Texas Legislature Update 9/3/2021
The Texas Legislature adjourned its second special session yesterday evening, ending a session that was called to pass a GOP elections bill after House Democrats carried out a six-week long quorum break to block the passage of that legislation. The two chambers gaveled out minutes apart after giving final approval to several of Gov. Greg Abbott’s priority items, including a budget measure that will finally restore funding for the Legislature itself.
House Speaker Dade Phelan gaveled out the House first, followed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick who acknowledged another yet-to-be-called special session that will focus on the redistricting process in the coming weeks — where lawmakers will draw new political maps for the state’s congressional delegation, the Texas House and Senate, and the State Board of Education.
Thursday, state lawmakers passed legislation that restores funding for the Legislature — including salaries and benefits for some 2,100 state employees — that was set to run out at the end of the month after Abbott vetoed those dollars earlier this summer. The governor’s veto was retribution for House Democrats who walked out of the Capitol in the final hours of the regular legislative session to block a GOP elections bill in May.
In addition to passing the elections security bill, state lawmakers also reworked the process for releasing accused criminals on bail, beefed up border security funding, expanded virtual learning for students, restricted use of abortion-inducing drugs and banned the storage or disposal of high-level radioactive waste in Texas.
About half of the second special session, which began Aug. 7 without a quorum in the House, was spent in a stalemate after more than 50 House Democrats flew to Washington, D.C., to again prevent the passage of that GOP elections bill. That flight to the nation’s capital started in the first special session, but enough Democrats remained out of the state to prevent the House from making a quorum at the beginning of the second one. But once a quorum — the minimum number of members needed to be present for the chamber to conduct official business — was established in the House, legislation tied to the governor’s agenda began to move.
Members are expected to return to Austin soon for another special session that will be focused on redrawing the state’s political maps, though no date has yet been announced by Abbott. Rumors abound, but the conventional wisdom is the third week in September, after both chambers hold committee hearings on redistricting in the next two weeks following Labor Day.
Issues that did not make it over the finish line before state lawmakers adjourned Thursday, such as legislation that would restrict transgender student-athletes from participating in school sports, could be added to the Legislature’s agenda for the next special session; that’s up to Abbott, who both orders these legislative overtime rounds and sets the agendas for them. Lt. Gov. Patrick said he had already asked the governor to include the transgender student-athletes bill on the agenda for the upcoming special session.
