Enlarge Bob Daemmrich

State Rep. Chris Turner, left, on the House floor during a budget debate on March 31, 2015.

Forget burning the midnight oil. The House this week intruded on the breakfast hour when it debated the budget until 5:39 a.m.

For newbies to the Legislature, budget night is a rite of passage wherein one's endurance is tested through hundreds of amendments and floor debate stretching into the wee hours.

For reference, we looked up the time when debate wrapped on the budget over the last six Legislatures. While this year's vote was the latest, we found three other instances where debate stretched past 2 a.m. Whew!

Enlarge data: Texas House, House Journal Clerk

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That 10:24 p.m. closing time for the 82nd Legislature needs some clarification. That vote came almost six and a half hours into the second day of debate on that year's budget. The House had a 16-hour session two days before in which it started debate.

The real anomaly was two years ago when the House wrapped up just before 9:30 p.m. after spending about 12 hours in session.

In fact, it was so rare an occurrence that state Rep. Sylvester Turner made a note of the early hour in his closing speech of the evening.

"As you can see, we are now having speeches at 9:20 p.m.," Turner said. "I've been here 24 years; the last time, I believe, that we have finished an appropriations bill before 10 o’clock was probably somewhere around 1993. And in 1993, I think Chairman Junell just took all of the amendments and called it a night."

Enlarge Bob Daemmrich

State Rep. John Otto, R-Dayton, carries literature laying out House Bill 1 as he prepares to discuss the appropriations bill on the House floor March 31, 2015.

As was mentioned elsewhere in this issue, the House stayed and talked for a long time about the budget.

Did they need to stay until 5:30 a.m.? It could be argued the debate was over after the first record vote of the day.

House Appropriations Chairman John Otto, R-Dayton, was forced to amend his chairman’s amendment out of the gate to insert language that provides funding for incentives for the film industry.

The language had been inadvertently left out of the budget, but it gave the opportunity to the Tea Party contingent in the House to push a vote to try to kill the vote.

They got the vote, and they got 18 votes for their position.

Of those 18 votes, 14 had voted against re-electing Speaker Joe Straus on the first day of session. Five of them ended up voting against the budget — Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving; Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler; David Simpson, R-Longview; Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington; and Molly White, R-Belton.

Later votes demonstrated that the Democratic bloc wasn’t going to muster enough votes to get its priority issues into the budget.

And that set the tone of the evening as anticipated fights over vouchers, abortion and in-state tuition for undocumented students failed to materialize.

Instead, we were left with mildly embarrassing actions like a move to cut the feral hog abatement program and the prioritizing of abstinence education above HIV prevention programs.

For the leadership team, the budget kept the same basic shape throughout the day, setting up the real conflict to come — with the Senate.

*****

Perhaps lost in Tuesday night's House budget hubbub, representatives of Texas petroleum producers and cities announced a deal on urban drilling legislation. 

Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, and Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League, signed a letter promising to "support or be neutral to" the committee substitute to House Bill 40 – Rep. Drew Darby's proposal to clarify where local control on drilling begins and ends. 

The deal stands, the letter said, as long as neither side puts forth new polarizing amendments.

*****

GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz opened his campaign headquarters in Houston, hosting an open house where, as the Tribune's Patrick Svitek reported, "his supporters were shuttled in groups up to the seventh floor of the office tower housing his campaign headquarters, an L-shaped space complete with a nursery for staffers' children and the Cruzes' own daughters, 4-year-old Catherine and 6-year-old Caroline."

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday night that the Cruz campaign was claiming to raise about $4 million over the first eight days of the campaign. More significant is the disclosure that nearly all of the donations came from small-dollar donations.

The New York Times' Derek Willis wrote that if Cruz "can continue his early small-dollar success, it strengthens his argument that he represents grass-roots conservatism better than a candidate with stronger ties to the Republican establishment, like Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor."

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We started off this week’s survey of politics and government insiders with questions about a couple of reform projects being floated by legislators regarding the agency structure at HHSC and the enforcement authority of the Texas Ethics Commission.

First of all, a bit more than half of the insiders thought that recent contracting problems identified at HHSC have put a halt to consolidation efforts being pushed by some legislators. Almost 40 percent thought the scandals delay but do not halt those plans.

On the ethics issue, about 40 percent thought that Commissioner Jim Clancy's letter seeking help to bolster the Ethics Commission's authority and funding levels would fall on deaf ears on both counts. Another 24 percent believed the agency would have its legal authority bolstered but not its funding.

Only 8 percent thought the commission would get help on both issues while 5 percent thought the watchdog agency would have its funding alone boosted.

We also asked if Gov. Greg Abbott would eventually endorse a candidate in the GOP race for the 2016 presidential nomination. Nearly half thought that he would refrain, and nearly 40 percent thought he'd pick a favorite sometime during the primary contests. Just 6 percent thought he would endorse before the beginning of the primaries.

And we closed by asking if budget writers would follow the House's wishes and try to address pending school finance litigation through additional spending on public education.

More than half said yes and fewer than two in five said no.

We collected comments along the way, and a full set of those is attached. Here’s a sampling:

Enlarge Emily Albracht

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Have contracting problems at HHSC halted legislative plans to consolidate all of those agencies?

• "Abbott's 'strike force' report is credible and puts the brakes on consolidation."

• "They're delayed at least until the Janek situation is resolved, and perhaps permanently."

• "Too big a mess to fix at this point in session."

• "The wise money is on a deal that replaces executive leadership and generally leaves the current structure in place."

• "They seem to be trying to protect a former state senator... Anyone else notice that??"

Enlarge Emily Albracht

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Will Jim Clancy's letter spur changes in state ethics laws or in funding for the Texas Ethics Commission?

• "Members and, especially, members' staff don't know current law... Ethics reform won't solve the problem of inattentiveness to the do's and don'ts."

• "Which is more toothless, this letter or the Texas Ethics Commission?"

• "To the extent the Legislature isn't already working the concerns Clancy raises, it is too late in the legislative day for significant changes to happen this session."

• "Members don't care much about it. If Straus, Abbott or Patrick got on board, then yes."

• "Anyone notice the public integrity bills being debated cover criminal AND CIVIL penalties? Does that mean the local DAs may be doing that work instead of TEC?"

Enlarge Emily Albracht

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Will Gov. Abbott end up endorsing a presidential candidate at some point in the primary season?

• "He's long been allied with Cruz, but the value of his endorsement would not be worth its cost to Abbott."

• "Can't afford to sit it out, and no doubt will be expected to differentiate himself re: Cruz-Perry expectations."

• "Bold prediction: Governor Abbott will endorse whoever wins the South Carolina primary."

• "If Perry makes a showing, he'll get the nod."

• "Will wait to see if only Perry or Cruz is still standing before March 1 Texas primary."

Enlarge Emily Albracht

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Will the final state budget include the House proposal to spend $3 billion on public education in the hopes of addressing school finance litigation?

• "The cynics must assume some kind of ex parte communications between Court, Lege, and Guv (as a court alumni, he will know how to finesse those signals). Laying out $3 billion in advance of the Court ruling would be the equivalent of a smoke signal."

• "Not sure if the Senate's on board with that plan. Besides, isn't the Republicans' mantra that merely throwing money at a problem doesn't fix it?"

• "How foolish that would be! Let's pay billions before a court even decides it's necessary and after the Legislature has lowered the bar so far the plaintiffs' case is no longer valid. That conservatives (or any stewards of state responsibility) would even consider this nonsense boggles the mind."

• "I think yes, but it could clearly go either way. Right now, the House budget puts $2.2 billion into the Basic Allotment. I think that is more likely in the eight weeks we have left this session."

• "But it will be for naught. The courts will rule and we will be back here next Spring for a special session."

Our thanks to this week's participants: Gene Acuna, Brandon Aghamalian, Clyde Alexander, Jay Arnold, Charles Bailey, Dave Beckwith, Andrew Biar, Allen Blakemore, Tom Blanton, Chris Britton, David Cabrales, Raif Calvert, Kerry Cammack, Elna Christopher, Harold Cook, Kevin Cooper, Beth Cubriel, Randy Cubriel, Curtis Culwell, Denise Davis, June Deadrick, Tom Duffy, David Dunn, John Esparza, Jon Fisher, Tom Forbes, Dominic Giarratani, Bruce Gibson, Eric Glenn, Kinnan Golemon, Daniel Gonzalez, John Greytok, Clint Hackney, Wayne Hamilton, Bill Hammond, Ken Hodges, Kathy Hutto, Jason Johnson, Mark Jones, Robert Kepple, Richard Khouri, Tom Kleinworth, Sandy Kress, Nick Lampson, Pete Laney, Luke Legate, Leslie Lemon, Ruben Longoria, Vilma Luna, Matt Mackowiak, Mike McKinney, Steve Minick, Bee Moorhead, Mike Moses, Steve Murdock, Keats Norfleet, Pat Nugent, Sylvia Nugent, Todd Olsen, Nef Partida, Gardner Pate, Robert Peeler, Wayne Pierce, Richard Pineda, Allen Place, Gary Polland, Jay Pritchard, Jay Propes, Ted Melina Raab, Patrick Reinhart, David Reynolds, Carl Richie, Kim Ross, Grant Ruckel, Jason Sabo, Andy Sansom, Jim Sartwelle, Barbara Schlief, Stan Schlueter, Robert Scott, Steve Scurlock, Ben Sebree, Christopher Shields, Ed Small, Martha Smiley, Larry Soward, Leonard Spearman, Dennis Speight, Bryan Sperry, Bob Strauser, Colin Strother, Charles Stuart, Tom Suehs, Sherry Sylvester, Jay Thompson, Trey Trainor, Vicki Truitt, Corbin Van Arsdale, David White, Seth Winick, Angelo Zottarelli.

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

Friday, April 3

• Hatton W. Sumners Distinguished Lecture Series luncheon, featuring journalist Glenn Greenwald; 221 E. Las Colinas Blvd., Irving (12-1:30 p.m.)
  

Sunday, April 5

• Easter

Tuesday, April 7

• A Conversation With Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, and Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso; 110 E. Ninth St., Austin (8-9 a.m.)
  

Thursday, April 9

• A Conversation With Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler; 110 E. Ninth St., Austin (8-9 a.m.)
  

The House this week passed a $210 billion, two-year budget. Action on the only legislation required each session now heads to the Senate, where different funding priorities are in play.

In an unusual, strongly worded report, a Travis County grand jury recommended this week that University of Texas System Regent Wallace Hall be removed from office but did not hand down an indictment against the controversial regent.

A scathing investigative report of the Health and Human Services Commission's $20 million deal for fraud tracking software revealed "operational defects" within the agency's procurement process.

A week after his entry into the presidential race, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz announced that he's raised about $4 million over those eight days. Also, he registered in double digits — 13 percent — in the most recent Washington Post/ABC News poll and in the "top tier" of GOP hopefuls in a Public Policy Polling survey.

The city of McAllen, Houston Community College and Texas A&M University have applied to host a presidential or vice presidential debate in 2016, organizers announced Wednesday. 

Disclosure: Texas A&M University is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. Houston Community College was a corporate sponsor in 2012. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.

Pete Gallego announced on Thursday that he'll run to retake the CD-23 seat he lost to Republican Will Hurd in November. The Alpine Democrat said he will embark on a listening tour through the district during the summer, followed by a series of campaign kick-off events in the fall. The seat is considered the only swing congressional district in the state.

Ina Minjarez and Delicia Herrera advanced on Tuesday to a runoff in the special election to fill the vacant Bexar County-based House District 124 seat, which is open after the election of the seat's previous occupant, José Menéndez, to the Texas Senate.

Former San Antonio Congressman Charlie Gonzalez is stepping down as senior adviser to that city's VIA Metropolitan Transit. His two-year stint at the agency included serving as senior vice president of public engagement. He said his plans include returning to his work as an attorney.

Colette Pierce Burnette was named the next president and chief executive officer this week of Huston-Tillotson University, the private, historically black college in East Austin. She is the school's first woman leader since the 1952 merger of Samuel Huston College and Tillotson College created the university.

Disclosure: VIA Metropolitan Transit was a corporate sponsor in 2014. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.