After today I won’t be around the board too much for a while, I’m going back to Wales for a visit and am not sure when, if , and how much I’ll be online. Barring accidents normal service will be resumed on March 22nd.
In the meantime here is a summary of how I see the current position on birther bills and what may happen next week.
Bills are to all intents dead for this legislative session in ME, HI, CT, IN,MT, AZ (but see below),IA & NH. On some there may be movement because some legislatures allow bills to be carried forward at the end of a session but I think it’s unlikely.
TX & TN have published next week’s hearing schedules and none of the birther bills are scheduled yet.
MO has had its public hearing and is awaiting an executive session of the committee. The committee has published its agenda for next week and no executive session is scheduled. One could be added but if this stands then Spring Break kicks in on March 17th and nothing will happen until at least March 29th. I tend to think this is the most likely one to pass but as the weeks tick by it becomes increasingly difficult.
NE of course has had its public hearing yesterday and will need an executive session. I wouldn’t expect one next week and from what the local media is saying about other bills it seems unlikely that any non- priority bill that’s not out of committee yet will get passed. On top of that, despite my praise of BDZ’s performance yesterday, looking at her booklet today I suspect she’s killed it.
OK is quite interesting. Two bills are dead but one (SB91) was heavily amended in committee and is awaiting its third reading. The sponsor of one of the failed bills has tabled a floor amendment to re-introduce its vattelist provisions via this bill. At this stage there’s no telling if the will ever get called for action on the senate floor. There’s no public advance notice, the Floor Leader just gets up and asks the President to recognize senator x on bill y. My gut feeling is that it’s not going to happen and there is a deadline approaching: bills have to get their 3rd reading by March 17th. To add to the uncertainty OK has a parliamentary device that allows them to approve third reading while still reserve the possibility of further amendments.(Did I mention that when I said “interesting” I meant as in the old Chinese curse?)
GA also has 3rd reading deadline coming up on March 16th and despite what Rep Hatfield was saying last night I think he’s whistling in the wind. At the moment there are no meetings of the relevant sub committees and committees scheduled and I expect both GA bills to effectively die next week
AR of course has a bill but the Democratic majorities will put paid to that one, it’ll probably never be seen again.
There are birther rumours of bills to be introduced in AL ,which I discount, and PA which I take a bit more seriously but with a full time legislature like PA that could be months away. For my part I’m surprised that no bill has been introduced in SC since there’s at least one birther rep there who’s tried before.
Finally to return to AZ. Orly has dropped hints of the issue being resurrected there by means of an amendment maybe a ‘strike everything’ amendment to another bill. Knowing her contacts and that Judy Burges tried that last year I’ve got to give that some credence. I may be adding 2 +2 and making 625 but there is a Senate Bill 1412 on Early Voting which is currently in House Judiciary. Some AZ tea partiers , who refer to it as the voter fraud bill, are trying to pressure Speaker Kirk to remove it Judy Burges’ State Government Committee – I wonder, I wonder.
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wait, what? 
