Photo: Charlie Pearce
Sneaky last minute moves in the Texas Legislature often come with collateral damage. Such was the case with HB 928, a modest drought planning bill that became the vehicle by which special interests tried to add pro-Vista Ridge water pipeline legislation. In a conference committee, San Antonio Water Systems (SAWS) was able to add the pro-Vista Ridge language, despite the fact that it was not part of any piece of legislation all session and it was not related to the original version of HB 928 at all
Senators raised a red flag on the move, and the conference committee report was withdrawn, killing the SAWS amendment but also killing the bill.
Ken Kramer, the Lone Star Chapter’s Water Resources Chair, issued the following statement: "Sierra Club applauds the Texas Senate for standing firm against a last-minute maneuver by SAWS to subvert the legislative process for the benefit of their controversial Vista Ridge water pipeline. It’s unfortunate that the irresponsible overreach by SAWS in trying to promote and finance their ill-conceived Vista Ridge project led to the death of a decent bill on drought planning and response."
Background:
HB 928 was a modest drought planning and response bill introduced in the House by State Rep. Ryan Guillen and sponsored in the Senate by State Sen. Chuy Hinojosa. The original bill was based on the recommendations for improving drought planning made by the Legislative Budget Board staff made in their 2015 Government Effectiveness & Efficiency Report (GEER). These recommendations included, among other things, giving the state Water Conservation Advisory Council the directive to monitor and recommend strategies for responding to drought.
The bill passed the House and was amended slightly in the Senate. The House refused to concur in the Senate amendment, which led to a conference committee supposedly to iron out the differences between the House and Senate version. However, in the conference committee the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) was able to get the conferees to go “outside the bounds” of the two versions of the bill to add language boosting the proposed Vista Ridge water pipeline project being pursued by SAWS. One part of that language would have extended the time frame for SAWS to get bond financing of its project from the Mission Economic Development Corporation in Hidalgo County and another part would have allowed this financing to be provided by the Corporation without the sign-off of the county judge in each of the counties through which the pipeline would pass. This was despite the fact that these issues had not been the subject of individual pieces of legislation introduced in this legislative session nor had these issues been discussed and debated in any House or Senate committee.
Senators wisely raised red flags about this blatant special interest ploy when the resolution to go outside the bounds came up on the Senate floor, a resolution that needed to pass before the Senators could consider adopting the conference committee report. As a result of stiff opposition from many Republican and Democratic Senators, the Senate sponsor of the original bill, Senator Hinojosa, wisely withdrew the conference committee report from consideration before a vote was taken. Unfortunately, due to the lateness of the hour this action killed not only the irresponsible SAWS amendment but the entirety of HB 928.