‘The clock is ticking’: Some Texas House Republicans concerned about slow start

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The Texas Legislature is up against the clock. Once May 15 passes, all bills which haven’t hit the House floor are dead for the session.

On Thursday afternoon, vocal conservative members of House Republican Caucus held a press conference expressing concerns over their chamber’s lack of progress.

“The clock is ticking and our Republican voters are looking for the Republican majority they elected in the Texas House to deliver,” State Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, said. “In February I penned an op-ed I’d like to quote from because it’s still true today. ‘[House Speaker Dustin] Burrows is in a position where he has an opportunity to deliver and silence his critics.'”

Priority bills waiting

In February, Gov. Greg Abbott laid out seven emergency items to address this session:

• Establish education savings accounts (ESAs)
• Reduce property taxes
• Increase teacher pay
• Expand career training
• Invest in water infrastructure
• Create a Texas cybersecurity command
• Reform the bail system

On Saturday, Abbott will sign a bill achieving the first goal of establishing ESAs. The rest remain on the shelf.

After getting ESAs passed, Abbott has appeared to turn his focus to bail reform, advocating for the legislation in Austin on Tuesday and in Houston on Wednesday.

“This is common sense. You pass this bill — pass this constitutional amendment — lives will literally be saved. You fail to pass this, more people are going to be murdered,” Abbott said. However the two main pieces of legislation, Senate Joint Resolution 1 and Senate Joint Resolution 5, were sent to the House on March 25 and have sat awaiting a committee hearing since.

“We’re reaching a point where if your bill’s not out of a House committee, you’re in trouble,” Former Texas Speaker of the House Dennis Bonnen said. “We’re not quite there, next week is the point where it gets pretty, pretty hard to get a bill passed to the governor’s desk.”

However, priority legislation, like bail reform, could get fast-tracked if Abbott has the two-thirds majority necessary to get the measures passed.

“Straight forward, there are 88 Republicans in the Texas House who I know will support this proposal,” Abbott said. “To get it passed [we] would need 12 Democrats in the Texas House to agree to this, so it’s just a matter of gaining the support of 12 Democrats.”