• on 29 May 2019
• By NoNuclear
• Legislation, News, Texas, Waste Dump, WCS

An amendment about waste facility fees was added to a widely supported domestic violence bill. Will it stick?

Sen. Lois Kolkhorst’s office said Saturday that she “is still evaluating all options available to save SB 1804.”

BY SHANNON NAJMABADI
The Texas Tribune

MAY 25, 2019

Texas Legislature 2019

The 86th Legislature runs from Jan. 8 to May 27. From the state budget to health care to education policy — and the politics behind it all — we focus on what Texans need to know about the biennial legislative session.

A widely supported bill to protect domestic violence survivors may have hit an unexpected roadblock after the House approved a last-minute amendment that would delay a scheduled increase to the fees a radioactive waste facility in West Texas must pay.

The measure, Senate Bill 1804 by state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, could now be headed to a conference committee where lawmakers from both chambers will negotiate its final language and decide if the waste-related amendment will stay. Kolkhorst could also accept the change. Her office said Saturday, "With only hours left available to review the amendments to her bill, Senator Kolkhorst is still evaluating all options available to save SB 1804."

The author of the amendment, state Rep. Poncho Nevárez, D-Eagle Pass, told The Texas Tribune the bill would pass and that he would strip his amendment if necessary.

Kolkhorst’s bill, which sailed through the House and Senate with no opposing votes, requires that bond information about domestic violence offenders be entered into a statewide data repository.

A dearth of centralized data has made it difficult to verify and enforce the conditions of bond, the analysis argues, and leaves "survivors, law enforcement, and the community" at risk and the offender without accountability. The bill would also require that survivors be notified if an offender is released on bond, the analysis says.

Moments before the House gave the bill final approval Wednesday, Nevárez — who sponsored the measure along with state Rep. Sam Harless, R-Spring — added the amendment.

The amendment, he told other state representatives, "offers some economic competitive incentives in the bill" and was "acceptable to the author." The House approved it with a voice vote.

But the amendment has little to do with the bill itself — which Nevárez acknowledges. "It has absolutely nothing to do with domestic violence, and there is no quibbling about that," he said.

Instead, the amendment appears to delay an increase to a surcharge and state fee paid by the private operator of a waste disposal facility. It bears similarities to bills filed by state Rep. Brooks Landgraf and state Sen. Kel Seliger, Republicans from Odessa and Amarillo, respectively, whose bills appear destined to die with only two days left in the legislative session. The amendment "keeps the status quo," Nevárez said; without it, the fee and surcharge paid by the operator would likely increase this year.

Thomas Graham, a spokesperson for the company that runs the disposal facility, Waste Control Specialists, said the amendment "simply continues current law."

"We’re talking about waste that comes from health care facilities, industrial facilities, the oil and gas industry, and from all parts of the state," he said, citing a state report that recommended lowering the surcharges. "So making sure that the facility remains viable and operational is critical to the state’s economy."

Nevárez said the amendment helps an industry that is a big job creator. But he disputed the idea that there was "something shady" about how he was trying to pass it.

"I did this out in the open — I did it on the House floor. I told them the amendment’s about economic competitiveness, and everyone at their desk can read their amendment. Anyone could have gotten up and asked me a question. Nobody wanted to. I can only assume they’re uninterested in it or they’re fine with it," he said. "There’s nothing untoward about putting an amendment on a bill that has nothing to do with one thing or another at this time of session — everyone’s looking for a ride."

• on 29 May 2019
• By NoNuclear
• Legislation, News, Texas, Waste Dump, WCS

How a radioactive waste fees amendment was tied to a domestic violence bill

May 25, 2019

By Asher Price
Austin American Statesman

An amendment that would delay fees and surcharges paid by a West Texas radioactive waste disposal company to the state managed to squeak onto the domestic-violence-related bill to which it had been appended as the end of the legislative session approached.

With the bill now heading to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature, and the amendment still attached, the waste disposal company has notched a victory.

Senate Bill 1804 would require the entry of certain conditions of bond information into a statewide law enforcement information system and set victim notification requirements. The bill was prompted by concerns among police and family members about the bond conditions of domestic violence offenders.

The bill passed the Senate in April by a vote of 31-0. On May 22, it passed the House 142-0, but not before, on the bill’s third reading, Rep. Poncho Nevárez, D-Eagle Pass, successfully added an amendment that would delay until 2021 certain fees and surcharges related to the disposal of low-level radioactive waste — such as rags, syringes and protective clothing from nuclear plants or hospitals — at the Waste Control Specialists site in Andrews County, in West Texas. The fees are set to go into effect this year, with the money meant to go to a perpetual care account for anything that might go wrong at the Waste Control Specialists site.

The amendment is a cousin of legislation that never got to the floor of the House or Senate. That legislation would have reduced by $4.17 million the fees the company pays the state. Company officials say the legislative fixes are necessary to keep the company competitive with waste sites in other parts of the country.

At a House committee hearing on the legislation in March, Waste Control Specialists President David Carlson said the company has "struggled to lower our prices to compete with the marketplace."

He blamed "unreasonable restrictions" built into statute, including what he called excessive taxes.

The House version of the legislation was carried by Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, whose district includes Andrews.

Nevárez, who represents a bordering district, said Landgraf approached him about carrying the amendment partly because as a committee chairman and bill co-sponsor, he has more legislative muscle.

Environmental groups have long opposed radioactive waste at the site, which they say could jeopardize groundwater.

In introducing the amendment in the Texas House, Nevárez told members that "this is an amendment that clarifies that it offers some economic competitive incentives in the bill."

He told House members the amendment was "acceptable to the author" — he himself was a House co-sponsor of SB 1804.

On Saturday, Nevárez told the American-Statesman that the strange fit between the amendment and the bill was not unusual: "You try to catch a ride where you can. If someone had objected to the germane-ness, the amendment does not go on. It’s within the rules, and it’s what we do. It’s a common occurrence."

He said that if the delay in fee-paying "will let them maintain some stability out there and jobs, then it’s worth doing."

"We do that a lot over here," Nevárez continued. "We kick industries in the butt in good ways and bad ways."

Saturday evening, with a key end-of-session deadline looming, Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, decided to accept the House version of her bill — with the Nevárez amendment attached — rather than opt for a conference committee, in which lawmakers from both chambers would have had to hammer out an agreement or the bill could die altogether.

Asked whether the Nevárez amendment was unexpected, she told the American-Statesman on Saturday afternoon: "Yes."

Ultimately, keen to send her domestic violence bill to the governor for his signature, and with the legislative deadline looming, she declared in the Senate that she concurred with the House version.