House Calendar committee has it, so it should be presented to the House next week. I believe that we have to support to get it passed. BikeTexas has worked long and hard on this one, and it definitely did not hurt that 100 cyclists showed up for the lobby day and let our faes be known to the legislators.

It got run through the House Transportation committee earlier this week. I'm starting to feel not so good about this because they "accepted as substituted." In other words, they re-wrote it to their own liking. I didn't like their last substitute so I'm thinking this is gonna be bad too. The House folks are also not as prompt about posting info on bill changes as the Senate so I haven't seen the text yet. Bike Texas is all quiet about it on their website.

There is certain verbage that, if present, will cause the original author to kill the bill.

The bill has been set to be voted on on 5/13.

The committee added language that should get the bill killed.
What is in the bill is that vulnerable road users shall remain within three feet of the right edge of the road or highway. This language would preclude me being able to ride to work as several locations on my route have either debris or extremely bad pavement (as in wheel eating pavement) in that area.

It also would prevent me from riding down my street, as cars are often parked on the curb, and all are greater than 3 feet wide.

Once again, Bike Texas gets some momentum only to lose it. This time they were taking too much time patting themselves on the back to be at crucial meetings. It doesn't appear that they followed up with the members of the House Transportation committee. They had already added this provision to the House version, they knew that there was a greater than zero possibility that it would happen to the Senate version coming through. All that dealing for naught.

OK, reviewing what's up on the Tx Legislative website, the language about 3 feet from the edge of the roadway is only in the House version (HB 827). I take back all that I said about Bike Texas and thought about the House Transportation Committee. It looks like they got it right on their take of the Senate version (SB 488). Of course, the website could be wrong. So for those keeping track at home, HB 827 and SB 488 were originally the same, but the House Transportation Committee screwed with HB 827 and it's up for vote today in the House. The Senate Version, SB 488, already passed the Senate and has been through the House Transportation Committee relatively unscathed. I'm not sure if it will get a shot at a House vote before the House closes the session.

According to Bike Texas, if the 3 foot language is not removed, the bill will be killed.
It placed on Calendar Friday, should be voted today.

Yes, for HB 827. But that language is *not* in SB 488, even after it went through the House Transportation Committee. At least not in what legis.state.tx.us has for the text. It's also not in the comments. So let's cross our fingers that HB 827 fails and SB 488 passes.

Actually, the wife has been really following the legislative progress since yesterday afternoon (there are three bills she is interested in). 827 is on like page 22 or 23 of the agenda, and when they adjourned last night at 11:15 pm, they were on page 8. It looks like they will not make the deadline (today).

They have been averaging 5-6 pages per day.

SB 488 has already passed the Senate.

HB 827 (which was the companion bill to SB 488) has now expired due to the deadline for second reading. So, no Safe Passing Bill this session.

So does SB 488 still have a chance to get through the House? I understand the calendar issue for HB 827 (glad about that), but does SB 488 have to be read in the House three times as well?

My understanding is that the bill is now dead. Since the HB was the companion to the SB, and its second reading time expired (our legislative process spends WAAAYY to much time patting itself on the back).

I put in a question to my local House rep. We'll see if he replies back. He's a nice guy and all, but I contacted him via Twitter, so who knows if he reads that stuff.

OK, I also saw this, which to me says SB 488 is still alive and kicking.

Check out paragraph 8.

So will the bills that didn't get in under the deadline take priority when next year's session convenes?
Or do they have to start from square one and pass a senate bill before sending it to the house again?

Any House bills that were submitted but didn't get to the 2nd (& 3rd?) reading by now are dead. They held a mock tribute service at the end of session late on the night of the 14th. Anything not through this session has to wait two more years for the next biennial session, unless someone can submit the language as an amendment to another bill. The bill that we want, Senate Bill 488, is still alive. Since it already went through the Senate, it has different rules. My Representative confirmed that SB 488 is not dead.

I think that this session has mostly been a fiasco. There is a total lack of control in the House.
I have to wonder in the former Speaker were still in power if more bills might have made it through.

Just got an auto email that SB 488 was passed. Then got another that it was passed as amended. Not sure what the amendment was. I'll post again when I find out. Anyone else out there watching it online? I'm at work and can't watch it.

OK, so the Senate passed SB 488 and the House version, HB 827, died. So then the House got a hold of SB 488, changed it a bit, and then passed it. So then the House and Senate had to put together a committee to come to agreement on the final bill language. They just changed it back to what the Senate passed. Now both House and Senate have passed the bill a 2nd time. It's going before the Governor. He's got a set period of time to veto it (unlikely), sign it into law (maybe), or just sit back and after a set period of days, it becomes law without his signature. I think this one's in the bag folks.

Thanks for the update.

Good deal.

Suck it, Kim Brimer.