Abbott adds more items to special session, for a 3rd time

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday that he has two more tasks for the state Legislature during the current special session, marking his third set of additions to his session agenda.

Those topics call for:

• Legislation to block the public release of “unsubstantiated complaints” against law enforcement officers, as well as “information maintained in law enforcement agency files”; and,
• Legislation related to “election procedures regarding accepting a voter with a residence address that is not current and the immediate effect of a voter’s registration after the registrar’s receipt of certain change of address notices.”

Abbott added other topics to the session on Aug. 20 and on Monday. The latest additions are updates to topics already on the list, specifically one intended “to prohibit same day voter registration in Texas,” which Texas doesn’t have. The other refines a topic that the Legislature shot down with a point of order.

While these update existing topics, they don’t remove those topics from the session’s list. Currently, the session has 26 topics for lawmakers to consider, according to the Legislative Reference Library of Texas.

The session started on Aug. 15. It can run up to 30 days. Abbott said prior to the session that he planned to continue to call sessions until the legislature passes his priorities.

“I will continue to call special session after special session until we get this Texas first agenda passed,” said Abbott on Aug. 12.

Nexstar Reporter Adam Schwager contributed to this report.