Good morning, 

Readers sounded off about who is responsible for quorum-busting Texas House Democrats not being penalized. And as it turns out, those same Democrats were cashing taxpayers’ checks while refusing to show up for work this summer.  

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Wednesday, September 1, 2021
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Paying The Democrats

• Newly obtained records reveal only one Democrat House member who fled the state for Washington, D.C. to break quorum has actually returned his per diem payment to the state, despite promises from others to do so. Brandon Waltens has the details.
       
• When a legislative session is ongoing, lawmakers receive a $211 per diem payment, in addition to their salary, for every day the Texas Legislature is in session—regardless of whether or not they are actually present. The Texas Freedom Coalition filed an open records request for the payroll records of Democrat state representatives from July 12 through August 6.
      
• While 11 Democrat members had indicated they would decline or return their per diem payments, only Democrat State Rep. Bobby Guerra of McAllen has actually sent a check back to the state, in the amount of $4,416.93 – at the time the agency responded to the request.
       
• This is a good place to remind you that House Speaker Dade Phelan and the entire Republican Caucus in the Texas House have refused to issue penalties for the Democrats’ quorum-busting actions.

Democrat-Chaired Committee Tries Killing Conservative Priorities

• Duh… what did House Republicans think would happen?
      
• With less than one week left in the ongoing special session, the quorum-busting Democrat chairman of the Texas House Public Education Committee, Houston’s Harold Dutton Jr., tried to put in jeopardy GOP priorities that had been assigned to his committee. He threw a temper-tantrum earlier this week, saying he would kill those measures unless Dan Patrick moved legislation restoring funding for the Legislature that had been vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott. “I want to see if [Lt. Gov. Patrick] has his big boy pants on.”
        
• As it turns out, the lieutenant governor does. In a hastily called meeting yesterday afternoon, Dutton’s committee advanced one of the bills he was specifically holding hostage: a ban on “critical race theory” in public schools.
     
• This incident is a reminder that Speaker Phelan and the Texas GOP Caucus have thus far refused to remove those quorum-busting Democrats from committee chairmanships. But it also highlights an uncomfortable reality: if Phelan and the Republicans want to keep having Democrats chairing committees, then those Democrats better be moving GOP-favored legislation through the GOP-dominated chamber.

House Bails On Bail Reform

• Since January, Gov. Greg Abbott has been trying – unsuccessfully – to usher “bail reform” through the legislative process. He was thwarted again this week, when the Texas House failed to advance his marquee legislative initiative for 2021. Jeramy Kitchen has the details.
   
• Gov. Abbott made the issue an “emergency” item for lawmakers when they convened in the regular session back in January – meaning they could have moved the legislation early. They didn’t. Instead, the measure was shoved by Speaker Dade Phelan to the back of the legislative line-up and killed when Democrats staged their first quorum-busting act of the year. Abbott promptly placed it on the agenda for the first and second special sessions.
   
• The governor sought to amend the Texas Constitution to expand the conditions under which judges and magistrates are authorized to deny bail. The push would also have established procedures for when bail can be denied in such cases. Currently, bail may be denied and defendants can be detained during the pre-trial period only in very limited circumstances. Smaller changes to state law have advanced, but nothing with the full punch of a constitutional amendment.

Border Insecurity

• Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott reported more than 4,600 illegal aliens had been arrested since March by state law enforcement officials. Yet one of his Republican primary opponents, Allen West, says local law enforcement officers tell him more than 5,400 illegal aliens are known to have escaped capture. Robert Montoya has the details.
         
• “[Abbott’s] saying a lot but not doing much,” said Victor Avila, a retired U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent. “The fact is, our DPS and others are making arrests and stopping smuggling ventures on the U.S. side. However, nothing is being done to stop the illegals from entering in the first place.”

Putnam v Granger, Round 2

• Without district lines or even a primary election date set, a rematch is already in the making for one of the most competitive Republican congressional races from 2020. Conservative activist and businessman Chris Putnam will be officially announcing today his challenge to incumbent U.S. Rep. Kay Granger. 
       
• In their 2020 contest, Granger won reelection over Putnam’s challenge by the smallest margin of any challenged congressional Republican in the state. Granger has been plagued for the last several years with a scandal involving her son’s involvement with an economic development project, a boondoggle in which nearly $400 million has been spent over 15 years, with little to show for it. Yet she now sits on the bipartisan committee for the infrastructure bill championed by President Joe Biden, with additional funding for the Panther Island project currently contained in the bill.
       
• “Our borders are wide open; Biden has allowed the Taliban and ISIS to retake Afghanistan; we’re experiencing a national violent crime epidemic because our leaders have refused to support our public safety community or stand up to BLM and Antifa, our federal government has grown out of control, our most trusted institutions have become hopelessly politicized by the woke left; and the liberal media and out-of-control big tech companies are silencing conservative voices in frightening and dangerous Orwellian fashion.” – Chris Putnam

No Real Relief?

• Real and meaningful property tax relief is probably dead in this special session of the Texas Legislature, writes Tim Hardin of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.
   
• “With only six days left in the second called special session real property tax relief is being lowered into a shallow grave. [House Bill] 122, the strongest legislation that the Texas House has seen in years, seeks to apply 90% of the current budget surplus and future surpluses to significant property tax relief with the goal of elimination. Despite overwhelming bipartisan support and support from grassroots groups across the state, the Texas House has decided to ignore this bill and turn its backs on Texas taxpayers.” – Tim Hardin

Y’All Answered

After obstructing the legislative process for more than a month this summer by fleeing the state to thwart the Texas Constitution’s quorum requirements, Texas House Democrats are not being penalized by the Republican majority. Unanimous demands for penalties have come from grassroots activists and major Republican organizations, including the Republican Party of Texas itself. Yesterday’s One Click Survey asked who readers hold responsible: Gov. Greg Abbott, House Speaker Dade Phelan, House GOP Caucus Chairman Jim Murphy, and we included “all the above” and “none of these.”

The results: 76 percent chose “all the above,” while 18.8 percent put responsibility for inaction directly at the feet of Speaker Phelan. On the other hand, 3.3 percent of readers blame Gov. Abbott and 1.1 percent blame Caucus Chairman Murphy. In contrast, less than one percent believe “none” of them bear responsibility for Democrats not being penalized.

Here is a sampling of the responses we received:

• “I singled [Phelan] out because he runs the show in the House. He has done everything in his power to avoid doing anything conservatives wanted done. And this appointing of dems to chairmanships must stop!” – Danny Pevoto
   

• “‘All of the Above’ is the right answer. However, I chose to vote Speaker Phelan as the lead culprit. He has the opportunity to immediately enact pain, such as removal of committee chair positions.” – Ray Mathis
    

• “If we look about 1000 miles eastward to Tallahassee Florida we will find a Republican with a spine, but don’t waste your time looking to Austin for one.” – Jeff Martinez
     

• “The Austin Swamp is deep enough to hold a lot more characters than listed in today's survey. ‘All of the above’ should have been replaced with ‘The Ruling Elite.’” – John Bolgiano
     

• “If a person in business ran their business like these elected officials do, they would be out of business in a week. Therefore they need to be replaced as soon as legally possible! ... Democrats should not be our problem, we have the majority. Our problems come from Republicans who don't do what they were elected to do and that is finish our conservative agenda!” – Jim and Melissa Hughes 
     

• “It is absolutely ridiculous that they will not hold the quorum-busting Dems accountable for their behavior & actions. Why are they scared of the democrats?” – Mary Philio
     

• “Why do the Democrats continue to control what happens even though the Republicans have the majority? There seems to be no purpose in electing Republicans. Thus the reason I do not donate to the Republican Party.” – Corrine Jung
     

• “I simply cannot understand why the minority party in Texas is allowed to stymie legislation by being absent and why minority party members are given committee chairmanships.  Talk about insanity!“ – Ken Marx
      

• “The ‘Rinos’ in our State house have been smoked out and their true colors have been exposed. They should be banned from running on the Republican Party ticket or voted out of office by conservatives.” – Jimmy McCollum
     

• “The walk out was successful and was allowed because they are complicit in their fight for control. At least we are ALL correct in saying Abbott is ‘All hat and no cattle.’ We have one central govrnment consisting of a Red team and Blue team and neither play for US.” – John Cavenah
     

• “Many people predict that if the House Republicans don’t have the courage to stand up to the Democrats who left Austin during the summer, they will lose many votes in the coming elections.” – Jim Farley

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