The Texas Senate had a whirlwind special session weekend

With the first week of the special legislative session in the rearview mirror, the speedy Senate shows no signs of slowing down.

Over the weekend, Senate committees held more than a dozen hearings on many of the 20 items Gov. Greg Abbott wants lawmakers to send to his desk within the next few weeks — everything from the “bathroom bill” to legislation that would outlaw local tree-regulating ordinances. Here’s what you need to know:

— Let’s catch up: 10 hours of emotional testimony later, the Senate State Affairs Committee for the second time this year sent a bill regulating which restrooms transgender Texans can use to the full Senate on Friday. That same day, various panels also passed two pieces of education-related legislation, three abortion-related measures, a bill addressing do-not-resuscitate orders and another extending the state’s maternal mortality task force.

— Senators also plowed through legislation on local control, mail-in ballot fraud and more. On Saturday, a committee approved a bill that would outlaw local ordinances on using a cellphone while driving and another — one that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick laid out specifics on earlier this month — to provide long-term teachers bonuses and pay raises and retired teachers reduced health-care costs. On Sunday, panels approved a proposal that would end the state’s practice of collecting membership dues for certain public employees in labor unions and associations and a measure aimed at cracking down on mail-in ballot fraud — along with modified versions of legislation that would prohibit towns and cities from passing tree-regulating ordinances and another that would speed up local government permitting processes.

— Does this seem familiar? The Senate speeding through legislation, and the House taking its time, that is. If you nodded yes, writes Ross Ramsey in his column today, then you’re not the only one. The special legislative session so far appears to be a rerun of the regular session that ended in May; by Texas Tribune reporter Patrick Svitek’s count, Senate committees have already sent 17 of Abbott’s 19 items to the full Senate for a vote, not including the critical sunset legislation the upper chamber shot out in the wee hours of the morning last week. Senators could vote on those bills as early as today, sending them to the House for consideration.

— Speaking of the House… The lower chamber today is set to take up the first of two sunset bills that would extend the lives of several state agencies, with the second bill scheduled for a committee hearing Tuesday. Follow Texas Tribune reporters Patrick Svitek and Andy Duehren for updates from the House today.