Committees’ local picks must produce
February 15th, 2009
San Antonio Express News
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus took care of his hometown last week as he awarded key committee assignments to local lawmakers.
Democrats Mike Villarreal and José Menéndez landed some of the more plum posts under the Republican speaker. Villarreal is positioned well to pursue one of the area’s big legislative priorities — namely giving the county greater latitude to call elections to raise taxes and fees for transportation needs.
Villarreal will see the money coming and going this session from his perch on both the budget-writing Appropriations Committee and the Ways & Means panel, which handles tax issues.
Menéndez, meanwhile, is now vice chairman of the State Affairs Committee, the catch-all for hot-button issues, including important industries such as telecommunications as well as wedge items such as immigration-related bills.
As with any position of authority, top committee assignments bring the potential for great influence as well as the weight of great expectations.
But, in a peculiar way, the most pressure this legislative session might not be on members such as Villarreal and Menéndez, but on those who operated from the weeds during the rule of deposed Speaker Tom Craddick.
Local state Reps. Joaquín Castro and Trey Martinez Fischer are big beneficiaries of the ascendance of Straus.
Unlike Villarreal and Menéndez, who flirted early and then dealt with Craddick at arm’s length, Castro and Martinez Fischer refused to play any ball with the former speaker — and paid for it.
To them, they sacrificed a seat at the levers of power to take a principled stand against a hyper-partisan figure. To critics, they sacrificed their own effectiveness by refusing to play the game.
By being back in play, both Democrats will not have a Craddick crutch to use if they don’t produce.
Castro got what he wanted. As vice chairman of the Higher Education Committee, he will be in the thick of the debate over tuition deregulation and college affordability.
Martinez Fischer gets a swing at water issues on the Natural Resources Committee, as well as a vice chairmanship on the Insurance Committee, on which he will deal with hurricane relief and legislation important to hometown corporate giants such as USAA.
“The thing I’ve been hoping for is the chance to work on legislation that really matters to me,” Castro said, noting that the higher ed panel includes five Democrats and four Republicans.
Martinez Fischer said he took his medicine under Craddick and was still able to amend more than three dozen pieces of legislation.
“Now that the yoke is off, and I have access to the (speaker’s office), the only pressure is to understand that Speaker Straus is the speaker for all of Texas, not just Bexar County,” he said.
Straus has given some members a new lease on legislative life — and taken away any excuses.