AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Exactly a week ago, Texas House Democrats returned to the state after fleeing to prevent Republicans from voting on President Donald Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Map.’ Now, Republicans are trying to prevent them from leaving in the future.
During the second special session, three bills have been filed to either punish quorum-breakers or prevent quorum breaks in the future; a measure added to the special session agenda by Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday.
House Bill 18: Banning fundraising during a quorum break
Senate Bill 48/House Bill 64: Vacating the seat of a lawmaker with seven consecutive days of unexcused absences
House Joint Resolution 10: Amending the Texas Constitution to reduce the quorum threshold from two-thirds majority to a simple majority
According to the Texan News reporter Brad Johnson, the Texas House Republicans agreed to support each of those bills, along with supporting House rule changes to increase penalties for future quorum breaks.
Those rule changes include:
Allowing the removal of chairmanship/vice-chairmanship and loss of seniority for breaking quorum
Dramatically increasing the $500/day fine for breaking quorum
Forfeiting a pro rata portion of their office budget for each day absent
Automatically vacating chairmanship/vice-chairmanship roles for missing two consecutive days unexcused
However, they fell just short of hitting the two-thirds vote necessary to support a censure of the Democrats who fled the state.
“The tenuous Republican Caucus unity that has been developing since the Dems broke quorum is over, and it’s the fault of Speaker [Dustin] Burrows,” State Rep. Andy Hopper, R-Decatur, wrote on X. “Only 44 Republican members were willing to punish the Derelict Dems after Burrows’ whipping votes against it. Very disappointing.”
“I am incredibly disappointed in the uniparty Republicans that chose to get the backs of the far left democrats that abandoned Texas rather than getting the backs of their constituents,” State Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, wrote.
The fight over what to do with the quorum breakers comes after the Texas House revealed the fines accrued by the quorum breakers last week.
State Rep. Venton Jones, D-Dallas, shared a letter from the Committee on House Administration to his office charging him $9,354.25 for the quorum break. Fees included $7,000 worth of fines — House rules fine members gone for a quorum break $500 a day — along with a $2,354.25 fine to cover the expenses to have the Texas Department of Public Safety attempt to bring Democrats back to Austin. The letter states $124,943.25 was spent towards the latter purpose.
According to the Texas House Democrats, most members who broke quorum incurred a fine of the “same amount or very, very similar.”
Push for banning fundraising during a special session
On Friday, the Texas Senate stopped a last-ditch measure by State Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, to stall the “Big, Beautiful Map,” even further through a filibuster. At around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, State Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, accused Alvarado of using her seat for fundraising, calling it unethical and potentially unlawful. Currently, lawmakers are prevented from raising campaign funds during regular session, but are allowed to fundraise during any subsequent special sessions.
“I thought it was a lame excuse, and I thought it was just, you know, overreaching, trying to shut down a filibuster, something that’s been a Senate tradition for as long as I know,” Alvarado said. “They didn’t say what rule was broken, what law was broken, because there wasn’t any, and I think it was just a way to yet again, silence voices.”
On social media, State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, then called for a ban on special session fundraising.
“I think the whole furor over the fundraising filibuster brought this to the surface. Because what happens if somebody does send out a email that says, ‘I’m going to filibuster, and you need to watch, and not only watch, you need to rush donations to me,'” Bettencourt said. “And that’s something the Senate had never seen before.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick followed up by saying a special session fundraising moratorium could hinder future quorum breaks.
“[Bettencourt’s proposal] greatly reduces quorum breaks because outsiders will not be able to fund the costs to travel outside Texas,” Patrick wrote. “It will cut down on the number of special sessions and their length. Members want to complete their work quickly and effectively, so they can return home to their families and regular jobs. The most important result is that this bill will keep legislators on task and save taxpayer money.”
Alvarado said she supports Bettencourt and Patrick’s attempt to ban special session fundraising.
“Sign me up, I’ll be the first one to joint author,” Alvarado said.
“I know I have at least one bipartisan vote,” Bettencourt said after Alvarado posted her support on social media. “That much is for sure.”
Bettencourt said his fundraising ban would also extend to the Governor’s office — as the Governor is the only one who has the power to call special sessions.
“I think we’ll get clear special sessions,” Bettencourt said. “We’ve had nine special sessions in four years… it starts turning everything into mini-legislative sessions as opposed to what special sessions were designed to be—fixing specific problems and getting them fixed and get out of (Austin) as soon as you can.”
Hours after Patrick and Bettencourt called for the special session fundraising ban on social media, Abbott added two items to the second special session.
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