Good morning!

Over the course of the summer, autopsy reports on the legislative session were put together by Cary Cheshire and Brandon Waltens.

Today's Texas Minute brings those together – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Monday, October 7, 2019
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• BUT FIRST... Please join me in congratulating our own Destin Sensky on his engagement to Gina Mazzella over the weekend! 
   
• Late last month we published the 2019 Activist Report of the 86th Legislative Session. If you have not had a chance to do so, I hope you will give it a read. In the introduction, Cheshire notes “the real heroes this legislative session: folks like Maggie Wright from Burleson, Matt Long and the Fredericksburg Tea Party, Crystal Main, Fran Rhodes, and Rich and Yvette DeOtte, who constantly pushed for lawmakers to hold up their commitments to their voters and enact the conservative legislation they campaigned on.”
          
• Ending Forced Annexation: In a clear-cut conservative win, lawmakers and grassroots activists working together succeeded in extending property rights protection to all Texans.
       
• Spending Limits: For years, Texas Republicans have campaigned on the popular idea of limiting the growth of government. Yet as the case has been for several sessions running, the measure was passed by the Texas Senate but never even given a hearing in the House.
      
• Protecting Free Markets: With cities routinely hyper-regulating businesses, Texans expected lawmakers would tackle out-of-control local government. Measures doing so passed out of the Senate, but were killed by the Texas House leadership.
      
• Stopping A Tax Hike: Think one man can’t make a difference? No one told State Sen. Paul Bettencourt. The Houston Republican’s commitment to real tax relief ended a rash scheme to raise taxes on 75 percent of Texans.
      
• Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying: A ban on the repugnant practice of local governments using tax dollars to lobby against their own residents’ interests made it through the Senate. The House’s own version was stalled out, and the Senate version was killed on the House floor.
      
• Monuments and Memorials: While Senators moved to provide protection to historic monuments and memorials, the effort was stymied in the Texas House.
      
• 2nd Amendment: Despite calls for Texans to enjoy the same gun rights as those in most other states, bills doing so went nowhere.
      
• Protecting The Pre-Born: While other states rushed to pass big life-saving legislation this spring, Texas did not. Neither the “abolish abortion” nor the “heartbeat bill” efforts received a vote in either chamber. Meanwhile, PreNDA – the “Pre-Born Non-Discrimination Act” – passed the Senate but was killed by House leadership.
      
• Election Integrity: From mail-in ballot fraud to non-citizens voting to the use of public resources subsidizing campaigns, Texas faces a wide range of issues undermining the integrity of our elections. The Senate passsed a comprehensive measure that was killed in the House Elections Committee.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

• The Texas Minute will return on Friday, Oct. 11, 2019.
   
• December 7, 2019: The Conservative Leaders Gala will take place in Irving. This annual event celebrates the grassroots leaders who have been fighting for liberty on the front lines of Texas politics. RSVP today!