Legislative Priorities Report for 5.7.21

It’s come down to this. We have spent our time and treasure to coerce, cajole, and corral our Texas Republican leadership to pass our eight Republican Party of Texas Legislative Priorities, and out of 75 bills currently on their way to the Governor’s desk, none of them are our priority bills. We thought we were getting close on Constitutional Carry, but that bill seems to have been sabotaged.

The House did pass the Heartbeat Bill, which we hope will save babies, but it is an imperfect bill for the Abolition of Abortion and has not yet passed the Senate, which has decided to take a vacation until Monday at 4:30pm.

Election Integrity is being debated on the floor of the House today, but the Democrats appear to be running the show, and the bills and amendments passing are weak.

Meanwhile, Speaker Phelan has yet to bid that the chair of Calendars, Rep. Dustin Burrows, put HB 1399 -- our bill for banning pediatric sex change -- on the floor calendar for a vote. How is it that our Republican leadership will not take a strong stand on protecting children from their bodies being butchered and mutilated?

Chairman Paddie is still holding SB 10 -- a ban on some forms of taxpayer-funded lobbying -- hostage in his State Affairs Committee, along with other Priority bills.

We keep hearing that this will be our "most conservative session" in a long time, but unless meaningful, robust Republican bills are passed, the gains we have made thus far will mean nothing. And, you, the Republican voters, know this. That is what is different about now.

In this session, we have attempted to shine a light on the processes that take place at the Capitol in Austin, in your state government. That way, when your Representative or Senator comes home and says, “we made great progress this session, you just need to send me back next session to finish the job,” or, “people just don’t understand the way the sausage is made,” you will not be intimidated into silence or compliance.

You will know that there is something wrong when the Republicans control the majority, yet the Democrats seem to come out ahead. Something’s wrong when some of our Republican representatives -- Reps. Oliverson, Jetton, and Hull -- manage to get a bill to the Calendars Committee and on the floor for a vote that creates a new Texas holiday. The cause for celebration? Islam’s first victory over non-Muslim forces.

In fact, this bill got to the Calendars Committee three days after our Priority bill to protect children from pediatric sex change did, yet our bill still sits in Calendars and this new state holiday bill is being voted on today in the House. We can protect puppies, create new holidays, and do all sorts of other trivial things, yet we can’t protect our children from an exploding trend that literally destroys their bodies and alters their brains.

So what now? Maybe we will get some crumbs. In fact, I know we will because they will think we will be satisfied with one or two bills. They will say what a great effort we made, and they did the best they could. And, of course, now, we have to get ready for the next election and that we have to support them so the Democrats don’t win.

But here’s the thing: we, the conservative citizens who love our children and grandchildren and love our state, and know what is coming; we are just done with the games.

So, here is what we are going to do:

We on the Legislative Priorities Committee are creating our own scorecard. We will be looking at Priority bills filed, committee hearings, as well as the votes from this session, and will let you know how every one of our Republican Representatives and Senators performed. We will let you know how many, if any, of our Republican Priority bills made it to the Governor’s desk. Then you get to decide what to do next.

In the meantime, let’s appeal to the top. This week, please call our Republican leadership and respectfully ask that they pass our Priority legislation. Tell them that our state depends on it and that we are looking to them for real leadership.

All of our leaders below and many of our Representatives and Senators have a robust social media presence. Some are linked below. Other leaders have their accounts listed in the directories for the House and Senate. Please use the power of social media to openly and respectfully engage and let them know how you feel about these issues.

Gov. Greg Abbott: (512) 463-2000; Facebook (Governor's Office); Facebook (Fan Page) Twitter (Gov); Twitter (personal)

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: (512) 463-0001; Facebook (Fan Page) Twitter (Lt. Gov); Twitter (personal)

Speaker Phelan: (512) 463-1000; Facebook; Twitter

Our Priorities and resources for this legislative session can be found at the Republican Party of Texas website, and you can sign up to receive your own copy of this report weekly in your email inbox. Please continue to call and email. We have the rest of the month to do all we can for this legislative session. Let’s leave it all on the table.

For God and Texas,

Jill Glover
SREC, SD 12
Chair, SREC Legislative Priorities Committee

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