AUSTIN, Texas — The 87th Texas Legislative Session is set to start on Jan. 12. But this year, the session will happen in the midst of a pandemic.
Hundreds of bills have already been filed on topics like law enforcement, voting access and the pandemic itself. But before lawmakers gavel in, they are also trying to figure out a plan for how the session will operate under COVID-19.
On Monday, Republican State Rep. Dade Phelan of Beaumont – who recently said he has enough votes to become the next Speaker of the Texas House, receiving pushback from his party – announced that he has established a working group made up of both Democrats and Republicans "to review and make recommendations on legislative operations during the COVID-19 pandemic."
Phelan attached what looked to be a press release to his announcement via Twitter on Monday.
"The goal of establishing this workgroup is to determine how best to protect the health and safety of legislators, staff and the public while providing meaningful public participation in the legislative process," Phelan said in the release. "With the input from these members, we look forward to developing a plan that allows us to carry out a safe and successful legislative session."
Among the members of the workgroup is Democratic State Rep. Donna Howard of Austin.
"Even though we were all consumed with the election, COVID didn't go away," Howard told KVUE Monday. "We're going into flu season and all of this is going to be occurring right before the legislature [is] supposed to be opening. So, clearly, this is something we're going to have to pay attention to."
Howard is also the vice-chair of the House Administration Committee. She explained that plexiglass, among other things, has been purchased for implementing social distancing measures in larger committee hearing rooms.
"These things were purchased and put in place with the anticipation that we were going to have interim hearings, which unfortunately never happened," Howard said. "But they will be used as we move into the legislative session."
She also explained that there has been discussion about meeting in a larger venue where it's easier to socially distance, but nothing has been set in stone and they're not sure if it's a viable option at this point.
"Well, the Constitution requires that we convene in Austin and, on our opening day, we can't do that virtually," Howard said. "We have to be present in Austin. It doesn't mean we have to be at the Capitol. There's been discussion about maybe looking at a larger venue ... Whether that's a viable option at this point, we don't know. Certainly, though, we have to meet in person when we convene. So, if it's at the Capitol, then how do we do that safely?"
In August, more than 100 House members responded to a survey from the House Administration Committee answering questions about whether or not they would favor things like face coverings and temperature checks.
The workgroup Phelan announced on Monday will be chaired by Rep. Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress).
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