On May 16 the House appointed the following conferees on SB 1420 – Hinojosa/Harper-Brown – relating to the continuation and functions of the Texas Department of Transportation: Linda Harper-Brown (Chair), Larry Phillips, Joe Pickett, Dennis Bonnen and Ruth Jones McClendon. The Senate appointed the following conferees on May 6: Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (chair), Glenn Hegar, Jane Nelson, Robert Nichols, and Tommy Williams.
On May 16 the House appointed the following conferees on SB 28 – Zaffirini/Branch – relating to eligibility for a TEXAS grant and to administration of the TEXAS grant program: Dan Branch (chair), Todd Hunter, Mike Villarreal, Donna Howard, and Diane Patrick. The Senate appointed the following conferees on May 5: Judith Zaffirini (chair), Kirk Watson, Robert Duncan, John Carona, and Kevin Eltife.
On May 16 the House adopted the conference committee report for SB 14, Voter ID legislation, with 98 ayes and 46 nays. The adoption of the report came after much debate on the House Resolution which was adopted to allow for the conference committee to go outside the bounds which adds an election identification certificate developed by the Texas Department of Public Safety to the list of acceptable forms of voter identification. The Senate adopted a similar resolution and passed the conference committee report for SB 14 on May 9 with 19 ayes and 12 nays. The bill will now head to the governor’s desk for signature.