Good Morning True Texans!

Special Session 1 of the 89^th Legislature is underway.  The House and Senate both gaveled in on Monday at noon, then adjourned until Thursday 7/24.  You should not be alarmed or concerned about the 2-day adjournment.  Before either chamber can take action on bills, committees have to meet, hearings need to be held, and bills have to be moved through the process.  It doesn’t mean the Representatives and Senators are not working.  

As we’ve said before, special sessions move very fast, and things are already happening that you need to be aware of, thus this “Friday” message on Wednesday.  Several things going on this week that I thought you should be aware of.

CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING

Redistricting is one of the hot topics for the special session.  In addition to the required redistricting every 10 years when the census is done, states and counties are allowed to redistrict any time.  Galveston county did this several years ago, and the Biden Administration sued them. The long court battle resulted in a ruling that determined that “coalition” districts are unconstitutional.  These coalition districts have been used for decades to ensure Democrats win certain districts.  The redistricting effort targets 5 Texas districts where coalitions were used to elect Democrats, with the hope of flipping those districts to Republican in 2026.

Both the House and Senate have appointed special Redistricting Committees to address the mid-census redistricting proposal.  In the House, Speaker Burrows kept most of the members of the standing Redistricting Committee, chaired by Rep. Cody Vasut.  But Rep Tom Oliverson was removed (don't know why), and Rep Jolanda Jones was removed, probably because she's running in one of the contested districts.  He also added Democrat Caucus Chair Gene Wu - very suspicious!  Rep Wu's appointment came just moments after he held a press conference threatening to break quorum to prevent any redistricting from happening.  Apparently the idea that Democrats control the Republican House in Texas is once again validated. The whole committee is loaded with some of the most liberal leaning Republicans in the chamber.  It will be interesting to see if any meaningful changes come out of this committee.  Not holding my breath.

The Senate did not have a standing committee on redistricting, but the special committee this session includes 6 Republicans and 3 Democrats, and is chaired by Sen. Phil King (R) and Vice Chaired by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R)

The House Congressional Redistricting Committee has set hearings for tomorrow, Saturday and Monday in different parts of the state to consider the redistricting proposal.  The committee will receive specific public testimony on counties in 14 congressional districts, but will hear testimony regarding county in Texas. 

The Senate Congressional Redistricting Committee has set 4 hearings, each with a regional focus, for July 25, 26, 28, and 29.  The Senate hearings are all done via teleconference.   Witnesses must sign up in advance and sign ups close the day before the hearing.  Information on how to sign up and then sign into the zoom meeting is contained in the Committee Notices, linked below.

If you wish to testify on re-districting, see the committee notices linked below for hearing details.  If it’s a House hearing, remember you can provide comments with an on-line form which is included in each committee notice.  The Senate hearings for redistricting are all done on zoom, so you can testify from home on those hearings as well.

House Hearing in Austin on July 24, click here.

House Hearing in Houston on July 26, click here.

House Hearing in Arlington on July 28, click here.

Senate Hearing on July 25, click here (focus is South Central Texas).

Senate Hearing on July 26, click here (focus on North Texas).

Senate Hearing on July 28, click here (focus on East Texas)

Senate Hearing on July 29, click here. (focus on West Texas & Panhandle)

You can also watch all of the committee hearings live streamed, or archived afterwards at the Texas Legislature On-Line website.   Under “Legislative Activity” select House or Senate, and then select live or archive, and find the committee and date.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

Both chambers held hearings on disaster preparedness this week, without addressing any specific legislation.  The testimony was invited only.  I assume that as bills move through the system, hearings will be held with public input.  These early hearings are mostly for the purpose of assessing the situation.  About 11 bills have been filed so far regarding flooding.

SPECIFIC BILLS HEARD IN COMMITTEE

The Senate State Affairs Committee met Tuesday to hear testimony on SB5 (Ban on THC), SB11 (AG’s authority to prosecute election crimes), and SB12 (ban taxpayer funded lobbying).  The Committee took public testimony on each bill, and moved all three of them favorably out of Committee.  The next step will be 2^nd and 3^rd reading on the Senate floor.

NOTE:  the AG authority to prosecute and banning taxpayer funded lobbying are top priorities for TTP in this special session.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Well, the answer is I don’t know, and your guess is as good as mine.  The only committee hearings currently on the schedule are the ones I have mentioned here.  Of course, that can (and will) change any moment.  Because of the time constraints, committee notice times are often shortened (as happened with the State Affairs Committee yesterday), especially if the bills being considered passed during regular session and received adequate testimony input at that time.

If other important things come up in the next few days, I likely will not send another email.  I don’t want to overburden the entire group with too many emails.  But I will post on Facebook and X whenever I see something I think people should take action on.  Keep an eye on the social media for action alerts.

Please take whatever action you can for these committee hearings, either in person or on line.  And feel free to reach out if you have questions.  The next few weeks are going to be interesting!

NOTE:  our August TTP@Home podcast, which airs on Friday Aug 1 is an interview with Dr. Robin Armstrong and Debbie Georgatos, our RNC Committee representatives from Texas.  Part of the discussion was on the Congressional redistricting topic, so I would urge you to listen in for some great information and insights on the mid-census redistricting issue.  Many people don’t understand the reasons or process, and Dr. Armstrong and Ms. Georgatos provided some interesting comments.

Also remember a continuous action item is prayer.  Pray for our elected representatives, our TTP team members and all of our citizen advocate warriors.

Stay Engaged!

Fran Rhodes, President