Sunset Panel Virtual Meeting Accord Unravels
After Wasted Trips to Austin on Taxpayer Dime

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor
August 4, 2020

A group of state lawmakers traveled to Austin for nothing on Tuesday when several senators who Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick controls balked on a tentative deal to move Sunset Advisory Commission hearings to the Internet as a product of the coronavirus crisis.

The state representatives on the powerful 10-member panel appeared to be blindsided by their Senate counterparts' decision to pull the plug abruptly on the agreement that sunset members were ostensibly planning to formalize in person today at the Capitol.

The meeting ended without a vote on whether to stick with the original plan to go virtual for the next few months or to continue to do business the old-fashion way with all of the commission's members, staff and the public all gathered together in the same room.

But the last-second pivot by senators sparked speculation that Patrick had ordered the retreat amid a determination for the commission to continue its work with all members physically present to have a vote.

The east wing delegation is led by State Senator Dawn Buckingham of Lakeway as the Sunset Advisory Commission vice-chair. GOP State Senators Pat Fallon of Frisco, Bob Hall of Edgewood and Angela Paxton of McKinney also serve on the SAC along with Democratic State Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. of San Benito.

State Rep. John Cyrier - a Lockhart Republican who Speaker Dennis Bonnen picked to chair the commission - is one of four GOP representatives on the panel that also includes State Reps. Craig Goldman of Fort Worth, Stan Lambert of Abilene and Chris Paddie of Marshall. State Rep. Terry Canales of Edinburg is the only House Democrat on Sunset.

The Sunset Advisory Commission has the job of reviewing state agencies during interims to determine whether they should continue to exist and how they should change if and when they do. Sunset has several big-ticket agencies to dissect between now and January including the Teachers Retirement System, the Department of Parks and Wildlife, the Texas Racing Commission and the Department of Licensing and Regulation. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards and the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners are slated to be under the sunset microscope as well this year.

But exactly how and when the process will work with just five months left before the entire Legislature is scheduled to convene under the pink granite dome in Austin for the first regular session in a pandemic in more than a century.

While the Democrats have a good shot at reclaiming the House majority at the polls in November, the blowing up of the sunset Zoom pact could be an opening salvo for a session with the two chambers more bitterly divided than ever.

No one has a clue who the House speaker will be in 2021 with Bonnen not on the ballot for re-election this year. But Patrick has at least two more years left as the presiding officer of a Senate that Republicans will be in control next year regardless of the fall vote results.