Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

With eight days left in the 2009 session, nearly every major issue facing the Legislature is either unresolved or dead.

A proposal requiring voters to show more identification at the polls is in jeopardy in the House and is tying up everything scheduled for consideration afterward. The Senate has not voted on a tax cut for small businesses or a major overhaul of transportation policy.

A group of House and Senate negotiators is still working on legislation that de-emphasizes the role of statewide tests in schools. Also, the House and Senate must find common ground on changes to the Children's Health Insurance Program.

"There is a significant amount of major legislation left on the calendar," said Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown.

One area where the House and Senate have reached accord is on a $180 billion budget that each chamber is expected to approve this week.

For now, the driving force of the session is the voter ID legislation, which would require voters to present a photo ID or two documents indicating their identity before voting. House Democrats used a stalling tactic — "chubbing," or talking at length about noncontroversial bills —to delay consideration of the voter ID bill all weekend and appear poised to stall until a crucial deadline at midnight Tuesday, in effect, killing the bill.

The key question for bills that have not yet passed the House is whether they are scheduled for debate before or after the voter ID measure. If voter ID is killed, everything after it is likely to die also.

Some of those measures can be saved in the Senate, but there is no guarantee that will work.

The legislation on the House agenda after voter ID includes a wide-ranging air quality measure that bolsters incentives for clean-air technologies and expands appliance standards to make them more energy efficient.

Also stuck behind the voter ID measure are two major insurance proposals. One is an overhaul of the Texas Department of Insurance, and another would shore up a nonprofit entity overseeing windstorm insurance coverage for coastal property owners.

Rep. Carl Isett, a Republican from Lubbock and sponsor of the insurance agency bill, held out hope that there would still be time to get to his measure.

The weekend delay was "disappointing at a personal level," Isett said. "But I love the institution of the House, and I trust the process. The process always works itself out."

Democrats tried Saturday to force a vote on the windstorm measure, but Republicans blocked them, saying it would set the wrong precedent to abandon the usual procedure for scheduling bills.

There is more hope for the bills scheduled before voter ID, although there's no guarantee the House will reach them either. Those bills include a change in what is known as the top 10 law — the law that says Texas students who finish in the top 10 percent of their high school class get automatic admission to state universities.

The House began debate on that legislation last week and then stopped because of a computer problem. Lawmakers haven't returned to it because Democrats started slowing down bills the next day.

Another bill scheduled shortly before voter ID would make major reforms at electric cooperatives. Disputes over the management of the Pedernales Electric Cooperative prompted the legislation, which is carried in the House by Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs.

"We've got to get to that bill, and that's why I think we ought to move the business of the House forward, not delay," said Rose, who did not take part in his party's weekend stall strategy. "I think we have a good shot to get there. I'm just not taking anything for granted."

Some issues have made it out of the House but are awaiting either Senate action or a final plan from a House-Senate conference committee, including:

Transportation: The House has already approved legislation reforming the Texas Department of Transportation, and the Senate is expected to vote for its own version, which is quite different, this week. The Senate version includes a provision that would allow local entities to raise gas taxes or fees for transportation projects.

Solar energy: One major solar power bill, written by state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, aimed at spurring the industry has passed the House and Senate. But renewable industry groups and environmentalists probably won't get the big prize they hoped for; a measure by state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, that sets renewable energy goals from sources other than wind passed the Senate but is unlikely to make it out of the House.

State schools: The House and Senate have both approved legislation that seeks to increase oversight of the state's 13 troubled institutions for people with mental disabilities.