[ad_1]
Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to date with the most essential Texas news.
The unity and lightness in the Texas home on the last day of the regular session directed to President Dade Phelan belied the political strife of the previous days.
We always go through ups and downs, that’s the nature of the legislature, said State Representative Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, as the House prepared to adjourn the regular session. But what was really there to tell you was: you did a great job. Thanks for being a friend of the Texas House of Representatives. Thanks for standing up for Texas House. Thank you for bringing integrity to the Texas House.
This praise was echoed throughout the day by Republicans and House Democrats in their own speeches. And it was a radical change of tone from the escalating tensions that had hovered over the Legislature in recent days, culminating in a walkout by House Democrats that killed a controversial Election Bill. GOP, which the minority party claims would restrict voting rights.
Since the regular session ended last week, however, Phelan has fended off criticism of his leadership from Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, the GOP’s counterpart in the Senate, who criticized the president for failing to adopt certain priorities. conservative.
We were a conservative Republican state and we didn’t need a speaker who bowed down to Democrats so as not to hurt them or make them look bad when they get home, Patrick told the Dallas radio host. , Mark Davis, Wednesday. It is not our job. They lost the elections, we won.
Meanwhile, Phelan, a Republican from Beaumont, said he was satisfied with his first legislative session as House Leader, save for the failure of the Elections Bill and the Legislation on the House. priority bond which was also killed with the walkout of the Democrats. In interviews over the past week, Phelan has touted a list of conservative victories, such as passing legislation allowing Texans to carry handguns without a license and approving some of the toughest restrictions. on abortion in the country.
I’m going back to Beaumont feeling really good about the 87th Session, considering everything we had against us and where we ended up, Phelan told the Texas Tribune in an interview on June 1. Be back ASAP and collect whatever the governor wants us to do.
Tensions aside, Phelan standing among House members his colleagues who elected him president earlier this year with near unanimous support will be crucial ahead of at least two special legislative sessions on the horizon, and with important elements such as these controversial elections, legislation and redistribution should take center stage.
Dan Patrick’s reviews
The tense dynamic between the two chambers peaked on the last day the House passed Senate legislation, when three of Patrick’s priority bills died before the deadline.
Those priorities included legislation that could have led to a ban on using local government funds to pay lobbyists, a move that would ban social media companies from blocking people based on their views, and a bill. which would force transgender student athletes to play on sports teams based on their sex assigned at birth instead of their gender identity.
Days later, in another crucial legislative deadline, Democrats orchestrated a mass walkout to break the quorum, which prevented the chamber from considering a vote on these elections and the bail bills are two priorities for Republican Governor Greg Abbott as well as a number of other pieces of legislation. .
The most recent version of the dead Senate Bill 7 was a sweeping bill that would have, among other things, created new limitations on early voting times and restricted local voting options such as voting in flying. The bail system bill is said to have made it more difficult for those arrested to get out of prison without cash.
Patrick accused Phelan of slowing the shift from Republican priorities to the lower house to appease House Democrats, whose support helped him win the hammer. The lieutenant governor also criticized Phelan for suspending the House for a few days in late May as lawmakers ran into deadlines to pass legislation.
The speaker said the decision was necessary to ease the rapidly escalating tensions between the two chambers and that it had no impact on some priorities such as SB 7 not to be adopted.
Abbott, for his part, did not echo Patrick’s argument that the speaker was partly responsible for the failure of the Election Bill and instead directed his criticism against House Democrats. .
I think I’m not going to commit, Abbott told Lubbock radio host Chad Hasty in an interview Thursday when asked if he agrees with Patrick’s criticisms. I will consider this half of this match. We just didn’t manage to do it in the first half, but we can’t wait to do it in the second half.
As punishment for the Democrats’ walkout, Abbott has pledged to freeze the legislature’s pay by vetoing a certain section of the state budget. Phelan has raised concerns over the governors’ decision if he implements it, saying it could harm government employees and other legislative bodies who were not involved in the walkout.
Responding to Phelans’ concerns, Abbott said the speaker has a role here and he needs to step up and get the job done.
He is not an outside spectator, says the governor. He’s a participant.
The House will function according to the rules
Some Democrats rejected the idea that Phelan bowed to their demands, arguing that they had defended much of the session on highly controversial social issues like abortion, LGBTQ rights, elections and guns.
Still, Democratic leaders have said Phelan encourages adherence to chamber rules, which include certain limits on when legislation can be considered by the entire chamber. This respect for the rules, they said, gave them reassurance that they understood the terms of engagement for the floor debate with GOP members.
Without rules, you don’t have the basis for the legislative process necessary to ensure its integrity, said State Representative Chris Turner, a Democrat from Grande Prairie who chairs his party’s caucus in the lower house. The House will function according to the rules, it is my hope and my expectation. This means that each of the 150 members of the House will have a say in what happens.
Some Democrats have finally succeeded in advancing causes they had championed unsuccessfully for years. State Representative Toni Rose, D-Dallas, praised Phelan for including her bill extending Medicaid coverage to new mothers as part of the Stakeholder Priority Health Care program. A number of lawmakers have fought for years to expand this coverage to address maternal mortality after birth.
I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, Rose said during a speech in the House on the last day of the session. This legislation is revolutionary. It was a victory for all mothers. There is no doubt in my mind that if you hadn’t shown leadership we might not have accomplished it.
Democrats have also been successful in avoiding bills targeting transgender children. These bills included efforts to ban gender-affirming health care and charge parents who provide such treatment with child abuse.
The biggest battle, however, was over legislation that would restrict the participation of transgender students in school sports. This bill, which was one of Patrick’s priorities, died in committee but was revived and ultimately scheduled for a vote in the House. On the last day it could be approved, the bill was postponed without explanation and was never considered.
Referring to the night House Democrats broke the quorum, Phelan has publicly stated that he will not lock the doors of the House or send authorities after lawmakers two actions he has the power to do as a speaker.
Patrick, however, said the speaker should have taken a tougher line against Democrats.
This time, I hope the speaker doesn’t say, “Well, if you don’t like this bill, it’s OK to walk,” Patrick said in an interview with Davis, the host of the Dallas radio show. No, close the doors or send the state soldiers to look for them.
Conservative support
Despite this heat, there is no immediate outward sign that Phelans is holding the hammer in trouble.
While Patrick has voiced his criticism of the president, a number of House Republicans have taken to Twitter to defend Phelan, arguing that passing legislation such as the unlicensed transport bill does not would not have been possible without his leadership.
State Representative Justin Holland R-Rockwall wrote on Twitter that Phelan was the only leader in Texas House history to allow [the] flow of legislation and bills to hit the ground for votes on Constitutional Carry and Fetal Heartbeat and they both happened in the same session.
Another House Republican, James White of Hillister, directly rebutted Patrick, saying the Phelan-led House had upset Democrats a lot this session.
Let me say it here, [Phelan] told me to get #ConstitutionalCarry out of the [House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee] quickly, he tweeted.
Gun rights activists had tried for years to pass a license-free porterage bill, but every attempt up to this session had failed to get far through the legislative process.
Phelan also oversaw the passage of a fetal heartbeat bill, which bans abortions as early as six weeks, before some women even know they are pregnant. Abortion opponents had criticized Phelan’s predecessor, former Republican President Dennis Bonnen, for giving the bill to a committee chaired by a Democrat, where he ultimately died without a hearing.
Politically right-wing Republicans have also expressed support for Phelan. In the final week of the legislative session, the Texas House Freedom Caucus, a group of some of the most socially conservative lawmakers in the chamber, urged Abbott to recall the legislature in special session immediately after the death of several bills. GOP priorities. deadline for passing Senate bills.
On the last day of the session, however, State Representative Mayes Middleton, a Republican from Wallisville who chairs the caucus, praised Phelans for his work as a speaker in a speech to the House before the House let go. .
On behalf of all members, on behalf of the State of Texas, I want to thank you for everything you have done for us this session and for your service to the State, said Middleton.
[ad_2]
picture credit