89TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE - WEEK 6

THIS WEEK:

TTP TUESDAY 2/18/25:  This week TTP Tuesday was devoted to supporting Texans For Vaccine Choice in their rally and 10th anniversary celebration.  We had a robust group of advocates who delivered position papers to 20 Senators and 22 House Representatives.  The papers were in support of SB118 and SB754.  SB118 (Hall) repeals the authority to exclude unvaccinated students from school during a declared emergency.  SB754 (MIddleton) requires that patients give informed consent for any medical procedure or treatment.

After visiting offices and delivering the paper, our team helped TFVC celebrate their incredible successes over the last 10 years, fighting for medical freedom and informed consent.

The remainder of the week, Shelia Franklin and I have been attending the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Policy Summit.  We're hearing lots of interesting information and insight into the important issues that are being addressed in this legislative session.  I've taken notes, and will be diving into some of the those subjects in the coming weeks.

IN THE SENATE:

You may remember that last week our TTP Tuesday was devoted to writing post cards to members of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on a package of bail reform bills authored by Senator Huffman.  On Thursday, the Senate passed all 4 of those bills.  Now we will have to follow the bills through the House process.  These bills will make it harder for illegal aliens and people accused of violent crimes to obtain bail, and be allowed back on the streets to commit additional violent crimes.

My personal top priority legislation for this year was filed in the Senate Thursday by Senator Middleton.  It is SB19, to ban taxpayer funded lobbying.  Senator Middleton has filed this bill every session he's been in the legislature, and we are hopeful that this year will be the one to get the job done.  We were told in one of the TPPF Summit sessions that Speaker Burrows co-authored the bill last session and is supportive.  The bill has passed in the Senate every time it's filed, but stalls in the House.

IN THE HOUSE

The House spent another busy week passing honorary and memorial resolutions, and referring a long list of honorary and memorial resolutions to the Resolutions committee.

The big news from the House this week is that the House Administration Committee met and voted to increase legislative office budgets AND provide $5000 per month to the newly mandated Democrat Vice-Chairs.  All of this was done by the Committee WITHOUT a vote of the full House!  Why?  Because Speaker Burrows decided that these Housekeeping items do not need to be voted on by the full House. 

You may remember that HR3, the Housekeeping Resolution that is generally voted on by the whole body in the first week of session, was just never brought up.  Now the Administration Committee has acted unilaterally on HR3, without the consent of the members.  Once again, Speaker Burrows makes it clear that what he wants and deems important over rides the opinions of the other 149 members of the House.  He is effectively silencing the voices of the people in 149 House districts.  Read all about it in the Texas Scorecard article.

And of course, the House again voted to take a 4 day recess.  They will re-convene on Tuesday 2/25 at 2:00 pm

NEXT WEEK:

Next week for the first time, sees House Committees meeting and conducting business.  Most of the hearings are for appropriations, but the Education Committee will meet on Tuesday to hear invited testimony only on the state of public education.  Invited testimony will be from TEA, Texas Workforce Commission, and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (whatever that is!)  Might be interesting if you want to tune in, but we suggest you have your boots and shovel ready cause the "you-know-what" is likely to get pretty deep.

The Senate State Affairs Committee will meet Monday to hear testimony on a number of bills, including SB28 (Hall) which would put an end to the illegal practice of lottery tickets being sold on the internet or telephone.  The whole gambling issue is heating up and we have a pretty big fight on our hands to keep legal gambling out of Texas.  It starts with this bill to reign in the Lottery Commission.

Schedule for TTP Tuesday 2/25/25:

Meet up in the East Wing at 10:30 - Look for the TTP Flag!

We will continue to distribute position papers on SB118 and SB754 to the House members that we missed last week.  We will also write cards to the Senate State Affairs Committee in support of SB19.

What YOU can do if you can’t go to the Capitol

1)  Contact YOUR House Representative and ask him/her to co-sponsor Senator Middleton's SB19, to ban taxpayer funded lobbying, in the House.

2)  Contact members of the Senate State Affairs Committee giving support for SB28, Senator Hall's bill to stop lottery ticket sales on internet or phone.

Click here for names of Committee members, then go to the "Members" link on the Senate page to find their contact information.

3)  Senator Campbell’s office has asked for our help with SB762, a bill regarding restrictions on what kind of flags can be displayed in public schools.  We think it’s a good bill and worth supporting.  So far it has no co-authors in the Senate, but has been referred to the Education K-16 Committee.  Representative Slawson has also filed a similar bill in the House, HB2456.  It is not identical to SB762, but similar.  HB2456 has still not been assigned to a Committee.  Here’s what you can do meantime.

• A)  If you live in Senator Campbell’s district or Representative Slawson’s district:
  • • • Contact their staff and let them know you support the bills
      • Ask them to work together to combine their bills into one, which makes the bill stronger, and more likely to pass both Houses.
• B)  If you do not live in Campbell's or Slawson's districts, contact YOUR House Rep and Senator and ask them to co-author the bills.

4)  Pray!  I had the joy of hearing Bunni Pounds (Christians Engaged) this week at the Williamson County meeting.  Her message and personal stories of prayer, and obedience to God really touched me.  We need to pray more for these people that are leading our State and our Country.  Even when we don't like them or like what they do, we should still be praying for them! Prayer and obedience to God's word can turn hearts and minds!  We also appreciate your prayers for our activists who are traveling back and forth to Austin every week.

Thank you for staying diligent and involved in your government wherever and however that may be.  Our efforts to educate and motivate are paying off!  We keep seeing more and more citizens involved and doing stuff.  I like that!

Stay engaged!

Fran Rhodes, President.

[email protected]

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!

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 Buses from Frisco/Waxahachie; Kerrville/Fredericksburg; Corpus Christi/San Antonio

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

Tuesday Apr 15 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol

Tuesday Apr 22 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol

Tuesday Apr 29 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol

Bus Registrations can be found on the TTP Website

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