The wait is over. The Speaker has announced House Committee appointments. Follow this link to see where your favorite members landed: http://www.house.state.tx.us/_media/pdf/committee.pdf
Governor Rick Perry gave his State of the State address yesterday. The text of the speech may be viewed here: http://governor.state.tx.us/news/speech/15673/. Governor Perry also released his suggested budget for the 2012-2013 bienium. You can view his suggestions here: http://governor.state.tx.us/files/press-office/Governor-Budget-2012-13.pdf .
Speaking of budgets, are you still confused about how Texas legislators actually write the biennial budget? The House Research Organization has once again published an excellent summary of the steps that go into the writing of the budget in Texas. Follow this link: http://www.hro.house.state.tx.us/pdf/focus/writing82.pdf
If you are wondering how many bills have been filed thus far, the magic number is 1714 according to statistics maintained by the Texas Legislative Council. 1158 House Bills and 556 Senate Bills have been filed. With four and a half weeks to go until the March 11th filing deadline, legislators will have to step up the pace to get close to the number of bills filed during the last regular session – 7419.
Wm. Eugene “Gene” Powell of San Antonio was named chairman of the University of Texas System Board of Regents. Powell succeeds Colleen McHugh of Corpus Christi, who has served as chairman since March of last year.