Some Texas legislators are upset that freshman state Rep. David Simpson (R-7) used parliamentary procedures to bump bills off the fast track House calendar. (Fast-track bills aren’t subject to debate.)
For example, after Simpson slowed down Senfronia Thompson’s (D-141) “puppy mill” bill (HB 1451), colleagues began “returning the favor”. The Texas Tribune reported: “13 co-authors of Simpson’s HB 1937, a popular bill to criminalize over-eager patdowns at airport security, had withdrawn their names from his legislation.”
Even Republicans are unhappy with Simpson, accusing him of breaking “unspoken rules of decorum”. The Tribune reported:
“If he doesn’t want to have a relationship with anybody around or if he thinks not going up and talking to authors before he knocks a bill off is the right way to go, that’s his business, not mine,” said Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, who defended Thompson’s bill on the floor.
HB 1451 would grow government, requiring an additional 15 employees to manage Thompson’s requirements for licensing and inspections. It would also increase the cost of buying a dog, due to additional breeders’ costs. This means it’s a tax, hidden behind feel-good legislation enacted to hypothetically protect defenseless puppies. (We all love puppies. How could you say no?)
The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance says HB 1451 “had been rushed through the committee process and placed on the Local and Consent Calendar” in order to expedite a floor vote.
Ask your legislator: After Texas voters gave you a mandate to shrink state government, why are you voting to grow it? As for state Rep. Simpson, he’s turning out to be a slayer of bad legislation and an enemy of big government.
The sad part of this commentary is that he is getting slack for not folowing the ‘business as usual’ forum. If it’s this bad at the State level (and in Texas no doubt) just imagine the amplitude of the situation in D.C.!
Geeeze ……………….
I begin to think that Texas Republicans didn’t hear the message last November, when we gave them a large majority in both houses. Or maybe they just pretended to hear us, just long enough to be able to continue screw us “for our own good.”
He got a huge write up in Mondays Austin-American Statesman.
This, along with the reports coming out about Strauss’ redistricting plan really gall.
Is this a legislature or a club?
Where does it say we have to provide districts that are set-asides for the election of DEMONcrats? Will no one ever save me from living in Lloyd Dogget’s district?
Aiiieeeeee! (insert Howard Dean scream).
I could have told you that. A lot of texas reps are the same as the dems.
And they can be primaried and voted out just like dems, too.
The Republican party has run both houses of the leg and been in the gov’s seat for danged near a generation. Good ol’ boyism when you have had one party rule for that long is not just a dem thing. Republicans can get complacent in their groupthink as easy as democrats.
There is much more here than meets the eye and I congratulate Simpson on stepping in it. On June 30, 2010 the El Paso City Council reviewed their fee structure for shots, tags, etc. Suddenly on July 7, 2010 the ordinance was changed to outlaw the sale of all puppies and kittens within the city limits. By October, adds were taken out and protests were being conducted my local animal rights activists unjustly accusing local pet store owners of operating puppy mills – In January of 2011 Title X went into effect in the city of El Paso which has placed significant regulation, fees and fines on pregnant animals and even restricted dog shows, demonstrations and the county livestock show.
The citizens of El Paso literally had no idea what hit them. The introduction of HB 1451 seems very similar in tactics and goals to what happened in El Paso. Instead of letting his colleagues get away with their tantrum, Simpson needs to do some research into the intended outcome of Senfronia Thompson’s (D-141) “puppy mill” bill.
Good info, KD. Everyone I’ve ever known who breeds dogs to sell, loves them and cares for them and treats them like family. I have noticed that I rarely hear the phrase ” puppy mills” except by those promoting their own breed-specific “Rescue Adoption” operations. Seems to me it’s just one group trying to get a competitive edge over another.
Kinda like an article I read once in which an amateur archeologist was proudly showing the reporter his large personal collection of artifacts gathered from sites he’d excavated, all the while demonizing the “pot hunters” who kept their finds for themselves!
So how did our Texas legislature get captivated by one lobby over another? Have they too gotten too big for their britches?
The establishment Repubs in Austin hate them some freshman “Tea Party” legislators. Lashing out by trying to kill what is likely to be a very popular bill putting some accountability on TSA is not going to win them any friends back home.
If we could just multiply Texas-Rep.-Simpson-types by 60% in every state house, our US Congress and Senate, then we really would be witnessing the type of Glorious Revolution our nation so desperately needs.
Meanwhile, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: At this point in our nation’s history the only purpose any elected official has in office is to downsize government; any and all attempts by officials to increase the scope and power of government should be met with a loud and resounding: YOU’RE FIRED.
Yes!! yes!! A rep that thinks!! We could use many more Thanks Darcy!
I gotta tell you, with something like this (puppy mills) people just don’t care if regulating them grows the government or not. Nobody likes to see little doggies abused, and what goes on in puppy mills where there’s little if any regulation *is* abuse, whether you want to acknowledge it or not.
I understand we don’t have the money. Frankly, we don’t have the money to do half what the government does now…but with something like this, the typical argument about growing government isn’t going to fly.
Yeah, we should do this because it’s the right thing. And we should do that, too. Pretty soon, after doing all the right things, we have no money and no liberty. John Stossel’s book “Give Me a Break” chronicles his own conversion to from big-government liberalism to libertarianism, as he watched his pet government bureaucracies result in massive over-spending and unintended consequences.
Remember Michael Vick? That was illegal. You can’t legislate morals. The only people who end up paying were law-abiding in the first place.
Hurray for Simpson finally a man of principles. This bill HB1451 and its sister bill HB 2116 are not about puppy mills but about limiting how many dogs you can own to 10 before you become classifed as a commercial breeder who has to pay $2000 dollars a year to own your ten pets. This is an anti pet ownership bill being sponsored by HSUS and THLN who are nothing more than animal rights cults who have repeatedly stated in their workshops that their goal is to end all use of all domestic animals in this country for food, for companionship and for medical research. This is not about puppy mills, this is a direct attack on the very people who do breed responsibly by lowering the gene pool numbers. Everyone knows that when you lower the gene pool that you have sounded the death knell for that species. Right now many breeds of dogs are close to extinction due to the laws passed by HSUS. They have done this so much that in the north eastern states they now have a real problem getting pets. In fact they regularly line up 600 deep for a chance at a feral mixed breed dog shipped in from rabies prone China, Thailand, Mexico and Africa. Last year they shipped in over half a million diseased feral dogs actually placing 7 with rabies in family homes with children. They charge $550 dollars to adopt one of these wild dogs. They have run so many responsible hobby breeders out by harassing people that you can no longer buy many breeds of dogs in many north eastern states. They are now shipping in feral cats which we never thought to see as cats make up 80% of all shelter intakes. A real problem will be when the bubonic plague starts to spread in this country because wild feral cats are the biological barrier between humans and the rodent flea that carries the plague bacteria. Denver got rid of their feral cats and now their city park cannot be used because the squirrels all carry the plague. Feral cats catch and keep mice and rats under control. One female rat or mouse can produce in less than a year another 2000 rats or mice. Don’t believe this can happen here then watch http://youtu.be/r3RLmErp43k for Australia’s plague and this one for China http://youtu.be/_L6Zxy6ZCkQ This rodent is responsible for eating 25% of all food produce, causing a billion dollars of damage to homes, businesses, and farms each year, as well as, passing diseases like the bubonic plague. Recently several biologists in this field are concerned as is the CDC that this plague may start traveling into more and more species and anytime an outbreak can occur. Although we do have antibiotics that will treat this present form we do know that is can mutate once it starts up in humans. It killed millions of people in the middle ages due to Pope Gregory ordering the killing of all cats as evil. Within 20 years you could not find a cat in most places in Europe. The plague traveled fast as the cat barrier had been removed. That is happening now. Wild feral cats should not be fed and should be treated as any other wild animal. They will then go back to hunting rodents which is 98% of their diet. NO more than we would let people feed bears or deer we should not be treating feral cats as homeless pets. They are wild animals who have always been in the wild and until recently would not be a problem except for the humans who have started feeding them under the misguided notion that they are lost or abused pets. This abuse frenzy where HSUS has us believing that all animals are being abused is a ruse to get them more money. They jump on every catastrophic event claiming to help if only you will send them money. None of this money goes to help animals directly it goes to pay lawyers and legislators to pass HSUS written laws against domestic animals and their owners. We are only 10 years away from no more companion animals, guide dogs, search and rescue dogs, drug dogs, and therapy dogs. In fact we are so close to losing some of our best lines for these jobs that only one or two now exist that are still breeding. REMEMBER animal rights people believe domestic animals must die off to be free. When you give money to HSUS you help to end the lives of all domestic animals.
What, the Texas legislature is saying that they don’t already have laws on the books about improper treatment of animals?
My guess is that you could close down puppy mills right now with existing laws.
Not really, as almost no puppy mills actually abuse animals. Its more that PETA and such groups are against the very idea of pets. I don’t think you realize who you are dealing with. The other side of these issues is about as extreme as they come.
There must be something wrong with the puppy bill for all those legislators to be afraid of it being debated.
Congratulations Rep. Simpson. One imagines all Texans owe you a debt of gratitude. Here’s a suggestion for an even larger target of opportunity: your house’s “fast track calendar.” Probably considered a model of legislative efficiency, to me it sounds like a full employment act for legislative staffs and a way for legislators to avoid work. Imagine the legislative clutter that would disappear if that could be eliminated. Keep up the good work.
Everyone needs to contact THEIR representative and tell them you expect them to work with Rep. Simpson.
Quote: “Even Republicans are unhappy with Simpson, accusing him of breaking “unspoken rules of decorum”.”
The long time incumbents don’t get it yet. The people who voted for these freshman want them to break these unspoken rules, i.e. stop doing business as usual and get serious about reducing the size and scope of government.
The ‘Great Texas Puppy Bill Kerfuffle’ is a great example of the real problem we’re facing as a nation.
Almost every single Democrat and about 90% or more Republicans benefit from ‘business as usual’ in Congress and state legislatures and they are going to continue to act in the same dangerous tax-n-spend ways as long as they can possibly get away with it.
We the people have to take to heart the truism, ‘power corrupts…’. First, think of Republicans as only marginally less repugnant than Democrats. And we must cement in the mindset in ourselves and those we elect that the election does not mean ‘mission accomplished’, even when a Republican gets elected – that is just the first step and the beginning of the real work.
The effort to bring America back is not a 50 yard dash, it is a marathon. We have to keep moving and keep pushing constantly and that means primarily being a thorn in backside of both Democrats and Republicans in office to ensure that they do what must be done.
As Milton Friedman said: “People have a great misconception in this way, they think the way they solve things is by electing the right people. It’s nice to elect the right people, but that isn’t the way you solve things. The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.”
We the people need to think of our elected politicians in Congress and state legislatures just as we would crack-whores in our homes – don’t give them a cent more than they need to exist and don’t leave them alone with anything of value.
Congratulation Rep Simpson. TX Is very fortunate to have you. Yours is a voice of reason and you hit the problem dead on! Thank you!
Too many California transplants have taken over Austin. Watch out! (from a Californian who considered moving to Texas but see a future Californication nation written all over it)
We’re from California.
California: Send us your tired, down-trodden conservatives! You don’t need them anymore!
Texas needs a California Immigration Authority (acronym CIA, ha, ha), made up of ex-pats who know what to look for in prospective Californian transplants. Send the rejects to live in New York or Chicago. Better yet, Canada. That way, they can’t vote for president.
Or maybe Cuba? They want to create a socialist utopia, after all.