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at lone Star dot edu. Its Hello

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and welcome to the Texas Tribune trip
Cast for May thirtieth, twenty twenty three.

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My name's Matthew Watkins, Managing editor
for News and Politics of the Texas

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Tribune, and we're here for a
special post sity dye slash now first day

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of Special Legislative Session trip cast.
Lawmakers had so much fun talking about Dave

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Feelings abs and Kin Paxson's countertops that
they decided to come back and do it

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a little bit more for thirty more
days. And We've got a nice group

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here to talk about it. I'm
going to go down the line and introduce

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them. First. We have Patrick's
Fetech Politics reporter for the Tribute. Hey,

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Patrick, correct, it's actually the
second day of the special SETI yeah,

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because it's technically started nine o'clock last
night. That's right, already already

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running corrections. Off to a great
start here, and then we got to

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Patrick's left Brad Johnson, a senior
reporter for The Texas Hey, Brad,

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thanks for joining us, Thanks for
having me, guys, all right,

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And then to his left we have
Rinzo Downey, the lead writer of The

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Blast, the Tribunes Insider politics newsletter. If you're not familiar with the Blast,

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i'd recommend you check it out.
He's been doing great work over this

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past session, kind of digging into
the details of every day of the legislative

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session, and he just found out
he'll be doing it for maybe twenty nine

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thirty more days. So hey,
n morning. And we have demographics reporter

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and longtime legislative watcher Alexa Uday.
Alexa, it just makes me sound old,

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so I will point out special Session
number one. Well, the Governor's

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email this this session aged me about
ten years. So I think we all

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feel old, whether we are or
not. Yes, So it was a

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wild legislative session, um, featuring
a lot of you know, major bills

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that will impact the lives of Texans. You know, some that I've I've

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written down as highlights, bills to
ban puberty blockers and home hormone treatments for

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transgender children. UM, you know, loans to upgrade or build new gas

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fueled power plants, make voting ineligible, UM, voting wild ineligible punishable as

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a felony, eliminating d EI offices
on college campuses, toughening penalties for people

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who sell fintyl. We had some
you know kind of you know, major

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financial allotments done, you know,
three billion dollar endowment to fund public universities,

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one billion dollars for water infrastructured improvements, one point five billion for broadband

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access. Community colleges saw their funding
mechanisms changed. So a lot of things

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that happened this session. But really
on the last weekend. Oh yeah,

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and our attorney general was indicted in
case you missed that as well, So

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that was a big one. Impeached. Sorry, yes, and exactly.

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And we also but you know,
the last weekend, at least the last

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day really focused on what didn't happen, and that was a deal on a

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border bill. Something you would have
thought, you know, Republicans in this

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state would have been able to rally
at round and maybe something you would think

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they would be able to rally around
even more is a deal on property taxes.

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And that is why we are here
today getting ready, you know,

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some of us to go back into
the capital for that special session where Governor

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Rabbott has called them back to consider
property taxes and a border secure initiative.

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Patrick, How is it possible what
happened in that crazy day that they could

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not get a deal on cutting taxes? I thought Republicans love to cut taxes,

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right, I mean, as you
pointed out, going into this legislative

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session, all of the big three, the you know, the governor,

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Lieutenant governor, the speaker, all
agree that property tax relief was a top

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priority for this session, if not
the number one priority. And so it

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is pretty stunning that they ultimately could
not come together on some compromise. And

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I think the fact that they were
holding out hope for a deal in really

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the final hours of this session,
even on the last day of the session,

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when you typically don't see dealmaking on
big priority issues, I think that

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underscored their desperation to get something done
because they knew how bad it looked that

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they'd be, you know, if
they were to walk away from this regular

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session without a compromise. And I
know that they're Brad and some other reporters

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maybe fall the specific policy details a
little closer in recent days and throughout the

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session, But to me, it
just seems like the House and Senate fundamentally

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weren't able to solve this difference of
opinion on the best way to deliver property

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tax relief. The House wanted to
tighten appraisal caps, the Senate wanted to

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increase the homestead exemption. The House, you know, later in the session,

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you know, showed openness to increasing
the homestead exemption, but I think

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the appraisal caps, you know,
still were a sticking point. So it

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just seems like, really the issue
that divided them on property taxes for months

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continue to divide them up until the
last minute. Right I'm I'm an optimist.

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I was, you know, watching
the feeds yesterday thinking they're going to

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figure this out. They're going to
figure this out. They never figured it

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out. How close did they get? Do you think I thought they were

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going to figure it out too?
I was hoping that we wouldn't be here

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today having to go back to the
Capitol at least get a bit of a

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break in hindsight, I don't know
if they were really that close, because

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the House really wanted the appraisal cap
reduction and extension. The Senate and Lieutenant

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Governor Patrick said that was a total
nonstarter. From the beginning, there was

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a report that there was a meeting
between the governor, Lieutenant Governor, and

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the Speaker about a comprehensive plan that
include compression, homestead exemption, the Senate's

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original proposed homestead exemption, and then
a seven and a half percent appraisal cap.

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The Lieutenant Governor apparently wanted to raise
that to eight percent. The Speaker

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would not budge after already budging from
five percent to seven and a half percent,

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and thus talks broke down. And
so now entering the special session,

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the Governor has specifically said, oh, compression is it. That's all we're

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going to do. So now we're
basically back to square one. This whole

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fight over appraisal caps was all for
not and now at least if the Governor

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gets his way, we are going
to have just all of this money,

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you know, between sixteen and twenty
billion dollars, depending on how much they

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actually want to put towards this just
too rate compression, and there are arguments,

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especially from the more right wing of
the Republican Party, that that is

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the only way to do things,
because it is the only way that actually

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puts downward pressure on property tax bills
for everybody, whether it's home people at

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own homes or commercial properties. And
so I don't know how things are going

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to shake out. Somebody's going to
have to give on something or they're just

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gonna have to throw it all away
and go with compression, which that's kind

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of what it looks like right now, Alexa. You and I sometimes look

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back at the twenty seventeen session where
the bathroom bill was the big issue,

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and we talk about that one day
in the Capital where there were the dueling

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press conferences, and I believe it
was you running back and forth between the

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two sides of the Capital to hear
you know, Dan pass Trick and Joe

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Strauss kind of trash each other,
you know, in front of the microphones

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and everything like that. This time
it was dueling tweets, I guess,

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you know they were. They were
tweeting out their proposals, negotiating via social

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media, which is never an encouraging
sign. It's interesting to me looking back

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at that twenty seventeen session where you
saw a similar kind of back and forth

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at falling apart at going to a
special session, that being on a big

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kind of social issue. This session, the big social issue fight was cleared

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up, you know, fairly easily
and early in the session, and property

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taxes, the kitchen table issue is
the one that goes to the end.

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Is that just a result of the
changing dynamics of the legislature. What's going

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on here? You know? I
was, I was looking back on that

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dueling night of press conferences when many
of us left the capital at eleven PM,

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kind of wondered what we were doing
with our lives, and it was

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that hasn't changed, That's true,
but it was actually it was Friday,

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was six years to the day of
that which was an eventful day in many

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other ways this time around. But
I remember thinking back to that night and

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thinking that there probably wasn't much more
room for the dynamics between the Speaker and

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the Lieutenant Governor to become more heated
or more pitched than it was at that

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time, and particularly that night where
they were so clearly and openly kind of

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sniping at each other, but still
kind of doing it through legislation, right,

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it was still a little bit more
tied to the specifics of the bill,

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a little bit less of about personalities. There was no you know,

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California Dad at the time. There
was no mention of anyone's abs at the

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time, and it was just sort
of but I remember thinking like, it

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can't get much worse than this,
can it? And I think this session

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has you know, I think Speaker
Feeling said, get I'm coming through,

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get out of the way, and
I'm going to stand for what I want

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my chamber to push for. I
think the question is at the time,

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Speaker Stiles was very clearly trying to
hold his members from taking a vote they

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didn't seem to want to take.
It seemed like there was general consensus.

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That seems to be mostly the case
on property taxes. But this time around,

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it feels like Speaker Feeling has taken
a much more prominent role in the

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actual negotiating, whereas last time Stiles
sort of said, here's an alternative that

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we're willing to pitch. We're not
willing to negotiate at all on this,

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and that was sort of the end
of it. This time, this sort

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of last day negotiating was pretty unusual, but I think also showed that didn't

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actually matter that they're willing to negotiate, because they were at odds the whole

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time. Anyway. Yeah, and
the reason this was so kind of tense

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on this last day. Usually the
last day is sort of a ceremonial day.

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The rules say you can't pass bills. But the reason that that was

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a little bit different this time around
was because this idea was so popular in

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the legislature that they had enough votes
to suspend the rules and go around it.

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If I'm not mistaken, both of
these both chambers version of the versions

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of these bills passed unanimously or if
not unanimously, then very close to unanimously.

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But they couldn't come together on something
that was so popular to kind of

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save this session. And so Renzo, we go to a special session.

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You know, very you know,
people were out having their siny Die parties

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last night, and you know,
some of us were at one, and

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it was you know, it reminded
me of a scene now I'm going on

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a big tangent here, but on
the Show Down to Navvy when they were

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at this lawn party and the patriarch
of the family announces to everyone that England

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has declared war and going into World
War One. It's the same thing.

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Someone just shouts out we're officially in
a special session, and everyone just kind

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of groans and goes on from there. But what do you think changes in

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this now June special session? How
do they come to some kind of agreement

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we set reset the clock here and
what everyone? Someone gets less dug and

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then they were on the past one
hundred and forty days. Yeah, well

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it's you know, definitely that reset, right, and also you know,

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putting that compression guardrails on it,
it really streamsline the streamlines this process.

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Explain that what what, how does
how is this different? And what do

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you mean by the compression and guard
rail? Yeah, well now they kind

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of have like a you know,
their bullet point list of what they can

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address, right, and so you
know they're not going to be able to

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go off and push their own agenda's
here, right. Yeah, So Patrick,

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this was a pretty i think a
smart gambit by by Abbott. He

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you know, in the special sessions, the governor determines what the lawmakers can

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and can discuss. It's not like
the regular session where pretty much everything goes,

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and he set two items for the
special session agenda, property taxes and

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border security. But for property taxes, I'm reading from his press release last

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night, legislation to cut property tax
rates sold by reducing school district maximum compressed

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tax rate in order to provide lasting
property tax relief for taxpayers. So basically

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what we saw was an argument over
appraisal caps or homestead exemptions. Here he's

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basically saying, do it this other
way, and let's take out these two

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items that yare y'all are fighting about
already. Yeah, it's it's a pretty

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bold move. I mean, as
we just acknowledge, you know, it

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eliminates the two proposals that were on
the table that divided the House and Senate

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the most to homestead exemption an appraisal
cap. And so we already saw the

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Lieutenant Governor say yesterday in one of
his tweets, you know that it would

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be unacceptable to the Senate to have
a special session on property taxes that only

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included compression. So you already have
a divide between Abbott and Patrick and the

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Senate there. It seems like the
House is more on board with a compression

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only special session I know we were
all kind of tuning out yesterday, but

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I did see a top House leader, Dustin Burr, tweet compression in all

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caps from the exclamation point. So
it seems like the House maybe a little

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more on board with that. But
you know, it does put up a

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real meaningful guard rail, though.
Can I jump in on that. One

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other interesting dynamic at play over this
whole debate was within the business community.

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When Morgan Meyer presented HP two,
the House's original plan, you saw all

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these really big business organizations come out. TAB was one of them. I

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think TAM was there as well,
and state their preference for the Senate's homestead

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exemption led aspect of this. Now, the Senate also had a business side,

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the inventory tax credit and a business
personal property tax increase. But then

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during that same hearing you saw smaller
businesses come in and prefer the House's plan,

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stating that they wanted to see a
cap on their appraisals. As far

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as compression goes, I think that
breakdown is probably no longer there because everybody

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will prefer the direct compression of rates. But I suppose it's possible that we

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see another rift in the business community
on that, depending on how things develop,

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right, And the way that you
can use compression is basically, because

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there's so much money in the state
coffers right now, so so much rays

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from tax revenue and everything like that, they're essentially able to take some of

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that those dollars, put it towards
school finance, use that money that would

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have otherwise come from property taxes,
thus lowering the property tax rate in order

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to do so. The other part
of this is whatever they allocate, they

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have to be able to reallocate in
two years, and so that raises a

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lot of very difficult questions. Are
we going to have this even close to

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this records or plus that we did
this time? That's an open question.

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I think. The other part of
this is that in twenty seventeen, when

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the House and the Senate were at
ledge over the bathroom Bill, the House

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was very much fighting against something.
This him around, they're both fighting for

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something. And I don't know about
y'all, but the sort of legislating by

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Twitter that we saw yesterday didn't leave
me much hope about where this could go,

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particularly when you think about the compressed
timeline of a special the increased attention

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on only one issue and the involvement
of the governor, who I think we

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can say historically has not been sort
of the strongest hand legislatively, where we

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have had this pattern of legislative session
of special sessions almost in every session he's

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been in charge of that, he's
overseen as governor rather and so I think

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there's the dynamics of a special are
always kind of weird. Everyone's upset that

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they're still here or had to come
back. They'd rather be with their families.

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There's been all of this sort of
public sniping and back and forth.

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There's the dynamic of they're both having
to fight for something and someone's going to

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be seen as giving up on something
in one way or another. I just

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think specials are really weird legislative monster, and I'm not as hopeful as maybe

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others that they will actually reach a
deal. I hope they prove me wrong,

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but I don't. I wouldn't sort
of count on this being a like

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five day session in and out and
we've got a deal on this. I

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was I was a little surprised that
he didn't kind of give them a cooling

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off period, which seemed like something
maybe the lawmakers might have benefited from.

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Even if it was just a week
to just like go home, be with

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your family, forget about how mag
you are about the person on the other

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side of the capitol and kind of, you know, come fresh and happy.

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But you know, Renzo, we're
diving diving right into it, right,

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So what do we watch for in
this debate? I mean, is

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there a I mean, is is
there even really room for there to be

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that much disagreement here or is it
mainly just about how much money do they

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want to spend on this now?
Well, my impression would be the they

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would try to hammer this out kind
of the back room that they've been doing,

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right, and not come forward with
proposal until they're you know, maybe

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and present their initial plans. But
then kind of the same process we've been

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having, everything plays out at that
top level, and so it might be

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pretty quiet until we actually get to
the end here. So the other big

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kind of abbot priority that's that's left
out there, not on this special session

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agenda, but we expect it to
be coming for another one is school choice.

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It not the same kind of drama
this time around. It just sort

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of faded away. Of course,
we have the Senate kind of gambit where

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they attempted to attach it onto a
broader school funding bill that would have included

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teacher raises and you know, billions
of dollars to the school districts. That

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obviously did not work. The House
did not go for that. We're looking

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at possibly, you know, maybe
later in the year a special session on

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that topic. But Patrick, I
mean, I think the big question is

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where where are the votes in the
House going to materialize for something like this

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to pass. The House has had
many opportunities to kind of state their feelings

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on this bill, and every time
they've had the opportunity, they voted in

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a way to suggest that they do
not like the idea of school choice.

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Yeah, we we we saw support
for this grow in the House this session,

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but not in a way that at
least in my view, suggests that

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there's a surefire path to actually passing
it off the floor. And so I

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think this is one of the issues
for a special session that will require a

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serious regrouping by the Governor's office and
figuring out, you know, basically,

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how to how to change that that
math. I mean, unlike with property

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taxes, you know, you know, property taxes, they all agree it's

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a priority they're just you know,
fighting over the best way to do it.

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On this issue, I mean,
you have widely divergent views within each

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chamber about whether it should even be
done period. So I mean that is

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an issue that I think we all
expect to be in a special session later

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this year, potentially a single issue
special session later this year. But I

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think that's one where the Governor's office
is really going to have to regroup and

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reconsider, you know, it's approach. Brad. How happy do you think

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Abbott is with how the session has
gone so far? Well, looking back

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last night on where things all fell, only three of his emergency items actually

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passed, and you know, if
their debates within the Republican Party itself on

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how sufficient those actually are, but
nominally the legislature passed three, so at

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least four on the table. Still, I imagine he's pretty upset about that.

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School choices the big question mark,
I think all the other stuff.

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If he decides to put it on
on the special and we see property taxes

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and border on this one, I
think there's a pretty clear path to getting

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something done. But he's put so
much political capital into school choice. You

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know, once the rubber really meets
the road on an actual vote in the

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Texas House on a school choice play. Because we haven't had that, we've

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had test votes. How much does
Abbott push the envelope on moving maybe tentative

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yesses to full yesses in the House
among Republicans or people that are on the

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fence to his side. I don't
know what we're We don't really know how

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much the governor. He wasn't on
the House floor a lot this session,

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and so I would probably guess that
once we get to that school choice special,

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he will be more present on this, especially for this issue, because

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it has been such a pet project
for him. I will say justly,

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looking over the past several sessions,
the House has always kind of been,

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you know, bedeviling to Abbott,
and he's tried many different tactics already to

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try to exert more influence on the
House. You know, he's played the

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inside game, you know, having
private meetings with lawmakers and private small group

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meetings with lawmakers in the House.
He's played the outside game, you know,

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trying to campaign against you know,
campaign against members who don't get along

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with his agenda. You know,
the big tactic this session was to go

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to individual state House districts and hold
these public rallies with parents advocating for education

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savings accounts, and so I think
that's very pessimistic for Abbot going forward,

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and that you know, he's had
this very i think complex and strained relationship

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with the House for many years now, and he's tried a lot, and

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you know, I don't know what
other trick could be in his toolbox to

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try to gain more influence with these
House Republican members whose votes he needs for

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this kind of a plan on vouchers. I think the other component is that

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these folks have to go back home
and defend these votes, right, And

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you could argue maybe having the governor
as a sort of forceful endorsement of a

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00:23:15,319 --> 00:23:21,880
member would give them some cover going
back and you know, the financial support

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he can provide during campaigning season.
But I'm not sure that that has emerged

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as sort of a way to maybe
entice folks to come over to his side

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on some of these issues. He's
an incredibly popular governor with Republican voters,

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and so you could argue there's quite
a bit of sway he could do when

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supporting some of these members, but
they would have to if that offer were

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made, they'd obviously have to trust
that he'd follows through on that, And

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I think there have been instances in
the past. I think it was the

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PreK funding from way back when,
where folks maybe didn't feel us supported by

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him as they thought they would.
So it's a complex set up for him

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when he's trying to get these votes. And we also have of, you

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know, people in this realm who
are really supportive of this idea, who

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are willing to spend money and maybe
back potential primary challengers. There are members

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of the House who might already be
worried about some push from the right based

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on their vote on impeachment. You
know, there are some leavers to you

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know, maybe not even Abbot specifically
or Abbot you know, explicitly, but

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for folks who are supporting this to
try to kind of put some pressure on

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these lawmakers in the next few months
if if we do indeed get a fall

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special session on this topic. I
mean the other thing, you know,

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you and I Patrick have talked about
this before, the idea of like does

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is there another kind of shoe to
drop in terms of a leverage play here.

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We all remember in twenty twenty one, when Democrats broke quorum to stop

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the voting bill, he vetoed the
legislatures funding in the budget with a line

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item veto, kind of forcing them
to come back. You know, that's

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a little bit harder of a move
to defend if you're doing it around like

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school funding or something. But is
there some kind of you know, thing

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that we're not even thinking about right
now seeing right now that he might be

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able to pull, to try to
kind of, you know, kind of

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turn up the pressure on these folks. I guess, I guess we'll see

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what happened. I can't speculate what
it is, but it is true that

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Abbott is a governor who has been
tried to get very creative with deploying his

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executive power when it comes to legislative
log jams or controversies. So whether it's

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you know, the veto power,
bully pulpit power, or just the we

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just I mean, we kind of
just saw an instance of it last night,

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where, through his power to call
a special session and set a specific

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agenda, he set an agenda on
property taxes that eliminated, that took off

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the table two of the most divisive
proposals that were dividing the House and Senate.

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So I can't speculate what it is, but it is true that Abbott,

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you know, when confronted with these
legislative crises before, has tried to

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use his executive power creatively and aggressively, like I heard the Democrats feeling after

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this session. You know, I
think when you look back to the end

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of last session, with the quorum
break that came to the Sunday before siny

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dye, and then obviously they were
gone for quite a bit of time there

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there, I think it's still an
open question how successful that even was to

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their end. Right, obviously the
voting bill was going to pass either way.

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They sort of put their confidence that
Congress was going to act in some

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way or another, and then they
didn't, and it was all sort of

351
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for not Then they come back this
session after redistricting and they don't have any

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gains, They don't have a whole
lot of power, and so I think

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that if you look at the session
as a whole, there were some big

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moments for them where they used the
procedural rules, particularly in the House,

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to bring down legislation. You could
argue that HB seven, the Border Enforcement

356
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:10,039
Task Force going down not not ultimately
being passed is a big win for them.

357
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I think they would probably all would
say that I thought it was notable

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that the item on the special on
the Governor or special Session agenda is a

359
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pretty I would know how to characterize
it. I guess it's a pretty simple

360
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:26,720
measure compared to what some Republicans were
after this session. But I think it's

361
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a mixed bag. I think that
it depends on how you sort of measure

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00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:37,119
success if you're a Democrat in the
Texas legislature. They definitely were able to

363
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keep at least one big priority item. That doesn't mean it won't come back

364
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though, right, And so whether
that win is sort of temporary, well

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we'll have to wait and find out. But you know, when you are

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so outnumbered, and I think this
was a session that sort of reminded us

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that when you are so outnumbered,
even when you are able to defee things

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like they originally did on the border
bill, it come they came back and

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just added it to another bill,
right, And so it's it's sort of

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h you always have to be sort
of measured in in deciding whether the Democrats

371
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had any sort of big wins or
not, especially when you're still out numbered.

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I'll add they're probably you know they
I think they had some procedural definitely

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a procedural wins, like you said, I think there were some substantive wins

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too, Like with the the legislation
to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for up to

375
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a year. Um, that was
something that failed last time brought up,

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you know, the House brought up
back this time feeling pretty vocally championed,

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and it got across the finish line, and so, um, I think

378
00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:41,880
they had some procedural wins, but
also some substantive you know, some actual

379
00:28:41,079 --> 00:28:45,240
legislation getting passed. They sure,
absolutely, but they can't really do it

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00:28:45,279 --> 00:28:48,400
without at least of course in that
case, I mean, feeling support was

381
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probably pivotal. All right, let's
talk about impeachment this. We're not even

382
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a week I don't think. From
when we found out that the House General

383
00:28:59,519 --> 00:29:07,599
Investigating Committee had been looking into Kim
Paxton, you know what matter a as

384
00:29:07,599 --> 00:29:11,319
it had been called up until that
point, some of us assumed that that

385
00:29:11,359 --> 00:29:18,079
was a completely different matter A.
Such a dramatic moment when it was revealed

386
00:29:18,119 --> 00:29:22,839
that had happened, leading up to
Saturday, a historic vote in the House

387
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to impeach Rinzo. You were,
I believe, in the Capitol that day.

388
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What stood out to you about the
vote on Saturday? Yeah, well,

389
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I mean House leadership they seemed pretty
certain that they had the votes,

390
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:38,319
and while you know, some of
those speeches that were happening on the floor

391
00:29:38,839 --> 00:29:42,880
made some folks wonder, hey,
you know, maybe there's some break here.

392
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:48,640
You saw moderate Republicans, moderate Democrats
them, you know, either voting

393
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:56,279
against impeachment, Harold Dutton Democrat the
present not voting and so it seemed like

394
00:29:56,839 --> 00:30:00,000
I was kind of shifting for a
moment there, but then when the vote

395
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:03,519
it's dropped, I mean, it
was pretty resounding, one hundred twenty one

396
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:11,440
members of the House saying Ken Paxton
needs to you know, go to the

397
00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:18,640
Senate trial. So, I mean, it was pretty dramatic to hear it

398
00:30:18,759 --> 00:30:21,319
all laid out there before members.
I mean, it was all things that

399
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:26,039
had been in the news for years, but to hear you know, each

400
00:30:26,119 --> 00:30:33,839
member of that committee lay out you
know, the timeline, what you know,

401
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:38,079
potential laws were violated here. Um, it was you know, bringing

402
00:30:38,119 --> 00:30:47,359
props as well. It was a
fascinating you know, four five hours on

403
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:49,200
the House floor. Yeah, I
would say, you know, as someone

404
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:53,720
who watched this, it was of
course shocking studying to see that this investigation

405
00:30:53,799 --> 00:31:00,000
was going on. Um My kind
of assumption, as they kind of continue

406
00:31:00,039 --> 00:31:02,079
need to go through with this,
is that they wouldn't have gone through with

407
00:31:02,119 --> 00:31:04,240
it unless they were pretty confident that
they had the votes to get it done.

408
00:31:06,799 --> 00:31:10,000
So it passes through, you know, they unveil, unveil the details

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00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:17,079
of their investigation. The GI Committee
votes out, recommends impeachment. We're moving

410
00:31:17,119 --> 00:31:21,400
forward. And then the morning of
the vote on Saturday, Ted Cruise comes

411
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:30,359
out against it. And then I
think in the first few minutes maybe of

412
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:33,279
the debate, maybe a couple of
the exact timeline I'm not sure on,

413
00:31:33,359 --> 00:31:38,720
but Trump puts on his social media
about a half hour before that he's opposed

414
00:31:38,759 --> 00:31:41,759
to it, and so then you're
starting to think, huh okay. Then

415
00:31:41,759 --> 00:31:45,319
we see these debates go on.
There's a lot of kind of you know,

416
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:49,880
I thought, fairly effective arguments by
the opponents about the questions of due

417
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:55,119
process, how you know, whether
this was kind of rushed and sloppily put

418
00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:57,839
together. You see Travis Clardy come
up and speak against it. Okay,

419
00:31:57,839 --> 00:32:00,839
that's interesting. You see Dot and
come up and sort of speak against it.

420
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:06,079
Dutton a Democrat, Okay, And
you know, I kind of lose

421
00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:09,559
my confidence here, like, is
this actually going to happen? Maybe maybe

422
00:32:09,559 --> 00:32:14,920
this is going to fall apart um? You know, I felt like this

423
00:32:15,079 --> 00:32:17,319
seemed like such a sure thing up
until about the last fifteen minutes, and

424
00:32:17,319 --> 00:32:22,000
then they hold the vote and it's
one hundred and twenty one to twenty three.

425
00:32:22,119 --> 00:32:29,599
Yeah, a resounding kind of margin
there, Brad. I mean,

426
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:36,799
one thing that I was just really
struck by was the confidence of mirror of

427
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:40,200
I would put feel in in this
to kind of bring this to the floor,

428
00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:44,519
and to see it passed by such
a wide margin, I thought just

429
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:52,119
was a kind of striking show of
how much control he has wielded over this

430
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:54,000
cha chamber, of the confidence he's
had in these chamber. To bring something

431
00:32:54,039 --> 00:32:58,720
like that forward at such a quick
time, well, I think that it

432
00:32:58,799 --> 00:33:05,599
was always going to pass. You
know, there's what's sixty four Democrats in

433
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:09,000
the House, So the delta there
to get a majority for impeachment, for

434
00:33:09,039 --> 00:33:15,039
recommending appeachment is eleven Republicans. Because
Slayton is no the slatencyat is empty.

435
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:22,319
So the question was just how close
to one hundred and forty can we get?

436
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:27,039
And I think we saw I know
there were members that you know,

437
00:33:27,039 --> 00:33:31,519
we're entered the day at least leaning
for impeachment who ultimately did not because they

438
00:33:31,519 --> 00:33:38,359
were convinced by especially the Representative John
Smithy speech about exactly what you said due

439
00:33:38,359 --> 00:33:44,960
process. Was this rushed at all? Is there enough question here to warrant

440
00:33:45,559 --> 00:33:53,079
voting against this? And you know
that's going to spark a pretty serious backlash

441
00:33:53,240 --> 00:34:00,359
against Republican members who ended up voting. Yes, we're already seeing the messaging

442
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:06,680
out there about primaries and specifically this
was a Democrat led impeachment. Sixty one

443
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:09,960
Democrats voted for, sixty Republicans voted
for. So that's going to be put

444
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:16,199
on mailers, you can guarantee that. But I think as the big question

445
00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:22,800
of does this impeachment go the full
distance is always has always been in the

446
00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:27,760
Senate, the House is no fan
of Ken Paxton, Its membership is no

447
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:32,159
fan of him by and large parts, and it really wasn't. They didn't

448
00:34:32,199 --> 00:34:36,480
need to get a lot of Republicans
on board in order for this to move

449
00:34:36,519 --> 00:34:40,519
on. But it was. I
think they could have had more votes.

450
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:45,320
The numbers I was hearing going into
it were maybe up to one hundred and

451
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:50,280
thirty maybe one hundred and thirty five
votes. Obviously it didn't quite get to

452
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:54,159
that point, and that is in
large part because of the questions raised by

453
00:34:54,360 --> 00:35:01,599
Representative John Smithy, Travis Clardy,
Matt Schaffer, and I think it's up

454
00:35:02,039 --> 00:35:09,320
Republican leadership could have solidified up many
of those no votes if they had maybe

455
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:15,880
not done it. Announced it the
week of the impeachment vote. Patrick,

456
00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:21,239
we knew. We've known, basically, you know, since right after he

457
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:25,119
was elected that Kin Paxon had been
under indictment for securities fraud felony indictment.

458
00:35:25,639 --> 00:35:32,320
We've known since twenty twenty that his
top deputies have accused him of bribery,

459
00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:38,480
of an inappropriate relationship with Nate Paul, an Austin developer. M None of

460
00:35:38,519 --> 00:35:42,880
this was new, None of this, every all of pretty much all of

461
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:45,920
this. There were a few things
home set exemptions that he you know,

462
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:49,480
may have had on two houses,
but you know, the meat of this

463
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:57,239
impeachment. Everything was known during the
twenty twenty one session. Why was this

464
00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:00,639
rushed? Why why did we end
up doing this in one week? You

465
00:36:00,679 --> 00:36:02,480
know, at the end of the
session why, I mean, the question

466
00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:06,440
I guess is why now, why
is this finally kind of coming well?

467
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:08,719
I mean, and in the words
of House leadership, you know, they're

468
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:15,760
insisting that this was caused by his
u taxpayer funded settlement with the whistleblowers that

469
00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:19,239
he pursued with the legislature earlier this
year. As part of that process,

470
00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:22,280
he had to come to the legislature
and ask them to authorize the use of

471
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:27,599
state funds to pay for that settlement. Um. The legislature, including the

472
00:36:27,639 --> 00:36:31,559
Speaker, Dad feeling almost immediately balked
at that request, you know, expressing

473
00:36:31,599 --> 00:36:36,840
unease with using taxpayer dollars to um, you know, settle this matter.

474
00:36:37,199 --> 00:36:39,440
And so basically the House has said, you know, that gave us the

475
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:45,559
opening to further scrutinize this range of
issues arounding you know that led up to

476
00:36:45,199 --> 00:36:49,800
um, you know, the settlement
itself. So you know, that is

477
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:53,800
their public account of of why they
chose of why you know, um we

478
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:59,239
got to this point. Um.
You know, but they clearly, as

479
00:36:59,239 --> 00:37:00,800
far as I know, they're nothing
in the law that says that they have

480
00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:06,519
to you know, conducted this level
of an investigation that leads to articles of

481
00:37:06,559 --> 00:37:10,639
impeachment. Um, you know,
I think they clearly seized a jurisdictional opening

482
00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:17,159
to try to hold this member of
their party accountable once and for all.

483
00:37:17,679 --> 00:37:21,800
And as we've said, he's already
very unpopular in the Texas House. He

484
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:24,039
you know, was a former member
of the Texas House. He was part

485
00:37:24,039 --> 00:37:28,360
of the rabble rousing you know wing
of the Texas House when he was there,

486
00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:30,800
you know, and is continued,
I think, not to be a

487
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:35,519
popular figure among the ranks of Texas
House Republicans. And so, like I

488
00:37:35,519 --> 00:37:38,440
said, I mean, I think
they seized a jurisdictional and oversight opportunity to

489
00:37:38,559 --> 00:37:44,000
move forward with something, you know, pretty pretty striking. House members have

490
00:37:44,239 --> 00:37:45,920
kind of taken pains to make clear
that, you know, this is a

491
00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:51,800
political process. They have. I've
seen kind of the words the statement a

492
00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:53,679
few times since the voter, and
even before the vote. This is not

493
00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:59,159
about punishing Kinpacts, and it's about
protecting the state of Texas. But it

494
00:37:59,199 --> 00:38:02,039
goes to the Senate where it is
a more kind of formal trial, Right,

495
00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:07,559
Alexa, help us game out what
this looks like in the Senate.

496
00:38:07,599 --> 00:38:12,960
Is there any chance of the Senate
actually voting to convict in this, I

497
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:20,039
think it's really hard to even predict, given the sort of untreated waters we

498
00:38:20,159 --> 00:38:23,159
are in right now. I think
by default you might think, Okay,

499
00:38:23,199 --> 00:38:28,360
well, the Senate is more conservative. You know, there were the same

500
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:32,559
people who were raising issues about due
process and how quickly it went in the

501
00:38:32,599 --> 00:38:37,320
House. We're hoping that the Senate
would almost do this immediately and quickly and

502
00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:40,320
get through it very very quickly,
which I found sort of an interesting and

503
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:45,239
kind of opposing arguments even within themselves. But I don't think you can look

504
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:51,400
at the Senate and not see that
there maybe are allies or people who maybe

505
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:57,039
at least may be more aligned with
the sort of Paxton faction of the Republican

506
00:38:57,079 --> 00:39:00,079
Party and then with him personally as
well. And obviously there is a component

507
00:39:00,199 --> 00:39:07,719
of Senator Angela Paxton being in the
chamber and questions about will she recuse herself

508
00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:10,320
from the process, does the law
even allow for that? And if she

509
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:15,559
does, what does that do for
his margins in terms of that two thirds

510
00:39:15,679 --> 00:39:17,960
vote he's going to be up against. At the end of all of this,

511
00:39:19,079 --> 00:39:23,119
I mean, it's we are headed
into a lot of unknowns. I

512
00:39:23,119 --> 00:39:28,239
think there's a lot about the Senate
that works sort of really theatrically, like

513
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:31,159
everything is almost scripted. There's not
a vote that comes up without the Lieutenant

514
00:39:31,199 --> 00:39:35,599
Governor being almost sure of what that
vote is. They don't even do the

515
00:39:35,639 --> 00:39:38,719
whole rold call because they already know
the votes before they even cast them in

516
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:43,719
some ways. And so it will
be the unopening for the Senate to,

517
00:39:44,639 --> 00:39:49,320
you know, possibly even go off
script in the contrast to how the Chamber

518
00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:52,840
usually operates. And I guess the
question is how much room is there for

519
00:39:54,519 --> 00:40:00,960
some tension and maybe some surprises there
as they take up this matter. Dan

520
00:40:01,079 --> 00:40:07,039
Patrick, you know, in the
comments prior to this event, he's he's

521
00:40:07,039 --> 00:40:10,199
actually giving a kind of talk right
now. So I don't know, Patrick,

522
00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:19,920
have you seen all right, that's
mostly been criticizing the speaker, So

523
00:40:20,119 --> 00:40:22,519
yeah, exactly. Um, but
you know, so the comments that he

524
00:40:22,559 --> 00:40:25,639
has given have largely been you know, we're going to be fair and all

525
00:40:25,679 --> 00:40:32,039
this and everything like that. I
mean, where do how do Dan Patrick

526
00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:37,239
and also Greg Abbott kind of fit
into this? You know, during the

527
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:40,360
trial, in the run up to
the trial, both politically and just in

528
00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:45,079
terms of Paxson's future. Well,
Patrick doesn't have a vote in the in

529
00:40:45,119 --> 00:40:52,039
the Senate trial, but it is
true that he wields tremendous influence with the

530
00:40:52,159 --> 00:40:57,119
entire chamber and especially with the Republicans
in the chamber. And so I do

531
00:40:57,199 --> 00:41:02,400
think that Republican senators, whether privately
republic you know, maybe not looking to

532
00:41:02,599 --> 00:41:07,760
but would be receptive to cuse from
the Lieutenant Governor about his views on this.

533
00:41:08,199 --> 00:41:10,599
And so, you know, I
think he looms large just because of

534
00:41:10,719 --> 00:41:15,480
his influence over the body, just
just politically, not constitutionally in this case.

535
00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:22,440
So that's one thing. And where
Abbott stands on this is uh,

536
00:41:22,639 --> 00:41:25,480
you know, he's been totally silent
on this matter ever since it came up,

537
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:30,280
hasn't commented on it at all.
Under the Constitution, he has the

538
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:37,440
choice to appoint a temporary intern attorney
general. In this instance, he has

539
00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:42,480
so far not announced any appointment,
and that appointment is fraught with all kinds

540
00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:47,159
of political considerations because under the Constitution
it's just a choice he has. He's

541
00:41:47,199 --> 00:41:51,360
not required to do it. He
could be viewed as putting his finger on

542
00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:53,480
the scale just by the act of
appointing someone. You know, I think

543
00:41:53,519 --> 00:42:00,320
that I saw you know, some
chatter from Paxton supporters on Saturday or Saturday

544
00:42:00,679 --> 00:42:05,280
that you know, if Abbott does
choose to appoint a temporary age, they

545
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:08,440
view that as basically, you know, an endorsement of the impeachment in some

546
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:15,719
ways. So it's really politically tricky
for him. And while you know,

547
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:19,760
we're pressing him for answers and trying
our best, you know, the political

548
00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:22,559
you know, just speaking in terms
of politics right now, the incentive for

549
00:42:22,599 --> 00:42:25,239
him to get involved in this right
now is is pretty low. All Right,

550
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:29,760
We're getting close to the time where
folks can ask questions if they have

551
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:31,119
them. We've got a microphone up
here. But while we're waiting on that,

552
00:42:31,199 --> 00:42:36,519
Rinzo, I just want to ask
to do you think the focus on

553
00:42:36,559 --> 00:42:39,519
this in the last week played a
role at all in hampering the ability to

554
00:42:39,519 --> 00:42:44,679
get some of these other priorities done. Did it distract or take up time

555
00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:49,280
that might have been spent getting for
instance, property taxes across? Yeah,

556
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:53,519
I think there's potential. I think
there's some you know, possibility of that

557
00:42:53,599 --> 00:42:57,320
early on that like, hey,
there might be some tit for tat here.

558
00:42:57,679 --> 00:43:00,239
You might see some house priorities go
down. Might see some Senate parties

559
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:06,719
go down depending on how this timeline
plays out. But ultimately, I mean

560
00:43:06,719 --> 00:43:10,079
it took up, you know,
forty eight hours. I'm not sure forty

561
00:43:10,079 --> 00:43:16,719
eight hours really made the difference over
the course of this session. And I

562
00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:22,599
mean, yeah, ultimately, I
don't think it. I think everything was

563
00:43:22,639 --> 00:43:24,880
kind of set in stone. Nothing
was really going to budge beyond what it

564
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:31,440
did. All right, Very good
everyone. I'm sewell Chan with the Texas

565
00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:34,960
Tribute and thank you all so much
for coming and welcome Brad, thanks for

566
00:43:35,039 --> 00:43:39,119
joining us. Of all the issues
that got of all the legislation that got

567
00:43:39,159 --> 00:43:44,440
passed during this session, which do
you think will actually have the most impact

568
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:49,280
on the lives of Texas is thirty
million people? And in all ways,

569
00:43:52,119 --> 00:43:57,679
I think the biggest one will be
HB two and two seven, the preemption

570
00:43:57,719 --> 00:44:02,679
bill. You know, the long
running feud between municipalities, especially the big

571
00:44:02,679 --> 00:44:08,480
blue ones, and the Republican state
legislature. You know, the state created

572
00:44:08,519 --> 00:44:15,920
these municipalities, and so Republicans and
the legislature have the viewpoint that what they

573
00:44:15,960 --> 00:44:20,800
gave they can take away, and
especially in regards to a lot of these

574
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:27,880
very progressive regulations that are passed in
Dallas, Austin, Houston, San Antonio,

575
00:44:28,920 --> 00:44:35,119
and the jup legislature is tired of, you know, swatting down each

576
00:44:35,159 --> 00:44:38,159
one individually, and so they've taken
this field preemption approach. Now on the

577
00:44:38,159 --> 00:44:44,199
flip side, these municipalities believe it
is a breach of their local control,

578
00:44:44,239 --> 00:44:49,320
their ability to run their own affairs, and that debate will not end.

579
00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:54,280
It has gone on forever, you
know, even when parties were flipped generally

580
00:44:54,400 --> 00:45:00,679
and the Democrats controlled the legislature.
There's just always that natural tension because local

581
00:45:00,679 --> 00:45:04,639
officials want to do what they want
to do and the state legislature wants to

582
00:45:04,679 --> 00:45:07,639
do what it wants to do.
So that one will really have an effect

583
00:45:07,639 --> 00:45:13,079
on the everyday lives of Texans.
Whichever way you fall on the merits of

584
00:45:13,119 --> 00:45:22,159
the issue, these local regulations impact
businesses a lot more pointedly than say,

585
00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:28,360
just broader state policy does. But
now those regulations in nine sections of code

586
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:31,159
lists, remember it's not the entire
the entire code now have to be in

587
00:45:31,239 --> 00:45:37,960
line with what the state legislature lays
out. So that was a pretty big

588
00:45:40,239 --> 00:45:45,239
changing of the guard in the way
we approach this local government versus state government

589
00:45:45,239 --> 00:45:49,800
issue. I would also just set
the budget. You know, of course

590
00:45:49,840 --> 00:45:52,920
that's kind of an obvious and not
very financer, but you know, spending,

591
00:45:53,039 --> 00:45:59,599
you know, those those billions of
dollars will impact things across But you

592
00:45:59,639 --> 00:46:01,079
know that some of the things I
mentioned at the beginning, the three billion

593
00:46:01,119 --> 00:46:07,599
dollars towards public university endowments at the
non kind of ut and A and M

594
00:46:07,679 --> 00:46:13,599
kind of system flagship schools, the
you know, one point five billion dollars

595
00:46:13,599 --> 00:46:17,199
to expand broadband access, one point
one billion dollars on water infrastructure improvements,

596
00:46:17,559 --> 00:46:23,079
the changing how we fund community colleges
will have real world impacts. I think

597
00:46:23,119 --> 00:46:28,400
there are questions, you know,
those those dollars aren't going to cover every

598
00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:31,000
need to you know, get everyone
broadband access in the state, or or

599
00:46:31,119 --> 00:46:36,000
protect our water infrastructure fully to the
extent that it needs. But it's a

600
00:46:36,119 --> 00:46:39,079
very significant investment and one that you
know, sort of kind of went under

601
00:46:39,119 --> 00:46:45,880
the radar because there wasn't as much
fighting about it, right there was people

602
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:50,199
you know in both parties broadly supportive
of it, and you know, a

603
00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:52,480
considerable amount of money to go around
to help pay for those things. At

604
00:46:52,480 --> 00:46:58,559
this time, all right, we
have another question here. Yeah, Hya,

605
00:46:58,679 --> 00:47:01,119
my name's Claire. I'd be curious
to hear more about gun violence in

606
00:47:01,159 --> 00:47:05,440
Texas. You've all day just celebrated
there, We're not celebrated. It marked

607
00:47:05,480 --> 00:47:08,280
their one year anniversary of the rob
Elementary shooting Santa Fe, the five year

608
00:47:08,400 --> 00:47:13,440
shooting at the high school, we
had the Allan shooting. What did or

609
00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:16,360
didn't happen? And do you think
government Abbott would ever call a special session

610
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:22,400
to address gun violence in Texas or
what would it take for that to happen.

611
00:47:22,719 --> 00:47:25,400
I think going into the session we
knew that politically, you know,

612
00:47:27,159 --> 00:47:32,760
the prospects for proposals to you know, offer new gun restrictions it was pretty

613
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:37,920
bleak, and you know, unfortunately
for people for pushing for that, I

614
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:40,239
think their expectations were met this session. I think they did have a huge

615
00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:45,920
win. Again that didn't result in
legislation getting across the finish line. But

616
00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:52,199
I think everyone on this stage was
probably surprised when the House Committee voted out

617
00:47:52,239 --> 00:47:59,280
the proposal to raise the age for
certain salt style rifles. I think that

618
00:47:59,360 --> 00:48:01,400
came I don't know, final two
months of the session or something like that,

619
00:48:02,679 --> 00:48:07,159
you know, but of course to
people pushing for change that wasn't the

620
00:48:07,159 --> 00:48:10,320
passage of legislation. That was just
more or less a procedural victory. And

621
00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:19,480
so, you know, I do
think that the legislature again declined to heed

622
00:48:19,519 --> 00:48:23,000
the calls for new restrictions on guns. And whether Abbott will whatever call a

623
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:28,639
special session on that, I don't
think that's that's likely. He's repeatedly resisted

624
00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:32,960
those calls over the years. So
you know, they're going to continue to

625
00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:36,920
do what they did this past session, which is focused on the concept of

626
00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:42,559
what they call school safety, which
is providing more funds to harden schools,

627
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:50,400
to have armed security on campuses,
you know, and to focus on increasing

628
00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:52,920
mental health resources at schools. I
expect that to be That was the main

629
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:57,280
approach this session, and I expect
that to be the approach going forward to

630
00:48:57,280 --> 00:49:00,400
the extent there is an approach.
One of the bigger reasons why the Republican

631
00:49:00,480 --> 00:49:06,440
legislature, other than just opposing a
raise the age in idea for them passing

632
00:49:06,719 --> 00:49:10,639
legislation, is the courts court.
Recent court rulings are very much against that

633
00:49:12,639 --> 00:49:19,239
possibility. We saw the constitutional carry
law that was originally limited only to twenty

634
00:49:19,239 --> 00:49:23,360
one and up, but a ruling
in a district court in Texas said that

635
00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:27,880
that has to be extended to all
adults eighteen and up. So the same

636
00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:30,920
dynamics at play there. Now you
have a conservative Supreme Court. So if

637
00:49:30,920 --> 00:49:34,960
that issue were to ever get all
the way up there, it's chances are

638
00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:38,079
slim denone, I think, but
represented Dustin Burrows when asked about it.

639
00:49:38,239 --> 00:49:44,280
Governor Abbott, when asked about it, cited that the court rulings as a

640
00:49:44,320 --> 00:49:47,320
really big reason why it's just a
non starter to them. You know,

641
00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:54,519
we did not see a aggressive expansion
of gun rights this session, you know,

642
00:49:55,039 --> 00:49:58,280
and maybe that's because they've kind of
run out of things to do,

643
00:49:58,360 --> 00:50:01,280
but you know, and twenty twenty
one we had the permit list carry,

644
00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:07,320
which was a big major we've we've
had um campus kerry in recent years too,

645
00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:12,760
Like it did seem that we used
to have a big gun bill every

646
00:50:12,800 --> 00:50:15,280
session. And again like maybe there's
there's not any more meat left on that

647
00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:21,519
bone, but we didn't really see
any kind of major legislation along. Yeah,

648
00:50:21,519 --> 00:50:23,159
I mean the two points on that, I there's not much left to

649
00:50:23,199 --> 00:50:27,239
do. And if you look at
the national conversation, what you know,

650
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:31,519
gun rights advocates are pushing for Texas
has at this point done most of it.

651
00:50:32,039 --> 00:50:36,280
Of course, there's groups that can
always find ways to push the envelope,

652
00:50:36,280 --> 00:50:38,320
but I think there's not much left
to do. And number two Republican

653
00:50:38,400 --> 00:50:43,800
leaders in Texas and know that it's
politically an unpopular issue. It's why you

654
00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:46,599
saw Abbott try to avoid the issue
of guns as much as possible in his

655
00:50:47,199 --> 00:50:52,760
re election campaign last year. They
see the same polling that you and I

656
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:55,360
can see internally, and they see
that it's it's not a winning issue for

657
00:50:55,400 --> 00:51:00,519
them, and so um, you
know that that's I think that's why you

658
00:51:00,559 --> 00:51:02,039
know, the conversation was so limited
the set. Yeah, I was gonna

659
00:51:02,079 --> 00:51:07,920
say. I think one of the
hardest things about the legislature is that Texans

660
00:51:08,079 --> 00:51:12,960
make a lot of effort to come
up to the Capitol and I and to

661
00:51:13,119 --> 00:51:17,199
make themselves heard, to ask for
specific things, and very often, not

662
00:51:17,280 --> 00:51:22,599
just on this issue, the legislature
votes against with the majority of people who

663
00:51:22,679 --> 00:51:27,159
come to the Capitol ask for.
They often vote against what the majority of

664
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:31,599
public pool of public opinion might show. And it's it's tough because it's it

665
00:51:31,639 --> 00:51:36,320
takes a lot out of folks and
I can imagine for the parents of the

666
00:51:37,239 --> 00:51:40,000
children it was a particularly tough thing
to go through, to come up and

667
00:51:40,079 --> 00:51:44,960
know that maybe it's not actually going
to change. But I think at the

668
00:51:45,079 --> 00:51:47,440
end of the day, for a
lot of these folks, it comes down

669
00:51:47,519 --> 00:51:52,519
to the politics, and a lot
of these districts are drawn to where the

670
00:51:52,599 --> 00:51:57,719
only thing that matters are primary elections, and this is an issue that very

671
00:51:57,760 --> 00:52:00,599
clearly, at least among primary voters, is a bit of a non starter

672
00:52:00,800 --> 00:52:05,599
for now. Yeah, I do
think that, you know, the decision

673
00:52:05,719 --> 00:52:10,880
to put the armed guard requirement back
into the school Safety bill, which happened

674
00:52:12,079 --> 00:52:15,519
this weekend, was a pretty significant
development. You know, that had been

675
00:52:15,559 --> 00:52:19,920
something that had been proposed in the
House, taken out in the Senate,

676
00:52:19,960 --> 00:52:24,000
but but but put back in,
you know, in conference committee in the

677
00:52:24,039 --> 00:52:28,920
final version, which I think is
you know, clearly a pretty notable development

678
00:52:28,920 --> 00:52:31,159
there. Let's go to our next
question, Hi, Jennifer, I am

679
00:52:31,199 --> 00:52:36,360
just kind of curious why is a
capital so obsessed with Houston, whether it's

680
00:52:36,519 --> 00:52:44,280
his d takeover and our elections.
Who wants to take that? Alexa?

681
00:52:44,360 --> 00:52:45,800
You know a lot about the voting
areas here. Let's go to you there,

682
00:52:46,599 --> 00:52:52,159
Houston I think is sort of Houston
and Harris County more broadly are I

683
00:52:52,199 --> 00:52:55,039
think, in a lot of ways
the sort of epicenter of some of the

684
00:52:55,559 --> 00:53:01,000
political tensions in this state. It
wasn't you know, we saw this week

685
00:53:01,119 --> 00:53:07,320
during the impeachment debate that opponents were
trying to sort of frame these prosecutors and

686
00:53:07,360 --> 00:53:10,679
this investigative team as sort of Harris
County Democrats, when in reality, most

687
00:53:10,719 --> 00:53:15,880
of them worked under DA's when the
county was still Republican not that long ago.

688
00:53:16,440 --> 00:53:22,599
I think Harris County used to be
a red and then a purple and

689
00:53:22,679 --> 00:53:28,559
now a blue, and it sort
of represents this political these political waves that

690
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:31,519
I think it's safe to stay Republicans
are watching for. You know, we

691
00:53:31,559 --> 00:53:37,000
saw in the last round of We're
districting how hard they went to sort of

692
00:53:37,039 --> 00:53:42,440
correct some of these suburban districts around
the big urban areas that were also starting

693
00:53:42,440 --> 00:53:45,400
to change, where they were trying
to hold back some of that and really

694
00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:49,480
short up a bunch of districts that
were starting to run away from them.

695
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:52,840
And so I think Harris County just
often tends to be sort of the epicenter

696
00:53:52,840 --> 00:53:58,119
of that. I think it also
doesn't help that there there are sort of

697
00:53:58,159 --> 00:54:02,480
easy people to oppose in county.
The dynamics around elections and some of the

698
00:54:02,599 --> 00:54:07,440
you know, actual screw ups that
have taken place in some of that administration

699
00:54:07,719 --> 00:54:12,000
also makes them an easy target in
a lot of ways, where maybe other

700
00:54:12,039 --> 00:54:15,400
counties are able to fly under the
radar a little bit more just they don't

701
00:54:15,400 --> 00:54:20,559
have They're just not as easy of
a target in that way. I think

702
00:54:20,559 --> 00:54:23,800
the immediate response to that question is, look at the screw ups that happened

703
00:54:23,960 --> 00:54:29,760
in the recent election, something as
simple as running out of paper at precincts.

704
00:54:30,119 --> 00:54:32,840
You know that they fumbled the ball
on that, and they gave the

705
00:54:32,920 --> 00:54:38,519
Republicans and the legislature who've wanted to
reform specifically Harris County elections for a long

706
00:54:38,559 --> 00:54:44,400
time some ammo, and they have
taken it and run with it. You

707
00:54:44,440 --> 00:54:47,760
know. Part of it is it's
the largest locality in the state and running

708
00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:52,360
an election for what is it,
two point three million people is very difficult.

709
00:54:52,480 --> 00:54:58,119
But there have been a lot of
a lot of instances of the officials

710
00:54:58,119 --> 00:55:01,920
that are stepping on rakes and causing
problems for themselves. That has then led

711
00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:08,639
to ammunition. These state legislators have
used against them. All right, one

712
00:55:08,719 --> 00:55:13,000
last question. Great, I'm you're
in Shank from Waco, Texas. I

713
00:55:13,039 --> 00:55:15,960
wanted to go back to the local
control question. We were talking about it

714
00:55:16,119 --> 00:55:21,599
a group of citizens in my hometown
Waco that are interested in approaching the city

715
00:55:21,639 --> 00:55:28,039
council about an anti discrimination ordinance for
all folks race, religion, gender,

716
00:55:28,199 --> 00:55:32,199
etc. And I wonder what you
thought the impact of that would be visa

717
00:55:32,719 --> 00:55:37,320
what they passed. I've actually advised
the group to wait until we see what

718
00:55:37,400 --> 00:55:43,119
the governor signs, because then we
can may have a more clear picture.

719
00:55:43,360 --> 00:55:46,079
But what do you think what they've
passed will have? What impact will it

720
00:55:46,199 --> 00:55:53,960
have on antidiscrimination local ordinances that are
requested for anti discrimination? Zach? Do

721
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:58,559
you know if that's consider that's part
of HB two one two seven? Do

722
00:55:58,639 --> 00:56:04,239
we any of us know? I
think there was a discrimination amendment added,

723
00:56:04,639 --> 00:56:09,679
but I cannot recall if it was
left in from the conference committee. Yeah,

724
00:56:09,920 --> 00:56:13,760
it may be. I mean HB
two one two seven is definitely the

725
00:56:14,039 --> 00:56:15,960
bill that you want to be watching. That's the one that's reaching the Governor's

726
00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:22,039
desk and creates a bunch of new
broad categories of preemption, and it could

727
00:56:22,440 --> 00:56:28,199
mention this or could you know be
used to try to prevent something like this.

728
00:56:28,280 --> 00:56:30,679
So I think we don't have all
the details on that, but that

729
00:56:30,679 --> 00:56:35,280
would definitely be the piece of legislation
to keep watching. I'm not aware of

730
00:56:35,280 --> 00:56:37,519
anything else that is reaching the Governor's
desk guys of now that may that may

731
00:56:37,519 --> 00:56:40,360
address something like this. Okay,
we'll keep an eye on it. Thank

732
00:56:40,360 --> 00:56:45,719
you all right, So that is
about all the time we have, so

733
00:56:45,800 --> 00:56:47,719
thank you to our panelists up here, thank you to those in the audience

734
00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:52,320
who came out and joined us,
and we will we you know, a

735
00:56:52,320 --> 00:56:57,000
lot more legislative developments to watch,
so check out the Texas Tribune, check

736
00:56:57,039 --> 00:57:00,320
out check out Brads Reporting or the
Texan and keep listening to the trip cast

737
00:57:00,360 --> 00:57:15,320
for more updates. Thanks everybody.
Major sponsor for today's live tribcast is Raise

738
00:57:15,360 --> 00:57:19,920
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739
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:23,599
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740
00:57:23,639 --> 00:57:30,320
information at Raise your Hand Texas dot
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741
00:57:30,360 --> 00:57:34,159
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742
00:57:34,199 --> 00:57:37,639
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743
00:57:37,679 --> 00:57:43,280
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00:57:43,320 --> 00:57:45,679
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