[ad_1]
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday called a new special session of the Legislature to begin Saturday, renewing Republicans’ efforts to overhaul the state’s election and pressuring Democratic lawmakers who left the state to Washington last month to block the legislation.
Mr. Abbott, a Republican, kept his promise to “call special session after special session,” by issuing a 17-point agenda for the Republican-controlled legislature with a new bill in mind. The list also included a host of other conservative goals, such as restricting access to abortion, limiting how students learn about racism, and strengthening border security.
His announcement returned national attention to a hotel in downtown Washington, where several dozen Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives are grappling with a familiar question: stay or go?
Texas Democrats are torn apart by how much remains to be done in Washington, with some moderate caucus members feeling their point has been made. But more progressive members are pushing to stay in Washington and continue to draw attention to voting rights, at least as long as the US Senate remains in session.
“I have been very clear to myself that as long as Congress is in town working on voting rights, I will be here in Washington, DC defending voting rights,” the representative said. State Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat who was one of the organizers of the original theft from Austin.
President Biden’s administration, by contrast, appeared to suggest it would support a return to Texas by state lawmakers.
“Certainly the president thinks they have been strong advocates and champions of the franchise,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a press conference, adding that if the timetable legislative “required their presence, we will support that.
The stay of lawmakers in Washington ended in a long period of limbo; their trip delayed Republicans’ attempt to pass an election bill, but it remains unlikely to be a fatal blow.
Federal officials celebrated their arrival in Washington, with Vice President Kamala Harris comparing their departure from Texas to the voting rights march in Selma, Alabama, and other famous civil rights protests of the 1960s. the group lost momentum when several vaccinated lawmakers tested positive for the coronavirus.
In video chats, Texas Democrats did their best to keep the pressure on the White House and Democratic Senators to find a way forward for federal voting legislation, and ultimately urged over 100 lawmakers to States from other states to join them in Washington.
And lawmakers’ visit to Washington coincided with the resumption of talks on a compromise vote bill. Eight Democratic senators, including Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, are moving closer to a final draft to be presented later this year. What caused the inertia of Congress to end, however, is unclear, and any federal voting bill would remain unlikely to pass quickly through the Houses of Congress.
So now, as Democrats in Texas face an uncertain future, they are debating their next actions.
If they return, they could be subject to the still untested powers of the Republican Statehouse leadership to arrest and detain any lawmaker who does not show up to a legislative session while in the state of Texas.
While President Dade Phelan, a Republican, can issue arrest warrants during a session that has been pronounced, there has never been a test of that authority when a session has been called by the governor. but cannot start because enough lawmakers refused to come forward. . Mr Phelan’s office believes he has the power to seek arrest warrants and send law enforcement officers to pick up absent lawmakers even though the session has not started.
Back in Austin, Republican members said they had maintained informal talks with their fellow Democrats in an attempt to restore quorum and get back to work. The partisan restrictions in the Texas legislature are much less rigid than those in Congress, with no division between Republicans and Democrats. Members of opposing parties mingle more on the floor of the House and often form working friendships.
“I can tell you they have been going on since they left three weeks ago,” State Representative Jim Murphy of Houston, chairman of the 83-member Republican House caucus, said of the talks. largely ad hoc. Most of the conversations were “just personal – a lot of people want to know if they’re going to come back,” he said, adding, “How engaged are they? Are there any who are ready to come back? Are there things that need to happen to encourage them to come back? “
“I sent texts, phone calls,” he said, but “not a lot”.
At least nine House Democrats have stayed in Austin for a variety of reasons, although most, if not all, have embraced their colleagues’ opposition to the ballot bill.
But as Democrats contemplate their immediate future, Mr Abbott added a surprise item to the agenda that, while unclear in its scope or likelihood of success, could further complicate their calculations: ” legislative quorum requirements “.
Katie rogers contributed report.
[ad_2]
Source link