Texas House and Senate leaders are in a standoff over border security and school choice, making it unlikely legislation will be passed before Nov. 7, the final day of the third special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott.
On Wednesday, Mr. Abbott appeared optimistic that legislation for his top priority—school choice—would finally get passed as he announced his expanded agenda for the special session following “productive discussions” with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan.
“We are on track to ensure there will not be another special session,” Mr. Abbott told reporters on Nov. 1 during a press conference. “There is enough time to get everything done that we want to get done, that needs to get done to avoid a special session, especially with what I think will be the bill coming out of the House later on today.
“I think that it will be embraced because so many legislators have so many wins in the bill that will be coming out today. I think that we are on a timetable where we should be able to conclude everything that needs to be achieved in this special session.”
According to a press release from the governor’s office, the expanded special session agenda adds “key aspects” to school choice legislation, including increasing teacher pay, boosting funding for public schools, and phasing out the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test.
Just hours later, during an evening session, Mr. Phelan declared the House would “stand at ease” until either Monday or Tuesday.
“We are waiting on Senate action on the bills the House has already passed,” Mr. Phelan said. “The Senate is scheduled to meet on Sunday to take floor action on those bills.”
No additional House bills were introduced before the House was placed at ease.
Some House Republicans called out Mr. Phelan’s move as an abuse of House rules and a violation of the Texas Constitution. The “stand at ease” practice is often used for short periods to allow members to conduct off-floor negotiations and does not require members to vote.
“Today, Speaker Phelan abused this informal practice in lieu of a proper recess or adjournment, which would require a vote of the members,” state Reps. Tony Tinderholt, Brian Harrison, Steve Toth, and Nate Schatzline wrote in a joint release on Thursday.
“It is particularly troubling to hear an announcement that the House ’stands at ease' for an indefinite period of time—up to five or six days—while the members are conducting no business. This appears to violate Article 3, Section 17 of the Texas Constitution, which stipulates that one chamber may not adjourn for more than three days without the permission of the other chamber.”
They also stated they were “not given the opportunity to properly object” to Mr. Phelan’s “unilateral declaration.”
Attorney General Ken Paxton chimed in on social media, calling on the speaker to resign.
“Resign, @DadePhelan this is shameful,” he wrote on X. “[Y]ou are not working for Texas.”
State Rep. Brad Buckley, chair of the Public Education Committee, told the Texas Scorecard that the timeline is “too tight” to pass legislation before the special session expires.
This is not the first time the speaker and members have tried to force the Senate into accepting their legislation by abandoning the House during a special session.
Earlier this year, after only one day of the 30-day special session, Mr. Phelan adjourned “sine die,” meaning the members would not return to the House for the rest of the session.
The governor has not yet commented publicly on the situation. Earlier this year, he vowed to keep calling special sessions until the chambers pass school choice legislation.
Border Security Bill
Border security was also on the governor’s list of priorities for the current special session, but the chambers have failed to pass legislation.Lt. Gov. Patrick and Speaker Phelan have taken aim at each other on social media over the differences in each chamber’s version of border security legislation.
Mr. Patrick says the House version creates a “revolving door” since it doesn’t require fingerprinting or background checks on immigrants who are caught crossing the border illegally.
“If someone is a terrorist or serious felon, they'll be more than happy to take you up on your offer of avoiding arrest and hitching a ride back to the port of entry rather than getting fingerprinted or having a background check run on them,” the lieutenant governor wrote in a lengthy post on X.
“The Senate has been the leader on border security legislation long before you arrived in the House. I don’t pay attention to you anymore, and neither does anyone else. You’ve become the teacher character from the ‘Peanuts’ series. When you talk, all we hear is, ’Wah wah woh wah wah,'” he continued.
Mr. Phelan responded with jabs at the Senate’s version of border security legislation, which he described as an “impotent response” to the border crisis.
“Dan Patrick’s baseless critique of House Bill 4 is a transparent attempt to deflect from his chamber’s own impotent response to the growing crisis at the border—a crisis demanding decisive action, not the ineffective strategies being peddled by the Senate,” Mr. Phelan wrote in a statement.
“The Senate’s response to the threat of illegal immigration is to establish a long-term, state-funded hospitality program for illegal immigrants rather than deploying immediate and effective deterrents,” he said Thursday.
“They know their version is not just softer—it’s an economically reckless proposal that does nothing but pass the buck to the Biden Administration, whose handling of the migrant crisis has been notoriously horrible.”
