GOP senators still able to block Dems’ bills
Three years of victories at the ballot box by Democrats in the Texas Senate were washed away in just about an hour of bare-knuckle politics Wednesday.
With Democrats finally winning enough seats in the Texas Senate to use procedural maneuvers to block Republican legislation from getting to the floor, Republicans responded Wednesday by changing those very rules to make sure GOP priorities like gun rights and anti-abortion bills have no trouble getting through the
Senate.
Instead of needing 13 Senators in the 31-member body to block a bill from getting to the floor for a vote, Republicans changed the rule to require 14.
That corresponds with the number of Democrats in the Texas Senate. When San Antonio Democrat Roland Gutierrez defeated Republican Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, in November, it gave Democrats the 13 seats they needed to block bills under the old rule. Now, they will be one vote short because of the rule change that passed along party lines Wednesday.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was blunt in saying his push for the rule change was absolutely political. If the rule was not changed, he said 13 Democrats in the Senate would essentially be controlling the flow of legislation despite Texas voters putting more Republicans in the Senate than Democrats.
“We can’t do anything you want us to do if we don’t change the rule,” Patrick told members of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation just before the Senate passed the rule package that will dictate the operations of the Texas Senate.
He said Republicans have every right to change the rule.
“Because we’re the majority,” he said. “Elections matter.”
Besides holding an 18-13 advantage in the Senate, Republicans also hold an 83-67 edge over Democrats in the Texas House and Gov. Greg Abbott is a Republican, as is every statewide elected offical.
Patrick has never liked the old rule — called the blocker bill — that he said gave way too much power to Democrats in the minority. In 2017, he won enough votes to change the rule that had required 21 members to support a bill being heard to the 19 it was before today’s vote.
That original 21 vote threshold had been in place since 1947 — forcing lawmakers to work more with one another.
Democrats could do little to stop Republicans for putting the rule forward Wednesday. They asked questions and pleaded with Republicans
not to make the move during the debate.
State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, reminded Republicans that when he started in the Senate 38 years ago Democrats were the majority and benefited from the blocker bill. He said seeing where the state is heading, it may not be long until Democrats are back in the majority and Republicans will regret limiting the protections for a minority party.
“I think most of us are going to live and serve long enough to see the Democrats get to 16 (a majority in the Senate),” Whitmire said.