Welcome to the Texas Legislative Round-up! We are here to break down the latest news from the Texas Legislative session in Austin. Every week, we’ll give you the honest take on the news that impacts you – without pretending it doesn’t.
Week in Review
There’s been speculation that part of the reason SCOTUS pumped the breaks on the latest anti-abortion attack is due to the growing concern that the GOP brand is becoming more and more unpopular. If National Republicans got the memo that attacking vulnerable populations might be less popular than they thought – Texas Governor Greg Abbott, LT Governor Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Dade Phelan certainly haven’t.
Texas Republicans doubled down on some of their more hateful measures this week in the Texas Legislature. The latest anti-LGBTQ attack this session included the House passing of House Bill 900, a book-banning bill. The bill will now make its way to the Texas Senate where it is expected to pass easily and quickly.
Though attacks on the LGBTQ community are led nearly exclusively by Texas Republicans, we saw several Texas Democrats fall for their lies on HB 900. As our friends at the Texas American Federation of Teachers noted, every district has a process in place to challenge inappropriate books – this is simply an attack on public school librarians and LGBTQ students.
You can see the vote breakdown here:
The vote on HB 900 👇 pic.twitter.com/dWocSKGDJH
— Texas AFT (@TexasAFT) April 20, 2023
As we’ve said before, there are endless incentives for Democrats to cave to Republicans for pebbles of power. We applaud and cheer for the Democratic members in the House and Senate who work every day to represent the interests of their constituents, protect civil rights, and stand up for a Texas we all believe in.
One of those examples has been State Representative Gene Wu who is leading a statewide civil rights march this Saturday.
Friends, please join us for a statewide Civil Rights March tomorrow, Saturday, at 11 a.m.! There are rallies around the state. In Houston, we'll start at Antioch Park! We won't go back! #txlege https://t.co/WkRModBCju
— Gene Wu (@GeneforTexas) April 22, 2023
What to Watch
The House proxy vote against adopting private school vouchers with public school money did not slow down the push from right-wing Republicans like Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick. We can expect this issue to escalate in the next few weeks with Patrick threatening to force a special session if the measure doesn’t pass.
