
by Fran Rhodes, President
THIS WEEK:
Another Betrayal! Week 2 on Thursday afternoon, saw grassroots Republicans once again totally betrayed by Republicans in the Texas House. Right on the heels of the betrayal that elected Dustin Burrows Speaker of the House, they passed HR4, the Rules Resolution for the 89th Session, without allowing any amendments or debate. The Resolution was sent to them at 4:30 am on Thursday morning and at 2:00 pm on Thursday afternoon they were expected to vote on it. No debate, no amendments, just here – take it and shut up and sit down.
The Rules Resolution gave us what we’ve been demanding – no Democrat Chairs. But they gave us what we wanted on one hand, then took it away with the other hand by requiring all Vice Chairs MUST be Democrats. That means that all Committees will now have a Republican Chair and a Democrat Vice Chair, according to the rules. They also have created new “Permanent Standing Sub-Committees”, which may, and probably will, have Democrat Chairs. Read this X post that I shared for further insight, but here’s one quote:
“While Democrats won’t serve as committee chairs, they will occupy vice-chair roles with expanded power and dominate subcommittee chairs, where legislation can be killed or bottled up. These subcommittees, often overlooked by the public, are where the real work of legislation is done—and where bills can quietly be buried before they ever reach a vote.”
As I said – TOTALLY SCREWED AGAIN!
In addition to the Committee Vice Chair thing, and Permanent Sub Committee thing, the new Rules abolish 7 standing committees (Business & Industry; County Affairs; Defense & Veterans Affairs; Homeland Security & Public Safety; International Relations & Economic Development; Juvenile Justice and Family Issues; Resolutions Calendars; Urban Affairs)
Then they created 4 new standing committees, consolidating the jurisdiction and duties of the abolished committees into one of the new ones. (Delivery of Government Efficiency; Homeland Security, Public Safety & Veterans Affairs; Intergovernmental Relations; Trade, Workforce & Economic Development)
Rep Jared Patterson moved to call the question before any debate or amendments had been offered. That type of motion requires 25 seconds to the motion. He said he had 45 Republican seconds and 32 Democrat seconds. So of course, his motion passed, with 107 yays and 35 nays. Then Rep Hunter moved adoption and the Resolution passed 116 to 23.
Here’s the “unofficial” vote on the adoption of the Resolution. Note that all Democrats voted yay, except Rep Dutton (he doesn’t like that Democrats will not be able to chair committees). That means that 66 Republicans voted to silence debate, and let Burrows/Patterson win. Thanks to the 22 who stood strong against this nonsense.
RV# 10 — Unofficial Totals: 116 Yeas, 23 Nays, 1 Present, not voting
Yeas – Alders; Allen; Anchía; Ashby; Barry; Bell, C.; Bell, K.; Bernal; Bhojani; Bonnen; Bowers; Bryant; Buckley; Bucy; Button; Campos; Canales; Capriglione; Cole; Collier; Cook; Cortez; Craddick; Cunningham; Curry; Darby; Davis, A.; Dean; DeAyala; Dyson; Fairly; Flores; Frank; Gámez; Garcia Hernandez; Garcia, J.; Garcia, L.; Gates; Gerdes; Geren; Gervin-Hawkins; González, J.; González, M.; Goodwin; Guillen; Harless; Harris; Hefner; Hernandez; Hickland; Hinojosa; Holt; Howard; Hull; Hunter; Johnson; Jones, J.; Jones, V.; King; Kitzman; Lalani; Lambert; Landgraf; Leach; Leo Wilson; Longoria; Lopez, J.; Lujan; Manuel; Martinez; McQueeney; Metcalf; Meyer; Meza; Moody; Morales Shaw; Morales, C.; Morales, E.; Muñoz; Noble; Oliverson; Orr; Patterson; Paul; Perez, M.; Perez, V.; Phelan; Plesa; Raymond; Reynolds; Romero; Rose; Rosenthal; Schofield; Shaheen; Simmons; Slawson; Smithee; Spiller; Swanson; Talarico; Tepper; Thompson; Toth; Troxclair; Turner; VanDeaver; Vasut; Villalobos; Vo; Walle; Ward Johnson; Wharton; Wilson; Wu; Zwiener
Nays – Bumgarner; Cain; Dorazio; Dutton; Harris Davila; Harrison; Hayes; Hopper; Isaac; Little; Louderback; Lowe; Lozano; Luther; Money; Olcott; Pierson; Richardson; Schatzline; Schoolcraft; Shofner; Tinderholt; Virdell
I don’t have words to express how angry this makes me! Rep. Schofield spoke against the motion to call the question, saying that this is considered the “nuclear” option, shutting down all possibility for amendments and debate. He reminded the members that he and his colleagues could get 25 signatures too, and his closing remark was “If you do this to us now, remember we can do it to you too”. Schatzline, Olcott, Harrison, and several other good guys were standing behind Schofield as he said this. Rep Schatzline asked to have the names of the people seconding the motion be read, but Speaker Burrows refused. They will be published in the Journal which has not been published yest as I write this.
Folks, this is basically a coup of the Texas Republican Majority House by Democrats and Fake Republicans who want to get elected as Republicans, and then behave like Democrats. We have to stop it! I’m pretty sure the act of voting to shut down debate and amendments on a Resolution that goes against RPT platform and priorities is a censurable offense. We need 3 offenses to censure, so that’s 2 in the first 2 weeks of session. Find 1 more for these traitors. It shouldn’t be hard.
Be prepared to see texts coming into the districts of the 22 Republicans who voted no, saying they voted against banning Democrat Chairs. Don’t fall for it! Know the truth! They stood up for free speech, open debate, and transparency. And they stood up for RPT principles! Be sure to tell them thank you.
The Housekeeping Resolution, HR3, which was supposed to be voted on Thursday did not come up for discussion at all. This is the one that has a section about giving the Speaker unilateral authority to hire attorneys for the House. (bad!) Read Tony McDonald’s explanation here. We talked about this one in last week’s message.
Week 2 saw plenty of action in the Senate. The Senate has already appointed Committees and Committee Chairs (no Democrats!) and has started assigning bills to committees. Next week the Senate has committee hearings scheduled every day. The House gaveled in for 5 whole minutes on Wednesday, and then the 2-hour session on Thursday regarding the rules. That’s it. They are adjourned until 4pm on Monday. Maybe they will take up HR3 on Monday?
Both chambers released their versions of a biennium budget. Predictably similar to the last budget where property tax relief is defined as “exemptions” in the Senate and “compression” in the House. Both versions set aside funds for a school choice program, and additional public education funding. The Comptroller says we have a $23.76 Billion surplus, and our benevolent legislators are planning to return $6.5 billion to taxpayers through property tax “relief”. Thank you very much! I’m sure our taxes will go down, right?
Read more about the budget and statements from House and Senate in this Texas Scorecard article.
One bright star in this week’s happenings is that the baseless ethics complaint filed by Rep Cody Harris against RPT Chair Abraham George was dropped by the TX Ethics Commission. True Texas Project has been involved in finding ways to reform the TEC exactly because of situations like this. Baseless complaints can be filed against anyone for any reason, and are often pursued with devastating results to the individual. Stay tuned for further developments.
NEXT WEEK
TTP will not be at the Capitol on Tuesday Jan 28th. I will be attending a Legislative Kickoff by The Texan.News. I hope to learn lots and get a feel for how the session is going to go. (although it’s not looking great at the moment.) Of course, you are welcome to go on your own, but I will not be there.
The following week, Feb 4, we’ll be back at it. There will be a TXGR/TTP bus departing from Dallas & Waco that day. So be sure to sign up if you want a seat on the bus.
Terri Hall, with TURF (the transportation experts) has asked us to deliver TURF’s legislative priorities to the offices, and we will also be delivering TXGR and TTP legislative priorities to everyone so there’s plenty of work to be done. I’ll have details for you in the Jan 31 Friday Message.
We’ve added some bus trips for TXGR’s special Lobby Day. Check out the TTP website events calendar for details and registration links.
ACTION ITEMS THIS WEEK:
1) Since HR3 has been postponed, that leaves us more time to talk to legislators about it. Please contact your Representative (use the tool in this link if you don’t know who your representative is) to oppose Section 4.02, subsection a-3 of HR3. For more details, see this X Post by Attorney, Tony McDonald.
2) Contact the 22 Republican House members who voted against HR4, and thank them for standing strong. Then contact the 66 who voted for it and tell them you do not appreciate them silencing debate and prohibiting amendments.
3) If you live in the district of the one of the R Representatives who have betrayed us, start talking to your County GOP Chair and County Executive Committee (Precinct Chairs) about possibly Censuring those Representatives. Censure starts at the county level. Need a list of who they are? Click Here.
Many of you reply to my messages, or email me separately to let me know you’re doing the action items, or doing other things to engage. I LOVE THAT! Keep it coming. Also, several have had questions about specific things. Please always feel free to bring your questions. I know it’s complicated and confusing, and you’re not alone. I’ll do my best to answer and if I don’t have an answer, I usually know someone who does. I’m also not afraid to say “I don’t know!” So often I don’t! We’ll muddle through these things together, so bring it on!
Stay engaged!
Fran Rhodes, President.