State Government

Six weeks left. It’s getting busy.

Texas can get $556 million in federal stimulus money without any permanent changes in its unemployment insurance program, according to an advisory letter from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Gov. Rick Perry says the state should turn down $555 million in federal stimulus money tied to unemployment insurance, because the requirements are too strict, prompting some lawmakers to say they’ll push to get enough support for the program to go around him.

The “county fair” section of the legislative session — the part at the beginning that’s taken up with glad-handing and rattlesnake roundup demonstrations and mariachis and pre-schoolers and city and county and association “days” at the Capitol — is coming to a close.

You’re really out in the weeds when you find yourself listening to arguments about reform provisions for unemployment insurance, but that’s the first of what might be a series of firefights over the federal stimulus money available to the state.

The House elected a new speaker. The Senate started with a partisan dogfight. The comptroller filed a gloomy forecast on the state’s revenue for the next two years. The Republican candidates for governor — that’s an election more than a year away — revealed multi-million-dollar bank balances. Once all that had rolled out, lawmakers left for a week. The House will return next week for a day, then do rules the week after that. And the Senate is gone until January 26. Soon enough, it’ll seem like they never left.

Kay Bailey Hutchison’s term in the U.S. Senate runs through 2012 and she now says she won’t resign earlier than the end of next year if she runs for governor. She has formed an exploratory committee.

Add two more official candidates for Speaker of the House, calls for the head of House Parliamentarian and former Rep. Terry Keel, a constitutional amendment that would allow future coups in the House, and a “Solve for X” strategy and you’ll be up to date on the contest for control of the Legislature’s lower chamber.

Kay Bailey Hutchison answered the “Does She or Doesn’t She?” question about whether she wants to run for governor, filing the papers required to run a campaign for state office.