Well, so much is happening in the State Legislature! Bills being moved, bills being stalled, bills being switched around, sex scandals, set up allegations, historic Senate action. Where do I even begin? But whatever is happening, you can bet that True Texas Project Citizen Advocates are on the scene. This week, it’s sort of a good news, bad news thing, so let’s start with the good news.
HB1927, Constitutional Carry got closer to becoming law this week as the special Senate Committee heard testimony from hundreds, and passed it out of Committee. Lt. Governor Patrick has said he will bring it to the floor for debate, even though he doesn’t know if the votes are there for it to pass (very unusual!) We will see what the Senate debate does to the bill. We know there are amendments being proposed that will weaken or even kill the bill in the House. It becomes a big game of hot potato as the 2 chambers pass it back and forth with the intent of forcing blame on the other for killing the bill. Governor Abbott has said he will sign a bill if it gets to his office.
Take ACTION:
1) There are 7 Senators (and LG Patrick) who have not publicly said if they support or oppose Constitutional Carry. Please contact them, and politely ask them to make a public statement about their position. Phone numbers and social media contacts are in this chart and remember you can always email them using [email protected]
2) Keep contacting the Governor and Lt Governor expressing support for Constitutional Carry. Rachel Malone with GOA has a very good analysis of the potential amendments, and the process which you can read here. The better you understand the issues, the better equipped you will be to talk to staffers when you call. And Rachel is the absolute best at explaining all this stuff to folks like us. (You might want to send Rachel a big thank you!)
The debate on the Senate Floor will probably happen next week. Watch for news on when that is scheduled. Contact YOUR Senator and make sure they know where you stand on Constitutional Carry. Ask them to support HB1927 as is, without poison pill amendments.
Election Integrity: HB6 and SB7 – A switch-a-rooney was pulled yesterday in the House Elections Committee as Chairman Cain presented the language of HB6 as a complete substitute for SB7. At first, Representative Clardy said he would vote present not voting which would have killed the bill. Everyone was asked to blow up Clardy’s phone lines, which they did, but it turns out that he was not the bad guy – Chairman Cain just did not do a good job of explaining his strategy to the committee, so Clardy put the brakes on. In the end, I’m told that it’s a good thing – that Gov Abbott is supporting SB7 (not HB6), and that amendments will get filed and things will get resolved in conference committee, and we will see all the good things in SB7 get added back in. Fingers crossed!
HB2283 which will prevent 3rd party, private money going to Elections administrators (as happened with Zuck Bucks in 2020) passed in the House and now goes to the Senate for consideration. This is a good thing! It passed 85 – 52, so it had Democrat votes. We should all contact our Senators and ask them to support it when it gets to the Senate.
Take ACTION:
No particular action for HB6 and SB7 – but be watching for alerts that will come out as the bill gets to the House Floor, and amendments get filed and debated.
For HB2283 – Contact your Senator and ask for support, as the bill comes to the Senate for consideration.
Gender Modification: HB1399, the bill that would prevent medical practitioners from providing surgeries or treatments to minor children for gender transitioning, was sent to Calendar’s Committee on Tuesday. We all know that Calendar’s Committee can become a graveyard for good bills. So – we need to remind the Committee of their job – scheduling bills for House floor debate and votes.
Take ACTION:
Please contact members of the House Calendars Committee, urging them to schedule HB1399 for a vote on the House floor. The names can be found here. Click on individual names to see their contact information.
Equal Parenting/Family Issues: HB803, the bill that would require equal time with children of divorced parents, when the court has granted joint custody, was heard in Committee last week, but has been left pending in Committee. If it doesn’t get acted on soon, it will miss the deadline for things to get to Calendars to be scheduled.
HB3028 would prevent discrimination by healthcare insurance providers based on vaccine status. No one should be denied service for lack a a medical procedure! (as in – no one should be denied entrance to Senate activities for lack of a medical procedure). We need to support this bill. This one too has been left pending in Committee.
Take ACTION:
Please contact members of the Juvenile Justice and Family Issues Committee, and ask them to move HB 803 favorably out of Committee, and on to Calendar’s. Committee members can be found here. Click on individual names to get their contact information.
Please contact members of the Insurance Committee, and ask them to move HB3028 favorably out of Committee, and on to Calendar’s. Committee members can be found here. Click on individual names to get their contact information.
Backlogged Bills – Trip to Austin this week! The Little Red Car is ready to make another trip to Austin – will you join us? 
So many bills are backlogged or stalled either in original committees or in Calendars Committee! To address this, I’d like to invite you to join me (and the Little Red Car) in a special activism day at the Capitol on May 5th and/or May 6th where we will work on bills that need help moving, and testify in some hearings. Our friends at Grassroots Gold and Texas Public Policy Foundation have put together a program for those 2 days including a dinner on Wed night, and a day of activism on Thursday, with focus on House State Affairs Committee where a number of good priority bills are stalled. Please see details in this link. Red and I will be driving down on Wednesday morning, working with legislators during the day, attending the dinner, and then working again on Thursday in the House State Affairs Committee, and/or the Calendars Committee. The link for tickets to the free dinner includes a link to reserve a hotel room. Obviously overnight is optional, but it’s only $135 for the night, and it makes for a more pleasant experience if you don’t have to get up at 4:00 am.
Take ACTION:
1) If you can go for both days – click on the link above, to reserve space at the dinner, and/or reserve a hotel room.
2) If you can go Thursday only – email me at [email protected], indicating that you would like to go Thursday (one day trip) and advise whether or not you would be willing to drive a car pool.
3) If anyone would like to go for both days and would like to ride with me on Wednesday from DFW area, let me know that. Little Red has room for 3 other people besides me.
I’d love to get a large group there on Thursday May 6. Groups from all over the State will be joining together like we did back in March for the Election Integrity bill. The bigger the group – the bigger the impact. We know that our grassroots pressure is working – just look at what happened this week! Lt Dan said he didn’t have the votes for HB1927. Then he said he might be able to get the votes. Then he said he would bring it to the floor anyway. That’s amazing! So keep up the good work, Patriots. I hope you can join me in Austin Wednesday or Thursday, but if not – keep making those phone calls and emails.
As for the sex scandals, and set up allegations – I’ll let you learn about that on social media – everyone is talking about it. Suffice it to say – the Austin Swamp is Swampier than we even thought. Pray for all of them!
God Bless Texas!
Fran Rhodes
President, True Texas Project