Good morning, 

Most Texans recognize the COVID pandemic is over. The governor doesn’t think so.

Here is the Texas Minute for Monday, April 18, 2022.

– Brandon Waltens 

• As cases have sharply dropped and hospitalization rates are nowhere near where they were at the height of the COVID scare, most Texans have largely resumed living their lives as normal. 
   
• Even the liberal city of Austin has repealed all of its COVID-related orders and mandates.
   
• But more than two years after first declaring COVID a public health emergency, Gov. Greg Abbott says it still “poses an imminent threat of disaster for all counties in the State of Texas,” and has kept extending his emergency orders that have usurped the normal constitutional process of government since then.

• On March 13, 2020, Gov. Greg Abbott announced at a press conference in the Capitol that he would be declaring a state of emergency over the coronavirus after 39 cases were reported in the state of Texas. 
   

• “Declaring a state of disaster is a key component of these efforts because it allows the state to effectively serve the people of Texas without hindrance or delay,” Abbott said at the time.
   

• But while the original order was set to expire after 30 days, it has been renewed every month since then. That emergency declaration has been the basis of every COVID-related executive order issued since then: from lockdowns and mask mandates, to more recent orders seeking to push back against vaccine mandates.

• The Texas legislature had the opportunity during their session last year to take action and end the emergency orders, as well as to pass legislation curtailing the executive overreach. They didn’t. Indeed, the Legislature failed to pass legislation banning business closures, mask mandates, or vaccine mandates.
   
• At least one lawmaker has spoken up and said it is past time to end the emergency orders. State Rep. Bryan Slaton (R–Royse City) recently wrote a letter to Gov. Abbott calling for an end to the orders altogether.
   

• “What started as ‘15 days to slow the spread,; has turned into 24 months of unprecedented government regulations, a massive transfer of wealth from small businesses to mega-corporations, families separated from loved ones, and fear permeating every thought and action,” Slaton told Abbott.
   

• If Texas were to end its COVID state of emergency, it would join 29 other states that have already taken that step.

Your Federal & State Lawmakers

The districts displayed here should reflect those recently redrawn by the Legislature. Though the new lines do not take representational effect until 2023, they will appear on the 2022 ballot. Please note that your incumbent legislator and/or district numbers may have changed.