Perry Goofs on History of 140 Day Legislative Sessions

Last night, Peggy Fikac of the Houston Chronicle quoted Governor Perry on the subject of the Special Session that begins today:

Perry, who faces what’s expected to be a tough GOP primary against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, cited Texas’ “founding fathers” and the biennial regular session schedule when asked why he wants the special session to be short.

“Do we want to have long legislative sessions? No. The founding fathers said 140 days every other year. Get ’em in, get ’em out, get your work done. Bada bing, bada boom,” he said.

It seems that Governor Perry is lacking in his Texas History. According to the Handbook of Texas Online, it wasn't until 1960 that the Texas Legislature implemented the first constitutional limit on the duration of regular sessions (140 days).

Here at KVR we might consider referring to Stephen F. Austin and company as "Founding Fathers", but not legislators from the late 1950's and early 1960's.

It is odd that Mr. Perry, who was elected in 1984 as a Democrat to the Texas House of Representatives, later elected as the Lieutenant Governor in 1998, and has been Governor since December 21, 2000 seems to have no idea about the history of the 140 day duration for the Texas Legislature.