Upcoming Special Sessions: Voters Are the Key
Getting what we want vs. taking what we can get
July 18, 2023 | Austin, TX
As Texas state politicians engage in a victory lap amongst their voters, touting ‘historic tax cuts’ from the second special session, many voters are viewing the product with a jaundiced eye.
Similarly, Texans are wondering whether the issues that concern them most will be addressed in the additional special sessions that Governor Greg Abbott has promised in order to address unfinished business from the regular session.
The primary topic that Governor Abbott plans to address is the issue of ‘School Choice,’ although the topic is not one of the eight Legislative Priorities selected by delegates at the last Texas Republican Convention and there is significant dissent among Republican voters on whether the legislation promoted on that topic would provide real choice, as opposed to more government control.
One thing is certain: in order for our Legislative Priorities to be achieved, we the voters need to continue to push for them with our elected representatives. We urge you to contact the Governor to get important legislation accomplished.
Three Important Priorities
There are three priorities on the Republican Party of Texas Legislative Priorities list that received exceedingly short shrift from our state elected officials: Border Security, Election Integrity, and Parental Rights and Educational Freedom.
It was not long ago that all of these items would have been no-brainers and, in fact, not really necessary, as most citizens of all stripes believed in all three. Thus far, we have not seen our Republican legislators take sufficient action on our behalf on these measures.
Border Security
The most important legislative item addressing Border Security in the regular session was HB 20, the creation of a Texas Border Protection Unit. In the absence of a federal government willing to protect our borders, it is essential for Texas to step into the breach. This new force would have had the authority to arrest, detain, and deter people from crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally.
The measure was left to die after House Speaker Dade Phelan allowed a Point of Order procedure from opponents to send it back to committee in the closing days of the session.
Other Border Security bills that did not survive the session and that we believe should be addressed:
Financing public services needed to address illegal immigration
Increasing criminal penalties for unlawful entry
Punishment for criminal conduct involving human smuggling, operating stash houses, or evading arrests or detention
Declaring an invasion by narco-terrorists, opening the door to accelerated wall construction and the demand for Congress to deploy the military to the southern border
Election Integrity
Complementing our porous, almost non-existent borders is our porous and almost non-existent election security. Without election integrity, we simply do not have anything approaching government ‘by the people.’ And yet, the list of meaningful bills that failed and were designed to tighten our systems is long and telling.
We have watched helplessly as the progressive Democratic Party works tirelessly to develop new ways to weaken our systems and skew elections in their favor. Meanwhile, we struggle to turn around one or two of their methods at a time. Obviously, this will not work.
Why would anyone be opposed to a measure to enforce the cleanup of voter rolls? SB 1938 would have done that, but it did not survive the session.
Other bills on Election Integrity that did not make it would have provided the following safeguards:
Allowing the Secretary of State to intervene when counties won’t replace failed elections administrators
Creating a procedure that requires response to complaints of election irregularities
Increasing penalties for failing to deliver election supplies, obstruction of the distribution of supplies, and revealing election results before polls close
Authorizing the Secretary of State to conduct random election audits in smaller counties with recurring problems
Banning ranked-choice voting in Texas
Increasing the penalty for failing to deliver returns by the deadline and allowing the Secretary of State to supervise completion of the return
Prohibiting election officials from suspending any mail-in ballot acceptance requirements
Clarifying the process for registrars to confirm residence of voters who register at non-traditional addresses or haven’t voted in the last two federal cycles
Prohibiting the Secretary of State from certifying voting machines incapable of updating in real time every 10 minutes
Requiring voters declare their address as the place they habitually sleep
Requiring registrars provide the range of ballot serial numbers provided to voters, including spoiled ballots
Requiring that the Secretary of State appoint a dedicated cybersecurity expert to protect election data and prohibiting use of electronics capable of an internet connection
Prohibiting ballot scanners from being connected to storage devices capable of modifying scanned ballots
Creating a special prosecutor to deal with election crimes
It is disingenuous, at best, to accuse half the country of promoting election conspiracy theories, when the majority of our elected leaders seem disinterested in cleaning up and tightening our election laws. Secure elections are secure for everyone, regardless of political party or ideology.
Parental Rights and Educational Freedom
In the culture war in which we find ourselves, parents and children are front and center. Brave parents are becoming the catalyst for pushing back against the insanity. If rights are God-given and self-evident, what could be more apparent than the right to raise one’s own children? And yet, SJR 70, a constitutional amendment declaring our right to raise our own children went nowhere in the regular session.
Other failed bills that fall under the Legislative Priority of Parental Rights and Educational Freedom:
Banning school surveys of children regarding thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and opinions
Moving control of some education issues from federal to state control
Constitutional amendment to establish a parent’s right to direct their child’s education
Allowing children who are abuse targets to transfer schools or receive funds for private or home schooling
Requiring the State Board of Education to use instructional materials that avoid biases
Other Important Legislation
There are other bills on topics outside the list of our Party’s eight Legislative Priorities that did not survive the legislative gauntlet, but that are nonetheless very important.
For instance, SB 147 would have stopped the acquisition of Texas real estate by interests from China and other countries deemed national security threats, including Russia, North Korea, and Iran. Like many other bills deemed critical by Conservatives, it died in a House committee.
And during one of the hottest summers on record with our strained electric grid running at historic usage highs, can we afford to ignore SB 330, a bill to strengthen the weaknesses in our grid?
Red State or Not?
Texas is purported to be a deep red state and yet, our elected officials routinely dismiss our clearly stated conservative principles and demands for meaningful measures that reflect our priorities.
It is time to recognize that what we are getting is not ‘of the people’ or ‘for the people.’ If we want change, we will have to be agents of change.
TAKE ACTION
The topics of additional special sessions are in the control of Governor Abbott. We urge you to contact Governor Abbott to voice the need for additional special sessions to deal with the issues we are facing as a state.
We also encourage you to prepare for the upcoming Primary Election by evaluating the job performance of your Texas legislators to determine if you want to re-hire them for another term. Click here and scroll down to #2 for more information.