Abbott: ‘Normalcy’ returning
Governor prioritizes funding for cops, ‘election integrity’
Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday boasted of a state rising again after a year of unparalleled loss and called on legislators to enact a raft of new conservative laws in an annual address that was at once hopeful and rife with partisan innuendo.
“Texas remains the economic engine of America, the land of unmatched opportunity, and our comeback is already materialized,” he said, citing eight months of job growth after more than 2 million Texans filed for unemployment last year amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Texans are returning to work,” Abbott said. “Students are returning to school. Families are re-establishing routines. With each passing day of more vaccinations and increased immunity, normalcy is returning.”
In a speech airing on television networks across the state, the governor, a Republican up for re-election next year, celebrated front-line health workers and entrepreneurs who have persevered through the past 10 months. He called on prayers for the more than 36,500 Texans who have died from the virus, without outright mentioning the size of the toll.
And he urged lawmakers to immediately take up legislation that addresses issues that have gained urgency in the pandemic, specifically expanding access to highspeed internet and shielding business owners from litigation for employees who contract COVID-19 on the job.
“Texas businesses that have operated in good faith shouldn’t have their livelihoods destroyed by frivolous lawsuits,” Abbott said. “I’m asking the Legislature to quickly get a bill to my desk that provides civil liability protections for individuals, businesses and health care providers that operated safely during the pandemic.”
Under state law, the governor
can fast-track certain legislation by designating “emergency items.” On Monday, he prioritized three other items: punishing cities that cut police funding, reforming the state’s broken bail system and addressing what he vaguely described as “election integrity.”
The governor has called for crackdowns on “defunding” efforts since the summer, when the Austin City Council voted to reduce some police funding and restructure other law enforcement roles amid nationwide protests over police brutality. The move became a rallying cry for Republicans heading into the November election, while Democrats have pressed for reforms to root out structural racism in law enforcement.
“We will support our law enforcement officers, not demonizing and defunding law enforcement,”
Abbott said. “Crime and chaos in the community risks the lives and livelihoods of innocent people.”
Critics have accused the governor of using the issue for political gain and worry that the focus on funding alone could snuff out bipartisan efforts to enact substantive policing reforms this session. Democratic lawmakers in Texas have generally said they do not favor “defunding” the police, and Austin had the highest per capita police budget of any major city in Texas heading into last year’s cuts.
Abbott also called for legislation to increase health coverage for more Texans, but without forcing them into the Affordable Care Act, a thinly veiled assurance that he would veto any legislation expanding Medicaid, which Democrats and some Republicans have called for.
Millions of low-income Texans remain without medical insurance, and many would be eligible for the public safety-net program if it were expanded under the ACA.
And the governor pushed for stricter abortion laws and protections for gun rights and religious freedoms.
In a pre-recorded response, Democrats condemned Abbott’s limited intervention in the pandemic, saying it has led to unnecessary suffering.
“Thirty-five thousand Texas families have lost loved ones to this virus,” said Julián Castro, a former San Antonio mayor and housing secretary in the Obama administration. “The unemployment rate has more than doubled in the last year alone. And our state’s leadership under Gov. Abbott has failed to adequately respond, leaving Texas with one of the worst outbreaks and one of the worst responses in the nation.”
Bay Scoggins, the state director for the Texas Public Interest Research Group, called Abbott’s focus on criminal liabilities misguided at a time when workers are already struggling to keep their jobs and stay healthy.
“There is no tsunami of litigants waiting outside the courtroom door; there’s no problem here to solve, which makes it all the more mind-boggling that the governor would want to take powers away from consumers,” he said in a statement. “Providing immunity to businesses that don’t comply with public health orders is no way to ensure public health and safety.”