This weekend confirmed that the Texas Longhorns may not be back, but the Texas Legislature is coming back. Welcome to a preview of the latter, along with some information on SB 22 grants.
Don’t call it a comeback
It seems like they been here for years, doesn’t it?
Last Thursday, Governor Abbott notified legislators that he would summon them back to Austin at 1:00 p.m. this afternoon (Monday, October 9, 2023) to convene a third called session to address the following topics:
- Creating education savings accounts
- Creating a criminal offense for illegal entry into the state from a foreign nation and authorizing peace officers to remove illegal immigrants from Texas
- Increasing penalties for human smuggling and operation of a stash house
- Providing more funding for construction of border barriers
- Addressing the Colony Ridge development in Liberty County (more on that at this free link if you are unfamiliar with that kerfuffle)
- Prohibiting COVID-19 vaccine mandates by private employers
From our seat on the outside looking in, the presence of other issues on the call of a special session that was supposed to be dedicated to school choice may not be a good sign for the fate of that specific policy change. Should it fail to pass, though, the addition of other topics gives GOP legislators a way to salvage something from this month’s work even if the main purpose of this special session stalls out (again).
Some of these non-education items on the governor’s to-do list might surprise those of you who do not closely follow politics in Austin, but the inclusion of immigration and border security topics will come as no surprise to those of you who have completed our Legislative Update course (IYKYK). And as we also noted in that course, the effects of criminal law changes arising from immigration- and border security-related events are not limited to border communities, so prepare yourselves accordingly.
As of this morning, more than 130 bills and joint resolutions have already been pre-filed for this special session. We will read and track those changes that might impact your work and try to keep you in the know as best we can as things transpire, with the caveat that stuff can happen at lightning speed during a special session.
Senate Bill 22 grants
For those of you in jurisdictions with a population of less than 300,000 people, we have received word that the proposed rules governing SB 22 grants to prosecutors, sheriffs, and constables will go “live” on Friday, October 13, 2023, and the 60-day public comment period will begin at that time. Links to those proposed rules are now available online and included in this chart:
| Rule Number | Heading | Issue |
| 34 TAC §16.300 | Definitions | 10/13/2023 |
| 34 TAC §16.301 | Applications | 10/13/2023 |
| 34 TAC §16.302 | Review by Comptroller | 10/13/2023 |
| 34 TAC §16.303 | Awards; Grant Agreement | 10/13/2023 |
| 34 TAC §16.304 | Authorized uses of grant funds; Limitations | 10/13/2023 |
| 34 TAC §16.305 | Reporting and compliance | 10/13/2023 |
| 34 TAC §16.306 | Provisions Applicable to Fiscal Year 2024 | 10/13/2023 |
Offices eligible for these grants may want to get a head start on reviewing them to decide whether you want to request any changes. We have already noted a potential problem with proposed §16.306 (Provisions Applicable to Fiscal Year 2024) because the initial language may (unintentionally?) exclude prosecutors from that back-fill provision, but if you notice other potential problems, please email Shannon with that information (Rob is unavailable this week).
Again: No public comments can be submitted until these rules are officially posted in the Texas Register this Friday, and the comment period remains open for 60 days after that date, so there is nothing urgent that must be done at this time.
Fall Regionals
If you want to network with your peers about any of the matters included in this update, we will be conducting four Fall Regional Courses later this month in Amarillo, Midland, Laredo, and Tyler. Topics for that training will include office finances (including SB 22 grants), professional responsibility, and other hot-button issues in your communities.
Registration for this training is FREE for elected prosecutors and their first assistants who are TDCAA members, and attendees will receive 3.0 hours of CLE, including 1.0 hour of ethics credit. More information about these regionals and how to register for them is available on our Training webpage. We hope to see many of you there!
Legislative Update CLEs and books
More than 2,650 people have registered for or completed our Legislative Update course! That’s a near-record turnout, but if you or your employees are not included in that number, don’t get left behind. We have completed our in-person trainings for the year, but you can still sign up for our online Legislative Update CLE by clicking THIS LINK. That course will remain available until the end of 2023, but we all know how the latest emergency can interrupt our best-laid plans, so sign up now and complete that self-paced course at your own speed—the end of the year will be here before you know it!
Scattershooting
Here are some recent stories you might’ve missed:
- “Ken Paxton to file criminal [doxing] complaints against Texas House impeachment managers” (Texas Tribune)
- “A House Divided: Paxton Impeachment Trial Widens Fissures in Texas GOP” (The Texan)
- “How Ken Paxton impeachment verdict impacts Greg Abbott’s push for school voucher-like plan” (Dallas Morning News)
Quotes Tweets of the Week
“The Speaker is calling on the Lt. Gov. to give up $3 million because of a group’s ties to white supremacy
The GOP Chairman is calling the Speaker a ‘drunk’
The AG is filing criminal complaints against House members
The governor seems MIA
Great day for a special session.”
—Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, posted earlier today—and that was BEFORE Lieutenant Governor Patrick called on Speaker Phelan to resign. (Whew! We can barely keep up.)
“The Texas Court of Appeals [sic], consisting of an anonymous group of ‘Republicans,’ has just made it IMPOSSIBLE for @KenPaxtonTX to prosecute voter fraud. And he tells me that (of course) it’s all tied to George Soros.”
—Glenn Beck, conservative news personality, posted a few weeks ago during the AG’s post-impeachment trial victory tour in which he called for the House Speaker and three CCA judges—whose names he could not initially remember—to be defeated in the 2024 GOP primaries in retaliation for their votes in the Stephens case (link includes video excerpt).
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