Lambert wants to give his district a legislative update ahead of the House’s 89th regular session, which begins on January 14. Before answering questions from the public, Lambert laid out the issues he feels will be at the top of the mind of the State Legislature in January.
“Thank you for being here. This is kind of a historic time in our state government. Coming off a very successful November election, I think we would all agree that things worked in our favor for the conservatives. And we hope that things in Washington D.C. will parlay into things that are going to be happening in Austin as well.” Said Lambert.
The representative began the night with a list of legislative actions in the previous two sessions, which he called “wins for all Texas families.” The list of legislation is not limited but includes the topics below:
- Critical Race Theory.
- Banning gender-affirming surgeries for Texas transgender children.
- Continued support for operations on the Texas-Mexico border.
- Funding for the border wall.
- Constitutional carry in the right to bear arms.
- Allowing fentanyl deaths to be prosecuted as murder.
Looking ahead to the tasks in the next legislative session, Lambert says border security continues to be the state’s number one issue of concern, followed closely by education. Lambert spoke on the possible future of school vouchers with an air of hesitancy about how such a program may proceed.
“I’m admitting the fact that I think it’s going to pass. We just don’t know in what form; if the governor is successful in getting what he wants, then I think we have the potential, not immediately, but I think over a period of time, we have the potential of this becoming a very large expenditure for the state.” Lambert said.
The representative stated that without a finalized path forward, he looks to the results of similar programs in other states to form his opinion.
“Some states are having good success with ESA’s Education Savings Accounts. Other states are now hacking away. If you look at Arizona, they are now having to cut major programs in their budget because the voucher program has run so much larger than what they had budgeted.” Said Lambert.
Other topics addressed as key focus areas include the fortification of the Texas power grid, Senator Charles Perry’s State Water Plan, and his desire for the state’s $20 million surplus to be budgeted wisely so that the budget would not become dependent on it.
“So we’ll be looking at the surplus in terms of trying to address one-time expenditures. For instance, some of the infrastructure that needs to be dealt with. But it’s very difficult if we start depending on a 20 million dollar surplus to fund teacher raises; I don’t want to be the one two years later to say sorry, we’re gonna take that back.” Lambert said.
One of the more heated exchanges came towards the night, and Lambert was addressed by a few members on the race for the Texas Speaker of the House. Speaker Dade Phelan recently stepped down for his third term. So far, two Republican candidates are running to fill the seat. Lambert joined bipartisan support for Texas House of District 83 Representative Dustin Burrows. This opposes a Republican group backing Texas House of District 96 Representative David Cook.
In a one-on-one interview, KTAB/KRBC asked Lambert about his reasons for supporting Burrows. Lambert stated his decision was based on a desire to represent his district well.
“Things that were important to me were, he’s from West Texas. He understands rural values and rural philosophy and beliefs. That’s something the other candidate does not have.” Lambert told KTAB/KRBC.
Lambert says another deciding factor was his experience at the GOP Caucus vote for Texas Speaker of the House. He explains what happened after two rounds of voting in which neither candidate could obtain the majority.
“Our group asked for a 10-minute recess, and we said we won’t even leave the room. We can just go over here. Can we just talk amongst ourselves? And they wouldn’t let us; Mr. Cook’s team leadership said no and then put it up to a vote, and it got voted down. And it was at that point that a lot of us realized if that’s how you’re going to run for speaker and how you’re going to manage the process, then we’re going to leave, and we walked out.” Lambert told the crowd.
A few hours later, the remaining members held a third vote, which, with all Burrows supporters leaving, came back unanimous for Cook. Still, Lambert says the vote could go either way depending on how support falls during the official house vote on January 14.
Though it is not the only issue, many Cook supporters have drawn attention to his vow not to allow Democrats to chair house committees, a vow Lambert says he feels would be detrimental to his district’s interests and the legislative process.
“If we completely block them out, they may exit, break quorum, decide just not to play the game. So, the only way we can get more out of our conservative priorities passed is to make sure that everyone is in the room. We don’t have a quorum break, and we’re working together to try to find common sense solutions to the issues that are facing Texas.” Said Lambert.
The official vote for the Texas House Speaker takes place when the house reconvenes on January 14, 2025.
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