UPDATE: The Nominations Committee has approved all three nominees the UT System Board of Regents. The full Senate will take up nominations next.

I walked in the east door of the Capitol yesterday with Senator John Whitmire. He asked if I was going to nominations. I said I was. Then he said, "I told them [the nominated regents], 'Don't even sit down. I know you're on a mission. And you're going to hurt your [reputation] very badly.'"

Kirk Watson carried the questioning in the early going. He got the candidates to agree that they cannot fire the president unilaterally, that the decision to initiate the dismissal of a president belongs to the chancellor alone. (For some background, read Jake Silverstein's exclusive interview with Chairman Gene Powell here.)

These were the final elements of the budget deal that was reached yesterday:

--Add $200 million to the Foundation School Program
--Use a portion of TRS funding to get to $3.9 billion, the Democrats' target amount for restoring the school cuts

The major point of disagreement arose over the System Benefit Fund, which has long been a personal concern for Sylvester Turner, became a contentious issue between Turner and Williams.