With less than two months to go, the Texas House has passed only 8 bills this session. Why?

From The Texas Newsroom:

The Texas Legislature is more than halfway through its 140-day session, a marathon of policy debating and bill considering. Since lawmakers only meet every other year, there’s a lot to cover — including approving the state’s next two-year budget and deciding which proposals to pass from the over 10,000 lawmakers have filed.

But with less than two months until the session wraps, the Texas House has only passed eight bills as of Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, the Texas Senate has passed closer to 200.

Even if you aren’t a Texas politics wonk, the stark difference is easy to see. This year, it’s even caused a few members of the Legislature to claim the House is taking that slower pace on purpose.

To be clear, that sentiment is coming from a relatively small camp within the 150-member chamber. Vocally, it seems to be led by ultra-conservatives Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) and Rep. Nate Schatzline (R-Fort Worth).

“He’s stopping some of the Democrat stuff that they want to do,” said Harrison on X. “The price for that is all the Republican stuff has to stop as well.”

The “he” Harrison is referring to is new Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows. The Lubbock Republican won a contentious race for the pivotal leadership role on the first day of this year’s session. Burrows won that race with 49 votes from Democrats and 36 from Republicans — and Harrison has been upset about it ever since.

Now, he is one of a few House Republicans who view Burrows as beholden to Democrats. Harrison has pointed to the House’s pace so far this session as proof of that.

“What he’s done in exchange for [the Democrats] empowering him is he’s basically ground the House to a halt and not allowed anything to happen,” said Harrison on X.

He took it a step further Wednesday by offering up a resolution on the House Floor to have Burrows vacated from the speakership. In it, Harrison wrote that Burrows, “committed the greatest form of voter fraud by cutting a deal with Democrats to become Speaker.”

The motion, however, was tabled (That means it can be taken up at a later date — or not) on a 141-2 vote. The only other House member who voted for it, besides Harrison, was Rep. David Lowe, a fellow Republican from North Richland Hills.

Earlier this session, he also railed against Burrows over how long it took the speaker to release committee assignments, which are essential to getting work started in the Legislature.

“’Operation Run Out the Clock’ is clearly underway,” said Harrison in a social media post.

So, is there any truth to that?

The Texas Newsroom analyzed when House committee assignments were made over the last 16 sessions. While Burrows did take longer than some past speakers to make committee assignments, it wasn’t unusually long — especially given that it’s Burrows’ first legislative session.

“The House entered the session not knowing who the Speaker of the House would be. And that’s very rare,” said former Texas State Rep. Mark Strama, who served five terms in the Legislature as a Democrat representing Austin.

Strama also told The Texas Newsroom he believes comparing the Texas House to the Senate is what’s making the House appear slow. Strama credits the Senate’s ability to move quickly to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the chamber.

“The lieutenant governor had articulated 40 priority bills” before the session started, said Strama. “He’d been working on those for a year and a half during the interim — probably for years leading up to that.”

Current members of the Texas House expressed similar takes to The Texas Newsroom.

“I think it’s whenever you have a new speaker, you start more slowly,” said Dallas Democrat Rep. John Bryant. “He has to get his feet on the ground, to take over, staff up and appoint committees.”

Bryant said he believes Burrows being a first timer is the principal reason assignments took as long as they did. “I don’t think it is based on any type of a conspiracy,” he added.

But Rep. Bryant, who’s on his sixth legislative term in the Texas House, didn’t give Burrows a full pass. When talking to The Texas Newsroom early last week, he agreed things were moving slower than usual.

“We are now more than halfway through the session, and we have not passed a single bill in the House. That is unusual,” said Bryant.

The Texas House passed its first bills off the floor the next day.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott during a joint press conference at the State Capitol discussing property taxes in 2019.
Gabriel C. Pérez / KUT News

As for what other Texas Republicans think about Burrows’ leadership, the state’s top two seem to be fine with it. Burrows recently appeared at a press conference with Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who sang his praises.

“I’ve never had a better working relationship with a speaker. We’re aligned on so many issues,” said Patrick.

He admitted it’s taken a few weeks for Burrows to get things rolling, but said he believes once he does the bills will start flowing out of the chamber.

Gov. Greg Abbott also showed confidence in Burrows, especially around getting a school voucher plan passed, one of Abbott’s top priorities for this legislative session. The bill already has 75 co-authors signed on, a signal that it has the 76 votes needed to pass out of the chamber.

“I have every reason to think there will be even more than that in favor of it when school choice hits the House floor,” said Abbott.

So, while a few may complain about the lack of speed seen from Speaker Burrows and the Texas House, those at the top of the ladder seem unbothered — for now.

“Looking realistically at the clock, you start to get concerned in another couple of weeks if some of the major bills aren’t moving,” said Patrick. “But again, until he proves me wrong, I’m supportive.”

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