AUSTIN, Texas — Tensions are rising under the pink dome as lawmakers wait for the opposite chamber to pass its bills.
Three things to know in Texas politics
While you expect differences between Democrats and Republicans in the Texas Capitol, there are also stark differences between the chambers – especially when it comes to priority legislation.
For the House, criminal justice reform was at the top of the agenda this session. But dozens of bills the members passed are just sitting in the Senate.
On Thursday, Plano Republican Jeff Leach called out the Senate in a tweet, writing in part, "If the TX Senate wants to kill or sit on important bills sent over by the House, they can expect the same in return. Starting today. As a wise House colleague once said, 'The Senate can respect us or expect us.'"
A few hours later, Leach took the back mic on the House floor to talk about deadlines for the House to pass Senate bills, the procedure to kill Senate bills and the inaction on House priorities.
"House Bill 275, authored by Speaker Pro-Tem Moody with joint authors Senfronia Thompson, Murr, Chairwoman Collier and Jeff Leach, a bill that was passed 145-to-2 out of this House, was voted down and killed by the Senate Jurisprudence Committee," Leach said.
And some Democrats backed him up.
"Is there anything in the House rules or the Constitution that requires the House to pass any more Senate bills this session?" Rep. Chris Turner (D-Grand Prairie) asked.
It's more than just talk. Leach moved for the House to recess until Sunday afternoon – a move that will give the House less time to pass Senate bills. And the message seemed to be recieved. On Friday, the Senate started moving some of the House's criminal justice bills.
If passing bills wasn't creating enough tension between the chambers, add in the state budget. Lawmakers reached a deal on Senate Bill 1 Friday – and reportedly took out a key provision added by the House to require the Legislature's approval to spend billions of dollars of federal COVID-19 relief funding.
The budget is the only bill lawmakers are required by the Constitution to pass during the session. Gov. Greg Abbott is seemingly trying to mend the divide, writing to lawmakers Thursday:
"As everybody knows, I will be calling a special session for redistricting in the fall ... I will place the allocation of the nearly $16 billion in Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Relief federal funds on the same special call so the entire legislature can participate in the allocation process in a way that best serves all Texans."
Texas now has one of the strictest abortion laws in the country. Gov. Abbott signed Senate Bill 8, the Texas Heartbeat Act, into law this week.
"The life of every unborn child who has a heartbeat will be saved from the ravages of abortion," Abbott said.
The legislation bans doctors and health care providers from performing abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. There is not an exception for victims of rape or incest, only for a medical emergency.
The reason this is considered a near ban on all abortions is because a heartbeat is typically detected at six weeks gestation. The gestation period starts on the first day of a woman's last menstrual cycle before pregnancy – about two weeks before she's even conceived the child. That's why most women don't know they're pregnant until after six weeks, at which time they will no longer be allowed to get an abortion.
The law goes into effect on Sept. 1.
House Speaker Pro-Tem Rep. Joe Moody reflects on session
We are now eight days away from Sine Die, the end of the 87th Texas Legislative Session. House Speaker Pro-Tem Rep. Joe Moody (D-El Paso) joined KVUE's Ashley Goudeau to talk about the temperature of the session and the priority legislation Democrats couldn't get across the finish line.
Ashley Goudeau: Rep. Moody, thank you so much for taking some time to chat with us today.
Rep. Joe Moody: "Thank you very much."
Goudeau: You know, I want you to talk to us about your overall thoughts on this session.
Moody: "Well, I think the session has been quite strange and unique. You know, we didn't, you know, we didn't know what to expect. We were coming into session in the middle of a pandemic. And then we had Winter Storm Uri that threw most of the state into, into another crisis. So, all those things layered in, you know, really created some complexity for us that we've never seen before.
We, I mean, we changed the entirety of the House rules just to be able to accommodate navigating through a pandemic. So, in those first 60 days where we were almost just kind of nonexistent here at the Capitol to make sure that we didn't have a spread event, those are usually 60 days that are utilized [for] building relationships and working through problems and getting over hurdles. And you got to put that on top of the fact that we didn't have a real interim, where some of that work is done, too. And we had a very contentious election in 2020. And so, all those things added up to creating a very, I think, very strange dynamic during session, some of which we're still seeing even, even in these late stages of session."
Goudeau: What were you most looking forward to be able, to passing that, at this point, with one week left, it doesn't look like it's going to happen?
Moody: "When we walked in the building, we wanted to see some expansion of access to health care. Now, broad Medicaid expansion is something that certainly does not look like that's going to happen at this point. But there are some very positive efforts on our side of the aisle too to address maternal mortality and also to address children's health insurance. And so, those are still very much alive and moving around in the Senate. And those could very, very much land on the governor's desk. So, those are big things for the Democratic caucus and for the minority party. Also, there are a number of criminal justice reform and police reform bills that are still floating around with a significant amount of life left. You know, the House voted out 73 different criminal justice reform bills this session, which I think is monumental. But again, that's great, but we want to make sure we get them to the governor's desk and there is certainly still some opportunity to do that.
So, you know, I think the challenges that we faced – certainly being from El Paso, this is very pronounced to me – in passing permitless carry and we're, that's kind of still hanging in the balance, don't know where it's going to land. But I think that's a very dangerous bill. And I don't think it's something that we should have spent any time on this session. We've also seen some, some very aggressive encroachment into, into voter access, voter access to the ballot box. And so, those are things that I would have thought we could have avoided and gotten to the kind of the more serious issues of our day."
Goudeau: There were several bills that the Democrats really fought hard to try and stop – of course, there's still a little bit more time left. But was there something in particular? I know you mentioned permitless carry, you mentioned SB7, which we're waiting on to see what happens. Senate Bill 8 was another big one. Was there one in particular that you personally just didn't want to see pass?
Moody: "Well, you know, given the experience that we had in El Paso during the interim and the tragedy that came to our community, I certainly wanted to see more of an effort to pass gun safety measures. And what we saw instead was 180 degrees the opposite. We were able to pass what's called 'lie and try.' Sen. [César] Blanco from El Paso and Rep. [Charlie] Geren from Tarrant County teamed up to pass that bill. We passed it out the House last week. And so, that's a, that is a win on gun safety. But I think we obviously could have gone further. There were a lot more issues that had consensus around them. So, that one certainly is one that sticks out in my mind.
I think we had a debate and certainly the debate on the SB8, we were able to, I think the minority party was able to, kind of narrow the focus of that bill. Certainly, still something that the caucus broadly opposed. But perhaps the impact in the real world will not be as profound as compared to what the bill looked like when it came to the floor. And it remains to be seen what happens with, with SB7. That's in conference committee right now and, hopefully, there are ways that we can continue to minimize the harm of that bill."
Goudeau: One of the biggest changes in the House is the new speaker. Talk to us about the leadership style of Speaker [Dade] Phelan, your thoughts on him as a speaker?
Moody: "Well, I think the speaker, no matter who the speaker is, they have a very big challenge because they're different from any, any other State leader because they have to look to the body, to the Texas House to elect them. And they are elected by a group of members from across the state. And unlike Washington, D.C., that means building coalitions between both sides of the aisle. So that's, you know, maybe it looks easy from a distance, but I know it's very complicated. And so, yeah, there are some very conservative items that we saw come across the House floor that we fought tooth and nail and obviously didn't want to see there, but we've also seen some very strong health care measures and a lot, like I said, over 73 bills on criminal justice reform. And a speaker who has elevated criminal justice reform to a place that it's never been elevated to before.
So, yeah, I said this in the beginning when Speaker Phelan appointed me to serve as his speaker pro-tem, is that I respect him. I understand that we're not the same party and we're not going to agree on a lot of things. But he's always been willing to figure out the places we can agree and to amplify policy areas that can be wins for all of us. And I think that's, that's important when building coalitions to be able to understand both sides of the aisle. And I think that he is certainly earnestly trying to do that."
This legislative session ends May 31.
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