Issue #2 of the Legislative Review: Doug Kelsay and Curtis Courtney
THE CLOCK'S A TICKIN!
By Doug Kelsay, - Precinct Chair for Precinct 2014 & Curtis Courtney - BCRP Chairman
In our last article we described, how on Saturday, December 7, 2025 Representative David Cook was selected as the Republican Caucus nominee and that the Caucus rules state that all Republicans should support the caucus nominee.
As the Texas House opened for business on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, selecting the Speaker was the first (and only) work to be addressed.
David Cook received 55 votes (Rep 52, Dem 3) and Dustin Burrows received 85 votes (49 Dem and 36 Rep) to win the Speaker of the House race. It was clear that not all of the 88 Republican representatives were following the Caucus agreement. It is also evident that almost all of the Democrat representatives favored Dustin Burrow. District 17 House Representative Stan Gerdes voted for Dustin Burrows for Speaker.
No other business was conducted the rest of that day as well as for the rest of the week.
Without previously having addressed any legislative priorities, the house convened on Thursday, January 23, 2025 to review house rules. HR4 (House Rules) was delivered at 4am to the representative’s offices which contained 213 pages.
Some of the key changes included in the Rules package were:
- vice chairmanship of all committee to Democrats;
- the (Republican) chairman must ensure that Democrat vice chairman can promptly schedule any matter he or she pleases;
- the (Republican) chairman must ensure designated witnesses, selected by the Democrat vice chair, are invited to testify at hearings;
- provide a budget for those vice-chairmen of some $4000 per month;
- create 12 new Permanent Standing Subcommittees;
- allow those Permanent Standing Subcommittees to be chaired by Democrats;
- allows the Speaker to refer bills to those Permanent Standing Subcommittees;
- allows bills to be killed by those Permanent Standing Subcommittees.
It is easy to see how these Rules would empower Democrats to thwart the Republican agenda.
When the house convened, that day, 21 amendments were offered but Representative Jared Patterson (R-106) “called the question” a procedural maneuver that means there would be no debate nor amendments considered and the original proposal would go straight to a vote. A motion to call the question must have 25 seconds. Representative Stan Gerdes was one of the 25 who voted to second the motion.
Tom Glass commented in a recent newsletter that “Because such a motion denies voices speaking for the voters and because it negates the very essence of representative democracy, it is called the “nuclear option”. One indicator of this as a raw power move was that 47 Republicans and 42 Democrats were given enough advance notice of the motion to be able to sign on to the motion which requires a minimum of 25 to be introduced. Yet the 34 Republican grassroots members who voted against the suppression were blindsided by the move. They had spent their morning scrambling to craft amendments to the package. I saw the grassroots members hustling to confer with each other that morning, but there was strangely very little visible action by the group made up of republicans and democrats”.
Texas Scorecard reported that the new rules maintain and expand “a power-sharing arrangement between Republicans and Democrats, granting Democrat vice-chairs significant authority and introducing pathways for Democrat control of new standing subcommittees. While Republicans would only be eligible to serve as chairs, all vice-chairs would be required to be Democrats.”
On Monday, January 27, 2025, Speaker Burrows announced that they would not vote Housekeeping Resolution (HR3-36 pages) that details the speaker’s responsibilities, powers of the House Administrative committee, employment policies, accounting, caucuses and work place conduct. Instead, Speaker Burrows said they would change the office budgets without a vote.
On Tuesday, January 28, 2025, Speaker Burrows blocked discussion on several pre-filed amendments. Among the amendments prevented from reaching the floor were proposals to:
- Require that all House employees be US citizens,
- Restrict restroom access in the House chamber based on biological sex,
- Prohibit staff from enforcing the use of “preferred pronouns,”
- Reduce office budgets if the House does not deliver at least $12 billion in property tax relief this session,
- Ban alcohol in any House offices, including the Speaker’s office,
- Mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in the House Chamber.
On Wednesday, January 29, 2025, the house met and adjourned to February 4, 2025. It should be noted that other than “No Democrat Committee chairs”, no substantive legislative priorities have yet been addressed – a full three weeks into a 140 day session!
We are very excited to report, however, that the Texas House was able to meet on Tuesday, February 4, 2025 to pass a Resolution congratulating singer ‘Beyonce’ on her Grammy Awards. It’s comforting to know that the important work that the people of Texas demand is being thoroughly addressed. Or maybe not.
As of February 4, 2025, there are 119 days left in this session of the Texas Congress.
The clock’s a tickin’.
