Between cracking down on abortion pills and restricting transgender restroom use, lawmakers also tackled flood safety and the STAAR test. Left untouched: Texas’ hemp industry.
The Texas Legislature gaveled out its second overtime session with a fresh inventory of GOP victories, including a new congressional map gerrymandered to maximize Republican representation, a host of socially conservative priorities that had long failed to reach the governor’s desk, and unprecedented retribution leveled against the minority party.
The final adjournment, coming late Wednesday in the House and shortly after midnight in the Senate, closed out a tense six and a half weeks of overtime legislating, punctuated by a two-week walkout by Democratic lawmakers over GOP redistricting that prompted Republicans to end the first special session early and launch right into a second. After the Legislature resumed business, GOP lawmakers quickly pushed through much of Gov. Greg Abbott’s agenda, sparking fiery debates over abortion, bathrooms and ivermectin that underscored the bitter partisan divisions taking root at the Capitol.
“I don’t think in the history of the state any Senate body has accomplished so much,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said before adjourning, joking that the passage of a landmark school voucher bill earlier this year had become almost an afterthought with the heap of major legislation passed in the months since.
The final days of the session were partially marred for Republicans by their failure to strike deals on legislation reining in property taxes and Texas’ booming hemp market, which was the initial impetus for returning to the Capitol following this year’s regular legislative session.
By Wednesday, the last full day of the overtime session, many lawmakers were seemingly at the end of their ropes and eager to get home to their loved ones, with debates on the House floor frequently devolving into shouting matches — often about race and the voices of marginalized Texans.
“The effect is not discipline for a member. It’s disenfranchisement for the people who send them here,” Rep. Vince Perez, an El Paso Democrat, said during a heated floor debate over new GOP-backed penalties aimed at deterring future quorum breaks. “This is what happens after 30 years of a one-party rule.”
Still, GOP lawmakers left town having checked off nearly every major item on the governor’s to-do list, including their biggest trophy: a new congressional map demanded by President Donald Trump designed to hand the GOP up to five additional seats in the U.S. House in next year’s midterms.
Republicans pushed the new lines through over intense opposition from Democrats, who fled the state to deny the House the headcount necessary to pass legislation. Upon their return, they vowed to try and kill the plan in court by pressing their argument that the map would unconstitutionally suppress the vote of Texans of color.
Source: Kayla Guo and Alejandro Serrano, The Texas Tribune
Photo Credit: Credit: Kaylee Greenlee for The Texas Tribune
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