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Good morning!

Here is the Texas Minute for Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

'Take Your Chair': Speaker Phelan Doesn't Allow Questions About House's Light Work Schedule

• With the Texas Legislature more than a month into its 140-day session with little progress so far, Republican State Rep. Tony Tinderholt of Arlington says he’s concerned about how much time lawmakers are taking off. House Speaker Dade Phelan, flustered by Tinderholt's assertions, ordered the lawmaker to take his chair.
      
• Brandon Waltens has the details.
      
• A little background: In order to adjourn for more than three days, the House and Senate are constitutionally required to pass a resolution granting each other permission to do so. These resolutions are often passed with little or no discussion or opposition.
      
• House leadership probably expected that to be the case when State Rep. Craig Goldman (R–Fort Worth) presented a resolution allowing the chambers to adjourn for five days and return next Tuesday. That is when Tinderholt began questioning Goldman on the prudence of such a decision with the legislative clock ticking.
       
• But when Tinderholt began to point out that previous legislatures had passed resolutions allowing them to begin debating and passing legislation immediately, he was shut down by House Speaker Dade Phelan.
       
• “When conservative bills die this session don’t let a single state representative tell you ‘we ran out of time,’” said Tinderholt. “Every committee in the Texas House could be organizing this week, but instead many members are going home.”
      
• In the end, every member of the House – except Tinderholt and Rep. Bryan Slaton (R-Royse City) – voted for a five-day weekend. The Senate is slated to reconvene on Friday, February 17, at 10 a.m., while the House is not scheduled to meet again until Tuesday, February 21, at 2 p.m.

The Democrat Overseeing County Affairs

• One of the Democrats appointed to chair a major committee in the Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives, State Rep. Victoria Neave has a history of personal run-ins with the law and a record of opposing Republican-backed priorities. Darrell Frost reviews Neave's public record leading up to her appointment as chairman of the County Affairs Committee.

      
• In 2017, Neave participated in a four-day “hunger strike” to protest a measure cracking down on sanctuary cities for illegal aliens. That was the same year she was arrested for driving while intoxicated after crashing her BMW into a tree.
     

• In 2019, Neave was sued for owing more than $50,000 in property taxes to Richardson Independent School District and Dallas County. Yet, during that year’s legislative session, she voted against legislation clamping down on how much local governments and school districts can raise property taxes each year.
     

• And in 2021, Neave was one of the Democrats who fled the state in an effort to block consideration of election security legislation.

Previewing Abbott's State of the State Address

• Continuing a trend he started during the COVID lockdowns, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is offering his State of State address tonight on television rather than in front of the assembled chambers of the Legislature and Supreme Court. Sydnie Henry previews what Abbott's speech could entail.
      
• This is the latest State of the State address in more than 30 years. The address is when Texas' governors have officially presented their emergency items for legislative discussion – which gives them a head start on the constitutionally dictated calendar.
       
• In his inaugural address last month, Abbott suggested that both school choice and significant property tax relief will be prioritized. Conservative activists have been pressuring the governor to include GOP priority legislation in his emergency items, including border security, the elimination of property taxes, vaccine choice, and a prohibition on the sexualization of Texas children.

Activists Fight Chemical Abortions

• Ahead of a lawsuit banning chemical abortions, two rallies have taken place in downtown Amarillo where the federal case will be decided. One rally was held by pro-abortion groups, the other by Texas pro-life groups. Soli Rice has the details.
       

• In the case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Association, pro-life groups have banded together against two federal agencies—the U.S. Food and Drug Association and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—in order to remove abortion-inducing drugs from pharmacy shelves.
      

• Following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration and other Democrats throughout the United States have fought to make abortions as “widely accessible as possible.” That included a move by the Food and Drug Administration turning abortion-inducing drugs into “over the counter” medication, and allowing those drugs to be sent through the mail.
        

• “Abortion-inducing drugs are not safe for mothers, and they are, most certainly, not safe for their unborn children,” said Mark Lee Dickson, who heads Right to Life East Texas.

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