John Cornyn: “This so-called ``Texas carve-out'' is critical to my support for this bill. Without the carve-out, Texas and other…”

“This so-called ``Texas carve-out'' is critical to my support for this bill. Without the carve-out, Texas and other States like it would not qualify for Federal grant funds, even though they already have an ``effective system'' for capital representation. And, without the carve-out, Texas and other States like it would have no incentive to apply for Federal grant funds because the Federal grant funds to be received would not exceed the State funds that would have to be spent to become eligible. On the other hand, because of the ``carve-out,'' Texas and other States like it can keep appointment power with locally-elected judges, maintain their own innovations designed to improve--not make impossible--the effective representation of capital defendants, and avoid the need for the creation of a new, needlessly expensive, centralized bureaucracy often times controlled by those who oppose the death penalty such as was the case with the former capital defense Resource Centers that were disbanded by Congress in the 1990's.”