Dear Friends,

Here’s another opportunity to engage in the Special Session:  The Senate Redistricting Committee is holding hearings this week, to hear testimony on SB 4, redistricting plan C2308 – the same map that was presented and passed in the House Committee (HB4).

Both invited and public testimony will be taken, but public testimony is only on Thursday, Aug 7, starting at 9:00 am in E1.012.  Click here to see the Hearing details.   THAT’S TOMORROW!

The REALLY BIG NEWS is that the Senate seems to have entered the technology age, along with their House colleagues, and is now allowing written comments to be submitted on-line using the form provided.

This is HUGE (in my opinion).  The House has been doing this since 2021 post covid, but this is the first time I’ve seen it available for Senate Committees.  PLEASE – use this on-line comment form to register support for Plan C redistricting, or support redistricting in general.   You can even attach documents if you have them to support your testimony.

I can’t get myself to Austin tomorrow, and most of you probably can’t either.  But we CAN do an on-line comment.  It can be as simple as “I support Plan C Redistricting for Congressional Districts”.  Or as lengthy and commentary as you wish.  So please take 2 minutes to do one.  The time window is from right now until the hearing ends tomorrow, which may be late if large numbers of people show up to testify like they did for the House bill.  But don’t delay!  Take a minute right now to do it.  I was very proud of the number of you who responded to my alert about the House bill.  Y’all are awesome, so keep it up!

Democrats abandon Texas

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past few days, you’re aware that the House Democrats have broken quorum and left the state.  There’s lots of drama and threats are being made on both sides, but only time will tell how this will actually play out.  Meanwhile, the work in the Senate continues, and we focus there until the MIA Democrats are accounted for one way or another.

While things are stalled a bit in the House, now is a good opportunity to let our own legislators AND leadership know our positions on certain issues.  I was told recently by a House member that Gov Abbott is actually listening to the grassroots these days and is interested in appeasing us.  (probably because he’s up for re-election in 26).  At any rate – if it’s true, we should take advantage.  We can also pressure Speaker Burrows on taking action, as well as Committee Chairmen in some cases.  Here are a few examples (contact information provided below):

·         SB5/HB5 The THC Ban:  SB5 has passed in the Senate.  HB5, an identical bill by Rep. Gary VanDeaver, has been referred to the House Public Health Committee, which happens to be chaired by Gary VanDeaver, himself.  Since it’s one of only 7 bills that have been referred to committee by Burrows, and since it’s VanDeaver’s bill, and he chairs the committee, and since it's the same number (5) as the Senate bill, it’s pretty likely that HB5 has a high priority with leadership and will be fast tracked.  Whatever your position on this issue (I know there are many of you on both sides!), now is a good time to let it be known with leadership.  Contact VanDeaver, Burrows, the Governor, and your own House representative.

·         SB12 is the Senate version of Ban Taxpayer Lobbying.  It passed the Senate easily on 8/1.  It was received in the House on 8/4, but has not been assigned to a committee yet.  There are six House bills on the same issue – 4 similar to SB12, and 2 identical.  We can contact Burrows and Abbott to let them know how important this issue is and that it must pass this time.  In regular session, it died in Committee because Ken King would not give it a hearing.  So, we can pressure King, since it will likely go to his committee again.  Contact Burrows, the Governor, King and your own House repesentataive.

·         HB66 is Steve Toth’s bill to stop distribution of abortion inducing drugs, creating a criminal offense and private civil right of action.  It was filed on 7/4 but has not been referred to committee.  We can let the speaker and the governor know our position on this issue, and pressure them to hold a hearing. The Governor put protections for the unborn on the special session call, so it’s apparently important to him.  Contact Burrows, the Governor, and your own House representative.

·         SB11  is the Senate version of restoring the AG’s duty to prosecute offenses of criminal election law, which passed the Senate on 8/1 and was received in the House on 8/4.  HB11  is a similar (but not identical) bill filed in the House by Matt Shaheen. There is also a similar bill, HB85 by Terry Leo-Wilson.  Since the Shaheen bill has a lower number, and it’s the same number as the Senate bill, we can assume that it’s being given priority.  HB11 has been assigned to State Affairs committee, chaired by Ken King.  A hearing has not been scheduled, and we should be requesting one for HB11, and/or request Burrows to assign SB11 to a committee.  Contact Burrows, the Governor, Ken King, and your own House representative.

Contacts:

Governor Abbott

Phone:  800-843-5789, leave a message

Email:  Use this on-line form

Postal:  Office of the Governor, PO Box 12428, Austin, TX 78711-2428

Speaker Burrows

Phone Capitol:  512-463-0542

Phone District:  806-795-0635

Email:  [email protected]

Postal Capitol:  PO Box 12910, Austin, TX 78711-2910

Postal District: 10507 Quaker Av, Ste 103, Lubbock, TX 79424

Chairman Van Deaver (be sure to say you are contacting him as Chair of the Public Health Committee, especially if you are not a constituent)

Phone Capitol:  512-463-0692

Phone District:  903-628-0361

Email:  [email protected]

Postal Capitol:  PO Box 12910, Austin, TX 78711-2910

Postal District:  710 James Bowie Dr, New Boston, TX 75570

Chairman King (be sure to say you are contacting him as Chair of the State Affairs Committee, especially if you are not a constituent)

Phone Capitol:  512-463-0736

Phone District:  806-323-8870

Email:  [email protected]

Postal Capitol:  PO Box 12910, Austin, TX 78711-2910

Postal District:  PO Box 507, Canadian, TX 79014

Remember that hand written (in the mail) communication is very effective.  Also, you might get better response (maybe an actual person on the phone) at the District offices.  Sending out the bat signal couldn’t hurt either.  Whatever it takes!

Two of our activists joined me on Monday in going to the Capitol to testify on SB7, the Women's Privacy Act.  They were both first time testifiers and they both were just awesome!  I hope more of you will join in to provide testimony at hearings whenever possible.  Meanwhile, use the on-line option to comment and make your voices heard! 

Thanks everyone for staying engaged!

Fran Rhodes, President