Good morning, 

With apologies to T.S. Elliot…
This is the way the session ends
This is the way the session ends
This is the way the session ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, June 1, 2021
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• Remember the temper tantrum thrown by State Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Allen) a couple weeks back? When he was standing up for Democrats’ legislative priorities, and shut down House business for three days? Not only did Leach’s stunt single-handedly kill hopes for a bill protecting children from sex-change surgeries, but – as the side-effects rippled – his action then gave the Democrats time to kill election integrity measures over the weekend.
       
• Brandon Waltens explains how Democrats took advantage of the legislative clock Republicans gave them to kill high-priority election integrity reform.

• In response to the election integrity reform being killed by the Democrats’ walk-out, Gov. Greg Abbott announced he would “veto Article 10 of the budget” – which is the funding for the legislative branch. “No pay for those who abandon their responsibilities.”
     
• I hope the irony is not lost: this is the same governor who last year shut down businesses and imposed jail sanctions on small business owners, but still collected his full government salary, slept in his fancy government housing, protected by his government security detail – yet never took responsibility for those actions.

• A couple weeks ago, lawmakers were hailing the 87th Session of the Texas legislature as the most conservative session ever.
      
• As it turns out, it might be the least productive for conservatives in a long time. For example, only two and a quarter of the nine priorities of the Republican Party of Texas passed.
      
• Lawmakers did pass a new round of legislation protecting religious freedom. House Bill 1927 isn’t exactly “constitutional carry,” but it is close enough to count.  Meanwhile, the party’s “abolish abortion” priority was only (barely?) partially fulfilled by the “Heartbeat Bill.”

• For those who want a visual of the Republican Party of Texas’ 2021 legislative priorities:
      
  🚫 Election Integrity
  ✅ Protect Religious Freedom
  🚫 Ban Gender Modification on Children
  🚫 Abolition of Abortion
  ✅ Constitutional Carry
  🚫 Monument Protection
  🚫 School Choice for All
  🚫 Ban Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying
  🚫 Stop Executive Overreach
   
• Capitol Correspondent Jeramy Kitchen has a quick recap of what did – and did not – get accomplished in the legislative session.

• The Senate passed a series of reforms to rein in the abusive executive overreach Texans suffered under during the last year.  The Texas House refused to hear those bills… but instead passed legislation codifying the pandemic power grab made by Gov. Abbott and local officials around the state.
      
• The Senate passed a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying. The Texas House turned it into a bill that allowing – even encouraging – taxpayer-funded lobbying.
      
• Might there be a pattern…?
     
• In an ironic twist, lawmakers tried to extend the life of an onerous corporate welfare program known as Chapter 313, but their legislation didn’t make it across the finishing line. So, in an accidental win for taxpayers, Chapter 313 might actually be dead… for a little while anyway. It could be resuscitated in a special session, or even in 2023, given Greg Abbott’s support for corporate welfare programs.
      
• Meanwhile, nothing was done by state lawmakers to reduce Texans’ property taxes. Their apologists will say legislators should be praised for not stopping the previously adopted efforts to slow the future growth of the property tax burdens… Seriously.

• There will be some who say the legislature just “ran out of time” to get priorities accomplished. Some might even use the failure as an excuse to say lawmakers should meet more often. That would be a mistake.
     
• As Jeramy Kitchen tweeted, the Texas House convened for 76 days of the total 140 days allotted by the state constitution.
      
• Lawmakers had time; they chose to squander it. It is not a question of calendars, but of convictions.

• A subtext of the now-concluded legislative session has been the cold war between the Republican Party of Texas and the politicians who run as “Republicans” to get elected. Specifically, Gov. Greg Abbott sees a political threat from the rumored possibility of GOP Chairman Allen West joining the 2022 primary fray to unseat the incumbent. (Abbott already has two announced GOP opponents: humorist Chad Prather and former State Sen. Don Huffines.)
       
• This came to a head on Sunday night, when Texas House Freedom Caucus member Cody Vasut (R-Angleton) pushed a last-minute election-law change that would have forced the chairmanship and executive committee of the Republican party to be selected on the primary ballot rather than the biannual convention. The effort failed, but was widely seen as a jab from Team Abbott at Lt. Col. West and the party’s conservative leadership.
   
• Interestingly, Vasut’s rule would not have applied to the Democrats.

• Right now, you might be wondering about the prospects for a special session to correct the wrongs of the last 140 days.
   
• A special session will be called late in the fall to address legislative redistricting, but there has been no indication that other items might be added. Further, Gov. Abbott said last week that if there were to be one or more specials, they would be only to address his own pet projects and priorities – not necessarily the priorities of grassroots activists or the Republican Party.
   
• So far, the governor has only mentioned special session issues related to redistricting, election integrity, and… bail reform? Yep.

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