Good morning!

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, March 26, 2021
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On today’s edition of The Headline, Brandon Waltens will walk through yesterday’s big day of legislative hearings that stretched into this morning. He’ll be live at 11 a.m., with the podcast and video archive available after the program ends.

• A partisan power struggle, plus a procedural error, shut down a public hearing in the Texas House yesterday on top-tier election reform legislation almost as soon as it began.
       
• As Erin Anderson reports, both Republicans and Democrats expected heated debate on House Bill 6, the Election Integrity Protection Act of 2021, during Thursday’s House Elections Committee hearing, and activists on both sides were eager to testify on the measure. They were soon disappointed.
      
• When it came time to introduce the legislation, Chairman Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park) temporarily turned over the gavel to the committee’s vice chair, Dallas Democrat Jessica González, because he is the measure’s author. A verbal tussle ensued when González tried to let a fellow House Democrat not on the committee ask Cain questions – something the Republican opposed.
      
• Cain reclaimed the chair and adjourned the meeting for a lunch break, but without setting a time to reconvene. A short while later he appeared back in the committee room to announce that because he failed to say what time the committee would reconvene, House rules dictated that the hearing was considered adjourned for the day.
     
• Cain apologized for his error and said the bill, which now has 41 co-authors, will be heard again “soon” by the committee so the public will have a chance to weigh in on the proposal.
       
• Election integrity is a Texas GOP legislative priority, and the only one also declared an emergency item by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

• Unfortunately, Texas GOP lawmakers will probably figure out they need to stop letting their “Republican” House Speakers give power to Democrats about 15 minutes after Democrats take over the Texas House.

• Gun rights activists showed up en masse to the Texas Capitol on Thursday to testify in favor of constitutional carry, a perennial priority for Texas Republicans. Iris Poole and Joshua Pierce were on hand for the Texas House Homeland Security Committee hearing that were still going at 5 a.m.
      
• The Republican Party of Texas and gun owners across Texas have been advocating constitutional carry for more than a decade. Nationally, 32 other states have some form of permitless carry – including left leaning blue states such as Maine and Vermont.
     
• Wes Virdell, who drove two hours from Brady to testify, told Texas Scorecard: “We shouldn’t have to ask for permission to carry a firearm. If we’re legally allowed to carry it, it’s not the government’s right to delegate if we can or not because that’s a privilege at that point instead of a right.”
      

• Four bills were considered by the committee: HB 1238 by Kyle Biedermann (R–Fredericksburg), HB 1911 by James White (R–Hillister), HB 1927 by Matt Schaefer (R–Tyler), and HB 2900 by Cole Hefner (R–Mt. Pleasant).
   

• This was the first time since 2015 that there has been a constitutional carry bill filed in both the House and Senate and only the second time in Texas history it has been given a committee hearing.

• Legislation banning taxpayer-funded lobbying was heard in the House State Affairs Committee early this morning. Jeramy Kitchen has details from the hearing, which was also still going at 5 a.m., after 20-plus hours. 
     
• Predictably, government entities that use the taxpayers’ dollars to lobby against the taxpayers interests – and the entities that receive those dollars – showed up to oppose the pro-taxpayer ban.
      
• The author of the ban, Mayes Middleton (R–Wallisville): “Taxpayers are tired of being forced to hire Austin lobbyists that then work against the taxpayers. So many taxpayers took an unpaid day off work to support this bill and make their voice heard that they want it passed into law.”
      
• “It’s an unfair and unethical practice.” – Corsicana City Councilman Chris Woolsey

• Legislation by State Rep. Steve Toth (R–The Woodlands), would ban medical professionals from performing gender disfigurement operations. This includes a variety of harmful and potentially permanently damaging procedures on children. Jacob Asmussen has the details.

• Parents across Texas have found school districts working against them when it comes to policies affecting a child’s education – and even parental access to the classroom. Tera Collum reports on the troubling, over-the-top responses in public education to the coronavirus – and offers examples of parents who are fighting back.

• A pro-life display put up by a conservative student organization was vandalized at the University of Texas this week. Ariana Silva reports that the “Memorial for the Innocent” – including pink flags representing the approximately 800,000 aborted each year in the United States – were removed and a poster explaining the display was defaced.
       
• The “Memorial for the Innocent” signage was covered with foul language and leftist slogans including, “My body, my choice,” and “#BLM.”

• Yesterday’s One Click Survey asked about plans by the Democrat-run City of Austin to create a facility at which services would be restricted based on skin color. “Should Democrats be allowed to re-segregate local government facilities and services based on skin color?”
     
• A resounding “no” came in at 99 percent.

Friday Reflection

A self-governing people must be eternally vigilant. The first three words of our Constitution make it clear who is supposed to be in charge: “We the people.” Without the citizens taking an active and engaged role in civic life, the notion of self-governance collapses.

The Israelites had grown tired of having God as their king and being responsible for living under His law. So after demanding a king like everyone else around them had, the Israelites quickly found the rule of man didn’t work out so well either.  The people of Israel saw their self-governing nation change for the worse – just as they had been warned. 

After a period of foreign captivity and exile, God called His people back to Israel and a man named Nehemiah was tasked with rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. 

There were any number of enemies who wanted to thwart the return of the Jews, and so in Nehemiah 4:9, we’re told that the people “prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.” Everyone prayed, everyone worked, everyone guarded the work. Everyone was responsible.

Too many of us today have forgotten that simple lesson. 

If this nation conceived in liberty will long endure, it will only be because we – the people – are wholly committed to being self-governing leaders actively engaged in the hard, exhausting work of practical governance, of praying for each other and countrymen, and of being actively prepared to defend our land. It is our duty, not someone else’s. 

We err when we allow ourselves to believe we can delegate the preservation of our republic, or even the safety of our family and friends, to someone else. 

Rather, we must joyfully embrace the awesome responsibility of self-governance, so that we and our children can enjoy the fruits of Liberty. So let’s pray, stay at guard, and get to work!