89TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE - WEEK 3
Note: Not everyone is a total policy wonk like I am, and I'm told my Lege Updates are sometimes too long and too many details. So - this is the abridged version of the Friday Message. If you want to see all the nitty gritty dirty details, please click here, and read the entire message (warts and all) on our Website under News THIS WEEK: In the Senate: Week three of the Texas Legislature saw the Senate get to work on the budget and a school choice bill. The school choice bill, SB2, was heard in the Education K-16 Committee on Tuesday, the Committee passed it out after the hearing, and a notice of intent has been filed to bring it to 2nd reading on Tuesday, Feb 4. They will not be able to vote on it unless the Governor declares school choice an emergency item in his State of the State address on Sunday. But considering the Governor’s many declarations that school choice is his main priority, I think it’s a safe bet that he will. I predict SB2 will pass on Tuesday, and LG Patrick can check this one off his list. What the House will do with it is anyone’s guess. In the House: Over the House chamber, things were not quite as productive. The House gaveled in on Monday for 26 minutes, Tuesday for 49 minutes and Wednesday for 44 minutes. Then they adjourned for another 5-day week end. They will convene again on Tuesday Feb 4. HR3, the Housekeeping Resolution that contains things like administration, staff, budgets for staff, parking, and other “housekeeping” issues, was supposed to be considered on Tuesday. But once again, Speaker Shut-Up and Sit-Down Burrows decided they just were not going to consider it at all, and all those housekeeping things would be dealt with by the House Administration. Again – no questions, no amendments, no debate. Just Shut-Up and Sit-Down. Many members had prefilled amendments for things like requiring House staff to be US citizens, stop the use of preferred pronouns in House communications, and many other issues. The amendments were not allowed because HR3 was not brought before the House at all. It’s status still shows “filed”. No other action, and it looks like it’s going to stay that way. Several members tried to get clarification on House Rules as well as the Housekeeping Resolution, but the Speaker rejected their questions each time with “that is not before the house at this time.” Rep. Toth requested that all those remarks be written down and included in the House Journal. It’s pretty interesting reading! If you’d like to check it out, click here to read the House Journal, page 170. On Wednesday, the only thing the House accomplished was a slew of honorary and memorial type resolutions. AND, of course, they suspended the rules so that they could vote to adjourn for more than three days, and then adjourned until Tuesday Feb 4. NEXT WEEK Tuesday February 4th will be another one of our “Bus” days with TXGR. This month’s bus departs from Dallas and Waco. Register here to get a seat on the bus. Everyone not living in Dallas or Waco – we want you to attend too! Get together with other activists and form a carpool. TTP will reimburse you for the gas if you have 2 or more people in your car! If you are lucky enough to live in the Austin area, it should be easy to get there for a few hours. So come on down and join us at the Capitol! PS: If you live in Tarrant County - I'm driving and you can join me. Just email me. [email protected] What will we do this week? I’m glad you asked! This week we will be delivering legislative priority papers for TTP, TXGR, and TURF (the transportation people). We will divide up in teams of 2 or 3, splitting up the list of office #s, and go delivering papers. This is also a good time to get to know staff, grab their business cards, establish relationships. Both the House and Senate will be in session that day, so you might want to go to the galleries to observe. There are also some Senate Hearings going on if you’d like to observe how that works. Or maybe you want to testify! Go for it! Here’s the tentative schedule for Feb 4 (you don’t have to follow this – you can always do your own thing) Remember that schedules are always subject to change. 10:00 – 10:15 AM Meet in the Rotunda with Fran Rhodes, TTP and Chris McNutt, TXGR. Receive materials/plans for the day 10:30 - Noon - Go in Teams to deliver legislative priorities, or observe Senate from 11:00 am *If you'd like to observe a Hearing, the Senate Finance Committee meets that day at 9:00 am in Room E1.036; and the Senate Business & Commerce Committee meets that day at 11:00 am in Room E1.012. If you've never testified at a Hearing before, this is a good chance to just observe and see how it goes so you will be more comfortable with it when it's your time to testify. Noon – 1:00 - Lunch. You can purchase lunch at the Capitol Grille, or bring a sack lunch. After Lunch: Visit legislators' offices, finish delivering papers if you didn't finish in the morning, or observe House from 2:00 pm
3:45 – 4:30 – Meet up with whoever you rode with for the trip home. Make a plan at the beginning of the day about where/what time to meet up for the return trip home. We will leave no activist behind! Remember - if you are a first timer, we'll partner you with an experienced person, so don't be intimidated. It was a first time for me once, too. ACTION ITEMS THIS WEEK IF YOU CAN’T GO TO THE CAPITOL: 1) Take advantage of this not busy time to find out about your legislator’s staff. Who is in charge of legislation? Who does the schedule? Who is Chief of Staff? These are all important things to know. Start building the relationships with your House Member and Senator and their staff so that when you approach them about important issues, they at least have an idea about who you are and remember you as that friendly, respectful person who talked to them several times. A quick phone call can yield a lot of information. 2) If your House Rep is one of the “good guys” who has been doing a good job, be sure you thank them for doing the right thing. We are often quick to criticize the wrong actions, but we don’t appreciate and acknowledge the good ones. 3) If you live in the district of the one of the R Representatives who have betrayed us, start talking to your County GOP Chair and County Executive Committee (Precinct Chairs) about possibly Censuring those Representatives. Censure starts at the county level. Need a list of who they are? Click here! page 173. 4) Cover our Capitol teams in prayer! As you can see, there’s something that everyone can do. Just make sure you’re doing something. Let's have fun storming the Castle! Stay engaged! Fran Rhodes, President. GET REGISTERED! Special True Texan Days: I'm happy to announce that our featured speaker at True Texan Day at the Capitol will be Land Commissioner, Dawn Buckingham. I've asked her to speak to us about her efforts to help President Trump secure the border, and facilitate deportations. We also have a good number of House Representatives and Senators who have confirmed they will attend the briefing.
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 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 **New departures from Kerrville/Fredericksburg; Corpus Christi/San Antonio; and Weatherford.
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 Tuesday Apr 8 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol |
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