Youth and Government State Conference

We are in Austin for the Y and G State Conference.  The kids are having a great time presenting bills and hanging out with friends.  Last night was the opening session and "rule giving" time.

 It was great that Linda was able to be here this morning (early!) to hear Mason and Mallory present their bills in the committees.  These were held in rooms in the hotel.

 Mason's bill was great in committee.  It was well debated and it passed.  At State they have lobbyists that work the room to try to help get bills passed.  There were two lobbyists working it pretty hard while Mason was presenting. 

The timing of the committee dockets pretty much stank for us.  Mason and Mallory ended up presenting their bills at the same time in different rooms.  I left Mason's room to check on Mallory, and when I got there she was about finished.  By the time Tim got there with the camera, she was done.  Thus, no pictures of Mal presenting.  Her situation included some serious confusion.  Her bill did not pass.  That was fine - some do, some don't.  But - it seemed that the procedural rules were not followed correctly.  Mallory investigated and found out that she was allowed to vote for her bill. (The Chair told her she could not.)  Since she could vote, that put the vote at a tie.  When there is a tie, the Chair breaks it with his vote.  Mal found all this out after the committee had adjourned.  This meant that she would have to find her Chair (who I overheard saying that he was headed to lunch) and find out what he would have voted.  She was very persistent.  I have no idea how, but she found him.  He said that he would have voted for her bill - so it passed! 

All the bills that passed get considered for presentation on the House floor at the Capitol (for Mason's age) or the Hyde House Floor (a different place for the sake of space for Mal's age.)  They only choose about 10 bills out of hundreds for this.  We were quite excited to hear that Mason's bill was one chosen and he was first on the docket to present and debate on the House floor.  Mallory's bill was added to the end of the docket for the Hyde House, and likely won't be called up for debate because of time restrictions. 

Linda called Paul and he was able to leave work and meet us at the Capitol.  It was so special for them to both see Mason present.

This is Mason's seat on the floor for the next two days.



 Mal's group came to sit in the gallery to hear the invited speakers before they broke up into their groups to debate. 

This is a bad picture, but Senator John Cornyn and a State Rep were the speakers.

Mason did a really good job presenting on the floor.  He did not have major opposition and the bill passed again!

 Mason had a friend sponsor his bill and present it in the Senate.  It passed there also, and it is headed to the Governor's desk.  If he signs it, it will be "law" for 2 years.  This would be kind of a big deal, as they only sign a handful of bills into law each year.  We'll find out tomorrow night!

***added comment***

Mason just told me that the Governor signed his bill. I am not sure how he heard this, but we will get verification tomorrow.