Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

State legislators head back to the Texas Capitol today after a one-month absence to wrap up unfinished business.

Gov. Rick Perry has called them back to work, hoping a few days will be enough to handle three items not resolved during the 140-day regular session, which ended June 1.

On the agenda: making sure five state agencies keep operating, issuing billions of dollars of highway bonds for road projects and determining whether to let the Transportation Department work with regional mobility authorities.

"Transportation is such an important issue to our region that I believe it is critical that we go back and finish our job," said Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound. "We must reauthorize the important state agencies that were up for [review], and we must be sure the critical transportation dollars are allocated."

Local lawmakers estimate that it could take three days to two weeks to do the work at hand, although many hope they’ll be celebrating July Fourth at home.

"I think they’ll be in and out in three to four days and we’ll be gone — and everybody can enjoy their summer," Perry said after calling the session last week.

This will be the eighth special session since Perry was sworn into office in 2001.

Work at hand

Left undone in the regular session was continuing five agencies — the Transportation Department, Insurance Department, Racing Commission, Office of Public Insurance Counsel and Affordable Housing Corp. — as well as issuing bonds and authorizing the Transportation Department to work with regional mobility authorities.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus have laid out plans for their chambers to meet at 10 a.m., assign the three bills to committees for review and potentially vote on them as soon as Thursday. By Friday, Straus said in a memo to House members, "if it is the will of the members to do so, we could conclude our business."

Rep. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, is among those who think that it is possible.

"While we should not rush through the process, I believe that all three items have been vetted and extensively studied," he said. "We will work hard and efficiently to ensure that taxpayer money is used wisely, as special sessions are very costly."

Estimates show that each day of a special session costs taxpayers about $30,000.

Other plans

Some Texans want Perry to add items to the agenda.

They include the Fort Worth family of wrongfully convicted inmate Timothy Cole. The family is seeking a posthumous pardon for Cole, who died in prison in 1999 and was exonerated this year after DNA tests cleared him of raping a Texas Tech student.

Cole’s relatives plan to attend a news conference at 2 p.m. today at the Capitol to mark his birthday. They will stand with Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and others who will ask Perry to add a posthumous-pardons constitutional amendment to the agenda.

Perry has steadfastly said he doesn’t plan to expand the agenda.

Even so, some lawmakers have filed bills that go beyond Perry’s scope, including measures to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program, reform eminent domain laws and allow some Texans to participate in health benefit programs at Texas colleges. Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, has also filed more than a dozen resolutions to celebrate achievements, mostly wedding anniversaries, of residents in his district.

"I know that many in my district will wonder why the governor has called a special session on agency sunsets and toll road authorities but refuses to allow needed action to expand access to health insurance for Texas children or to expand unemployment insurance funding to help skilled workers in need of employment and to avoid a large tax increase on Texas small businesses," said Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth.

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, is deep in wedding-planning mode for one of her daughters, so "I will be bringing my notebook with me to Austin," she said. "Some business meetings also had to be rescheduled and, depending how long the special session lasts, I may have to also reschedule some speaking engagements."

Rep. Diane Patrick, R-Arlington, had booked a flight to visit her daughter in Georgia and then bring her two grandsons back to Texas for a weeklong visit. "Yes, I had to change those plans," she said.

Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, had planned a tour of Texas Tech University today for House Speaker Joe Straus. Straus was to attend a luncheon of area leaders for which thousands of invitations were sent out. The event will have to be rescheduled.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Houston lawyer Tricia Bivins exchanged vows last weekend and had to delay any extended celebration, or honeymoon plans, until the special session wraps up.

House Speaker Joe Straus reportedly has vacation plans set to begin Monday that will have to be changed if the session stretches past the weekend.