Week 19: 89th Texas Legislature THIS WEEK We had an energetic group of activists at the Capitol on Tuesday, for a day of prayer. We prayed all over the building, praying for God’s will to be done, for hearts and minds to be turned to the truth, and to give the glory for all outcomes to God alone. In addition to prayer, we also wrote red/green cards on 18 bills that are stuck in Calendars Committee, and post cards for 8 bills stuck in various Committees. Our efforts pay off because many of the bills we’ve been working on either in Calendars or in Committees have moved along in the process, or even moved all the way to passage by both chambers. We have one Tuesday left in the session, and we’ll probably have to double down on some things in that last week. SOME INTERESTING THINGS THIS WEEK
- HB796 – The Texas Sovereignty Act, which we thought was a sure thing is apparently now dead. It passed the House with bi-partisan support, but apparently is now dead in the Senate Committee on State Affairs. Senator Birdwell has objections to the bill, and they could not get enough votes in committee to move it out. If you’d like to know about the situation, please see Tom Glass’s X post about it here.
- An agreement was reached between the House and Senate on HB2, the 8.2 Billion dollar give-away for public education (with no performance requirements attached) Which means kids will still not perform at grade level, and public ed crowd will still complain they don't have enough money)
- SB24 – The bill that requires public schools to teach the evils of communism, passed the House & the Senate. Thirteen Democrats in the House, and three Democrats in the Senate voted against the bill. No one understands why!
- SB75 – Senator Hall’s protect the grid bill has passed both chambers with amendments. The Senate will have to decide if they agree with House amendments, and if not, call for conference committee.
- SB33 – A bill that prohibits use of taxpayer funds for abortion travel and services has passed both houses. The Senate will have to decide if they agree with House amendments, and if not, call for conference committee.
- HB21 – A bill to put restrictions on Housing Finance Committees (HFC’s) has passed both chambers and is sent to the Governor. HFC’s are ways for multi family housing developers to get almost perpetual tax exemptions on their property, and have often been abused to the benefit of the property owner (including lawmakers). Now, lobbyists are putting pressure on Gov Abbott to veto the bill. Read about it in this TFR article.
EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TEXAS! (INCLUDING HUMILIATION) Sometimes you just have to laugh. Check out this video from Fox’s Greg Gutfeld “Video of the Day”, as Rep. Mitch Little puts Rep Jo Jones in her place, when she tries to trip him up with a question. I’m still laughing! NEXT WEEK We will be at the Capitol for the last time this session on Tuesday May 27th. I’m not sure what we will be doing that day, because things are changing very fast, and we’ll have to see where we’re at on Monday. Usual time and place – the Seal Court at 10 am. This will be your last chance to join us until Interim Hearings start up, so come on down! ACTION ITEMS THIS WEEK 1) HB4623 is Mitch Little’s bill that eliminates qualified immunity for public schools employees for acts or omissions involving students. Every week, we see reports of 1 or more school district employees charged with misconduct with a student. But the bad actors frequently get moved around to another school, another district, and the incident gets covered up because school employees have immunity from prosecution. The bill passed the House last week, and is now in Senate Education Committee. Please contact members of the Committee and urge them to vote HB4623 out of Committee quickly so that it has a chance for a 2nd and 3rd reading in the Senate before end of session. Senate Education K-16 Committee
2) HB3441 is Shelley Luther’s bill that requires vaccine manufacturers to accept liability for harm caused by their vaccines if they advertise the vaccines in Texas. The bill has passed the House, and has been received in the Senate, but not yet referred to committee. Please contact Lt. Governor Patrick and YOUR Senator to urge them to move this bill through the Senate before end of session. Contact Lt. Governor Patrick:
- Email: [email protected]
- LG Message Line: 512-463-5342
- LG Office Line: 512-463-0001
- Snail Mail: PO Box 12068, Austin, TX 78711
Find YOUR Senator Here. Then click on the Senator’s Name, to see contact information. 3) Contact Gov. Abbott and ask him to stand strong against lobbyists and special interest groups regarding HB21 and HFC's. Those who oppose this bill are clearly inclined to continue making money off the backs of Texas taxpayers. Governor Abbott Contact: Office: 512-463-2000
Opinion Hotline (512) 463-1782 Email: https://gov.texas.gov/contact & click on “I want to share my opinion.” 4) As always, please pray for our efforts and ask for blessings on our activists, their travels, and their commitment. As we start to wind down this session, I want to express how grateful I am to all of you who just do whatever I ask of you each week! And you give me all the praise and credit, when it's YOU who are doing the work. My cup runneth over! Many thanks to each one of you. Stay safe, and stay engaged! Fran Rhodes, President Our weekly visits to the Capitol focus on legislation, but the primary work is training up people to continuously be engaged in government. Every week, we have new people who have never done it before and are happy to learn. We are training up an army of grassroots activists, but we need your help to do it. Can you chip in?
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