TEXAS – A little more than a week is left in this special session of the Texas legislature, and while redistricting is front and center, there are a host of other issues waiting to move forward.
Among the bills now in limbo are those addressing the July 4th floods in the Texas Hill Country.
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The special session ends Aug. 19, and there are dozens of bills that haven’t even been assigned to a committee yet.
Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said it’s unlikely any bills will move forward, but he believes a second special session will see the priorities of this session start to get accomplished, which include redistricting, THC products and flood-related legislation.
“Pretty much every bill that was filed as part of this special session will go into the dumpster and they’ll start afresh with the second special session when the governor calls it, possibly as early as August 20th,” Jones said. “Any committee meetings, any votes on the floor, although they haven’t really had any in the House, but in the Senate, all of those will have to be done all over again, because effectively every special session is a unique new legislative session.”
This includes recently filed bills that would provide $200-million in relief funding for the Hill Country, a mandate to install outdoor warning sirens in flood-prone areas, and new standards for emergency management coordinators. Jones believes these measures will pass, just not in the next week.
“The Hill Country legislation for emergency preparedness, for flood relief, I’m relatively confident that legislation will be passed just with a month-long delay, but not anything longer than that,” said Jones.
Jones said it is theoretically possible to pass some of these bills quickly since there is a consensus in the House and Senate, but that would require the House to reach a quorum by mid-week.
“If six representatives came back tomorrow, they could pass all of the Hill Country flood relief and emergency preparedness legislation, assuming that they were all in agreement that it was of urgent priority. Otherwise, you need at least three and arguably four or five days for something to move through the legislative process,” said Jones.
Jones said the fines and lawsuits filed by Governor Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will make staying out of state for a second special session far more difficult.
“I think, though, that everything I’ve seen would lead me to predict that while Democrats will likely hold out for this first special session, enough will be back to provide quorum for a second special session,” said Jones.
Gov. Abbott has the authority to call as many special sessions as he believes are necessary and has stated he intends to call back-to-back special sessions.
