{"id":233255,"date":"2013-01-08T15:45:36","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T21:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ktbb.com\/post\/?p=233255"},"modified":"2013-01-09T13:59:31","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T19:59:31","slug":"simpson-vies-for-speaker-of-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=233255","title":{"rendered":"Straus: &#8220;Bold, Substantial&#8221; Action on Water Needed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ktbb.com\/post\/?attachment_id=233529\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-233529\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2013\/01\/Joe-Straus-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Joe Straus\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-233529\" \/><\/a>AUSTIN (AP\/Staff) \u2013 After overcoming a challenge from an East Texan, House Speaker Joe Straus (pictured) has started his third term in the powerful post by calling public education the priority of the new Texas Legislature. Straus also said Tuesday that lawmakers must take \u201cbold, substantial action\u201d in the next 140 days to address a mounting water crisis in the face of a rapidly growing population. Straus won re-election unopposed Tuesday after tea party favorite David Simpson of Longview withdrew his speaker candidacy during a defiant 10-minute speech to a packed House floor before bowing out. Simpson told lawmakers the House should operate without a \u201cfear of retribution\u201d from leaders in the chamber.<\/p>\n<p>Straus is presiding over the most inexperienced House chamber in four decades. More than a quarter of the 150-member body are freshmen. One of those freshmen, Republican Matt Schaefer of Tyler, remarked, \u201cIf Rep. Simpson had been on the ballot, I would have voted for him. He pursued my vote with zeal, and I was persuaded by Rep. Simpson\u2019s strength of character, conservative philosophy, and fresh ideas.\u201d But in a statement, Schaefer continued, \u201cThe will of the House has been exercised and it is now time to move on, work together, and do the people\u2019s business. I truly believe that Speaker Straus listened to the concerns raised by Rep. Simpson and those that supported him, and it is my hope that he will take those concerns to heart as we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN (AP\/Staff) \u2013 After overcoming a challenge from an East Texan, House Speaker Joe Straus (pictured) has started his third term in the powerful post by calling public education the priority of the new Texas Legislature. Straus also said Tuesday that lawmakers must take \u201cbold, substantial action\u201d in the next 140 days to address a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=233255\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Straus: &#8220;Bold, Substantial&#8221; Action on Water Needed<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-04 23:01:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=233255"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233667,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233255\/revisions\/233667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=233255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=233255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=233255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}