register people’s approval/opposition of the bill and their desire to testify, the Senate still uses good old-fashioned paper. You will be asked to fill out a witness affidavit card by hand. There will be plenty of people in orange there to help you fill out the card if you have any trouble. You must then turn the card into the clerk.
2) How much time you have.
This past Tuesday you had three minutes. This time you will only have 2 minutes.
3) How many copies of written testimony you will need.
This time: 20! (make sure your name is on each copy)
There’s a lot more useful information at the link, so click over and read it all. As Jessica and Juanita both note, bill supporters – having been caught flatfooted during the first special session – are making plans to turn out on Monday, so a good showing by the good guys would be nice. If you can’t make it to Austin, there’s a phonebanking event tomorrow that you can participate in from anywhere. Look, we all know this sucks, and we all know that the Republicans have the numbers to muscle this through in the end, but that doesn’t mean we should make it easy on them. Let’s not lose momentum now.
UPDATE: Nonsequiteuse has more.