AUSTIN, Texas — In this edition of Texas This Week, one special session came to an end and another began, the federal government is halting Gov. Greg Abbott's plan and Ross Ramsey, executive editor and co-founder of The Texas Tribune, shares insights on the Texas Legislature.
Three things to know in Texas politics
Judges temporarily blocks Gov. Abbott's executive order
Last week, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland filed a lawsuit against Texas to stop Gov. Greg Abbott's latest border-related executive order. The order bans anyone other than law enforcement from transporting migrants who cross the Texas-Mexico border and requires state troopers to pull over any vehicle suspected of breaking the order. This week, a federal judge sided with the Department of Justice and temporarily blocked Abbott's order. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 13.
Senate committee discusses Big 12 UT's move to the SEC
The University of Texas's decision to trade in the Big 12 for the SEC prompted a hearing under the pink dome. On Monday, the Senate Select Committee on the Future of College Sports in Texas held a hearing to discuss the impacts of UT's move on other Texas universities. Lawmakers heard from several key players including the commissioner of the Big 12 and the president of UT, who defended the university's decision.
Gov. Greg Abbott calls second special session
Gov. Greg Abbott wasted no time in calling lawmakers back to the Capitol to work on his agenda. On Thursday, he issued the proclamation calling a second special session of the 87th Texas Legislature to start the day after the first ends, Saturday, Aug. 7, at 12 p.m. All 11 of the items from the first special session call are on the agenda, plus six more.
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Ross Ramsey on the Texas Legislature
The big question looming over the second special session is, will the Democrats and Republicans be able to work together to pass anything – most importantly, restoring funding for the Legislature after Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the legislative branch? Ross Ramsey, executive editor and co-founder of The Texas Tribune, joined KVUE to break down what's happening under the dome.
Ashley Goudeau: The Texas governor has the authority to call a special session to pass his priorities. Without a doubt, the first special session was anything but a success for Gov. Greg Abbott. What does that say about his leadership?
Ross Ramsey: "Well, I don't think it says much about his leadership necessarily. I think this has more to do with the Democrats and the Republicans and the issues at hand. The governor called them into a legislative special session at the beginning of July, knowing that the Democrats really, really don't like the voting bill and knowing that the Democrats had already walked out once at the end of the regular session. You know, they made a calculation and said, 'Look, we're going to put our special session agenda together. We're going to put this list of items on it, including that voting bill the Democrats don't like, and we'll see what happens.' And what happened was that they were actually all in the room for about three days and then the Democrats went to Washington, D.C. So now we've got this reboot starting up. And the question is going to be, will the Democrats be here for consideration of these things? It's basically the same agenda list, but there have been a couple of items added that may be of more interest to Democrats and Republicans to get passed, and the clock is ticking on a couple of deadlines that are important to all of them."
Goudeau: Now, before we talk about that, I do want to ask you – you say it doesn't necessarily say anything about his leadership, but we heard from Senate Democrats who said the governor did not call one meeting with them, has not sat down and talked with a Democrat about this legislation before trying to move it forward. Should he be trying to work with both sides to push this through?
Ramsey: "Well, the problem hasn't been in the Senate. The Senate has passed really strong versions of this bill a couple of times now, and the governor's immediate concern and the Legislature's immediate concern is bringing the House Democrats along or at least getting them in the room so the Republicans can vote this legislation out. The governor's kind of directed his attention and kind of his fire hose toward the House where his problem really is right now. The Senate Democrats have been relatively quiet throughout this. And like I said, this legislation has already passed in the Senate. That's not where the resistance is."
Goudeau: Well, I think it's because the senators figure they just don't have the numbers to stop it.
Ramsey: "Well, that's why the House members left. Ultimately, this comes down to they didn't have the numbers to stop it. They didn't feel like they could get the Republicans in the House to negotiate the terms of the bill with them. And leaving for Washington was based on a slim bet, but a bet that either the Republicans back in Texas would moderate their bill or that the Democrats in Washington would pass federal legislation that preempts whatever Texas is trying to do or Georgia or Arizona, and that still could happen. And if that does happen, that's going to be really the only chance for a big win for the Texas Democrats. Otherwise, I think they've had a pretty bad month."
Goudeau: And so when we talk about what they possibly could do moving forward, what actions they could take, give us some insight.
Ramsey: "What actions the Democrats could take? They can leave again. That puts some other legislation that they care about in peril, and you can't do that forever. You know, the governor has said, 'I'm going to keep calling you back and back and back until, you know, you're here and we consider this legislation.' A governor can't make the Legislature pass something, but he or she can make the Legislature come into session to talk about it. And, you know, Greg Abbott has said he'll just keep doing that. And so the Democrats' choices are, come in here and try to negotiate as best you can or stay away and keep the Republicans at bay as long as you can. But ultimately, this is going to come to a vote if the governor's sticking to his guns."
Goudeau: I do think that one of the things that can get lost in this conversation is the governor's Article X veto. He quite literally cut the funding to the entire legislative branch, and while the lawmakers will still get paid, the staffers won't come Sept. 1. In 2017, when Gov. Greg Abbott called a special session because the Legislature failed to pass some sunset legislation, he did it in a way that I think was a little more collaborative. He put the sunset legislation and only the sunset legislation on the call, and then once lawmakers passed that, he went ahead and added all the other items. Why do you think he did not do that this time around? And I also want to point out the Senate, while they did pass most of the bills on his call, they did not pass the Article X funding either.
Ramsey: "You know, the circumstances were different. In 2017 the Legislature goofed and they didn't keep an agency going that they needed to keep going, and so everybody came in wanting to do the same thing, so that was collaborative. The reason the governor vetoed the Legislature's whole budget was out of – you know, he was angry at Democrats for leaving in the last hours of the regular session and blocking this voting legislation. So he came back, said, 'Well, if you're not going to do your job, I'm going to veto your legislation.' And we started this brinksmanship and this standoff. Now we're getting down to it. As you pointed out, Sept. 1 is the first day of the new budget, and if there's not a budget for the Legislature, then about 2,100 state employees disappear. This includes the people who draft legislation, the people who draft the political maps that the Legislature will be designing in the redistricting session in the next few weeks. There's a lot of really important stuff that goes on. I think there is, there are some temporary fixes, but the Legislature wants a two-year fix on that, and I think that there's a chance that some legislators will be pushing to get that legislation through, to keep that funding in place before they'll take up some of the things that the governor would like them to take up. A couple of other things that are on the agenda this time – schools are coming back in and the Texas Education Agency doesn't have the ability now, they say, to give state funding to schools for online learning, only for in-class learning. We've got this surge of COVID coming and a lot of schools want to go back and do at least some online learning. So one of the things on the legislative agenda is to fix that, and Democrats and Republicans alike are hearing from parents and educators and really want to get that worked out."
Goudeau: You know, another thing on the second special session agenda call is talking about the legislative quorum requirements. That potentially could have some big impacts, talk to us about that.
Ramsey: "Well, there's a constitutional provision in the Texas Constitution that says you can't do business in the House or in the Senate unless you've got two-thirds of the members present. So what the Democrats did, and the way the July session got busted, was more than a third of the House – all Democrats – left the state, and because there weren't at least 100 members in 150-member House, the House couldn't meet. It's a constitutional rule. You'd have to change the Constitution to lower the requirement. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has suggested lowering it to a simple majority. But again, you have to have two-thirds of the legislature – two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate – agree to change the Constitution, and then you have to have a majority of voters. So that's a pretty high hurdle."
Goudeau: We will continue to watch that and the rest of the special session as it all unfolds. Ross, thank you so much for joining us today.
The Last Word
In this edition of The Last Word, Ashley recognizes the anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and discusses the importance of voting.
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