Governor orders new session on voting bill
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a new special session of the Legislature that is set to begin Saturday, renewing Republican efforts to overhaul the state’s elections and putting pressure on Democratic lawmakers who left the state for Washington last month to block the legislation.
Abbott, a Republican, stuck to his pledge “to call special session after special session,” releasing a 17item agenda for the Republicancontrolled Legislature with a new voting bill at the top. The list also included a host of other conservative goals, like restricting abortion access, limiting the ways students are taught about racism and tightening border security.
His announcement Thursday sent national attention swinging back to a hotel in downtown Washington, where several dozen Democrats from the Texas House of Representatives are grappling with a familiar question: Stay or go back?
The Texas Democrats are torn over how much is left for them to accomplish in Washington, with some moderate members of the caucus believing that their point has been made. But more progressive members are pushing to stay in Washington and continue to call attention to voting rights, at least while the U.S. Senate remains in session.
“I’ve been very clear, as it relates to me, that as long as Congress is in town, working on voting rights, I will be here in Washington, D.C., advocating for voting rights,” said state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat who was one of the organizers of the initial flight from Austin.
The lawmakers’ stay in Washington has amounted to a prolonged period of limbo; their trip has delayed Republicans’ attempt to pass an election bill, but it remains unlikely that it will be a fatal blow.
The lawmakers’ visit to Washington has coincided with the renewal of talks toward a compromise voting bill. Eight Democratic senators, including Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have been moving closer to a final draft to be introduced later this year.
Now, with the Texas Democrats confronting an uncertain future, they are debating their next moves. If they return, they could be subject to the untested powers of the Republican Statehouse leadership to arrest and detain any lawmakers who do not show up for a legislative session while in Texas.
Although Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican, can issue arrest warrants during a session that has been gaveled in, there has never been a test of that authority when a session has been called by the governor but cannot start because enough lawmakers have declined to show up. Phelan’s office believes he has the authority to request arrest warrants and send law enforcement officers to retrieve absentee lawmakers even if the session has not started.