Updated at 6:30 p.m. with news that legislative funding vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott is being temporarily restored.
WASHINGTON — An uncertain future on voting rights and other key issues looms after the Legislature’s first special session adjourned Friday and a second convenes Saturday, but one lingering question was resolved: Lawmakers and their staffs will get continue to be paid, at least for an additional month.
In an unprecedented move, Gov. Greg Abbott in June vetoed funding for the Texas Legislature, making good on his threat to withhold lawmakers’ pay after a walkout by Democrats torpedoed his priority elections bill.
That meant legislative funding would have run out Aug. 31, potentially costing more than 2,000 state workers their salaries and benefits. But funding will now be extended through September while lawmakers try to break their impasse over elections legislation and other issues under a budget move announced late Friday by Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dade Phelan, Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson and House Appropriations Chairman Greg Bonnen.
Abbott continued to make his displeasure clear with the Democrats who left Austin for Washington to thwart the first special session. “Texans should not have to pay for Legislators who quit their jobs and leave unfinished business,” he said in a written statement.
Patrick agreed, but said he did not want to see Capitol staffers pay the price for the Democrats’ actions. “I was never going to let the irresponsible runaway Democrats take paychecks and benefits away from our capitol staff who work hard every day for the people of Texas,” he said in a statement.
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Chris Turner of Grand Prairie said Friday’s action by the governor and GOP leaders doesn’t “change the fact that Gov. Abbott’s unconstitutional veto ... is a violation of the separation of powers and a disgraceful effort to hold the public employees of our state as hostages.”
Also on Friday, 22 Texas House Democrats sued Abbott and several other top GOP leaders in federal court in Austin, alleging that Republicans’ efforts to bring them home for the first special session infringed on their constitutional rights to free speech, The Texas Tribune reported.
The lawsuit names as defendants Abbott, Phelan and State Rep. James White.
At least some of the Texas Democrats in Washington say they prepared to stay in D.C. after the Legislature’s first special session adjourned Friday, and say they’ll remain as long as it takes to advance federal voting legislation.
“If Congress is in session, we are in session,” said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer from San Antonio during a Friday press conference at the Capitol that coincided with the anniversary of passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. “Our job is here, and we will have a significant number of members staying here and waiting day by day, engaging day by day, finishing the fight, being here for our U.S. Senate. … We need a vote on the For the People Act before the August recess.”
However, both chambers of the U.S. Congress are about to embark on summer recesses.
The Texas Democrats insisted that they have succeeded in their four-week mission to wait out the special session away from Austin, thereby quashing controversial election legislation pushed by Republicans.
But the clock is being reset by Gov. Greg Abbott’s second special session, which begins Saturday at noon. Members have been reticent about their plans, though reiterated Friday that they will make a decision en masse. Both chambers of the Legislature adjourned sine die by early afternoon Friday, with no bills passed in the first special session.
By Friday afternoon, some members were already checking out of their hotel. Rep. Erin Zwiener of Driftwood had her luggage ready in the lobby. She would not comment on where she was headed, but did say she “did not need to be here.”
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan had a parting shot for the Democrats, saying in a statement that “while a bipartisan group of members honored their duty to their constituents and the legislative process by showing up day after day, the Texas House could not address important issues such as approving a 13th check for our retired teachers, improving our foster care system, and passing crucial legislation on bail reform and election integrity because a number of Democrats deliberately broke quorum.
“With a second special session beginning tomorrow, the Texas House remains committed to fulfilling its responsibilities as soon our Democratic colleagues return from Washington or from their vacations abroad,” added Phelan, a Beaumont Republican.
Democrats made clear they intend to continue their resistance as they consider their next moves.
“There are a number of tactics. Quorum is just one of them,” said Rep. Rafael Anchia of Dallas when asked what options the caucus was considering. “Whatever tools we use, we’re going to be united.”
“There may be some utility to having teams in different parts of the country,” Anchia added, but declined to further elaborate.
That may be made difficult with some members reportedly away from Washington already. Reps. Jessica Gonzalez and Julie Johnson are in Portugal for vacation, according to a Texas Monthly reporter. At a Friday press conference, there were only around 30 legislators present, though they haven’t all attended every event for the past few weeks.
Martinez Fischer said the headcount is not indicative of who is actually in Washington and who is not.
“We can count, and we manage that count on an hourly basis,” he said.
At a White House briefing Thursday, Press Secretary Jen Psaki seemed to indicate that President Joe Biden’s administration would support Democrats returning to Austin.
“I can’t say I’m exactly following too closely the legislative calendar there, but certainly if it required them to be there, we would support that,” she told reporters.
But some representatives did not see it the same way: “I read that to mean that we just had the White House’s support in whatever we were going to do,” Anchia said.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who joined the Democrats at their press conference, praised them on their efforts and provided an update on the status of federal voting legislation in the Senate.
The Senate’s August recess is anticipated to come early next week, although Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., indicated that he was pushing for voting rights legislation to advance before senators leave for the summer.
“We’ve made tremendous progress in developing a bill that all 50 members of the Democratic Caucus can sign on to,” Merkley said Friday. “We anticipate that we will again try to move a bill to the floor before we leave here sometime this coming week,” he said, referring to the Senate’s planned legislative recess on Aug. 9.
In response to news that two Texas Democrats have reportedly left Washington for Europe, or that others may go back to Austin, members have said the focus remains on breaking quorum in the Legislature.
“We want to continue to deny quorum,” Rep. Sheryl Cole of Austin said. “I don’t know the number of people that will be staying on in Washington, D.C. I know that there will be a sizable number waiting to hear from the Senate.”
Moving into the next special session, Democrats say they still have options to block what they view as harmful legislation from passing.
“The most important thing is by now, Republicans know we don’t bluff,” Martinez Fischer said.
Dallas Morning News assistant political editor John Gravois contributed to this report.
