Last month I wrote this blog post on the third Texas Special Session, which began on October 5. My gloomy prediction that Governor Greg Abbott would struggle to convince enough House Republicans to back his school choice proposals to overcome united resistance from Democrats has proven accurate. I also mentioned that Abbott threatened to bring legislators back for an unprecedented fourth session if the measure failed, and he has now done just that. On November 7, the same day that the third session came to a close, he launched the fourth special session to address the same priorities that stalled in October. The Texas legislature has never met for more than three special sessions in a year in its 176-year history, so the additional session is proving controversial and exasperating for legislators who want to get back to their lives. So let's take a look at the final outcome from the third special session, the bills that have been introduced in the new special session and their prospects for success.
The Third Special Session Successes
I've collected together the bills introduced in the third special session in this stakeholder page. You can see that of the 205 bills introduced, only two bills have passed both the House and Senate and been sent to the Governor for his signature. They are:
SB4 - a bill increasing penalties for human smuggling. It increases the minimum sentence from two years to 10 years for smuggling immigrants or operating a stash house. As you might expect, this wasn't a particularly controversial measure in the Texas legislature, passing the Senate 29 votes to 2 with the only naysayers being Sen. Sarah Eckhardt (D) and Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D). Its passage through the House was more partisan, with the majority of Democrats voting against. However, with the support of six Democrats and full support from Republicans, the bill passed comfortably 90 votes to 57:
SB7 - preventing private employers from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The bill follows years of attempts by Republicans to stop businesses requiring employees to get vaccines or wear masks during health emergencies. In 2021 Abbott banned such mandates by executive order, an order which was controversial at the time and also expired in June. This new law will enshrine the ban in law finally and will complement SB29 from the 2023 regular session which bans governmental bodies from mandating a range of COVID-19 measures such as mask and vaccine mandates and which came into force last month. SB7 passed the Senate 19 votes to 12; the vote splitting along party lines with all Democrats opposed. In the House, with full Republican support it passed comfortably. This time, eight Democrats joined the Republicans in supporting the bill:
All the attempts by lawmakers to pass education bills and other border security related measures failed, so the Governor has instructed them to try again. Let's take a look at the bills.
Fourth Special Session Bills
Legislators have wasted no time in introducing new bills for the fourth session. To date, there are 132 bills and resolutions in the session as you can see in this stakeholder page. Of these, a number are worth watching.
School Choice
In the Senate, Sen. Brandon Creighton (R), chairman of the Senate Education Committee, reintroduced his third session education bills unchanged. SBI introduces education savings accounts which would allow some parents to choose how public funding for their children's education is spent. It would allow parents to use public money to pay for private education for their children. SB2 provides a number of sweeteners such as a $75 increase in per-student funding for public schools.
HB1 has been introduced by Rep. Brad Buckley (R), chairman of the House Public Education Committee. This also introduces education savings accounts and Buckley has included a number of concessions which he hopes will win over sceptical Republicans in the House. Dozens of representatives, from largely rural areas, have blocked previous versions over concerns that the new system would mean less funding for public schools in their districts. Crucially, the funding for schools would increase from $6,160 to $6,700 per student, an increase of almost 9%. This compares to only a 0.1% increase in Creighton's third session Senate bill SB2 which failed to win over the House.
I explored the pros and cons of education savings accounts, derided by many as merely a voucher system, in my previous post. Some House Republicans are cautiously optimistic that the new House bill will be enough to get the program over the line this time, however the House Democratic Caucus believes that the anti voucher vote will hold together regardless. “Our bipartisan majority for public schools is strong,” said Rep. James Talarico (D), who co-chairs the Democrats’ education committee.
Border Security
On border security, Republicans have more cause for optimism. There are two areas on which Republicans lawmakers have previously failed to reach agreement - making illegal entry to Texas a state crime and providing funding for border security operations. On Tuesday, however both the House and the Senate filed identical bills and the authors announced they had reached agreement.
SB3 was introduced by Sen. Joan Huffman, and HB3 was introduced by Representatives Greg Bonnen, Briscoe Cain, Mano DeAyala, Jacey Jetton, and Stan Kitzman. The bills provide an additional $1.5bn in funding for border security and for the construction of a border wall.
SB4, introduced by Sen. Charles Perry, and HB4, introduced by Rep. David Spiller, make it a misdemeanor crime to enter Texas from a foreign nation without authorisation. This goes against current legal precedent which gives the federal government excusive authority over immigration enforcement. They also require the state to transport individual to the border for return to their country of origin. Opponents are concerned that such a sweeping new law would lead to racial profiling.
Given the agreement among republican legislators, both sets of bills can look forward to swift passage, barring any re-emergence of the wrangling that has prevented similar bills passing previously.
Next Steps
The session wrapped up on December 5 as the House adjourned without passing key legislation sent across from the Senate, leaving the Senate no choice but to also pack up and go home. Legislators actually passed a whopping 220 bills during the session, but unfortunately most are resolutions acknowledging the accomplishments of Texans. The only other bills that have passed and will be signed into law by Governor Abbott are much as predicted: SB3 and SB4 on border security. And that's it. School voucher bills failed to convince the House, as did school safety bills.
Of interest is SB6, which was introduced hastily on Dec 1 after 6 lawsuits were filed contesting the results of the November elections. The suits, based on false claims about voting machines, are aimed at constitutional amendments to significantly reduce property taxes, give a pension increase to retired teachers and invest billions of dollars in Texas' creaking water and power infrastructure. The policies were approved by a wide margin by Texas voters but could now be delayed by weeks or months. The Senate bill adjusts deadlines for the legal challenges by removing an Election Code rule requiring the trial date to be at least 1 month after the election date. As the constitutional measures are due to come into force on Jan 1, the legal challenges will result in a delay in implementation if the trials cannot be held quickly. Unfortunately, while SB6 swiftly passed the Senate 23 votes to 1 it wasn't picked up by the House in time.
Will the Governor bring legislators back for a fifth time? Evidence is that Abbott has run out of patience, and is making good on promises to launch primary challenges against Republicans who have blocked his school voucher policies.
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Cover photo by Dale Honeycutt on Unsplash