Texas House of Representatives

The Texas House of Representatives obtained a quorum, ending 37 days of paralysis.

The Legislature has a little less than two weeks to consider and pass out items on Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session agenda.

House Select Committee on Constitutional Issues & Remedies considered the following bills over the weekend:

SJR 3/SB 6 - State Sen. Joan Huffman (R–Houston) - Bail reform

SB 13 - State Sen. Joan Huffman (R–Houston) - Potential delay in the candidate filing period, primary elections, and primary election runoffs

House Select Committee on Constitutional Issues & Remedies meeting Monday at 8 a.m. on the following bills:

SB 1 - State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R–Mineola) - Election integrity

HB 20 - State Rep. Briscoe Cain (R–Deer Park) - Social media censorship

House Environmental Regulation Committee meeting Monday at 1 p.m. on the following bills:

HB 7 – State Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R–Odessa) – Radioactive waste

House Ways & Means Committee meeting Monday at 1 p.m. on the following bills:

SB 8 – State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston) - Extending the homestead exemption for the first year of property acquisition

SJR 2/SB 12 – State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston) – Reduction in property taxes for elderly or disabled individuals

House Appropriations Committee meeting Monday at 2 p.m. on the following bills:

HB 1 – State Rep. Greg Bonnen (R–Friendswood) - Restoration of funding for the Legislature for the next biennium

HB 5 – State Rep. Greg Bonnen (R–Friendswood) - Supplemental appropriations

SB 7 – State Sen. Joan Huffman (R–Houston) – “13th check” for beneficiaries of the Teachers Retirement System of Texas

House Public Education Committee meeting Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. or upon adjournment on the following bills:

HB 28 – State Rep. Steve Toth (R–The Woodlands) – Improvements to the “ban” on critical race theory

SB 3 – State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R–Mineola) – Improvements to the “ban” on critical race theory

SB 2 – State Sen. Charles Perry (R–Lubbock) – Youth sports

SB 9 – State Sen. Joan Huffman (R–Houston) – Family/dating violence

SB 15 – State Sen. Larry Taylor (R–Friendswood) – Virtual education improvements

It is uncertain whether compromise is what drove some of the previously absent Democrat lawmakers to return and whether anything will be done to compel/keep the attendance of the few who returned, making the situation in the House somewhat tenuous.

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What’s Ahead for the Texas Legislature

Just seven days remain for the Texas Legislature to consider items on Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session agenda.

The Texas House of Representatives finally passed the omnibus election integrity bill. A conference committee has been appointed to consider an amendment that was adopted in the House, something the bill’s author, State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R–Mineola), takes issue with.

The legislative prospects for one of the bail reform bills is in question, as well. It requires two-thirds support for final passage since it is a proposed constitutional amendment. When initially considered in the House last week, it only had the support of 82 House lawmakers, several short of the needed two-thirds.

The House Public Education Committee is scheduled to consider two bills relating to mask mandates on Monday. One would prohibit mask mandates in public schools, while the other would allow school boards to mandate masks for public school students 12 years of age or younger.

Notably, the House Public Education Committee has not passed out bills relating to the improvements to the “ban” on critical race theory passed in the 87th regular session, even though they heard the bills in committee last week. Similarly, they considered bills related to requiring public school students to participate in sports associated with their biological sex at birth, but the committee left those pending.

Today, the House is scheduled to consider a bill that would prohibit the solicitation of abortion-inducing drugs in the mail, as well as a bill that would give supplemental appropriations to various state agencies.

Several issues have yet to still be considered by the overall Texas House of Representatives, including things like the restoration of their own funding, a bill seeking to end family and dating violence in public school-aged children, protections for youth sports, improvements to the ban on critical race theory, enhanced protections for the safety of children in the Texas foster-care system, appropriations for improved cybersecurity, preemption of a patchwork of local government regulation on private businesses’ employment practices, and legislative quorum requirement changes.

Thus far, the House has prioritized things like a “13th check” for beneficiaries of the Teachers’ Retirement System of Texas, bills purporting to provide property tax relief for specific property tax payers, and the election integrity bill.

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Texas House of Representatives Remains Paralyzed

The Texas House of Representatives has gone 34 days without a quorum, the attendance necessary to conduct legislative business.

In contrast, the Texas Senate has almost completely considered Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session agenda.

House Speaker Dade Phelan did issue arrest warrants for absent lawmakers. But thus far, even after being deputized to do so, there have been no reports of Texas law enforcement actually issuing arrest warrants.

Local Governments Continue to Ignore Mask Mandate Prohibition

The list of local jurisdictions across the state defying Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting mask mandates is growing.

There has been legislation filed during the ongoing special session to address mask mandates, but it’s notable that the Legislature chose not to address it during the regular session.

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Second Called Special Legislative Session Begins

The second special session began (Saturday, 8/7) and, once again, the Texas House of Representatives did not have a quorum (the attendance necessary to conduct legislative business).

In contrast, the Texas Senate had all of its members present and moved immediately to refer bills to committees and suspend certain rules to allow those bills to be considered in committee over the weekend. By the end of the weekend, the Senate committees have already considered 12 bills relating to issues on Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session agenda.

Expect this week that the Senate will continue with that fast pace.

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Prospects for a Quorum Grow in the Texas House

When the House attempted to convene on the first day of the second special session (Saturday, 8/7), they still lacked a quorum. Notably, a few Democrat lawmakers who had previously helped bust quorum in the last special session were present this time.

One of those lawmakers, State Rep. Eddie Lucio III (D–Brownsville), indicated that he believed several of his Democrat colleagues would return within the week, and there would be a quorum again.

This correlates with reports that at least 22 of the absent Democrat lawmakers will be remaining in Washington, D.C., to continue to lobby the U.S. Congress and Senate for their consideration of federal legislation relating to elections.

In the event a quorum is re-established in the House of Representatives, it’s likely that the politics will be precarious and that the order by which the House considers policy issues on Gov. Greg Abbott’s agenda will be important (so Democrats do not attempt to break quorum again).

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The session started on July 8. But since July 12, House Democrats left for Washington, D.C., busting quorum and freezing progress on election integrity legislation.

The current special session is slated to end on August 6. Gov. Greg Abbott has indicated he will call repeated sessions until they return.

Despite threats from Abbott, however, no Democrats have been arrested or compelled to return to the Capitol.

Sports takes center stage in the Senate

With the Senate having passed most of the special session agenda in the first two weeks, they are turning their attention to college sports.

With news last week that the University of Texas would be leaving the Big 12 Conference for the Southeastern Conference, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick formed a Select Committee on the Future of College Sports in Texas. They meet at 1pm on Monday, August 2.

Some lawmakers worry the move could jeopardize other schools—such as Baylor and Texas Tech—along with their local economies.

Biden Administration Suing Texas

The Biden administration has filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas, after Gov. Greg Abbott released an executive order earlier last week prohibiting private companies and nonprofits from transporting illegal aliens from the southern border into other parts of the state.

The lawsuit has been filed in a federal court in El Paso.

 

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Special Runoff Election for Texas CD6

Election Day is Tuesday, July 27, 2021.

Candidates include Republicans Susan Wright and Jake Ellzey.

Both candidates boast notable endorsements.

Recent polling indicates Wright maintains a double-digit lead, though his lead is smaller than what polling reflected a month ago.

The same polling also suggests that Republican voters prefer Wright and Democrat voters prefer Ellzey.

Ongoing First Called Special Legislative Session

We are more than halfway through the allotted 30 maximum days to consider Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session agenda items.

The Texas Senate has passed all items on the agenda, except the restoration of funding for Article X or the Legislature itself.

The Texas House of Representatives remains paralyzed due to a lack of quorum needed to conduct any legislative business. They have been at a standstill for two weeks.

Reportedly, more than 90 lawmakers are now present, but it remains unclear whether quorum will be reached before the conclusion of this special session.

There are ongoing internal disputes between present lawmakers on what can be done to penalize absent ones.

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The Texas Senate has passed all of Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session agenda items.

In this episode, we give a summary of the past week’s events regarding the House quorum break.

The Texas House has remained paralyzed and unable to conduct legislative business at all due to a lack of quorum.

The previous week was full of political theater and posturing. The Democrats remain obstinate, and thus far, no real penalty has been exacted to compel their return.

Gov. Greg Abbott has indicated he would call multiple special sessions until his agenda is considered.

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There are 25 days left in the legislative special session.

Special Session: (REFERENCE: Special Session Bill Statuses)

Analysis of special session agenda with Texas Scorecard Managing Editor Brandon Waltens

Legislature prioritized bills relating to Article X (10) Funding

Both House and Senate committees have heard bills relating to bail reform, election integrity, and a “13th check” for beneficiaries of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

This week, the Senate State Affairs Committee is scheduled to take up bills relating to social media censorship and protecting girls in youth sports.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller submitted a letter to Gov. Abbott, imploring him to add banning gender modification surgeries to the special session agenda, among other issues. The Texas Freedom Caucus similarly requested such a thing a week earlier.

New Republican Party of Texas Chairman

The State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) met on Sunday, July 11, to elect a new chairman of the Republican Party of Texas.

There were four nominated candidates.

Ultimately, former State Rep. Matt Rinaldi won with a total of 34 votes in the first round. He needed 33 votes to win.

Rinaldi will finish out the remainder of now-former RPT Chairman Allen West’s term through 2022.

Employer Vaccine Mandates

The third special legislative session concluded with a few things left undone. One of those things is prohibiting employer vaccine mandates.

This happened despite the fact that more than 20 bills were filed that would have addressed the issue. It was not until Day 22 of the 30-day special session that Abbott added the issue to the agenda.

He did this in response to Republican activists, lawmakers, and partisan pressure on the issue.

Two different bills got hearings, but none were considered by the overall House of Representatives or Senate, and the session concluded with the issue left unaddressed.

Hours after the session ended, the Texas Freedom Coalition and Republican lawmakers from both the House and Senate held a press conference requesting the issue be added to a would-be fourth called special legislative session.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also called for a fourth special session, but notably, it was to consider other issues and not to prohibit employer vaccine mandates.

Abbott responded to calls for another special session by saying it was not needed.

The Texas GOP penned an open letter to Abbott requesting a fourth special session to consider a prohibition on employer vaccine mandates, among other issues.

Pressure continues to grow as more Texans are being forced to choose between getting vaccinated or giving up their livelihoods.

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