Good news for lawmakers: the governor seems confident there will not be a special session. Today, he said if members would get to work, they can accomplish the “work of the people.”

As for his schedule over the next four days: he’s heading to a fundraiser with Rush Limbaugh tonight and he called this weekend his “baseball weekend.”

When asked if this was the right time for travel, he said four days is plenty of time to get the work of the people done.

The country club chamber doesn’t adhere to the same rules as the “people’s house.” Hundreds of bills died when the clock struck midnight in the House on Tuesday.

The Senate decided to ignore that little deadline tonight by simply unplugging the clocks two minutes before midnight. I guess we found the answer to eternal youth and somehow I’m spending mine hunched over a computer on the Senate floor.

It looks like the showdown in the House didn’t deter Straus for looking at another run for Speaker. After several meetings House members last night and pow-wows in the back room, Straus filed the papers for Speaker this morning. In an impromptu interview, Straus said he believes he’ll be elected Speaker again or he wouldn’t have filed. As far as his characterization of the his term as leader of the House, he said “it’s not over yet.”

House Democrats have finally let up on the chubbing and they’re hoping to get through local and consent in time to bring up the unemployment insurance bill that was tabled before the chubbing began.  However, Republicans will have none of it. They are the ones who are now asking questions to run out the clock.

“We didn’t go through all of this just to give them a bill that we don’t want,” said one Republican lawmaker.

In a personal privilege speech, Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, told lawmakers this morning he would continue stalling in order to prevent a vote on voter ID. Holding up a poll tax receipt owned by his father, Raymond said he could not stand by and see history repeat itself. He’s prepared to question every local and consent bill for the allotted time, 9 1/2 minutes.

Meanwhile, Rep. Dunnam says he has a point of order that will kill voter ID on a technical point. He says he’s waiting for the Speaker to come out of “hiding” so he can present the info to him and see if the Speaker will make voter ID ineligible.

As we wind down the debate over the top 10% rule, it seems some lawmakers just can’t get enough. After 8 hours of debate just today on this issue, representatives are giving their “closing remarks” at the podium. Meanwhile, the deadline to pass major bills in the House is midnight Tuesday - just about 28 hours from now.

The House changed the bill dramatically. It came in as allowing all state universities to cap the number of students it admits under the top 10% rule at 60% of their student body. After the House did its work, the bill only allows UT to cap its top 10% students at 75% of the student body. If the entire debate is putting you asleep…you’re not alone:

I was just handed a pamphlet of information that relates the history of the legislature’s actions when it comes voting requirements. According the text, the Legislature passed a law in 1997 requiring voters show an alternative form of identification at the polls if they don’t have their registration card (before that, there was no such requirement).

The points highlighted in this document:

• It was co-authored by a Democrat
• No one testified against the bill in committee
• The TX Democratic Party testified in favor of the bill
• The bill passed unanimously out of the Senate

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So far this session, the Senate has passed 1,187 of their own bills. Of those bills, the House has passed 220. That means there is a long list of Senate bills waiting in line that still need final approval and Senators are starting to sweat the fate of them.

The list includes:

SB 362-Voter ID

SB 18-Eminent domain

SB 20-Property tax appraisals

SB 541-Renewable energy incentives

SB 1443-Tuition reform

SB 1560-University funding

SB 16-Air quality, greenhouse gas registry

SB11-Gang related crimes

SB 855-Transportation financing

SB 1007-TX Dep’t of Insurance

SB 7-Health care reform

Although the House floor is virtually empty due to the incessant chubbing, one lawmaker is staying in the loop. Rep. Mike Hamilton said Rep. Kuempel is watching the proceedings from his hospital room. This morning Hamilton had to lay out one of Kuempel’s local and consent bills and Kuempel called him and told him “don’t screw it up. Just read the script.”

It’s good to know he’s back in the game!

On Thursday the House passed no bills on second reading. Today, they aren’t even finished with the local and consent calendar (which usually takes about an hour to get through). The Dems weren’t joking when they said they would do everything in their power to make sure voter ID doesn’t make it to the floor for debate. The voter ID bill (already passed by the Senate) is scheduled for debate tomorrow. However, at this rate, there will be so many other bills that have been put on hold they may not get to it until its too late.

Rep. Castro told me we would see all types of strategic moves today, otherwise known as “chubbing,” and apparently he wasn’t exaggerating.

*strategery