Week 9: 89th Texas Legislature

THIS WEEK:

Tuesday was Gun Owners Lobby Day.  And it was pure GOLD!  Four bus loads of 2A patriots and dozens more joined us at the Capitol to lobby for and promote second amendment freedoms.  The day was sponsored by Texans for Gun Rights, Gun Owners of America, National Association of Gun Rights, Patriot Mobile, and True Texas Project.

We heard from lots of speakers including legislators, on the importance of gun rights, and then we delivered position papers to all 108 Republican House Members and Senators on three bills:  

• Ban Red Flag Laws, HB162 (referred to State Affairs) and SB1362 (public hearing held Monday in Senate State Affairs, left pending)
• Kyles Law (civil liability from justified use of force), HB170 (Referred to Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence)
• Eliminate Gun Free Zones, SB1065 (Referred to State Affairs)

We can help promote these bills by contacting our own Senators and Representatives, but also contacting the committee members about moving the bills through the process.  See Action items below for specifics.

IN THE SENATE:

I had the pleasure of testifying for 5 "good" bills in the Senate State Affairs on Monday.  The bills included no changing sex on birth certificates, tightening of restrictions on school boards electioneering, the "Cannon Bill" (my favorite), regarding run-off elections, and the ban on red flag laws.  It felt good to be able to support so many bills at one time, because frankly, I've been saying NO a lot lately.

SB19, the ban on taxpayer funded lobbying has been on the Senate calendar for several days but they don't seem to get to it.  Maybe next week.  We should now turn our focus to the House version, HB3257 (Olcott) which has not yet been referred to committee.  (not referring to committee is one of the ways the Speaker can kill a bill!)  It was filed on 2/24/25.  Next week will be a full month with no action.

IN THE HOUSE 

HB3, the House ESA bill had a public hearing on Tuesday, March 11.  Nearly 800 people signed up to testify and the hearing went into the early hours of Wednesday morning.  In total, with the on-line comments there were 12,551 comments.  You can read them here if you're interested.  The bill was left pending in committee.

House committees are going fast and furiously on all fronts, but the House still has not had a calendar that includes anything but congratulatory and memorial resolutions.

REMEMBER – for House bills in public hearings, we can register support or opposition and make comments with an on-line form.  The link for the form is at the bottom of every public hearing notice.

NEXT WEEK:

There's only one committee hearing on Tuesday, and the bills are not priorities.  But if you want to attend, you can see the committee notice here.

We will still do our regular TTP Tuesday meet up.  Please meet me in the East Corridor on one of the benches (look for the TTP Flag) at 10:00 am.  I will have things for us to do, but the specifics will depend on what happens between now and then.  One thing for sure we can do is try to get committees to move our legislation.

March 19 – Learn more about the challenges we face regarding electric grid security at the Secure the Texas Grid Symposium, 10am to 3pm at the Texas Public Policy Foundation building, 900 Congress Ave,Continue to  Austin.  RSVP to SREC Committeewoman, Christiana Keeler, [email protected]

What YOU can do from home:

1)  Contact your own Representative to request support for HB3257.  Also contact Speaker Burrows office and ask them to assign the bill to a committee. If  you live in Jared Patterson's district, you might want to know, he's filed a duplicate bill, HB4860.  I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.  He might be trying to upstage Olcott, or there might be something more nefarious involved. Or maybe he's just really enthused about moving RPT priority legislation!  (that's what we call optimism)   We'll have to see where it goes.

2)  Continue to lobby your Senator and Representative about the gun rights bills mentioned above.  You could also contact chairman and members of the Committees asking them to schedule the bills for public hearing.

House State Affairs

Senate State Affairs

House Judiciary and Criminal Jurisprudence

3)  Pray! (always)

We are nearly to the half way point of this session.  It bothers me a little how few RPT priorities are being advanced.  Next week I'll comment more about that and take a closer look at each category.  Meanwhile, keep on keeping on, and we'll keep storming the castle together.

Stay engaged!

Fran Rhodes, President.

[email protected]

GET REGISTERED!

Special True Texan Days: 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 Mar 18 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol 

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

Tuesday May 6 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol - Including Bus from Cypres/Brenham

Bus Registrations can be found on the TTP Website

We do our best to offer citizens opportunities to be engaged in our State Government in Austin.  Can you help cover some of the costs?  Your donation of $25, $50, or $75 will help us to continue these opportunities.