Texas House hearings considering bills start this coming week, and the deadline for filing bills is end of day Friday. I am overdue in providing a status update on the Texas Legislature.

I have often said that the Texas Legislature is like a fifty-ring circus. There is so much happening at one time, that it is virtually impossible for one person to keep up with it all. I certainly can’t. And I do not even have the space and time to tell you everything that I have seen.

I will focus in this report on the areas that I personally prioritize. That includes the Texas Constitutional Enforcement legislative agenda and a few of the Legislative Priorities of the RPT including End Federal Overreach, Secure the Electric Grid, End Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying, Border Enforcement, and Texas is Not for Sale.

At the end, I will also discuss what I have seen in the Texas House about the likelihood of passage of bills.

Texas Constitutional Enforcement Legislative Agenda

1. End Federal Overreach

Texas Sovereignty Act – Joint legislative committee recommends unconstitutional federal acts for declaration by legislature and governor. (RPT End Federal Overreach Priority). (RPT Platform Plank 20) (HB 796 Cecil Bell, HB 898 David Spiller, SB 80 Bob Hall) RPT Endorsed

Resist FBI Weaponization Against Texans -- Require feds to get sheriff and AG permission for arrests and searches in county. (RPT Platform Plank 5) (HB 1982 & HB 3932 Andy Hopper.) HB 1962 RPT Endorsed, HB 3932 Pending.

Don’t Mess With Texas Elections – limits on funding from outside Texas for Texas races. (RPT Platform Plank 202) (SB 405 Mayes Middleton) RPT Endorsed

Run Texas Elections Separately from Federal Elections – (RPT Platform Plank 221 g) (HB 209 Mike Schofield, SB 106 Bob Hall) RPT Endorsed

Protect the Texas National Guard (RPT Platform Plank 247) (HB 930 Briscoe Cain) RPT Endorsed

Protect County and District Attorneys From the Feds – Allows Attorney General to defend county and district attorneys in actions taken against them by the feds for enforcing state law, if the county/district attorneys request. (RPT Platform Planks 5 and 20) (SB 888 Lois Kolkhorst). RPT Endorsed. TCE testified. Passed out of Senate State Affairs.

Protection of Intrastate Firearms Manufacture/Sale – Exempts most firearms and accessories manufactured and staying in Texas from federal law or regulation. (SB 130 Bob Hall / HB 1617 Valoree Swanson). RPT Endorsed

Resisting Global Interference – Denying jurisdiction to World Health Organization, UN, and World Economic Forum in Texas – (RPT Platform Plank 244) (SB 129 Bob Hall / Charles Schwertner SB 386 / HB 706 Terri Leo Wilson, HB 1377 Wes Virdell). RPT Endorsed

Refusal to Assist Officers of the Union – Legislature declares unconstitutional federal acts and state agencies and subdivisions prohibited from assisting feds. (RPT Platform Planks 20 and 70) (SB 707 Phil King). (Needs modification to require majority instead of 2/3.) TCE testified. Passed out of Senate State Affairs.

Rule-of-Law Enforcement – Give a statewide official independent prosecutorial authority in addition to DAs for election law, public integrity, official oppression, abortion, maybe other like riot and sedition. (RPT Platform Plank 165) (SB 846 & SB 1026 Bryan Hughes).

2. Fighting Inflation, CBDC, Globalism, and ESG

Currency Choice Amendment to protect the natural right to hold and trade with any medium of exchange including cash, coin, digital currency, and scrip. (RPT Platform Plank 30 d and 80). (SJR 55 Tan Parker / HJR 177 Andy Hopper).

Transactional Gold – expand Texas Bullion Depository function to provide ability for Texans to use a credit card or digital app to spend stored gold or silver in ordinary transactions (RPT Platform Plank 80). (HB 1062 & 1049 Mark Dorazio / SB 2002 & 665 Bryan Hughes) See comments below regarding committee assignments for these bills

Prohibit Discrimination in Lending by Financial Firms based on ideology/ESG/nature of business  - (RPT Platform Plank 31). (HB 1516 Mike Schofield / SB 512 Lois Kolkhorst) Repeat of last session, stopping Paypal and other money services businesses from imposing fines due to speech.

Anti-ESG Bill – Prohibit companies doing business in Texas from implementing ESG standards or forcing suppliers to implement ESG standards required by foreign statutes that require companies to do so for access to those markets. (SB 495 Kevin Sparks – stops Texas Department of Insurance from implementing rules that implement ESG. Expands upon what Tom Oliverson and Ken King accomplished last session.) TCE testified. Out of committee and on intent calendar.

3.  End Texas Executive Overreach and Protect Texas Medical Freedom

Stop Mandatory Vaccinations - Constitutional amendment to add provision to Texas Bill of Rights to protect natural, unalienable right to decline vaccination. (RPT End Federal Overreach Priority) (RPT Platform Plank 114). (HJR 91 Andy Hopper, SJR 10 Bob Hall). RPT Endorsed.

Stop Executive Overreach -- Amend Texas Disaster Act to insure that we never get lockdowns or mask mandates again and to stop open-ended criminal penalties for which executives define offense. Put conditions on delegation of power that legislature must approve emergencies after short time. (RPT Platform Planks 8 and 114). Working.

“Gain-of-Function” Accountability – ban gain-of-function research in Texas (RPT Platform Plank 159) (SB 1488 Bob Hall).

 4.  Texas Freedom to Travel

Stop Federal Vehicular Kill Switches (RPT End Federal Overreach Priority) (RPT Platform Plank 49) (SB 381 Mayes Middleton, HB 1074 Nate Schatzline).

Stop Mileage Tax

Stop Digital Licenses/ID – (RPT Platform Planks 208 and 49) (Oppose HB 1796 Terry Canales)

5.  Border Enforcement

Stop the Magnet – cut off taxpayer services to illegal aliens (RPT Platform Plank 232) (RPT Priority). Working.

Note that the End Federal Overreach Legislative Priority endorsed bills are pretty much embedded in the list above.

Secure the Electric Grid Legislative Priority

Protection of Critical Grid Components from Solar Flares and EMP (RPT Platform Plank 41 c & d) (SB 1740 Tan Parker).

All Hazards Grid Resilience (RPT Platform Plank 41) (SB 75 Bob Hall / HB 941 Cain).

Prohibit Grid Components from Hostile Nations (RPT Platform Plank 41) (SB 934 Bob Hall).

Texas Tax on New, Large Solar & Wind Projects to Offset Fed Subsidies (RPT Platform Plank 47) (HB 3017 Brent Money).

Note that the Secure Electric Grid Legislative Priority Committee has endorsed other bills, but the ones above have caught my eye.

End Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying Legislative Priority

End Taypayer-Funded Lobbying (RPT Platform Plank 212) (SB 19 Mayes Middleton / HB 309 Terri Leo Wilson, HB 1189 Troxclair, HB 1294 Jared Patterson, also HB 571 Briscoe Cain, HB 671 Matt Shaheen, HB 755 David Spiller, HB 3257 Mike Olcott). I testified for SB 19. Out of committee. On intent calendar.

Texas is Not for Sale Legislative Priority

Banning Texas Land Ownership by Hostile Entities (RPT Platform Plank 201) (SB 17 Kolkhorst). I signed in support of SB 17 in committee. No committee vote yet. I have not heard whether Texas is Not for Sale Legislative Priority Committee has officially supported any bills, yet. I was in Texas House Homeland Security, Public Safety & Veterans’ Affairs Chair Cole Hefner’s office last week and they told me they have their own bill that differs in several respects from the Senate bill. I don’t know the particulars.

Reading the Tea Leaves on Whether Conservative Legislation Will Pass

Given the Uniparty speaker in the Texas House, the new House Rules giving power to Democrats, a Calendars Committee chair that has told members in the past that his job was to help non-transparantly kill bills, and the slow start in the House, the burning question for the grassroots is whether conservative legislation, especially RPT legislative priorities will pass this session. I have several observations.

Transferring Conservative Bills from Grassroots to Team Burros

First, I am hearing that a number of bills are being involuntarily being transferred from the grassroots legislators to be carried by Team Burros Republicans. While this is quite irritating to the grassroots legislators, the silver lining in this is that the apparent motive for this action is to create talking points for embattled Uniparty Republicans in their upcoming primary challenges. It means that some of those bills are probably going to pass. The worry is that they may be watered down, but the likelihood of them passing under this situation is better than if the grassroots members got to carry the bills.

Milton Friedman said, “The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.” Ronald Reagan said, “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.” Lets hope those maxims pay dividends in this sad situation.

Committee Assignments

Second, so far, the House Parliamentarian is assigning end federal overreach bills to the crowded State Affairs which only has vague high level jurisdiction for bills of that nature in this set of Rules. The far superior committee from clear jurisdictional language in the rules and a under-crowding perspective is the new Intergovernmental Affairs Committee or its State-Federal Relations Committee.

The most outrageous assignment of those bills is the assignment of Cecil Bell’s Texas Sovereignty Act away from the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee he chairs to State Affairs where that bill has died the last three sessions. I have sent an email to the Parliamentarian’s office, the Speaker’s staffs, the respective committee clerks, and the authors of the misassigned bills.

We will see whether the situation is rectified. It will be a big deal if not because if for no other reason the end federal overreach bills are likely to be crowded out in the large press of work in House State Affairs.

Transactional Gold Committee Assignments

Finally, I have not gotten the inside story on this yet, but I note that the Transactional Gold bill has been introduced twice by Mark Dorazio in the House and twice by Bryan Hughes in the Senate. In the House, the first version has been assigned to the busy State Affairs Committee where it was last time, receiving a hearing late enough to cause the bill to not make it to the House floor for a timely vote. But the second bill has been assigned to Pensions, Investments & Financial Services.

In the Senate, Hughes’ first Transactional Gold bill was assigned as it was last session to Finance, which makes no sense at all if the bill is favored. Last session, Finance Chair Joan Huffman waited until the budget was done and gave the bill a hearing on the last hearing of the Committee, then did not hold a vote to move it out of committee. Hughes’ second bill has not been assigned. Hopefully, it too will be assigned differently than the first, hopefully to Hughes’ own State Affairs.

Committee assignments matter.

Presidential Executive Orders for Constitutional Enforcement

What if a president took his oath of office seriously, exercised independent judgment about constitutional meaning, and started issuing executive orders (including interpretive reasoning) declaring existing statutes unconstitutional that order his administration not to enforce those unconstitutional laws?

If there is anything that the new DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) that includes Elon Musk, Vivek, and maybe Ron Paul could do to downsize the federal government, it would be to persuade the president to simply stop enforcing unconstitutional federal statutes.

The oath the Constitution requires any president to take is:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Early in our Republic, the U.S. Supreme Court started with the self-serving assertion that they were final arbiters of Constitutional meaning. But the Constitution does not say that. That is an interpretation the Constitution. Using circular logic, SCOTUS has interpreted the Constitution to say that they are the final interpreter.

It is true that because SCOTUS swears the oath that every governmental official takes to the Constitution, each justice should use his or her best judgment to understand and apply the Constitution, but so should every other actor, including the president.

Madison and Jackson certainly thought so. They said so in messages to bills they vetoed. We degraded over time, however to presidents who refused to use constitutional reasoning in their decisions. George W Bush, for example, infamously said that he would sign McCain-Feingold and let SCOTUS determine its constitutionality.

The most earthshaking question a modern president can answer is whether his oath allows him to enforce statues, regulations, or judicial opinions that he understands to be unconstitutional.

To answer that precedent trumps a president’s oath is the way we have ratcheted ever farther away from the limits the framers placed on the central government. Once one set of bad actors in time have strayed from the limits of the Constitution, deference to precedent instead of the Constitution allows the Constitution to be perpetually violated and power to be inexorably centralized.

What are the most important constitutional principles have been violated over time that, if enforced, could create transformative change?

• Stop the feds from exercising unenumerated, undelegated power. (E.g., regulating the environment and engaging in education are not powers delegated to the central government, but rather are reserved to the states.)
• Reverse the complete gutting/replacement of the interstate commerce clause – the Constitution allows the feds to “regulate Commerce” “among the several States.” One of the worst SCOTUS decisions ever, Wickard v Filburn amended by judicial opinion those limiting words to allow the feds power to regulate anything “affecting” commerce.

Now may be the time that a president can set us on a new course that puts the power of the central government back in the Constitutional box. Executive orders by the president to enforce the Constitution can save the Republic and truly Make America Great Again.

P.O. Box 130012, Tyler, TX 75713

182 Grassroots Leaders Lay Out the Case:

Plea for Governor Abbott to Call a June 2024 Special Legislative Session
to Secure Our November 2024 General Election

June 13, 2024

The Honorable Texas Governor Greg Abbott Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711-2428

Electronic dispatch to: Steve Munisteri, Senior Policy Advisor; Gardner Pate, Governor’s Chief of Staff

Dear Governor Abbott:

We, the undersigned, urgently join with Republican Party of Texas Convention delegates from all 31 State Senate Districts – representing Republicans from across Texas – who passed the following Resolution 7, for ELECTION INTEGRITY ENFORCEMENT and ENSURING THAT ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE NOT VOTING IN TEXAS, found on page 42 of the 2024 Republican Party of Texas Platform:

1. Special Legislative Session: The Republican Party of Texas calls upon Governor Abbott to call a special session in June 2024 to address election integrity and other Specifically, the call should include the following items:
   1. Legislation to implement independent, state-level prosecution of election integrity; to address abortion, human smuggling, sedition, and riot; and to respond to the Court of Criminal Appeal’s ruling in State v.
   2. Legislation to require proof of citizenship for new voter registration and a thorough review of existing voter rolls to identify and remove illegal aliens, other non-citizens, those with unauthorized non-residential addresses, and long-time inactive voters from the voter rolls.

We also underscore that these two items flagged as urgent in Resolution 7 are also covered in the 2024 RPT Legislative Priorities Report under Priority #2.

Governor Abbott, we urge you to immediately call an Election Law Enforcement Special Session. We believe you will agree with us that Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and the Republican nominees (especially judicial candidates) in large urban Texas counties should not face the November General Election with election cheaters knowing they are unlikely to face any prosecution in Texas counties where Soros-funded District Attorneys will never prosecute cheating and voter fraud.

The following describes the problem, the solution, and the urgency, which should compel you and the Texas Legislature to rapidly, boldly lead the way in protecting the people of Texas:

STATE-LEVEL ELECTION (AND OTHER) LAW ENFORCEMENT

Problem: The 2022 Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ State v. Stephens opinion prohibiting the Texas Attorney General from independent, state-level prosecution of the violation of election law makes prosecution of election law violations in the high population counties of Texas in 2024 exceedingly unlikely. Any law without enforcement is worthless.

Additionally, there are reports of mass-scale registration of illegals to vote by Biden administration officials and/or NGOs. This may be the new way elections are compromised in 2024.

Solutions:

1)  Legislation to implement independent state-level prosecution of election fraud, public integrity, abortion, human smuggling, sex slave trade, sedition, and riot law in response to and in compliance with the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals’ State v Stephens decision.

The bill that offered a solution in the 88^th Regular Session was SB 1927 (Hughes). For a variant on that approach, see also HB 4026 (Schofield).

With the time we have left, we cannot pass a constitutional amendment. And we cannot timely give the prosecutorial power back to the Attorney General by statute because neither the Democrats nor Republicans in the Texas House who voted to impeach Ken Paxton are likely to restore his prosecutorial power. Wisely, Senator Hughes’ SB 1927 solution creates a State Prosecutor Office under the Texas Supreme Court, following the structural logic of the State v Stephens opinion.

If the bill passes and is signed by early July, the law will go into effect in early October, just in time to give potential cheaters pause before they do so.

2) Legislation to require proof of citizenship for new voter registration and a thorough review of existing voter rolls to identify and remove illegal aliens, other non-citizens, those with unauthorized non- residential addresses, and long-time inactive voters from the voter rolls

Given that these types of amendments to existing law will also not go into effect until October, the cleanup will not likely be done in time for November. But passage, accompanied by independent, state- level prosecution of existing Texas election law prohibiting illegals from registering or voting and prohibiting citizens from knowingly assisting illegals in voting, along with the publicity generated by the passage of these provisions is likely to have a chilling effect on illegal voting and the unlawful exploitation of illegal registration.

Urgency:  Texas is unlikely to have effective enforcement of election law in the largest counties in 2024 without this legislation. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz need our assistance!

Recently passed improvements to the law (enabling removal of recalcitrant prosecutors) are worthwhile, but due to long lead times and narrow removal criteria, these improvements will not work to address the looming 2024 problem.

It is no secret that in certain counties, Texans cannot rely on local prosecutors to enforce the rule of law! Adding state prosecutorial resources for human trafficking, sex slave trade, abortion enforcement and election law violations will no doubt save the lives of children and protect Texas voters from organized vote theft.

Governor Abbott, we remind you that Texas Republican Primary voters overwhelmingly supported the two related Primary Ballot Propositions calling for prosecution of election crimes and requiring proof of citizenship before any individual can be registered to vote. The base of the Republican Party is with us!

The time to protect Texas is NOW, Governor Abbott! We implore you to do so!

 For liberty – for Texas, we the 182 undersigned conservative Texas influencers,*

Tom Glass, Founder/President, Texas Constitutional Enforcement, SD 18

JoAnn Fleming, Executive Director, Grassroots America – We the People PAC; GrassrootsPriorities.com

*Organizations are listed for identification purposes only for the above-signed political opinion leaders who influence thousands of Texans.

CC: Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick
      Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan

Click here for a PDF version of the letter.

The most important way Texas Republicans can prepare for November is to ensure that election law is enforced in Texas. To that end the RPT State Convention Platform and Resolutions Committee presented this vital resolution to the delegates on May 25, 2024 for a vote:

RESOLVED that the Republican Party of Texas calls upon Governor Abbott to call a special session in June, 2024 to increase election integrity. Specifically, the call should include the following:

1. ELECTION INTEGRITY ENFORCEMENT: Legislation to implement independent state level prosecution of election integrity, abortion, human smuggling, sedition, and riot in response to and in compliance with the CCA State v Stephens.

1. ENSURING THAT ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE NOT VOTING IN TEXAS: Legislation to require proof of citizenship for new voter registration and a thorough review of existing voter rolls to identify and remove illegal aliens, other non-citizens, those with unauthorized non-residential addresses, and long-time inactive voters from the voter rolls.

Note also that similar measures were included in the top “Secure Texas Elections” priority reported by the RPT State Convention Legislative Priorities Committee.

The Soros-installed District Attorneys in the big Texas counties are unlikely to prosecute election cheaters in November. The Court of Criminal Affairs (CCA) has taken away independent, state-level prosecution of election law away from the Attorney General. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz need the prosecution in place by November to provide a credible threat to cheaters, but the lame-duck Texas House that impeached Ken Paxton is unlikely to return prosecutorial power to him.

We have a path forward to election law enforcement without a constitutional amendment and without giving prosecution back to the AG. The solution is to create a State Prosecutor Office under the Texas Supreme Court consistent with the CCA State v Stevens opinion. Senator Bryan Hughes passed such a bill (SB 1927) out of committee in 2023.

While we are at it, to address the alarming warnings that the feds and NGOs under Biden are registering illegals on a mass scale, we need to also send a shot across the bow of the cheaters, reminding them that registering or voting as an illegal and knowingly helping illegals register is a crime in Texas.  Publicity about starting the process of cleaning up voter rolls, especially of illegals is also a vital part of defending the vote in November.

We just need Governor Abbott to call a special session to put these measures into effect in the nick of time in early October. Please contact Governor Abbott using this link gov.texas.gov/contact to urge him to make the special session call.

We expect to get the news that the RPT delegates passed this call on Governor Abbott any day now.

Governor, no law is any good if not enforced! Please give Trump and Cruz every tool needed ensure that Texas is not stolen from us in November.