How the quorum break got broken: Texas Democrats splintered during second session break
For House Democrats, the story of the second special session is much different from that of the first one. The excitement of leaving the state had worn off, the media spotlight had dimmed and the pressures to return home were mounting.
Analysis: Texas lawmakers have two contentious voting fights ahead โ if they can stay in the same room
After a standoff that lasted more than a month, the Texas House appears to have enough state representatives in Austin to conduct business. The divisions are deep, relationships are frayed and redistricting lies ahead.
Surgery kept one longtime Democratic lawmaker from fleeing Texas. He fears missing a moment in history more than arrest.
Houston state Rep. Garnet Coleman has been at the forefront of voting and social justice battles for decades and helped lead the 2003 flight of Democratic legislators to Oklahoma. Not being with his colleagues who went to Washington, D.C., has been agonizing, he says.
Amid a pandemic with unequal impact, a proposal for a new Office of Health Equity died in the Texas Senate
Democratic lawmakers wanted to replace a defunded agency by creating a new office that would look at health inequities across the state. But after Republicans pulled it into ongoing debates about transgender rights and critical race theory, the bill died in the Senate.
The Texas lawmakers who led the Sandra Bland Act are pushing to reinstate the police reforms stripped from their original bill
But by the time the Legislature passed it, most of the sweeping provisions related to policing had been stripped out. Many provisions were removed from the bill after law enforcement opposition. Those measures stalled the bills progress because of opposition from law enforcement groups and lawmakers concerned about unfunded mandates. The version of the Sandra Bland Act signed into law by Gov. Abbott did not, however, mention any specific proposals, and has not addressed the policing aspects that faced harsh opposition by law enforcement and how, if at all, that will change in 2021.