89TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE - WEEK 1 THIS WEEK: What a week this has been in the TX Legislature! Thousands of Republican grassroots activists showed up at the Capitol on opening day in support of Rep David Cook as speaker, and supporting the Ban Democrat Chairs rules change. Unfortunately, there was no joy in Mudville that day as 36 Republicans voted with Democrats to elect Dustin Burrows as Speaker of the House. The important thing to remember is that we, the grassroots, have shone a big bright light on the subject! A few years ago, most people didn’t know there was a Speaker of the TX House, let alone care about who it was. That’s thanks to YOU. Burrows had serious challenges to winning the Speaker vote, and that has not happened before.
Let me be clear…. This changes nothing! True Texas Project will continue to fight for good bills, and against bad ones. We’ll be at the Capitol every week doing the work of the people. We may have more challenges than we might have if Rep Cook had become speaker, but it doesn’t change the work. So – GAME ON! On Wednesday the House met and was rumored to consider a Housekeeping Resolution on Thursday Jan 16, however, that was postponed, and the House adjourned until 1/22/25. They are supposed to take up the Housekeeping Resolution and the rules at that time. There are two parts of the Housekeeping Resolution that concern us. 1) There is a new power grab on page 15 of the resolution. The new language would give Burrows the unilateral authority to hire an attorney to file lawsuits on behalf of the House. This authority currently, constitutionally, resides with the House as a body. Tony McDonald explains it well in this X post. 2) Per RPT Chair Abraham George, "One of our Legislative Priorities’, ‘No Democrat Chairs’, is now on the line and our party needs your help to secure it. Step one to ensuring Republicans occupy all chairmanships within the rules will be enforced by Representative Cody Vasut who will take up an amendment to strike Section 5.11 of the Housekeeping Resolution, which was added last session as a backdoor way to prevent the vote on banning Democrat chairs. The second step will be the actual rule change to ban Democrat chairs, next Wednesday, which he will also carry. You need to call your Republican representative and ask them to support this amendment. Please contact your representative today" Please contact your Representative to oppose Section 4.02, subsection a-3, and also to support Rep Vasut's amendment to strike Section 5.11 of the Resolution. Make those calls TODAY! NEXT WEEK: I’ll be at the Capitol next Tuesday for anyone who wants to join me. In the early weeks of session, I’ll be visiting with House Reps and Senators to promote TTP priorities and get a feel for where people stand on the issues. I’ll also be focusing on collecting names and contact information for House and Senate staff. The staff are the ones feeding information to the Reps or Senators, so it’s important to develop relationships with them. If you can go next Tuesday, meet me in the Rotunda at 10:00 AM. I’ll have assignments for you at that time. If you need a ride, let me know. No promises, but I’ll do the best I can to find you a ride. I’ll also be at the Capitol until about 3:00 pm on Wednesday the 22nd. GET REGISTERED! Special True Texan Days: Be sure to register for the True Texan Day at the Capitol and True Texas Kids at the Capitol. There’s no fee, but we need to know how many are coming so we can be prepared for you. Here are the registration links.
SAVE THE DATES! Tuesday, Jan 21 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol Tuesday, Jan 28 - NO TTP Tuesdays (Fran is attending an all-day seminar) Tuesday Feb 4 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol PLUS Bus from Dallas/Waco Tuesday Feb 11 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol – including mini-training on Lege process Tuesday Feb 18 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol – WITH TFVC rally & 10th anniversary celebration Monday Mar 3 - TRUE TEXAN DAY AT THE CAPITOL (rsvp required) Tuesday Mar 4 - NO TTP Tuesdays (since we just did our day on Monday) Tuesday Mar 11 - BIG TXGR engagement day, PLUS Bus from Frisco/Waxahachie **TXGR is adding additional bus departures from several other locations for March 11. Details coming Tuesday Mar 18 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol – including mini-training on using the TLO Tuesday Mar 25 - TRUE TEXAS KIDS AT THE CAPITOL (rsvp required) Tuesday April 1 – TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol PLUS Bus from Grapevine/Burleson Information on schedules and activities will come each week in the Fran’s Friday message. Meanwhile, please reach out if you have questions about anything. Thanks for staying engaged! Fran Rhodes, President |
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