Tag Archives: Dade Phelan

SCOTx confirms quorum-busting Dems can be arrested

Posted on August 18, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I thought this had been settled already, but I guess not. Texas House Democrats who refuse to show up to the state Capitol in their bid to prevent Republican lawmakers from passing a voting restrictions bill can be arrested and … Continue reading →

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Still no quorum, and no Dem legislators rounded up yet

Posted on August 14, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

And I’m still not sure what exactly will happen when and if a law enforcement officer stumbles across one of the wayward legislators. The hunt for missing Democratic Texas House members escalated late Thursday and Friday, as the sergeant-at-arms and … Continue reading →

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Alvarado’s filibuster ends

Posted on August 13, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

It was a strong effort, and she deserves credit for it. After 15 hours of speaking nearly nonstop against the GOP’s priority elections bill, State Sen. Carol Alvarado, a Houston Democrat, concluded her filibuster on Thursday morning. “Voter suppression anywhere … Continue reading →

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The Alvarado filibuster

Posted on August 12, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Wear comfortable shoes, Senator. The GOP voting restrictions push that left the Texas House scrambling to round up absent Democrats also shut down work in the Texas Senate on Wednesday evening as state Sen. Carol Alvarado launched into a filibuster … Continue reading →

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Supreme Court tosses no-arrest order

Posted on August 11, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Things just got more interesting. House Democrats who refuse to show up for the Legislature could soon be detained by law enforcement and brought back to the state Capitol, after the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday voided a state district … Continue reading →

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You can’t arrest the quorum-busters, at least not yet

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Good to know. A state district judge in Travis County issued an order blocking the arrest of House Democrats who have broken quorum by leaving the state, paving the way for those who remain outside of Texas to return home … Continue reading →

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Meet the new special session

Posted on August 7, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Same as the old special session, at least at first. It appears likely that not enough Democrats will show up for the Texas House to conduct business when a second special legislative session convenes Saturday. Some of the more than … Continue reading →

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Day 13 quorum busting post: Just a reminder, the voter suppression bill still sucks

Posted on July 27, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I’ll get to that in a minute, but first there’s this bit of business. Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, signed a civil warrant for the arrest of state Rep. Philip Cortez, a San Antonio Democrat who rejoined his colleagues … Continue reading →

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Day 4 quorum busting post: You may have won a free trip home!

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t think the Dems are going to claim this prize. The push to bring fugitive Texas Democrats back to Austin could be reaching new heights. House Speaker Dade Phelan on Thursday said he will charter a plane Saturday from … Continue reading →

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Day 2 quorum busting omnibus post

Posted on July 14, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Gonna round up a few stories here. Don’t know how often I’ll be this energetic, or how often there will be this many stories that I see that are worth commenting on, but it is Day Two. We’re just getting … Continue reading →

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Quorum broken again

Posted on July 13, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

And they’re off. Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives left the state Monday afternoon en route to Washington, D.C., in a bid to again deny Republicans the quorum needed to pass new voting restrictions with 26 days left in … Continue reading →

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Here are your new SB7s

Posted on July 9, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

We start with the House. The Texas House is starting off on a new foot on the contentious elections proposal that blew up the regular legislative session. As a special session reviving the Republican-priority bill got underway Thursday, there were … Continue reading →

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The response to the lawsuit over the line item veto

Posted on July 6, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I know, scintillating headline, but there’s plenty of action here. The state is defending Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent veto of legislative funding as a bipartisan group of former state leaders — as well as more Democrats — weigh in against … Continue reading →

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UT/Trib poll: Abbott has the best of a bunch of weak approval numbers

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Same story, new chapter, Texas voters are split over whether they approve of Gov. Greg Abbott’s job performance, though he remains popular with Republicans and more popular among Texans than President Joe Biden, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas … Continue reading →

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Abbott follows through on veto of legislative funding

Posted on June 20, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

So here we go. Gov. Greg Abbott followed through Friday on a threat to veto a section of the state budget that funds the Texas Legislature, its staffers and legislative agencies. The governor’s move targeting lawmaker pay comes after House … Continue reading →

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Can Abbott actually veto the legislative budget?

Posted on June 5, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Who knows? We’ll see if he actually does it. Fresh off the defeat of two of his legislative priorities Sunday night when Democrats abandoned the Texas House to block a sweeping elections bill, Gov. Greg Abbott flexed his executive muscle … Continue reading →

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No limits imposed on Governor’s powers in an emergency

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

So much for that. The state Legislature won’t curtail Gov. Greg Abbott’s pandemic powers, after members of the House and the Senate failed to hash out their differences over it. The measure, House Bill 3, was priority legislation in the … Continue reading →

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More on the post-quorum break fallout

Posted on June 2, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

This Trib story mostly centers on the perspective of the Black legislators during the SB7 fight, and it’s a good read for that, but I want to focus on this bit here: While the legislation in the Senate partly targeted … Continue reading →

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So now what?

Posted on June 1, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Well, Greg Abbott gets to have a little temper tantrum, which may or may not end up in an immediate special session. The Texas Legislature closed out its regular 140-day session Monday with sniping among the state’s top political leaders … Continue reading →

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Are we headed for a June special session or not?

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Too soon to tell. Right now this is just the usual end-of-session venting and frustration. With the future of the power grid and voting laws in Texas hanging in the balance, tensions among the top political leaders in the Legislature … Continue reading →

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Anti-trans sports bill dies

Posted on May 27, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Good news, with the usual caveats. A controversial Texas bill that would restrict the participation of transgender student athletes in school sports ran out of time for consideration in the House as the lower chamber hit a crucial deadline Tuesday night for … Continue reading →

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Might permitless carry actually fail?

Posted on May 21, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t want to allow myself to hope, but there are some sticking points, and apparently some hard lines being drawn. Both the Texas House and Senate have agreed in large part to the concept of so-called “constitutional carry” legislation … Continue reading →

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Trying to make the sausage less bad

Posted on May 20, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

RG Ratcliffe walsk us through some bipartisan negotiations on HB6, the House version of the big Senate voter suppression bill, as three Democrats who want to make this bad bill slightly less bad work with a couple of Republicans who … Continue reading →

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There’s lots of room to improve sexual harassment training at the Lege

Posted on May 16, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

They’re starting from a really low point. You could miss both questions about sexual harassment and still pass the preventative training required every two years for Texas House staffers. The online training, a roughly 15-minute lecture on sexual harassment sandwiched … Continue reading →

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House passes its bill to limit Governor’s emergency powers

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Not sure if this is going to make it through the Senate. The Texas House on Monday gave preliminary approval to a sweeping bill that would reform the governor’s emergency powers during a pandemic and involve the Legislature during such … Continue reading →

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Anti-transgender sports bill revived

Posted on May 8, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Screw you, Harold Dutton. Democratic state Rep. Harold Dutton on Friday revived and helped advance a bill that would restrict transgender students from participating in school sports, in what appears to be a retaliatory effort directed at members of his … Continue reading →

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Trib polling roundup, part 3

Posted on May 6, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Once more, with approval ratings. Texas Democrats think Joe Biden is doing a good job as president, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. Texas Republicans don’t. Overall, the president gets good grades from 44% of Texas voters … Continue reading →

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Businesses finally offer some real resistance to voter suppression

Posted on May 6, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

About time. With less than a month left in the legislative session — and Texas Republicans split on which package of proposals might cross the finish line — Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Unilever, Patagonia and two dozen other companies are urging state … Continue reading →

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More on the Capitol date rape drug allegation

Posted on April 27, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Good for Speaker Dade Phelan for forthrightly calling this out, but the underlying issue is a matter of culture, it’s been this way for a long, long time, and it’s going to be a slog to change it. Texas House … Continue reading →

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House passes its budget

Posted on April 24, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

The rites of spring in Texas: The start of baseball season, the first 90-degree day, and in odd-numbered years, the House Budget Amendment-Palooza. The Texas House on Thursday night unanimously passed its proposed two-year, $246 billion state budget after members … Continue reading →

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Another anti-trans bill advances

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

This just makes me angry. Transgender Texas children, their parents, medical groups and businesses have vocally opposed many of the bills lawmakers are pursuing. Equality Texas CEO Ricardo Martinez said Texas has filed more anti-LGBTQ bills this session than any other state legislature. … Continue reading →

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NCAA warns Texas about anti-transgender bills

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

It’s not just the voter suppression bills that will do great harm to the state of Texas and its people if the Republicans ram them through. Amid all the talk of boycotts and corporate criticism of election bills going through … Continue reading →

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House committee passes its voter suppression bill

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I remain pessimistic about this, but we have no choice but to fight. A Texas House committee on Thursday advanced an elections bill that would make it a state jail felony for local election officials to distribute an application to … Continue reading →

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The opening bid on power outage response

Posted on March 9, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Not bad, but there’s a long way to go and not a lot of detail just yet. Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan on Monday announced seven priority bills responding to the winter weather crisis last month that left millions of … Continue reading →

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