Week 8: 89th Texas Legislature

THIS WEEK:

March 3rd was TRUE TEXAN DAY AT THE CAPITOL!

This week’s TTP Tuesday was a very special day!  We declared it True Texan Day at the Capitol, and we welcomed about 80 Citizen Advocates from all over the state.  Many of them were first timers at the Capitol, and hopefully we ignited the fire of engagement in them. 

We started the day with tours of the Capitol Building, so that we’ll be better equipped to appreciate the history and beauty of our Texas Capitol, but also to figure out how to find our way around.  (It can be confusing!).  The more you do it, the easier it becomes.  I still get lost sometimes!

Our featured speaker was Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, who gave us an update on how Texas is helping President Trump with immigration and deportation issues.  She also brought us up to date on renovations and improvements to the Alamo site, and the Land Commission’s role in addressing water infrastructure issues.  We  heard from several Senators, and Representatives about legislative priorities and their goals for the session.  

Guess what every one of them said?  "Thanks for being here, but we need more of you." Every legislator expressed how grateful they are for our engagement and stressed that we are making a difference. But they need more. We need to keep up the pressure and not get discouraged.  There is still huge potential to do great things this session, but we need more of YOU!

If you missed TTP Day, do not despair!  We do a smaller version of it every Tuesday during session.  Join in any time you can.

IN THE SENATE:

The Senate has been busy this week.  They continue to debate and vote on bills, hold committee hearings, and actually do the work (unlike the House).

Yesterday, several important bills were heard in the Senate State Affairs Committee.  One of those was SB17, Kolkhorst’s bill to ban foreign ownership of Texas land.  This bill has been filed several times in past sessions, but always stalls in the house. 

The Senate passed SB5 this week, the LG's priority issue for Dementia research. See more on this subject below in the House section of the message.  Spoiler alert - we don't like it!

SB19, the ban on taxpayer funded lobbying was reported favorably out of committee and scheduled for a floor vote.  We believe it will pass the Senate easily, and we should now turn our focus to the House where Rep. Mike Olcott has filed an identical companion bill, HB3257.  *This bill is a top priority for TTP.

IN THE HOUSE 

Legislatively, the House has a couple of interesting things going on.  HB2 – the House version of public ed finance was heard in committee twice this week.  Rep Brian Harrison has raised major objections to the bill which is a massive expansion of government, with an $8 billion price tag for just the next biennium.  Texas Policy Research also recommends against the bill.  You can read their analysis here.  We agree with Rep Harrison, and TPR!  It's a bad bill.

HB3, the House ESA bill is scheduled for public hearing on Tuesday, March 11.  If you’ll be at the Capitol on Tuesday, you can register for or against this bill at the kiosks, and/or sign up to testify.  76 House members have signed on to this bill, so we can expect it to pass.  Hopefully, it will be amended along the way to make it less terrible.  (a girl can hope!).  See Texas Policy Research analysis for a breakdown of what the bill does or doesn’t do, and a list of who is supporting and who is not.  (It’s interesting because the ones that have not yet voiced support are all 62 Democrats and 12 Pseudo-Republicans from the Burrows gang.)

On Monday the 10^th, the House Public Health committee will hold hearing on HB5, the House version of SB5, the bill and constitutional amendment to set up the Dementia Research Institute.  As you probably know, we oppose these bills because they grow government, set up a new bureaucracy, and have a starting price tag of $3 Billion with open ended future spending.  We also oppose because medical research is not the proper roll of government.  SB5, the Senate version passed the Senate this week, with Senator Kelly Hancock the only dissenting vote.  This issue is a high priority for LG Patrick, but it is nowhere to be found on the RPT priorities that Republicans voted for at convention.  While it’s a worthy objective, it is not government’s job.

There are also 4 other House committees holding public hearings on Monday.  Check out the schedules and what bills are being heard here.

REMEMBER – for House bills in public hearings, we can register support or opposition and make comments with an on-line form.  The link for the form is at the bottom of every public hearing notice.

In other non-legislative actions in the House this week, some interesting things going on, and Rep. Harrison making the news.

1)  Last week instead of taking a vote to adjourn more than 3 days, as the constitution requires, Speaker Burrows just put the House “at ease” (not adjourned) for 4 days.  No vote was taken, it was just done by the decree of Speaker “Shut Up and Sit Down” Burrows.  Then they did it again this week.  Check out this video Rep Brian Harrison made from the floor as it was happening.  The Speaker continues to silence the voice of the members with his heavy handed declarations, and most (not all) Republicans just don’t care.  Why would the Speaker do this???  The answer is that we've been exposing everyone who votes for the 4 day weekends every week since session started!  If there’s no vote, then no record for us to expose.  He’s protecting his members as he gets his own way again.  Remember how we've told you that leadership protects the members from tough votes?  Here you see it in action, but this time it's actually unconstitutional.

2)  In a Ways and Means Committee hearing, Rep. Harrison did some pretty tough grilling of some state agency heads about their DEI policies that are supposed to be banned since last session.  Many of them denied there is an DEI language in their agency, while Rep. Harrison showed ink on paper proof that there was.   Afterwards, Pseudo-Republicans and Democrats tried to smear him for making witnesses cry.  Kudos to Rep Harrison for the tough love!

3)  Remember last session when Dade Phelan hired Democrat lawyer Hugh Brady to be House parliamentarian and he killed so many conservative bills on points of order?  Well, he’s no longer House parliamentarian  YAY!.  But as Texas Scorecard reports he has now been retained by Speaker Burrows as “parliamentary counsel”, at his previous salary of $233,000 per year. We all feel relieved that we no longer have a Democrat Parliamentarian, just like we no longer have Democrat Committee chairs.

Our friends over at Texans for Vaccine Choice are asking for help in finding authors and co-authors for three of their draft bills.  An important filing deadline is coming up and they need to find senators and representatives to file the bills.  You can help by reaching out to your own senators and representatives to ask them to work with TFVC to get these bills filed.  For details on the bills, and instructions on what to do and how to do it, just click on this link to their Action Alert.  They make it really easy, and even have sample messages.  Let's get these medical freedom bills filed, and across the finish line.  (filing deadline is March 14th!  Hurry!)

NEXT WEEK:

March 11 is the special day devoted to Gun Owners’ issues.  We have 4 buses coming from all over the State, with lots of activities on the schedule.  All TTP and TXGR activists are welcome whether or not you ride the bus.  Our focus for the day will be on three 2^nd Amendment Issues, and corresponding legislation:

• Ban Red Flag Laws, HB162 and SB1362
• Kyles Law (civil liability from justified use of force), HB170
• Eliminate Gun Free Zones, SB1065

The schedule for this week, however, is going to look a little different than the usual. 

• 10:00 AM Arrive at Capitol, proceed to the Robert E. Johnson (REJ) Conference Center, 1501 N. Congress Ave.  The REJ center is just north of the Capitol grounds on the east side of the Capitol Mall.
• 10:30 AM Check in, Receive advocacy materials – position papers to be delivered to all 108 Republican Senators and Representatives.
• 10:30 – 12:30 2^nd Amendment Speakers, and Lunch (Lunch is while it lasts)
• Featured speakers include:
  • Chris McNutt, President, Texas Gun Rights
  • Dudley Brown, President, National Association for Gun Rights
  • Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President, Gun Owners of America
  • Lt. Col. Allen West, Dallas County GOP Chairman
  • Kyle Rittenhouse, Gun Rights Advocate
  • Leigh Wambsganss, Patriot Mobile
  • The Armed Attorneys (Emily Taylor & Richard Hayes Jr.)
  • Invited Legislators: Sen. Bob Hall, Sen. Bryan Hughes, Rep. Briscoe Cain, Rep. Ryan Guillen, Rep. Brian Harrison, and more!
• 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM Press Conference on the South Steps of the Capitol
• 1:30 PM – ?? PM Visit lawmakers’ offices to distribute materials so they know exactly what gun owners expect them to pass this session.
• Depart for home as scheduled with your ride.

It’s not too late to register for one of the buses.  All 4 are listed on our events calendar on the website.  Whether you ride the bus or get yourself there, I look forward to see lots of you for the special Gun Owners' Day.

Other Happenings at the Capitol:

March 10 –  The American Journey Experience will have a pop up museum with a collection of artifacts from their huge collection.  It will be in the Capitol in room E2.1002.  If you happen to be in the area, stop by to have a look.

March 19 – Learn more about the challenges we face regarding electric grid security at the Secure the Texas Grid Symposium, 10am to 3pm at the Texas Public Policy Foundation building, 900 Congress Ave, Austin.  RSVP to SREC Committeewoman, Christiana Keeler, [email protected]

What YOU can do if you can’t go to the Capitol

1)  Contact your own Representative and Senator to ask for support of the 2^nd Amendment legislation we are working on Tuesday (all but SB1362 have been referred to a committee) You can ask them to sign on as co-authors which strengthens the bill.

2)  Offer some support for Rep. Brian Harrison in his effort to bring common sense and accountability back to the Texas House.

3) Contact your Representatives and Senators to ask them to author or co-author the TFVC draft bills mentioned above.  Follow instructions on this link: 

4)  Use the on-line form to comment on bills being heard in Committee on Monday and Tuesday. (HB3 and HB5)

• Public Health - HB 5, Dementia Research
• Public Education - HB3, Education Savings Accounts

5)  Contact members of the House Public Ed Committee to express opposition to HB2, the public ed finance bill mentioned above. The bill was left pending in committee on Thursday after taking testimony.  (Over 800 comments were received on this bill and most were complaining that they are not spending enough!)  Reasons for TTP to oppose: 

• Gives big win to progressive liberals (Dustin Burrows) "The bill prioritizes spending increases over efficiency, reinforcing the idea that Texas must continuously inject more taxpayer money into public schools rather than hold them accountable for their performance. This aligns perfectly with the progressive agenda of making public education the only viable option while limiting competition from charter, private, and homeschooling alternatives." (TPR)
• Expands Government School Monopoly-no requirement to improve efficiencies; also adds new performance metrics for Charter Schools
• Continues to reward failing schools without any obligation to do better
• Expands on various sub-contracted extra-curricular programs rather than focus on basic skills achievement

6)  Pray! (always)

Thanks to everyone for everything you do.  Julie and I appreciate you more than you can know.

Stay engaged!

Fran Rhodes, President.

[email protected]

GET REGISTERED!

Special True Texan Days: True Texas Kids at the Capitol. There’s no fee, but we need to know how many are coming so we can be prepared for you.  Here are the registration links.

SAVE THE DATES!

Tuesday Mar 11 - BIG TXGR engagement day, PLUS Buses from Frisco/Waxahachie; Kerrville/Fredericksburg; Corpus Christi/San Antonio; and Grapevine

Tuesday Mar 18 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol 

Tuesday Mar 25 - TRUE TEXAS KIDS AT THE CAPITOL (rsvp required)

Tuesday April 1 – TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol PLUS Bus from Grapevine/Burleson

Tuesday Apr 8 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol

Tuesday Apr 15 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol

Tuesday Apr 22 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol

Tuesday Apr 29 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol

Tuesday May 6 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol - Including Bus from Cypres/Brenham

Bus Registrations can be found on the TTP Website

We do our best to offer citizens opportunities to be engaged in our State Government in Austin.  Can you help cover some of the costs?  Your donation of $25, $50, or $75 will help us to continue these opportunities.