The Texas House is set to reconvene Monday at 1 p.m., leaving Republican members just 35 hours to advance a number of party-priority bills that could be at the mercy of Democratic lawmakers.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the House under embattled Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) adjourned instead of working through the weekend as planned, creating the possibility that House Democrats could kill bills they oppose by delaying their advancement ahead of crucial deadlines on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Such bills include Sen. Brandon Creighton’s (R-Conroe) proposal to abolish tenure for college professors, Sen. Phil King’s (R-Weatherford) bill requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in public school classrooms, and a measure sponsored by two dozen Republican state senators to regulate allegedly discriminatory environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards in the insurance industry.
Given the 35-hour time crunch, Democrats in the House could deploy procedural delays long enough to ensure bills they oppose do not advance.
Phelan has been criticized by more conservative members for empowering the Democratic minority in order to secure his speakership against an intra-party challenge, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
North Texas resident Brady Whatley took to Twitter to criticize the dynamic:
“The RINO controlled cellspool [sic] that is The Texas House, where, before every new legislative session every two years, like clockwork, the Texas House Democrats vote in lockstep with a huge RINO faction to choose the Speaker of The House and the Speaker puts Dems in control of half the committees, and almost all conservative bills get killed and conservatives NEVER lead ANY committees, many of them have never had a SINGLE BILL passed in their entire time in … office.”
A number of Republican-priority measures have died in committee in the last month, including a number of parental rights bills and a measure that would have limited Texas farmland sales to certain Chinese nationals.
“The Texas House is killing SB 147, which would keep the Chinese from purchasing our farm land. China wants the power to sit on our food supply. They are our adversary. The Senate passed a ban. The Texas House is sitting on it while passing Democrat bills every day,” tweeted Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R-Arlington) last Tuesday.
Key legislation on one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s most important policy items, school choice, also died in the House after failing to move forward ahead of a key deadline last week.
Abbott has already threatened to bring both chambers back in a special session if substantive school choice legislation is not put on his desk at the end of the regular session (May 29), as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
A straw poll posted on Twitter by the Collin County Republican Party asked if respondents wanted Phelan to be Speaker again next session. As of Sunday afternoon, poll results suggested only about 20% of respondents thought he should keep possession of the gavel.