I am thrilled to report that, this past Friday evening, the Texas
House cast a historic vote passing our major legislative priority
bill, SB 14, banning gender mutilation of children. A bipartisan,
98-42 majority supported the bill, which should soon be on the
Governor's desk. Representative Tom Oliverson did a masterful job
defending his bill in debate and even had a Democrat speak in
favor of his bill. Representative Thierry courageously departed
from the weak talking points of her party, invoked her faith in
God, and insisted that innocent children must not be medical
experiments. She has since faced a deluge of racist and sexist
comments for her vote.

Thank you to the many grassroots activists who came to the
Capitol in the last couple of weeks, many for the first time, to
wear our red "Save Texas Kids" t-shirts in a show of support to
our Republican Representatives for the SB 14 vote. We applaud all
the Republican leadership who got behind this priority and
fulfilled the will of Texas voters, including Representatives
Klick, Burrows, and Speaker Phelan.

We had another victory this week getting the Senate border
interstate compact bill passed in the House with one minor
amendment (SB 1403, Sen. Parker with Rep. Spiller House sponsor).
SB 1403 implements one third of the RPT Border Security
Legislative Priority. The bill will go to the Governor after the
Senate concurs.

Unfortunately, Republicans suffered a stunning defeat on border
security when Speaker Phelan indicated he would sustain a point
of order on HB 20, which was the strongest bill to secure our
border this session. A watered-down version was amended to HB 7
that is not only insufficient to secure the border, it makes
matters worse by requiring the consent of Democrat local
officials in order to take action.

We only have two weeks left in the 88th Legislative Session, and
time has run out on House Bills that did not receive a floor
vote. Senate Bills are still in play.

On securing our Second Amendment rights, HB 636 has been sent to
the Senate and needs a hearing in State Affairs. HB 636 would
allow a presiding election judge with a CHL to carry in a polling
place.

There's also a bad Second Amendment bill coming up for a House
floor vote Tuesday. SB 728 would add certain individuals deemed
to have mental illness or intellectual disability as children and
add them to the FBI "federal prohibited person" list barred from
owning a firearm. There is no protection or remedy for Texans who
are erroneously added to this list. SB 728 was quickly moved
through the House last week amidst a flurry of other activity.

The backlog of election bills passed by the Senate were stalled
in the House when Elections Committee Chairman Reggie Smith
effectively shut down the committee. In what appears to be a
calculated move to kill Senate election bills supported by RPT,
Chairman Smith refused to hold a House Elections Committee
meeting last week. He also does not appear to have a meeting
scheduled this week. The bills Chairman Smith is blocking
include:

SB 921 by Hughes; referred to Elections on 4/3/23, over a month
ago
Bans ranked choice voting in Texas.

SB 990 by Hall; Referred to Elections on 4/25/23, almost 3 weeks
ago
Eliminates countywide voting on election day and returns voting
back to precinct based to help better detect fraud in the system.

SB 397 by Hall; referred to Elections on 4/27/23, over 2 weeks
ago
Early voting closing tapes must be printed out immediately after
closing the polls to make consistent with the requirement that
tapes be printed on Election Day.

SB 220 by Bettencourt; referred to Elections on 5/12/23
Provides an immediate avenue for addressing election crimes under
the Secretary of State, creates the position of an election
marshal from the Department of Public Safety to train others on
election crime violations, and provides for emergency judges to
hear violations within three hours of reporting during early
voting and one hour on election day.

We do have a few election bills scheduled in the House State
Affairs Committee this week, which we hope will be quickly voted
out. These include:

SB 1910 by Bettencourt; Scheduled for a public hearing on 5/17/23
Elections information must be subject to a personal information
request.

SJR 35 by Birdwell; Scheduled for a public hearing on 5/17/23
Proposes a Constitutional amendment clarifying that a voter must
be a US citizen. This has been referred to State Affairs in the
House.

SB 1846 by Creighton; Scheduled for a public hearing on 5/15/23
Prohibits a manufacturer of a voting system from entering
contracts with companies/individuals in certain foreign
countries.

There are also some other bills protecting children from
inappropriate sexual content, which are in need of attention:

HB 1181 by Rep. Shaheen, sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Paxton,
requires strict age verification for online porn, using
government issued photo identification or stringent transactional
data. It is being heard in Senate State Affairs on Monday,
5/15/2023.

SB 12 by Senator Hughes prohibits all sexually oriented
performances on public grounds and in front of minors, including
drag shows. Enforcement is through both criminal and civil
penalties. SB 12 was heard in House State Affairs and reported
favorably on 5/12/2023.

Concerning educational freedom, the House committee substitute
would drastically water down SB 8, the proposed educational
savings account bill. Chairman Rinaldi described the committee
substitute as "not a serious proposal" and Governor Abbott has
rightly declared he will veto this bill if it makes it to his
desk. We continue to advocate for school choice without strings
attached and remain hopeful the House and Senate can agree on a
bill that will benefit all Texans.

Action Items:

1. Call House Elections Chair Smith and ask him to stop blocking
SB 990, SB 921, SB 397, and SB 220.

2. Call House State Affairs Chair Hunter and ask him to vote out
SB 1910, SJR 35, and SB 1846.

3. Call Senate State Affairs committee members and ask them to
vote out HB 1181 and hear HB 636.

4. Call House State Affairs Chair Hunter and ask him to quickly
move SB 12 to Calendars.

5. Call your State Representative and urge them to vote NO on SB
728 Tuesday on the House floor.

We wish to thank the many grassroots organizations advocating for
not only LP bills, but also other bills that promote the
Republican Party of Texas platform. You all are critical to
helping advance good conservative government in Texas that
protects life and liberty of our citizens.

For God and Texas,

Jill Glover
SREC, SD 12
Chair, SREC Legislative Priorities Committee

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