Legislative Committee Statement on Banning Democrat Chairs
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January 2, 2023 | Montgomery County, TX
The Texas Legislature begins their new session on January 10. One of the first decisions they will be making will impact the rest of the session. It is very important that we get as much of your help as we can in contacting legislators.
That decision is whether to appoint Democrats to committee chairmanships. Committee chairs have the power to unilaterally kill legislation and Democratic chairs have used their power to do so. The power that comes with chairmanships also attracts lobbyist money that is used to defeat Republicans.
Republican voters support banning Democrat committee chairs
GOP voters overwhelmingly support banning Democrats from chairmanships, but most of our lawmakers have been unresponsive. Only five supported the ban in the last session. So far, 19 have indicated they will support the ban in this session.
GOP Speaker of the House Dade Phelan shows no interest in the ban, yet 81 percent of Republicans voted to support the ban on the March 2022 Primary Ballot.
The first order of business in the new session will be to elect the 2023 Speaker of the House and the issue of chairmanships will be decided shortly thereafter.
Please contact your state representative and make your voice heard!
The Republican Party of Texas issued the following statement
State legislators will be meeting NEXT WEEK to vote on adopting new chamber rules. It is a top Republican priority to ban Democrats from leadership positions.
Last session, Democrat chairs killed several GOP priority bills, including:
Business & Industry Committee Chair, Democrat Rep. Chris Turner, killed a religious freedom bill, HB 1569.
Public Education Committee Chair, Democrat Rep. Harold Dutton, killed a School Choice bill, HB 4537.
Criminal Jurisprudence Committee Chair, Democrat Rep. Nicole Collier, killed the strongest bill to protect our historic monuments, HB 446, which would have increased criminal penalties for damaging or destroying monuments.
Many other good bills were killed and bad bills advanced by Democrat Chairs, who also used their positions as a platform to push progressivism and raise lobby money to use against Republican candidates in general elections.
We are almost out of time to gain support before the Texas House of Representatives adopts formal rules in one of their first meetings next week.
Here’s what we need you to do:
Step 1) Call your State Representative; a phone call is more effective than an email. If you don't know who your Representative is or their phone number, click here.
Step 2) Urge them to release a public statement (Tweet, Facebook post, mass email, or press release) supporting House Rules that ban Committee Chairs of the minority party. If they have already made a public statement banning Democrat Committee Chairs, thank them.
Use the hashtag #NoDemChairs on social media to encourage your friends to call and keep track of who has made statements as well.
Chairing a committee allows a Democrat to single-handedly block legislation from passing and provides them the power to push their far-left radical agenda. We can’t let that happen.
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