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Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Brandon Waltens

Monday, March 15, 2021

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We are now beyond the 60 day mark in the Texas Legislature’s 140-day session, meaning we are past the bill filing deadline and all legislation can now be voted on by each chamber. In other words, this should be the time when the session—which has thus far been relatively slower than years past—starts to really get moving.

Some big legislation was filed right before the deadline on Friday. Erin Anderson [[link removed]] reports on the highly anticipated omnibus election integrity bills, House Bill 6 [[link removed]] and Senate Bill 7 [[link removed]], which feature long lists of election procedures and ballot security measures identified by advocates as needed reforms to improve voting reliability and voter confidence—including a curb on mail-ballot vote harvesters.

Interest in securing the vote intensified during 2020, as election officials across the country used fears about the Chinese coronavirus as an excuse to loosen voting rules, and controversies surrounding November’s election results heightened Texans’ concerns about voting accuracy and ballot security.

At the same time, Democrats have continued to push for even more lax voting processes, both in the Texas Legislature and through a federal takeover of state elections [[link removed]].

More than 400 election-related bills have been filed this session, by both Democrats and Republicans; another 6,400 House and Senate bills have been introduced on other issues.

Meanwhile, State Sen. Paul Bettencourt [[link removed]] (R–Houston), chair of the Local Government Committee, along with nine joint authors filed Senate Bill 10 [[link removed]] to stop Texas cities’ and counties’ use of public funds to lobby the state Legislature.

Iris Poole reports that banning taxpayer-funded lobbying is one of the Republican Party’s legislative priorities for this session. The priority is supported [[link removed]] by the majority of Texans and has been an issue in previous sessions as local governments have used taxpayer dollars to pay lobbyists to advocate against pro-taxpayer initiatives, such as property tax reform.

Previous legislation had already been filed by State Sen. Bob Hall [[link removed]] (R–Edgewood) to end the practice.

If a local government is found to be in violation of SB 10, taxpayers may seek injunctive relief to prevent further lobbying activity and are entitled to recover reasonable attorney’s fees and other costs incurred in pursuing the action against the wrongfully acting local government.

Last session, legislation to end taxpayer-funded lobbying successfully passed the Senate before being voted down in the House. The fate of these Republican Party priorities, and others, will be determined in the coming weeks. For bills that have been referred to committees, we can start to figure out who will be responsible for whether they make it through the first big step in the overall legislative process based on who the chairman of those respective committees are and the partisan/ideological makeup of their membership.

Jeramy Kitchen [[link removed]] has put together a breakdown of each committee in which the priority bills have been referred, analyzing the potential prospects for GOP priorities moving forward. 🔒 Donate to Texas Scorecard 🔒 [[link removed]] Number of the Day

7,467

The number of bills filed in the Texas House and Senate.

[Source: Texas Legislature Online [[link removed]]]

Today in History

On March 15, 44 B.C., Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius.

Quote-Unquote

“The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.”

– Frederick Douglass​

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PO Box 248, Leander, TX 78646 Produced by Michael Quinn Sullivan and Brandon Waltens, the Texas Minute is a quick look at the news and info of the day we find interesting, and hope you do as well. It is delivered weekday mornings (though we'll take the occasional break for holidays and whatnot).

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