Photo Credit: Ling Zhu
Well the first special session just concluded on Friday, with more than 50 “quorum-busting” House Democrats staying in DC to prevent passage of voter suppression bills like HB 3 and SB 1, and some other bad ideas from Gov. Abbott and political leadership.
In celebration of the anniversary of the federal Voting Rights Act, and the House members’ brave stand, the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter joined hundreds of activists and multiple organizations including the AFL-CIO, Public Citizen, Texans for All, Common Cause, the NAACP-Austin chapter, and Texas Rising among others in a spirited celebration on the south steps of the Capitol. Most notable were the 20+ State Representatives who joined us on a big screen to encourage us to keep fighting for voting rights even as they announced many were staying in DC to take the fight to the nation’s capital.
Photo Credits: Ling Zhu
Not to be outdone, earlier Gov. Abbott announced that a second special session would begin the very next day -- Saturday at noon -- and promptly announced 17 items for consideration, many of them the same, including voting suppression. While a few items were actually positive (how to spend federal money from the American Prosperity Act and how to protect Texas from high-level radioactive waste) the overwhelming majority were measures that would harm Black and Brown communities, including bail “reform,” voter suppression, changing the rules to make it impossible for future quorum busting, white washing racism out of our history, and measures aimed at making it harder to protect workers (think water breaks during summer heat) and protect trans children. See the full list here. And there is no call to fix the grid on the table.
If the first session might be called the “Suppression Session,” we might call this the “Tyranny Session.”
Well things are already complicated. Not only did 55 of the 57 quorum busters not return, but 10 Republicans didn’t show due to… positive COVID-19 tests. With an outbreak in the Delta variant, now is the worst time to be holding a special session. Indeed even as the Texas Senate required full Covid testing to testify in the Senate -- a reasonable measure -- the Governor has signed an order not allowing schools to adequately protect children and teachers.
As long as at least 51 members stay out of Austin, no legislation can pass. At least 26 Democrats have announced they will stay in DC to fight for national voting rights legislation, but it is unclear what the other 29 who didn’t report in on Saturday will do. We hope they stay away until real negotiations between the parties occur.
In the meantime, the Senate is rushing along, holding hearings on the latest version of the voter suppression bill and other matters. To make matters worse, they are no longer requiring even 24 hours notice for public hearings, meaning unless you are watching intently -- every second -- you might miss your opportunity to testify. Sierra Club chose to submit written testimony today against SB 1 - you can find it here. (link to testimony)
Stay tuned for more Pink Dome antics.