Update on HB0962 -

[johnharris]

HB0962 - the restaurant carry bill, which the news media likes to intentionally mischaracterize as a "guns in bars bill", was addressed on Monday, April 27, in the Senate. The Senate voted not to approve the House action last Thursday which rejected the Senate Amendment. The Senate Amendment strips out the unjustified House restrictions and leaves the bill as essentially an unrestricted restaurant carry exception for permit holders.

Once that Senate action was reported to the House, a motion was made to suspend the rules in the House so that the Senate action could be discussed and, we anticipate, that the bill would have been sent to a conference committee immediately. However, the effort to suspend the rules in the House failed on the following vote which was largely on party lines:

HB0962 by Todd - FLOOR VOTE: MOTION TO SUSPEND THE RULES 4/27/2009
Failed
Ayes...............................................53
Noes...............................................40

Representatives voting aye were: Bass, Bell, Brooks H, Brooks K, Campfield, Carr, Casada, Cobb C, Cobb J, Coley, Dean, Dennis, Dunn, Eldridge, Evans, Faulkner, Ford, Fraley, Halford, Harrison, Harwell, Hawk, Haynes, Hensley, Hill, Johnson C, Johnson P, Kelsey, Kernell, Lollar, Lundberg, Lynn, Maggart, Matlock, McCord, McCormick, McDaniel, McDonald, McManus, Montgomery, Mumpower, Niceley, Ramsey, Rich, Roach, Rowland, Sargent, Shipley, Swafford, Todd, Watson, Weaver, Mr. Speaker Williams -- 53.

Representatives voting no were: Armstrong, Barker, Bone, Borchert, Brown, Camper, Cobb T, Coleman, Cooper, Curtiss, DeBerry J, DeBerry L, Favors, Ferguson, Fincher, Fitzhugh, Gilmore, Hackworth, Hardaway, Harmon, Jones S, Jones U, Litz, Maddox, Miller, Moore, Naifeh, Odom, Pitts, Pruitt, Shaw, Shepard, Sontany, Stewart, Tidwell, Towns, Turner L, Turner M, Windle, Yokley -- 40.

KEEP the phone calls on House members in particular!!!

[falcon1]

Sorry...double post.

[falcon1]

Ill informed--how does 53 Ayes versus 40 Nays not suspend the rules? Does this vote require an extraordinary majority? And where do we go from here? (Should I kick over the rock and look for Mr. Naifeh now?)

[SomeGuy]

Was this good or bad, and what is the fallout?

Sorry John, we have gone past my general knowledge of the process.

Does this mean we wait for conference? I heard somewhere else the House would have one last chance to accept the Senate version.