By Jeff Wentworth
State Senator District 25
Published: 03-03-08
Between regular legislative sessions the Texas Senate works on interim charges that are as varied as the Texas landscape and as broad in scope.
I am chairman of the Senate Jurisprudence Committee and I also serve as a member of the Administration; Intergovernmental Relations; and Transportation and Homeland Security committees. My membership on the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee means that during the interim period between regular legislative sessions my fellow committee members and I are working on two hot-button issues: immigration and transportation.
Homeland security encompasses much more than immigration. For example the committee will explore the changes the state should make to improve our preparations for natural disasters and their aftermaths. We also will evaluate the state’s homeland security efforts and the state’s recent $140 million investment in law enforcement to help secure the border and make recommendations to deter transnational and drug-related gang violence.
These charges are not controversial nor is the charge to make recommendations that will stem the tide of drug trafficking human smuggling and criminal activities within the Border Region. Expanding that study to include recommendations to stem the tide of illegal immigration is another matter.
Immigration bills often trigger heated debate on the Senate floor and an avalanche of constituent calls. It is an issue so controversial and difficult to solve that the federal government whose responsibility it is to control the nation’s borders has yet to come up with an immigration bill in spite of repeated attempts.
Since the federal government has failed to do its job states are now forced to take up the slack. The Transportation and Homeland Security Committee will be making every effort to ensure our recommendations regarding immigration and border security are fair practical and effective so that when they become bills they stand a chance of passing the Legislature.
There is little point in making a recommendation so obviously partisan that it will never gain legislative approval. Most of the time the Texas Legislature unlike the U.S. Congress works together in a bipartisan manner.
Unfortunately partisanship does on occasion take front and center in the Senate. I am hoping that the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee will find solutions to all our border problems that are acceptable to partisans of both political parties so that we may protect both our borders and the Texans who live along them.
Some of you have called and objected to the federal Real ID Act which includes the creation of a tamper-proof driver’s license or photo ID; however this is a federal act and the state must comply. The committee will study the implementation of the pilot program for a Secure Enhanced Driver’s License Program that would put the state in compliance with federal law.
In a subsequent column I will address the interim charges related to transportation that were handed down to the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.
