Summary
Going into the session, the legal basis for the governor's authority on homeland security was tenuous at best. In 2003, the Lege passed House Bill 9 mandating that the governor "direct homeland security in this state." It did not create a homeland security office, instead instructing the governor to develop a "strategy." The bill conflated two distinct responsibilities: emergency preparedness (including disaster response) and terrorism prevention. The first is undeniably the governor's responsibility. The other arguably is a law enforcement task that should be partitioned from political considerations. Any concerns that the governor might misuse law enforcement responsibilities were only heightened when his acting director of homeland security in 2003, Jay Kimbrough, contacted the FBI in Oklahoma trying to track down Democratic legislators who fled the state in an effort to halt mid-decade congressional redistricting.
In November 2005, the governor released the Texas Homeland security Strategic Plan. It, and a few executive orders of questionable authority, seemed to provide the basis for [PERRY]'s new homeland security director, former FBI official Steve McCraw, to anoint himself Texas' top cop. The plan featured two particularly troubling elements. Guarding the border-historically a federal responsibility-became a key state concern. "Border security is fundamental to the prevention of terrorism," the report alleged. "Al Qaeda plans to use alien smuggling organizations to infiltrate terrorists across the Texas-Mexico border." Perry used this new focus to launch several multimillion-dollar initiatives, passing out money to border sheriffs, with most going to those who endorsed his re-election and embraced his plans. There was little accountability for how the funds were spent.[David Swinford] found himself fighting to keep his legislation alive while apologizing for McCraw "[He's] not a good people person," Swinford said. "[The letter] was a huge error, and I have talked to him about that." Swinford's rhetoric and histrionics-at several key moments he broke into tears when he didn't get his way-grew more heated as his bill faltered. By the end, Swinford was accusing those who disagreed with him of favoring drug traffickers.See the full content of this document
Extract
Legislative Terror
The homeland security and border funding legislation passed during the regular session will rank among the most important state policy changes never publicly debated. Don't get us wrong. There was plenty of debate. Unfortunately, little of it focused on what was actually at stake. Instead the Lege-reversing more than 130 years of tradition-helped abet a power grab, allowing themselves to be bullied and frightened into r...
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