Another one. And another one. And another one. Governor Abbott is doing his best DJ Khaled impersonation as he outlines his strategy for dealing with the quorum breaking Democratic House members. The second performance of the Texas Legislature begins today with no intermission. Get your popcorn ready for the encore.
Second Act
Now that the House and Senate adjourned Sine Die for Special Session No. 1, the Governor called for Special Session No. 2 to begin today at noon. The agenda is almost—but not quite—identical to the agenda for the first special session. It calls for legislation regarding the tragic flooding in the Hill Country, redistricting, and THC regulations, with an addition of legislation to ensure and enhance youth camp safety. The Senate is planning to rehear all the bills that it passed during the first special session and pass them again in one day. How can they do that under the rules? By suspending all rules, that is how! The Senate will then likely gavel out and join the audience as we all look to the House to take the stage and put on their performance.
The House Democrats said that they are willing to return because their plan was to tank the first session and start a domino effect of blue states starting their own mid-decade redistricting to neutralize any gains that Republicans make in Texas congressional districts. It is unclear if the House Democrats also cut a deal with Speaker Burrows to guarantee their return and the terms of that deal. Quiet on the set!
Bills that passed the Senate in Special Session I
The Senate passed bills on all 18 of the governor’s requested issues the first time around. These will be refiled (maybe as the same bill numbers, maybe different) and rammed through the Senate on short notice—the less public input they take, the better (from their perspective). Here are some of those proposals that could affect your work.
SB 5 by Perry (R-Lubbock) bans most forms of THC. This is the same bill that the Governor vetoed. Is it going to suffer the same fate?
SB 10 by Parker (R-Flower Mound) creates an affirmative defense to prosecution for certain victims of human trafficking and victims of compelling prostitution. This bill was vetoed by the Governor in the regular session for being too broad. The new version is narrower, but also more complicated. Read the text for yourself and see what you think.
SB 11 by Hughes (R-Mineola) gives the Attorney General the authority to unilaterally prosecute Election Code crimes. Note that, unlike the in the first special session, Gov. Abbott’s new proclamation for the second one does *not* ask for a constitutional amendment on this topic, just “legislation.” That is because the advocates pushing this issue think they can win Round 3 of an eventual Stephens bout on separation of powers merely through the change of personnel on the Court of Criminal Appeals. As the meme goes, “It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for [them].”
SB 12 by Mayes (R-Galveston) would prohibit local governments from sending money to local associations who advocate on their behalf at the Texas Legislature, unlike any other private organizations or businesses in Texas. This bill could directly affect TDCAA’ s legislative efforts, although that depends entirely on the final version of any legislation.
SB 16 by Hughes is the omnibus judicial courts bill. It creates new courts, new district attorney offices, new punishment enhancements, and various other changes. Importantly, the bill includes a new reporting requirement for local prosecutors regarding some bail provisions and the resources prosecutors have on hand to carry out their work. This was a stand-alone bill from the regular session that failed to pass but was in the vetoed omnibus bill, and it’s back again in this new version.
SB 14 by King (R-Weatherford) is a priority bill for CLEAT that would create a uniform confidentiality standard for law enforcement personnel files. The most recent version protects the ability of unconfirmed disciplinary issues to be disclosed in the criminal discovery process.
As we said, the Senate does not want to hear from you on these bills, they’ve already been there, done that during the first special session. The House may be a different story, though, so if you support or oppose any of these measures, you might want to set up bill alerts for them because the notice for House hearings could be slim or none starting this weekend. (And if you need help setting up such alerts on the free state legislative website, contact Hector for details.)
Not a Full House
The Texas House still went ahead with some business this week despite missing some of its members. On Wednesday, the House Committee on Public Health held a marathon hearing on House Bill 5 by Representative VanDeaver (R-New Boston), which mirrors the Senate’s THC ban bill. Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney Erleigh Wiley, Hill County Attorney David Holmes, and Collin County Criminal District Attorney Greg Willis testified remotely at the hearing in support of that legislation. Public testimony at the hearing was overwhelmingly against an all-out ban, but that does not help predict lawmakers’ votes.
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Quotes
“I’m authorized to call a special session every 30 days. As soon as this one is over, I’m gonna call another one, then another one, then another one, then another one.”
-Gov. Greg Abbott, speaking on Fox News Sunday last weekend.
“I’ve been pretty vocal that I’ve not made the investments to test hemp in Houston at the scale that we probably would need to, because I can’t keep up simply with the pills that have fentanyl. So yeah, I’m going to prioritize fentanyl before hemp, and every dollar I spend on testing drugs is a dollar I don’t have to spend on testing a sexual assault kit.”
–Peter Stout, president and chief executive officer for the Houston Forensic Science Center, discussing why crime labs need more money and time during the House hearing on banning THC.
“Even the most well-intentioned law enforcement officers and prosecutors can and do, unintentionally, criminalize the very people we’re trying to save. I have unfortunately done so myself. The problem’s clear that across Texas, survivors are routinely charged with crimes they were forced to commit under threats, manipulation, and coercion. Traffickers use this as a form of control, holding the crime over their victims to keep them silent.”
–Joseph Scaramucci, the head of a counter-sex trafficking non-profit and retired 20-year member of the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office, discussing the need for SB 10 at the Senate State Affairs Committee hearing on Monday
“Republicans have also created tiplines for bounty hunters, called in bomb threats on our location, and took cops off the beat for political purposes — yet Abbott has still refused to move even a single dollar to flood relief, something he has the unilateral power to do with a stroke of his pen.”
-Texas House Democratic Caucus Chairman Gene Wu (D-Houston) discussing the quorum break.
“Right now, it’s the Wild West.”
–Chief Steve Dye of the Texas Police Chiefs Association testifying in support of HB 5’s THC ban and explaining that it is difficult to monitor and enforce the current laws.
“It just takes guts to go get them, so let’s see if some people have some guts to go get them. At the same time, the news story will be — since we have the media — ‘somebody arrested grandmas.’ So, you can see the difficulty of getting that one done. Who’s gonna arrest grandma?”
–State Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park), explaining to the State Republican Executive Committee the dilemma facing Republican House leadership regarding elderly Democratic House members who are breaking quorum at home.