Weekly Legislative Update from Guest Jill Glover: 04/17/2023

Update | Progress to Protect Texas Children

The Texas Senate made last week a great one for children. SB 14, Sen. Campbell’s bill to stop gender mutilation of children, was successfully debated and passed by the Senate. We are grateful for the excellent work of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Sen. Bryan Hughes, and Sen. Campbell for skillfully navigating this bill to passage.

The Senate also passed a Legislative Priorities Committee approved bill to Stop Sexualization of Children, SB 12 by Sen. Hughes, which prohibits sexual performances in the presence of children under age 18. This includes “drag queen” performances and passed with bipartisan support. The Senate also passed SB 1601, which stops so-called “Drag Queen Story Hours,” which have taken place in libraries across Texas. The bills have moved to the Texas House, where they await consideration.

In the House, we are very pleased that Rep. Jared Patterson’s HB 900 on removing explicit library books has been sent to Calendars. This is our first approved Legislative Priority bill to move in the House, and we anticipate a floor vote soon.

Update | Progress for Parental Rights/Educational Freedom

We also appreciate Sen. Brandon Creighton for working with the Republican Party of Texas during the drafting of SB 8, his parental rights/school choice bill, which the Senate passed last week. The first line of the bill had previously referred to “rights granted under the laws of this state.” This language was amended to accurately refer to “[t]he fundamental rights granted to parents by their Creator and upheld by . . . the laws of this state.” God gives parents rights, and they are protected by the Constitution and the state of Texas. We will continue to work with legislators to promote amendments that ensure no government strings are attached to education savings accounts and they meet our legislative priority language for Parental Rights and Educational Freedom.

Update | Progress to Secure the Border and Protect Texans

We had several border bills in the House State Affairs Committee on Wednesday.  Rep. Matt Schaefer laid out HB 20, a comprehensive border bill that formally declares an invasion and creates a Border Protection Unit that will report directly to the Governor. This bill also includes language to “repel” persons entering Texas and strengthens border trespass offenses, among other things.

Key border related bills heard Wednesday:
HB 7 Guillen (Criminal activity in border region)
HB 20 Schaefer (Comprehensive border bill including repelling illegal entry and declaration of invasion)
HB 82 Spiller (Interstate Compact)

Send the House State Affairs Committee a message:  Please promptly pass HB 7, HB 20, and HB 82 out of committee and send these bills to the Calendars Committee to be scheduled for a floor vote!
Tip: in the subject line, type Committee Message to let them know you are addressing them as State Affairs Committee Members. Lead off with, I am sending this message to you as a member of the State Affairs Committee because your decisions impact ALL Texans – not only your House District constituents!

Update | Progress (or lack of) on Election Integrity Bills

On Wed. April 13, the Texas Senate passed two more RPT-approved election bills from Sen. Paul Bettencourt. SB 1039 is an election audit bill and provides a civil complaint procedure for Election Judges, Candidates, County Chair or State Chair of a Political Party, Presiding Judge or Alternate Presiding Judge, and the head of a specific-purpose political committee that supports or opposes a ballot measure to contact a county election authority about identified Election Irregularities and receive a response. If after two questions and answers, the inquirer is still not satisfied, the Election Irregularity may be referred to the Secretary of State who will determine if an audit is necessary. If the audit finds a violation, then the Secretary of State could take necessary action up to assigning a conservator to manage that election authority.

SB 1911 increases the penalty for the intentional failure to deliver election supplies from a Class C to a Class A misdemeanor, increases the penalty for obstructing the distribution of election supplies for an election from a Class C misdemeanor to a state jail felony, and increases the penalty for revealing election results early from a Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony. It also creates a Class A misdemeanor if an election official intentionally fails to provide an election precinct with the required number of ballots or intentionally fails to promptly supplement the distributed ballots upon request by a polling place.

There was also one approved bill in the House Elections Committee heard Wednesday, April 13.

HB 1243 Hefner restores criminal penalties for illegal voting (that were reduced last legislative session). The bill would increase the criminal penalty for illegal voting from a Class A misdemeanor to either a state jail felony for attempted illegal voting or second-degree felony for illegal voting.

Click here to send the House Elections Committee a request to promptly pass HB 1243 out of committee and on to the Calendars Committee to schedule a floor vote!  Tip:  in the subject line, type Committee Message to let them know you are addressing them as Election Committee Members.

URGENT! Texas House Elections Chairman Reggie Smith (Republican)
has not passed ANY election integrity priority bills out of his committee!

Action Step 1: Call Rep. Reggie Smith at (512) 463-0297 and ask him to pass the following bills (below) out of his House Elections Committee so they can be moved to Calendars to be scheduled for a floor vote.  The legislative clock will soon run out on these important bills!

Action Step 2: Email the House Elections Committee (which includes Chairman Reggie Smith) and ask them to vote these bills out of committee now.  These bills will die in committee soon if they aren’t moved out fast!

Click here to send a personal email to the entire House Elections Committee!

• HB 862 – Schofield – removes persons from the voter rolls who have sworn they are not legal citizens when called to serve on jury duty.
• HB 871 – Hefner – prohibits the use of software installation in voting system hardware manufactured outside the United States.
• HB 919 – Slaton – closes the gap between early voting and election day
• HB 1134 – Jetton – confirms a voter’s residence if the elections office believes a voter’s current address is different from what is indicated on voter registration records.
• HB 2728 – Paul – electronic devices for voting must be capable of updating in real time every ten minutes. The SOS may not certify this machine if it does not have this capability.
• HB 2809 – Jetton – prohibits the use and collection of some private information when using the interstate crosscheck program under the contract with ERIC.
• HB 4329 – Schofield – requires a voter to declare their residential address be the location where the person habitually sleeps in cases of homelessness.
• HB 4399 – Hayes – requires posting notices on the county website with details and procedures related to Central Count, including peace officers, logic and accuracy tests, poll watchers and livestream information notices.
• HB 4544 – Toth – requires the public inspection of election records within sixty days of an election day including images of voted ballots and original ballots.
• HB 4548 – Toth – the registrar must offer the range of serial numbers of ballots received and provided to voters, including serial numbers of spoiled ballots.
• HB 4719 – Toth – requires the SOS to appoint a dedicated cybersecurity expert to implement cyber security measures in order to protect election data and provides consequences for any election data breach performed by an employee. Prohibits the use of electronic systems capable of being connected to the Internet.
• HB 4733 – Toth – prohibits ballot scanners from being connected to storage devices that have capabilities to modify scanned ballots
• HB 4753 – Tinderholt – prevents the distribution of an unsolicited application for ballot by mail .
• HB 5231 – Tinderholt – eliminates countywide voting and returns voting back to precinct-based voting.