The Texas Report 6/19

What’s Happening:

• Governor Abbott veto update

• State Republican Executive Committee votes to condemn impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Ken Paxton

• More than 100,000 homes and businesses in East Texas are without power after severe storms hit the region early Friday morning. (More here)

Governor Abbott Veto Update

Yesterday, was Governor Greg Abbott's last day to veto legislation passed during the 88th Texas Legislative Session. Going into last week, Abbott had only vetoed two bills (one at the author's request) but threatened to significantly increase the number of vetoes if there wasn't a compromise about property taxes.

The Governor had until midnight on Sunday to veto legislation before those bills from the regular session become law, with or without his signature.

Abbott has made true on his promise to increase vetoes' and killed 76 bills over the last several days, topping his previous high and approaching the record set by Governor Rick Perry in 2001. When a bill is vetoed, that ends its chances of becoming law barring a rare veto override, which hasn't happened since 1979.

The majority of vetoes originated in the Senate, and several House bills were vetoed because Abbot said the legislation is not as "important as education freedom." Many staunch anti-voucher supporters saw their legislation killed with the included reasoning by the Governor that passing some form of voucher legislation is more important.

In many of the other vetoes, it was a similar message related to property taxes, letting the legislator know that these current bills could wait until after theirs a compromise on property taxes.

Why this matters:

• Abbott is vetoing legislation that passed both chambers in the Texas legislature on reasoning often unrelated to the bill rather punishing certain legislators for their positions on other issues.

• The anti-voucher Republican legislators are being targeted for their position on private school vouchers, and Abbott is willing to kill their other legislation to add pressure.

One of the legislators who suffered the most from Abbott's vetoes was Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), who had three bills killed, all under the pretense that they could only be reconsidered after property tax relief passes.

In a Dallas news conference, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said, "This is targeted vetoing of bills that have nothing to do with the issue at hand except Paul Bettencourt is the author of those bills. "It's not a very good image to veto bills for no reason other than he didn't get the property tax bill he wants."

He added on social media that "Abbott can't have it both ways. He is telling the House and Senate to work together on property taxes while vetoing legislation that the House and Senate worked on together."

Some of the major bills vetoed:

• H.B. 181 by Representative Jarvis Johnson (D-Houston) requires the Department of State Health Services to establish and maintain a sickle cell registry. Abbott's reasoning "House Bill No. 181, however, would force hospitals to share reams of sensitive health information with a sickle cell disease registry, putting the privacy of patients at risk. It would leave the hard work of ensuring confidentiality to agency rulemaking, even though no funds were appropriated to achieve the bill's purported purpose."

• H.B. 2629 by Representative Glenn Rogers (R-) would have required certain persons or political committees to report the name of any candidate or office holder for whom a direct campaign expenditure is made to support or oppose. Vetoed because "it is simply not as important as education freedom."

• S.B. 267 by Senator Phil King would have created a grant program to provide financial assistance to smaller Texas law enforcement agencies seeking accreditation. Vetoed because it is not as important as cutting property taxes.

The vetoes only add to the tension at the state capitol, where legislators await subsequent special sessions on additional divisive issues.

State Republican Executive Committee

Saturday, the Texas State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) voted 53 to 11 to condemn the impeachment proceedings against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Realistically, this means little for the case for or against Ken Paxton. But it does illustrate some of the significant disparities within the Republican Party.

Most Texas House members, including Republicans, voted to impeach Paxton. In contrast, a significant majority of the State Republican Executive Committee came out against the impeachment proceedings, comparing it to a banana republic. The committee members further urged the Lt. Governor Texas and Texas Senators to dismiss the articles of impeachment and allow Ken Paxton to return to his duties as Attorney General.

The resolution doesn't change anything about Paxton's upcoming trial outside of potentially putting more pressure on Senators to try and appease the conservative part of the Republican base.

The Texas Republican Party has feuded with Speaker Phelan and the Texas House over the last several months, so, unsurprisingly, they'd officially come out against the House-led impeachment.

Following news of the resolution, Republican members of the Texas House weighed in, like Justin Holland (R-Rockwall), who said, "Nobody (in real TX politics) cares about the SREC or its chair. It's a defunct organization and needs a total re-haul from the top down. Local parties are AWOL. It's a mess. The good news is that they are all irrelevant and have no local/state respect. We can win without them." (More here)

Representative Tony Tinderholt responded, "It's sad to see politicians attack the @TexasGOP, which did more to advance GOP policy than I've ever seen in any session. Our State Party is a model for the nation, and that is why liberal Republicans are attacking them. I, for one, am grateful for the grassroots." (More here)

This further illustrates the substantiative disparities between the elected Republican leadership in the Texas House and the State Republican Party.

Over 100,000 East Texas households and businesses are without power

An F-1 tornado with winds of 110 mph struck Panola County in East Texas before moving northwest to Louisiana. The tornado and subsequent storms caused major damage to the grid provider's transmission system, transmission lines, poles, and distribution powers.

This has resulted in over 110,000 Texas households and businesses being without power, and some Texans may be waiting until June 23rd to see it restored. Residents are also contending with extreme heat and humidity, which has caused the head index to be over 105 degrees for the last two days.

A disaster declaration issued by Gov. Greg Abbott will allow seven counties in the region to use state resources to respond to the storm. The counties include Ochiltree, Cass, Franklin, Harrison, Marion, Upshur, and Wood.

Governor Abbott called on state resources to be deployed by the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to support storm response and recovery operations.

People are having to take matters into their own hands to try and stay cool. Mount Vernon resident Leigh Johnson whose been without power for three days, told NBC DFW. "It's been horrible because it's like, the heat index has been so bad that literally, we're having to sit in the cold baths to cool ourselves down. Our animals as well, we're having to stick them in the bathtub just to keep them from having a heat stroke; it's been that bad."

As of 1:30 p.m, Saturday, one of the largest electric providers in the area said that 53,000 customers have had their power restored, with an estimated 197,000 still remaining without power.

They added, "SWEPCO has activated an all-in response and is being joined by more than 2,800 utility professionals to help rebuild its power delivery system, including crews from AEP Texas, Appalachian Power, Indiana & Michigan Power, and Kentucky Power as well as other support from Missouri and Oklahoma. SWEPCO is grateful for all the crew members who have left their families to help in this historic restoration effort.

"As restoration work on the system continues, additional outages could occur until SWEPCO's transmission system is stabilized. Customers should prepare to be without service for an extended period."