Don't Forget -- Picnic is Thursday May 26th

The annual Cherokee County Democratic Club picnic is THIS WEEK!  Thursday, May 26^th  Join us for good food, fun, fellowship, and lots of laughs!  Location: Jim Hogg City Park in Rusk. East on U.S. 84 at the intersection of 84 and 69 to the Park Road sign on your right. Rain or shine, we will start the picnic at 6:00 PM.  Coke, Dr. Pepper, sweet tea, unsweetened tea and ice are provided by the club. So bring a covered dish, snack tray, chips, BBQ, fried chicken, etc., and a guest or two.   See you there!

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From Suzanne Morris –

Many of you are aware of the movement to stop the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline from being extended down through East Texas to the Gulf Coast, crossing our streams, rivers and Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.

On Saturday, May 28th, we will have a booth at the Fair on the Square in Rusk, and we need some help passing out post cards petitioning the State Department to reject TransCanada's request for a Presidential Permit for this pipeline extension.  The deadline for comment is June 6th.

Some of you have expressed an interest in this issue.  If you could help by passing out postcards during the Fair, we would greatly appreciate it.

We'll see you at the meeting next Thursday night, and Mary will have a few postcards for our members who wish to sign at that time.

The movement is growing to stop this toxic crude oil from being transported down through our state to get to the open commodity market.  It is a threat to our water supply and our environment, and our State Department needs to know we care.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email me.

Many thanks.

Suzanne Morris

(903) 683-9525

Texas Observer Notes What Defunding Planned Parenthood Will Cost Us

• The Texas Observer reported yesterday that the LBB says the move to take money out of family-planning programs could be very expensive for the state: “The cuts to family planning programs approved in the Texas House budget—part of conservative lawmakers’ efforts to defund Planned Parenthood this session—would lead to more than a quarter million low-income women losing essential reproductive health services and birth control, according to a recent analysis. … The House version of the budget would divert about $62 million—two-thirds of total funding—from birth control and other women’s health services to programs like autism services, early childhood intervention and crisis pregnancy centers. A recent analysis by the Legislative Budget Board estimates the family planning cuts contained in the House budget would result in almost 284,000 fewer women receiving services. With a lack of birth control come more unplanned pregnancies, and possibly more abortions. The LBB analysis—which hasn’t been made public, but was obtained by the Observer—also estimates that the state’s Medicaid program would have to cover approximately 20,511 more births. That would cost almost $100 million in state dollars over the next biennium.”   This came from Austin American Statesman online 

Keeping Up With The Legislature

Hope you've been keeping with the Legislature in Austin.  Not an easy thing to do.  But as you know the House passed the Committee Substitute to HB 1 which cuts billions from education and would force many nursing homes to shut down and leave grandma without a home.  Some who voted for it seemed to say that this was not the real budget and that it would get better.

Well the bill went to the Senate and they came up with their own version of HB 1.  The Senate Finance committee bill is on the calendar in the Senate and they must have 21 votes to bring it up for debate.  At this point they are having difficulty doing that.  Both progressives and conservatives are telling Senators to vote no on bringing up the bill.  The conservatives do not like the idea that there is Rainy Day money in the bill and the other side thinks that there are still too many cuts and not enough Rainy Day money or new revenue in the bill.  Seems some senators want to move it on saying that it can be changed/fixed in conference committee.  But the buck will stop somewhere.  We can't keep passing it on and hoping that someone else will fix it.

April 28 -- Cherokee Democratic Meeting

The Cherokee County Democratic Club will meet on Thursday, April 28, at Lupe's at 7 p.m.  The Women's Group will meet at 6:30 p.m.  Come a little early if want to order supper.

The group will discuss the county redistricting among other concerns.  Come join us and share you views about what is happening in the county, state and nation.

Check Out These Articles Today

If you are interested in the Pipeline discussion and the possibility that it will move through East Texas, you might check out the New York Time Editorial against the pipeline.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/opinion/03sun1.html

This is the topic which was the subject of the Cherokee County Democratic Club meeting in February.

The Texas Observer has a good article on the Budget Debate.
http://www.texasobserver.org/floor-play/the-budget-superlatives-the-best-and-worst-moments-of-the-budget-debate
Two Republicans voted against the Budget Bill and one is a Tea Party Republican.  Seems he is getting a little disillusioned about how things work in Austin.

House Reconvenes to Complete Discussion on CSHB 1

It is 9:10 p.m. on Sunday, April 3, and the House is nearing completion on CSHB 1.  They are down to Article 11 which is the last section to be considered.  Article 11 is a compilation of amendments which are "wish lists' from Representatives.  They are not funded.  They will not a part of HB 1 unless they get picked up, passed and funded in the process as the bill goes through the Senate and the probable conference committee.  This is a process which is not completely understood by the Representative, even those who have been there for several sessions.  


In the next few days hopefully we will see some analysis of what is still in the bill and what has been changed.  This is the second reading of CSHB 1.  So it will have to be passed after a third reading.  The Senate will then have their say so we are long way from having a budget.  It may not be done until even a special called session.


Rep. Sylvester Turner seems to be the expert on the Article 11 process.  He is speaking to the body and explaining and answering questions about how this all works.  The House is getting ready to vote on all the amendments in Article 11 at once.  They voted by not objecting to the motion to pass Article 11. They have until Tuesday to register opposition to any of the amendments in writing.  


It is now 9:45 p.m.and the Democrats are making their final speeches against CSHB 1.  These are speeches you might want to listen to some time.  They are archived on the House website.  The vote will come after the speeches are completed.

House Debate on CSHB 1 Continues

House debate on CSHB 1  (committee substitute for HB 1) came to a temporary end at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.  They will reconvene on Sunday at 4 p.m.  Any political nerds or information junkies can listen to the archived video of the session by going online to http://www.house.state.tx.us/
There are over 400 pages of amendments to complete. You can see the text of these amendments on the Texas Tribue website -- http://www.texastribune.org/.   Many of the amendments on Friday dealt with moving money from one fund to another.   Many of those were moving money from family planning to other human service areas.  The Democrats found this frustrating as both area considered were of great need and value but they were being forced to choose.  Many felt this was a political maneuver--raiding family planning (which is interpreted as "abortion" to many) to give to other area.  All the while many were also complaining of too many abortions.  It was pointed out that taking away family planning money would lead to more unplanned pregnancies and to potential for more abortions.  All amendments passed which took money from family planning.

You can also follow the debate when it begins again on Sunday through twitter.com.  The hashtag for this discussion is #txlege.  Use that to search for what is being said as the debate moves along.