Good morning – 

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Wednesday, January 13, 2021
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Upfront: Mea culpa! I made yesterday’s One Click Survey a confusing mess. So, I’ll try it again in a more reader-friendly version.

• In a last-minute action, the Department of Public Safety decided to require all visitors to the Texas Capitol to submit to coronavirus testing before entering. Reportedly the decision was driven by the State Preservation Board, which is headed by Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
      

• Brandon Waltens reports the move is contrary to initial guidance given by the State Preservation Board just last week, which stipulated that tests were encouraged but not mandatory.
       

• So what is the consequence for saying “no”? Deny you the right to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances”? Will they arrest you? Put you on a no-fly list?
      

• Without addressing the testing requirement, Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion stating that the Legislature has no authority to close the Capitol – regardless of the governor’s pandemic emergency declarations. As Jacob Asmussen reports, Mr. Paxton also indicated lawmakers may not vote remotely as some have proposed.
         

• “The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits laws that abridge the freedom of speech or the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” – Attorney General Ken Paxton

• There was no surprise in the election of the new House speaker. Brandon Waltens reports State Rep. Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) was elevated to the post by a vote of 143 to 2, including all of the Democrats. (Phelan had previously pledged to continue the practice of appointing Democrats to chair committees in the GOP-dominated chamber.) 
   
• The two “nay” votes came from freshmen Republicans Bryan Slaton (R-Royse City) and Jeff Cason (R-Bedford).
     
• Phelan replaces the disgraced former State Rep. Dennis Bonnen (R-Lake Jackson) who was forced to retire due to his ethical lapses in 2019.
   
• Addressing House members shortly after the vote, Gov. Greg Abbott said he expected lawmakers to “get Texans to work.”
      
• The governor failed to mention that it was his own ongoing coronavirus orders shutting down the economy – and enabling local officials to do likewise – which put millions out of work in the first place.

• Don’t know who your legislators are? Check out the new Texas Directory! Find your legislators, check their ratings with civic groups, and see what has been reported about them.

• In one of his first public outings since Congress certified the election last week, President Trump was in South Texas yesterday extolling his administration’s successes in border security, immigration, and foreign policy. Joshua Hendrickson has the story.

• With legislators facing a billion-dollar budget shortfall, policy analyst Bill Peacock explains that this is the perfect time for Texas to actually cut spending and the size of Texas government. But will they? Not unless lawmakers are hearing from taxpayers, concludes Peacock.

• Texans suffer some of the heaviest property tax burdens in the nation despite two decades of promises from state politicians to bring reforms and relief. Robert Montoya reviews the prospects for curbing the property tax problem in this new legislative session.

• A commission created by the Texas Legislature in 2019 has narrowly recommended ending partisan judicial elections. Iris Poole reports the Texas Commission on Judicial Selection voted 8-7 on the issue, and there was even less consensus on what should replace the current system.
      

• The Texas Constitution provides the method for judicial selection, and any change to the current method must be made through a constitutional amendment. In order to amend the Constitution, an amendment must be approved by two-thirds of the members of each house of the Legislature.

• In a new commentary, Gregory Watson explains efforts by those “on the political left to jury-rig the long-expired 1972 proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) into the United States Constitution by highly questionable means.”
     

• Watson is an internationally-recognized authority on the process by which the Federal Constitution is amended. The native Texan spent a decade working to ensure the 27th Amendment’s incorporation into the U.S. Constitution.

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