Good morning, 

A 30-day special session of the Legislature begins in nine days. Only the governor can set items for consideration, and so far the agenda has not been announced. But if you could pick one item to be addressed, what would it be? That’s the topic of today’s One Click Survey.

First, here is the Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, June 29, 2021
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Conservatives Blocked A Woke DEM Program; Abbott Agency Implements It Anyway

• Gov. Greg Abbott’s  Texas Department of State Health Services is using close to $45 million to create the Office of Health Equity Policy and Performance. Purportedly, the office will work with state and local public health officials to “address” alleged disparities in health outcomes among various demographic groups. This is the practical implementation of “critical race theory” in government.
      
• What makes this situation even more unique is that Democrats attempted to pass legislation creating this “office” within the agency, but the efforts were blocked by the Republican-controlled Senate. So despite not having legislative approval, Gov. Abbott’s DSHS is doing it anyway. Jeramy Kitchen has the details.
      
• The Democrat-pushed legislation passed the House 77-51 in early May, with just 16 of the House Republicans voting for it. When the bill arrived in the Texas Senate, it was never even referred to a committee – let alone acted on.
       
• So why are Gov. Abbott’s appointees allowing it anyway?

Border Disaster Re-Write

• Without fanfare, Gov. Abbott yesterday removed the border disaster declaration for the Rio Grande Valley – including Brownsville and Harlingen – as well as large swaths of border up through Laredo and beyond to El Paso. The news was buried in a press release where the governor announced he had re-upped his overall designation, but removed those key counties that were originally included.
     
• To be clear: the RGV up through Laredo, specifically, are the prime avenues for illegal immigration and human trafficking. Meanwhile, El Paso and Laredo have been identified by the FBI as the most dangerous border towns in Texas.

Surprise! Voter Fraud Happens

• State authorities arrested a Texas woman accused of voter fraud after a grand jury indicted her on multiple felony charges related to mail ballots in a 2018 local election. Erin Anderson has the details.
     
• Monica Mendez has been indicted on 31 felony counts of election fraud related to vote harvesting. The charges relate to eight mail-in ballots in a May 2018 water district board election in Bloomington, a town of around 2,000 residents near Victoria.

How The Legislature Didn’t Ban Critical Race Theory

• At the most basic level, Critical Race Theory holds that all laws, policies, and history are designed to keep white people in charge. In essence, CRT asserts that racism pervades all aspects of life. This theory is becoming the basis not only for the operations of government agencies (see above) but also the curriculum in public school classrooms.
     
• For months parents, teachers, and others have not only warned of CRT’s encroachment in schools but asked lawmakers to take action. In the latest installment of Texas Scorecard’s series of Autopsy Reports on the 87th Session of the Legislature, Brandon Waltens explains how lawmakers failed to ban CRT despite passing legislation they claimed would do so.
       
• As a result of that failure, Gov. Abbott has said an actual ban on CRT would be part of the agenda for an upcoming special legislative session.

Test Scores Plummet

• Learning disruptions caused by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic increased the number of Texas students not meeting grade-level proficiency across all subject areas and grade levels, according to “disheartening” data released yesterday by the Texas Education Agency. Tera Collum reports, for example, that “remote learners” had a 32 percent decrease in math scores from 2019 to 2021, compared with only a 9 percent drop for students who received in-person instruction. 

What Every Rural And Disadvantaged Community Needs…?

• According to Joe Biden’s press secretary, 500,000 “rural and disadvantaged communities” need the federal government to install electric vehicle charging stations. Townhall.com posted the video.
     
• I guess the White House thinks these “communities” will benefit from being tour stops for pretentious Tesla drivers?

ONE CLICK SURVEY

With a special session of the Texas Legislature having been called by Gov. Abbott to start on July 8, what ONE item would you want addresses? (Click on your pick.)
 

Once you’ve clicked an answer, reply to this email with any thoughts you’d like to share.
* Especially if you click “other”!