The Democrats’ walkout also leaves in jeopardy more widely-supported measures like giving more money to retired teachers and restoring funding for more than 2,100 legislative employees. Other issues included changes to the bail systems, limiting how race is taught in schools and barring transgender athletes from playing on the team matching their gender identity. ![]() In the attempt to block the passage of voting legislation, What does this mean for the rest of the special legislative session? 6, there are not enough members present to pass bills. With at least 51 of the 67 House Democrats vowing to remain out of the state until the special legislative session ends on Aug. That means 100 members of the 150-seat House must be present in the lower chamber and 21 members of the 31-seat Senate must be present in the upper chamber. In the Texas Legislature, two-thirds of the elected members constitute a quorum in each chamber. Greg Abbott threatened to continue to bring lawmakers back for more special sessions until they vote on his priority voting and bail bills.Ī quorum is the minimum number of members required for a governing body to conduct official business. But it’s not clear what impact that would have since Democrats are in D.C., where Texas law enforcement does not have jurisdiction. The Texas House voted for a “call of the House”, which allows for law enforcement to track down and arrest Democrats who left the House chamber. In what appears to be a concession to Democrats, the bills also create a new correction process for mail-in ballots that are ordinarily rejected. There are some differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation, but they both would ban drive-thru voting, limit early voting hours, enhance access for partisan poll watchers and prohibit the unsolicited distribution of mail-in voting applications. The Democrats made this move because they don’t have enough votes to kill the legislation as the minority party. The House must maintain a quorum to pass legislation, so by leaving the state Democrats can effectively block the passage of new voting restrictions, which they say would create new barriers for marginalized voters. so there wouldn’t be enough members in the chamber for a quorum. Why did Democrats leave the state during the special legislative session?ĭemocrats in the Texas House of Representatives left the state July 12 for Washington D.C.
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