Week 16: 89th Texas Legislature House State Affairs Committee – Where good bills go to die. With only 4 weeks left in the session, the House State Affairs Committee has a huge backlog of bills, (536 to be exact), including many important high priority bills. One of them is SB19, and also stuck are it’s 2 identical House Companion bills 4860 and 3257. These are the bills that will ban taxpayer funded lobbying, which is my personal high priority issue for this session and is one of the RPT’s priorities too. Ending taxpayer funded lobbying has been a legislative priority for True Texas Project for 8 years (5 sessions)! TTP was on board when the first bill was filed in 2017 by Senator Konni Burton. That bill never got out of committee. Since then, a similar bill has been filed every session to eliminate this heinous practice. It passes in the Senate but stalls in the House. Update this session – once again, the ban taxpayer funded lobbying bill is stuck in the House State Affairs Committee. Our Capitol teams delivered position papers to all members of the Committee on Tuesday, begging them to schedule a hearing, but we were told Chairman Ken King is not inclined to schedule one. On Wednesday, Rep. Brent Money tried to make a motion on the House floor to get the bill re-assigned to another committee, but Speaker Burrows shut down every effort. This begs the question – WHY? The issue is hugely popular with grassroots activists. The Governor and Lt Governor support it. It is a priority issue for the Republican Party in 89th session, and was also a priority in the 87th session. And, strangely enough, both Chairman King and Speaker Burrows supported it last year when they signed on to the “Texas Conservative Commitment” which lists among it’s priorities, Ban Taxpayer Funded Lobbying. So why is this bill being held up? It was passed in the Senate on March 19, and referred to House State Affairs Committee on March 25. Today is May 2nd. It’s been sitting in State Affairs for one month and 7 days! May 23 is the last day for House Committees to report Senate bills. So, the clock is ticking. My only guess about it being stalled and potentially killed is that the Democrats don’t want it, and perhaps this is one of the deals Speaker Burrows made with Democrats to win the speaker-ship. My primary action item for everyone this week is flood Chairman King’s office with calls, emails, and letters. Tell him that we, the people, demand that he schedule a hearing for SB19 without delay. Tell him that you support banning taxpayer funded lobbying and it’s waited long enough. The time is now! (instructions and contact information is below in the action items section) THIS WEEK AT THE CAPITOL On Tuesday we had a small, but productive team of activists who were busy delivering position papers on 3 issues – the ban taxpayer funded lobbying mentioned above, plus closed primaries, and a medical freedom bill. They also wrote green cards for calendars committee urging them to move about a dozen bills that are stuck there. Closed primaries is another important bill stuck in State Affairs. Some of our priority legislation did move through the House this week - Welcome news!.
- SB412 (and HB267) which would close the obscenity loophole for educators, passed the House. They passed the Senate bill and laid the House bill on the table in lieu of the Senate companion. It should now go to the Governor. This is a good thing. It's one of the RPT priorities and a TTP priority to protect kids.
- SB325 - E Verify bill in the Senate passed to engrossment and has been received in the House. (I'm sure it will be assigned to State Affairs where nothing will happen)
- HB3441 - Rep Luther's bill to require vaccine manufacturers to take responsibility for vaccine injuries was reported favorably out of committee.
- SB28880 - Banning abortion pill passed the Senate and is received in the House.
- HB1056 - Transactional Gold bill passed the House, but only after an amendment from Charlie Geren pretty much gutted the bill. I'm told it will get fixed in the Senate. One can hope.
- SB17 - The Texas Land is not for sale bill, passed Senate and has passed favorably out of the House committee and sent to Calendars. (another priority bill for the RPT and TTP).
- Five of the 2nd Amendment bills we've been working on for weeks, finally cleared the Homeland Security Committee.
ON ANOTHER NOTE: HB23 - the one everyone is afraid of, passed the House, but Jeff Leach filed an amendment which was adopted, and which, according to Leach, makes it all better. It now goes to the Senate. NEXT WEEK AT THE CAPITOL Next week, May 6th, is our final bus trip and Gun Owners Lobby Day. TXGR’s Chris McNutt is planning for us to deliver petitions to all 150 members of the House. Our agenda that day will be their agenda, so even if you’re not riding the bus, come join us to do some good work. We will meet up in the Seal Court at 10:00 am (or when the bus arrives), to receive paperwork and assignments. The bus has departures in Cypress and Brenham – if you live in those areas, it’s not too late to register, there are still seats available. Register for the bus here. Bus registration includes lunch and a GOA T shirt, sponsored by TTP, TXGR, GOA Texas, and Patriot Mobile. ACTION ITEMS: Everyone can do this! 1) Contact Rep. Ken King, chair of the House State Affairs Committee about SB19. Make sure to say you are calling regarding the Committee (otherwise they will ask what county you live in and won’t pay attention if you don’t live in their district). We all have a vested interest in talking to committee members about bills before their committee.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 512-463-0736
- Snail Mail: PO Box 2910, Austin, T 78768
Sample Message (use your own words): Banning taxpayer funded lobbying is a top priority for grassroots activists throughout Texas, we demand that the State Affairs Committee hold a hearing on SB19 in the very near future, before it's too late for the House to hear Senate bills. 2) Contact the Committee Clerk of the State Affairs Committee with same message as the one for Chairman King Committee Clerk, Megan Quijano
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 512-463-0814
- Snail Mail: PO Box 2910, Austin, TX 78768
3) Contact your own Senator and ask them to oppose HB366 when it comes to the Senate. This is the ridiculous meme bill that Dade Phelan pushed and it passed the House this week. It now goes to the Senate where we have a chance to stop it. 4) TODAY: Contact your own House Representative - ask them to vote NO on HB3426 - proposing a digital Drivers License option. How long til it becomes mandatory? 5) Contact Members of the State Affairs Committee about other Bills stuck in committee while time is running out: · SB2646 – Closed Primaries – No Hearing yet. · HB2258 – Protect kids from unauthorized gender transitioning at school – No Hearing yet. · HB1378 – Regulation of electric storage facilities (batteries) – Testimony taken in Hearing on 4/30, but left pending in committee. Ask them to report favorably out of committee · HB239 – Keep biological men out of women’s private spaces – No Hearing yet. (this bill has 80 co-authors! That’s 4 more than needed to pass the bill) · HB1308 – E Verify – No Hearing Yet (It was actually scheduled for a hearing but then pulled) Rep Andy Hopper tried to get Burrows to reassign it to another committee, but no go. HOUSE STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Snail Mail: PO Box 2910, Austin, TX 78768 (Post cards are very effective) 6) Prayer! We need it now more than ever. Only a few weeks left in this session, Patriots! There's still a chance to pull out some victories for the priority legislation! So stay diligent. Be safe and stay engaged! Fran Rhodes, President. [email protected] SAVE THE DATES! Tuesday May 6 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol - Final Bus Trip departing from Cypress and Brenham Bus Registrations can be found on the TTP Website Tuesday May 13 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol Tuesday May 20 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol Tuesday May 27 - TTP Tuesdays at the Capitol Our weekly visits to the Capitol focus on legislation, but the primary work is training up people to continuously be engaged in government. Every week, we have new people who have never done it before and are happy to learn. We are training up an army of grassroots activists, but we need your help to do it. Can you chip in?
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