Tag Archives: Congress

The alternate Congressional universe

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Since I brought up redistricting yesterday, here’s an interesting thought experiment for you: What might the state’s Congressional delegation look like today if the 2003 DeLay-orchestrated re-redistricting had never happened? I’ll leave it to you to peruse the maps and … Continue reading →

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An early look at redistricting

Posted on June 6, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The House Redistricting Committee is holding some hearings around the state in advance of the 2011 Census reports, and if there’s one thing we know already, it’s that West Texas will be losing influence next year. The state population increased … Continue reading →

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Amending the CPSIA

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I’ve written before about the Handmade Toy Alliance, of which my cousin Jill Chuckas is the secretary. The HTA was formed after the passage of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008 because it was interpreted by the … Continue reading →

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Not too bad a job returning those Census forms

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

We did better than in 2000. Houston, Harris County and Texas each exceeded their 2000 Census mail-in return rates this year while falling short of the national rate, according to final figures released Wednesday. In Houston, 67 percent of those … Continue reading →

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The freakout

Posted on March 23, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

A month ago, Jonathan Chait saw the gathering momentum for getting health care reform passed, and observed “The conservative freakout is going to be something to behold.” And indeed so far it has been. Katherine Haenschen and Bob Moser did … Continue reading →

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Health care reform passes

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Finally. By a razor thin margin of 219-212, the House of Representatives tonight passed far-reaching legislation that will lead to near-universal health care coverage in the United States — a goal that has eluded Presidents and Congresses for a century. … Continue reading →

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Census forms start arriving next week

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Fill out those forms and send them back, because redistricting and all that it entails will follow close behind. Experts’ early looks at Census estimates point to a potential new congressional district in northwest Harris County. That could be alluring … Continue reading →

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Why the moon?

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I understand the politics of the fight against NASA cutbacks. Jobs are at stake, even if they are being funded by those evil, dirty, not-job-creating federal dollars. But I’m still puzzled by the whole thing. Texans have so little clout … Continue reading →

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The Census and redisticting

Posted on March 7, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Mustafa Tameez has an op-ed in today’s Chron about the importance of the Census from a political perspective. Remember redistricting? Redistricting is the process by which the boundaries of elective districts are periodically redrawn to maintain equal representation on the … Continue reading →

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Stand up and be counted

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Please participate in the Census. Nothing good happens when you don’t. When the new, condensed census form arrives in the mail during the second week in March, each recipient’s decision about whether to toss it in the trash or fill … Continue reading →

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A look at legislative primaries

Posted on January 30, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The Trib has a nice roundup of legislative primaries of interest. I know it’s partly because of the Governor’s race, with contested primaries in both parties, but the State House side of things feels awfully sedate compared to previous years. … Continue reading →

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“Non-profit” college sports

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Really good read in the Statesman. One way to view Mack Brown’s recent salary modification, to as much as $5.7 million this year with performance bonuses, is that the University of Texas’s generosity has made him the highest-paid college coach … Continue reading →

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Lucio says he wants to run for Congress

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

State Sen. Eddie Lucio is looking ahead to 2011 and the possibility that there’s a seat in Congress for him. State Sen. Eddie Lucio says he will seriously consider running for Congress after the next round of redistricting, which takes … Continue reading →

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DNC to help fund state races?

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting. Texas Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie said today the Democratic National Committee next year may put money into Texas House races because of their importance in drawing new congressional maps in 2011. Texas is expected to gain three to four … Continue reading →

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Stenholm speaks

Posted on August 10, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a really interesting interview with former Rep. Charlie Stenholm, who represented the Abilene-centered 17th District until it was redistricted into what is now the Lubbock-centered 19th in 2003. Stenholm was a founder of the Blue Dogs, and while there … Continue reading →

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Mickey Leland, 20 years later

Posted on August 7, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Twenty years ago today, US Representative Mickey Leland died in a plane crash while on a humanitarian trip to Ethiopia. His widow Alison Leland and State Sen. Rodney Ellis remember his legacy in today’s Chron. Twenty years ago our city, … Continue reading →

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More money for SUPERTRAINS

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Good news. [Thursday], the U.S. House passed its housing and transportation bill, which will provide funds for fiscal year 2010. Approved mostly by members of the majority Democratic party, the bill would allocate $4 billion to high-speed rail programs — if … Continue reading →

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SciencePAC

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Chad Orzel mentions an idea by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum from their book Unscientific America. Why not form a nonpartisan science political action committee, or PAC, devoted to funding candidates who are either scientists themselves or who make science … Continue reading →

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Voting right on climate change, part 3

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Here we go again. The late-stage whip count on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 has produced a particular political irony. A measure crafted by two Democrats in the House of Representatives — Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) … Continue reading →

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Your Texas Republican delegation in action

Posted on June 20, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

David Weigel tells us what some of our Republican Congressfolk have been up to. Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), who has introduced a bill that would require future presidential candidates to provide proof of U.S. citizenship, has collected four more co-sponsors — Reps. … Continue reading →

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Calorie counts

Posted on June 20, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Honestly, this is long overdue. Restaurant groups, nutrition and disease-prevention advocates and Washington lawmakers from both sides of the partisan divide on Wednesday announced they have hammered out an agreement that will put calorie contents on the menus of chain … Continue reading →

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Now how much would you pay for that truck?

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Sorry, fellas. You’re coming to the wrong place for sympathy on this. When it comes to iconic symbols of Texas, big trucks and SUVs rank right up there with cowboy hats and boots. But a new White House plan to … Continue reading →

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Green and Gonzalez get plaudits for climate change bill

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

After all the haranging I did on this, the least I can do is to note this. The Obama administration joined environmentalists Friday in heaping praise on Texas Democratic Reps. Charlie Gonzalez and Gene Green for helping climate change legislation … Continue reading →

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Credit card reform

Posted on May 21, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Landmark credit card legislation, poised to reach President Obama’s desk as early as Memorial Day, will force the card industry to reinvent itself and consumers to rethink the way they use plastic. The Senate Tuesday took a critical step … Continue reading →

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More on Gene Green and climate change

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a followup story on the eventually successful negotiations among members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the cap-and-trade bill. Climate change legislation moving through Congress would give refiners free permits to emit greenhouse gases under a compromise … Continue reading →

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Burka on the Census and redistricting

Posted on May 5, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Paul Burka takes a look at Census figures and projections for 2010 and considers the implication for the 2011 Legislative Redistricting Board redraw of State House and State Senate lines. There is going to be carnage in rural Texas, especially … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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More heat on the BCS

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I realize there are about a billion higher priorities for the President and the Congress to be dealing with these days, but I still really enjoy watching these guys squirm. At a hearing Friday before the House subcommittee on commerce, … Continue reading →

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Doing the easy part

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Sen. Dan Patrick gets his day in the sun. Wednesday is the deadline for paying federal income taxes, but it’s also when state lawmakers will consider cutting franchise taxes for 132,000 small businesses in Texas including 24,000 in Harris County. … Continue reading →

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A letter to the President

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s another update from the Handmade Toy Alliance, in the form of a letter to the President on the current state of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and the need for a technical amendment to it for small … Continue reading →

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Which Republicans do you have in mind for that?

Posted on March 29, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Republican attorney Jacob Monty calls on his party to tackle the problem of immigration reform in a serious and rational way. I think he makes some good points about the toxic relations the GOP currently has with Hispanics nationally, and … Continue reading →

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Redistricting commission advances

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

We know about Sen. Jeff Wentworth’s biennial efforts to create a nonpartisan redistricting commission for Texas. On Monday, those efforts advanced forward a step. By a vote of 21-10, senators approved Senate Bill 315 that would create the nine-member commission … Continue reading →

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We keep on growing

Posted on March 21, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Don’t know how much longer we can or will keep this up, but the Houston metropolitan area just keeps growing like gangbusters. The Houston metropolitan area added more than 130,000 residents between July 1, 2007 and July 1, 2008, the … Continue reading →

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That other budget

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I’ve spent a lot of time lately talking about the state budget – more than the Lege has spent, I daresay – but while this is happening there’s also the federal budget, the first one President Obama has proposed, to … Continue reading →

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On gerrymandering and partisanship

Posted on March 6, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The subject of the partisan polarization of Congress came up in conversation recently, and along with it was the topic of redistricting and gerrymandered districts. That made me hunt up this paper (PDF) from Princeton’s Nolan McCarty, UCSD’s Keith Poole, … Continue reading →

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