Eleven days completed, 129 to go—but we’re betting the coronavirus will make it feel longer, as it does with everything in life right now.
Senate committees
The Lite Guv released his committee assignments for this session and the following appointments (with related commentary scrubbed clean for public consumption) may be of interest to you:
CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Whitmire (D-Houston), chair; Huffman (R-Houston), vice-chair; Bettencourt (R-Houston), Birdwell (R-Granbury), Hinojosa (D-McAllen), Miles (D-Houston), Nichols (R-Jacksonville).
Notes: Four Rs and three Ds, but this is the lone Senate standing committee (out of 17) chaired by a Democrat. Four new members: Bettencourt, Birdwell, Hinojosa, and Nichols (although Birdwell and Hinojosa have been on Criminal Justice in past sessions). Four of seven members (57%) are from Harris County, so expect that tail to wag the dog on many criminal justice issues (as it often does, seeing as how it has almost twice the population of Dallas, the next largest county).
FINANCE: Nelson (R-Flower Mound), chair; Lucio, Jr. (D-Brownsville), vice-chair; Bettencourt (R-Houston), Buckingham (R-Lakeway), Campbell (R-New Braunfels), Creighton (R-Conroe), Hancock (R-North Richland Hills), Huffman (R-Houston), Kolkhorst (R-Brenham), Nichols (R-Jacksonville), Perry (R-Lubbock), Schwertner (R-Georgetown), Taylor (R-Friendswood), West (D-Dallas), Whitmire (D-Houston).
Notes: Twelve Rs and three Ds. New vice-chair in Lucio, who replaces Hinojosa (D-McAllen).
JURISPRUDENCE: Huffman (R-Houston), chair; Hinojosa (D-McAllen), vice-chair; Creighton (R-Conroe), Hughes (R-Mineola), Johnson (D-Dallas).
Notes: A new committee composed entirely of lawyers (but only two with significant criminal law experience). Three Rs and two Ds. The subject matter jurisdiction is still unclear, but we expect it to be given certain issues that formerly may have been referred to the Criminal Justice or State Affairs Committees, such as judicial selection (more on that below) and possibly some hot-button issues such as policing and/or bail reform.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Bettencourt (R-Houston), chair; Menendez (D-San Antonio), vice-chair; Eckhardt (D-Austin), Gutierrez (D-San Antonio), Hall (R-Edgewood), Nichols (R-Jacksonville), Paxton (R-McKinney), Springer (R-Muenster), Zaffirini (D-Laredo).
Notes: A new committee replacing the former Intergovernmental Relations Committee. Five Rs and four Ds. Its jurisdiction is still unknown, but it could be tasked with vetting various local control bills or disaster-related bills, which will be a hot topic this session.
STATE AFFAIRS: Hughes (R-Mineola), chair; Birdwell (R-Granbury), vice-chair; Campbell (R-New Braunfels), Hall (R-Edgewood), Lucio, Jr. (D-Brownsville), Nelson (R-Flower Mound), Powell (D-Burleson), Schwertner (R-Georgetown), Zaffirini (D-Laredo).
Notes: Six Rs and three Ds, with Hughes as the new chairman (a role he took over during the interim). This committee previously handled high-profile issues like AG jurisdiction, “taxpayer-funded lobbying,” abortion, and election laws; whether that will change due to the new committees is unknown.
For a full list of committee assignments, you can view them online here. If you have one or more local legislators on any of the committees listed above, now is a great time to reach out to them when they are back home to let them know that you are interested in the work of that committee and can be a resource for them on the issues that will come before those committees during this session. And speaking of the issues to come before them, they will do so in the form of bills that get referred to each committee, a process that can now begin in the Senate. (But don’t be surprised if that is a slower process than in past sessions due to the pandemic, etc.)
Across the rotunda, House members have until 3:00 p.m. today to submit to the Speaker’s office their requested committee assignments, with no deadline given for when the Speaker might release his new line-ups.
The Big Issues
While we will spend most of the rest of the session talking about criminal justice, public safety, and related local government issues, the break this week has allowed us to give you an overview of the “big picture” issues that will consume most of the oxygen in the capitol this session. We provided a link in our initial Zero Week update to a general overview of issues as summarized by the House Research Organization (which you can access here if you didn’t catch it then), but now we’d like to give you a look at what we think might be the five hot-button issues on which legislators spend the most time and effort this session (in order of increasing importance): Policing, budget, elections, redistricting, and COVID.
5. Policing
Policing reform and law enforcement funding is not a new issue, but the events of 2020 have given it heightened importance coming into this session. To be honest, “our issues” rarely qualify as being of top importance at the Lege, but the polarizing and highly politicized nature of the debates over this topic the past year have secured it a spot on this list. As we’ve said before (such as here and here), we think it is a near-certainty that something will pass that changes how law enforcement perform their duties or how those duties are funded, but we don’t know right now what that will be or who will or won’t be happy with the finished product(s). Further complicating matters, policing reform is also related to the debate over the proper roles and boundaries of the powers of state officials versus local officials, and that state/local tension—which almost merited its own stand-alone inclusion in this Top Five list—will run through several of the issues on this list.
4. Budget
Along with redistricting (and arguably some agency sunset bills), passing a state budget is the one thing legislators must accomplish this year. (Note we didn’t say “this session” because the deadline for a budget agreement is really August 31, the end of the fiscal year, but it’s been many years since a budget was not put to bed in a regular session. [Dang it, there we go, jinxing ourselves!]) In the big picture, the state’s General Appropriations Act is always the single most important bill of any session. As we discussed last week, legislators must figure out how to fund the massive increase in public education spending that they passed last session while navigating the shoals of social shutdowns and the perils of a pandemic economy. Due to the importance of the budget to every other piece of legislation that might have a positive or negative fiscal impact to the state, the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees may be the only legislative committees to hold hearings during the first 60 days of the session. What those hearings will look like is anyone’s guess, but if state budget negotiations go south during a session, then everything goes south.
3. Elections
In a highly partisan two-party political system that relies on votes to determine winners and losers, the battle over who can vote and how they can vote is always a heated one. This session, however, recent events—even if mostly outside of Texas—have added more fuel than ever before to this fire. The controversy surrounding the past two presidential elections and the growth of different partisan narratives around each one will make it difficult for either side to find common ground with the other, especially now that the state GOP party platform has identified “election integrity” as its top legislative priority. Despite all the high-falutin’ talk about the sanctity of the vote, etc., etc., these issues involve power politics at its most intense, which can lead to frayed nerves and volatile outbursts at the Lege. Legislators have already filed 100+ bills related to elections, election integrity, voting rights, and the like, and there are more to come. If you are wondering what issue might be most likely to cause the Lege to melt down and grind to a halt, election laws are a good “dark horse” wager.
2. Redistricting
Some of you who have been around the block a few times might recall Texas Democrats breaking quorum and hiding out across state lines two decades ago. The cause? Redistricting. It’s been said about this topic that “every two years, voters pick their legislators; but every 10 years, legislators pick their voters.” And trust us, that picking process can get ugly. While most election-related issues are of partisan importance, redistricting is highly personal for legislators, especially those who are forced to fight for their political life. Few issues lead to as much hurt feelings and bad blood at the capitol, which can make the end of a redistricting session very chippy as legislators pick their moments to retaliate against others—even within their own party—who they think have wronged them by stealing “their” voters or drawing them into unfavorable districts. Due to a delay in receiving federal census data, it is doubtful legislators can finish the redistricting process before adjourning the regular session sine die at the end of May, but whenever it happens, you can be certain that the closer they come to finishing that job, the hotter their tempers will run.
1. COVID recovery & disaster powers
Duh, right? When one issue dominates the news cycle for more than a year, it doesn’t require rocket science to predict that it will also be front and center for legislators. Whether it’s the administration of vaccines, the disaster powers granted to state and local government officials, how businesses are helped or hindered by government actions during a pandemic, or who does or does not have to wear a mask—including in the capitol building itself—the issue of how government has responded, or can or should respond, to a coronavirus-like situation will be perhaps the most contentious topic this session. These debates will involve disputes between state and local governments, the executive branch and the legislative branch, and intra-party Republican battles on the scope and role of government in such situations. What makes the outcome of these issues even more uncertain is the fact that, unlike other issues on this list, they will be issues of first impression for most legislators. As a result, we have no idea how these policy and political debates will be resolved, but let’s pray they get it right.
So, that’s one perspective on the biggest issues facing the Lege this session. Next week—assuming no big news events happen when legislators return for a few days before breaking again—we will look at some hot-button issues more directly affecting prosecutors, along with an overview of the initial House and Senate versions of the state budget that were both released yesterday.
Judicial elections
The Texas Commission on Judicial Selection, which was created by the previous legislature to review the method by which Texas judges are selected for office, published its final report last month. The upshot of its deliberations was that an ever-so-slight one-vote majority of the commission recommended ending the partisan election of future judges, but there was no consensus among the commission members on what should replace it. Perhaps more revealing was that six of the eight legislators on the commission voted against ending partisan judicial elections, which is probably a better indicator of this issue’s fate before the Lege than the final tally. Term limits for judges also failed to gain a single supporter on the commission, while more popular recommendations from the report include:
- increasing the minimum qualifications for judges;
- further regulating campaign funding in judicial elections; and
- continuing the work of the commission in future years.
We expect a bill to be filed to accomplish these latter three recommendations; beyond that, who knows. If this topic interests you, you can read the commission’s final report here.
Bill filings
For a list of bills filed through yesterday that would amend the Penal Code or Code of Criminal Procedure or that fall into our subjective “Bills to Watch” category, use the links on the right-hand side of our Legislative page. We are currently tracking more than 500(!) bills in more than 40 different bill tracks for various topics, but these three lists will give you a good idea of what has been proposed so far. And if you ever have questions about an individual bill, feel free to contact Shannon.
Legislative involvement
You can contact Shannon for details on how to get involved in the legislative process. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease at the Capitol, so don’t be shy—your legislators need to hear from you!
Looking ahead
Both chambers will resume work in person on Tuesday, January 26, for a day or two of paper-shuffling, but neither is expected to do anything substantive on the floor next week—although that’s as much a function of the early stages of a session as it is a response to any pandemic or security threat this year. Other than that, no news is good news at this stage.
COVID and the courts
FYI, if you are interested in seeing what other counties’ COVID-19 operating plans and re-certifications look like, the Office of Court Administration has kindly posted them (along with related information) on their website here.
DNA grant funds
The Criminal Justice Division of the Governor’s Public Safety Office has posted notice of $1 million in grant funds available statewide for the forensic testing of physical evidence in state fiscal year 2022. For details, see the “District Attorney Testing of Forensic Evidence” announcement listed ninth on this webpage and download the details as a PDF. The deadline for applications is Thursday, February 11, 2021. For questions or further information, please refer to the eGrants website.
Quotes of the Week
“We must make it fiscally impossible for cities to defund police. This session, Texas must pass laws that give cities a clear choice: Eeither fulfill their duty to keep their residents safe or lose access to all of their tax revenue.”
—Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Houston), in a roundtable event on the topic of public safety held at DPS headquarters in Austin this week.
“I do not believe the citizens, [or] my constituents, of the state of Texas want this right taken away from them, and I’m not going to be in a position or be the one who does that.”
—State Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston), former district judge, on why she voted against ending partisan judicial elections as a member of the Texas Commission on Judicial Selection.
“There’s a lady that I’m taking care of that I’ve known since I was a child … we grew up together, and I know she’s going to die … It’s the same thing: ‘We got together for Christmas.’ Now we’re seeing the ramification of it.”
—Ivan Melendez, Hidalgo County Health Authority, quoted in an article on the dire state of hospital capacity due to the current surge of COVID-19 cases.
“I don’t know where it came from. It rather shocked me when the guy told me. … You can certainly have [the coronavirus] and not know it, I can tell you that.”
—State Rep. Joe Deshotel (D-Beaumont), who tested positive for COVID-19 on the third day of session last week.
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