How Is The 4th Special Session Going So Far?

A quick recap of Abbott's unprecedented 4th Special Session.

Greg Abbott’s third special session ended this week without many of his priorities being passed. He immediately called a fourth special session, which began on November 7. This is the only time in Texas history that a fourth special session has happened in the same year as the regular session.

On Thursday, the House Committee on Educational Opportunities and Enrichment met for over 12 hours. They discussed the voucher bill. At the same time, the House Committee on State Affairs met to hear the new “Show Me Your Papers” bill. That hearing was over five hours.

Meanwhile, the Senate Committees met for identical bills and border funding. They didn’t give the public any notice of these hearings, which robbed the public of the opportunity to testify. Later on Thursday, the full Senate met and passed their version of all the bills. And that was it. The Senate finished Abbott’s request by Thursday evening and doesn’t have to return until the House votes on their bills.

Friday, the full House was scheduled to meet and debate bills.

They didn’t have a quorum. It wasn’t just Democrats, either. It was both Democrats and Republicans (50/50). Speaker Phelan was pissed and rescheduled the House to meet this morning.

Once again, there wasn’t a quorum. It was both Republicans and Democrats (50/50).

The House has rescheduled to meet again on Monday at 6:00 pm.

Tim Dunn’s crew blamed Dade Phelan without skipping a beat, saying he was bending to “RINOs.” However, this is Greg Abbott’s fault.

Our legislators are supposed to be part-time and work for 140 days every two years. Special sessions are considered to be called only in the case of an emergency. The last special session failed because Dan Patrick and Dade Phelan couldn’t get along. Abbott is throwing a temper tantrum, trying to get his way with vouchers that are popular with Democrats and Republicans.

There are 26 days left of the special session, and Thanksgiving is in there. Can this coalition of both Republicans and Democrats continue breaking quorum without consequences? Abbott said he’ll call a 5th session, a 6th session, and however many sessions it takes to get vouchers.

Governor Abbott has ideas about government and democracy that differ significantly from ours. We have to flip the House in 2024 to shut him down completely.

Candidate filings officially started today.

Next week, I’ll have an update on everyone who has announced their campaigns and which seats are still unopposed. Stay tuned.

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