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« Legislative News From the Legislative Desk
By Carey “Buck” Boethel
Director of Governmental Relations
An old aviation expression—this past March at the annual legislative conference in New Braunfels, one of the presenters was speaking on the risks of making serious and costly mistakes in judgment because of the rapid pace that is so characteristic of today’s business environment. He was pointing out the futility of using traditional methods of negotiating multiple party transactions nowadays.
“In many instances, about all we can do in this hurried technological context is to fly by the seat of our pants,” he explained. As he described the seemingly unavoidable consequences of the predicament, it became increasingly apparent that in no other venue is the foregoing more applicable than within the process of making laws—the legislative world.
If you talk with some of the Capitol veterans about effective methods that were used decades ago, they speak of days when the legislative clock was set back in order to meet a deadline; when bills and files were temporarily “misplaced,” or at times, forever lost; and the critical junctures of the process when the printing press was down. Then fast forward to our times of today where refined methods of information management, such as “contingent alternative outcomes” for committee proceedings are sometimes utilized and exhaustive “in specie” conceptual searches check off and eliminate possible language combinations leaving all that remains which is to fly by the seat of one’s pants.
In case you’re curious, a bit of internet research on the origin of that well known phrase indicates it means to do or take action without a plan, to go by feel, to make decisions in the moment. Its’ origin dates from the early years of aviation when airplanes had no flight control aids or navigational systems. The pilots relied heavily on their own keen senses to determine the plane's position, and even to find their way. They flew by personal experience, touch and intuition.
“With the seat being the largest point of contact between the pilot and the plane, it was from the seat of his or her pants that the pilot could feel how the airplane was reacting to his or her controls and how well the engine was operating.”
Sound familiar—in 1938 nearly 200,000 Texas were on direct relief, with about 100,000 working on Federal Relief projects as the nation experienced a recession. On August 12, 1936, the highest recorded temperature in Texas of 120 degrees occurred at Seymour in Baylor County, Texas.
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