Signings and vetoes

Greg Abbott does his thing.

Gov. Greg Abbott has vetoed 50 bills that were passed during the regular legislative session, his office announced Thursday.

That’s several more than he vetoed following the last session and the most a governor has doled out since 2007.

Abbott offered a number of common explanations for his vetoes, calling the bills unnecessary, too costly or too burdensome. He vetoed at least five bills for the same reason: The House bill’s author asked for a veto because he prefers the Senate companion.

[…]

Another measure he vetoed Thursday was Senate Bill 790, which would have kept in operation an advisory group that makes recommendations to the state on its women’s health services.

Abbott said in his veto statement that SB 790 “does nothing more than extend the expiration date of a governmental committee that has already successfully completed its mission.”

“Rather than prolong government committees beyond their expiration date, the state should focus on programs that address more clearly identifiable needs, like my call for action to address the maternal mortality rate during the special session,” Abbott said.

Janet Realini, vice chair of the women’s health advisory committee, said wrapping up the group was premature.

“There’s 1.8 million women who need publicly subsidized services, family planning in particular, and right now we’re serving less than a quarter of those, so I think we have a long way to go,” she said.

You can see a full list of the vetoed bills at the story. A couple of bills relating to topics that will be on the special session agenda were among the casualties. SB790 was probably the bill whose rejection drew the strongest reaction; Sen. Borris Miles and Rep. Donna Howard vented their frustration, with Howard noting that “at no point during the past six months had the governor’s office expressed any concerns to me over the legislation”. We knew going in that Greg Abbott was a weak leader. Everything that isn’t on the veto list will be enacted (a few will become law without Abbott’s autograph), including the Sandra Bland Act and the driverless car bill. Click over and see if anything you liked got the ax.

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2 Responses to Signings and vetoes

  1. Joshua ben bullard says:

    Tx senator borris miles voted against statewide ride share which I strongly opposed him doing and over 98% of all of his voters wanted ride share on a statewide platform,the governor needs to keep a very very close eye on miles ,he’s supposed to be my tx senator, I talked with him in person ,he should have known better that to hide ,duck and dodge on that ride share bill,who wants to have a senator that voted against uber? Not me and not 98% of miles voters, what a bunch of smoke in the room.The governor needs to take a very close look and scrutinize everything borris puts up and veto the hell out of it if you feel uneasy governor,borris needs to take along step back and realize your going to be exposed to the voters for your sorry ride share against uber vote, legally you’ll never hear the end if it until I get you voted out of office.I will be staging a legal protest at your offices soon.

  2. Bill Daniels says:

    ““There’s 1.8 million women who need publicly subsidized services, family planning in particular, and right now we’re serving less than a quarter of those, so I think we have a long way to go,” she said. ”

    There are two ways to approach this issue. The first, obviously, is to spend more tax dollars on care at the free clinic. The second is a two pronged approach. Ramp up deportations and we can get a significant portion of those 1.8M women back where they belong, where their own country can take care of them. The second prong is to boost the economy, to make America a job creator, so these unfortunate women can work and gain the self respect that comes from taking care of themselves, vs. being wards of the state.

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