Bastrop County Republicans overwhelmingly voted for Republicans in November. We swept all contested races. Why, then, would our Republican Texas House representative vote for Democrat chairs? He claims he didn’t. But, he did.
Perhaps he didn’t read the rules before he voted on them. After all, they were sent to House members at 4AM, all 232 pages of them. Perhaps he didn’t understand what he was reading. Perhaps he didn’t realize they were written by Democrat Hugh Brady, former Obama General Counsel and Democrat Parliamentarian whose decisions killed conservative legislation during the last session. Perhaps he thought WE wouldn’t understand what we were reading. Perhaps he thought we’d be fooled by the splitting of hairs: banning Dem Chairs for committees but allowing them for extremely powerful subcommittees.
Rep Gerdes’ Facebook post says “I proudly voted to implement a new House rule that BANS the appointment of minority party chairs to lead committees in the Texas House.”
Not true.
“Oh! What a Tangled Web We Weave/When First We Practice to Deceive!” – Sir Walter Scott
Permanent Standing Subcommittees
The Rules Gerdes so “proudly” voted for created 12 new Permanent Standing Subcommittees. Permanent Standing Subcommittees is an entirely new class of committee this session, clearly created to allow members to claim they voted against Dem Chairs, all while allowing Dem Chairs and influence over legislation.
These 12 new Permanent Standing Subcommittees have assignments of “all matters related to” specific areas. The extensive matters falling under the jurisdiction of each Permanent Standing Subcommittee are listed in Rule 3. STANDING COMMITTEES. Pages and pages of them.
The 12 Permanent Standing Subcommittees are:
- Juvenile Justice
- Defense and Veterans’ Affairs
- County and Regional Government
- State-Federal Relations
- Family and Fiduciary Relationships
- Academic and Career-Oriented Education
- Disease Prevention and Women’s and Children’s Health
- Telecommunications and Broadband
- Workforce
- International Relations
- Transportation Funding
- Property Tax Appraisals
The Rules Gerdes so “proudly” voted for allow the Speaker to assign bills to these Permanent Standing Subcommittees. (In reading legislation, underlined words are new. Strikeout words are removed. The word shall means must. The word may means optional.]
“All proposed legislation shall be referred by the speaker to an appropriate standing committee, permanent standing subcommittee, or select committee with jurisdiction, subject to correction by a majority vote of the house.”
The Rules he so “proudly” voted for require the Speaker to appoint Permanent Standing Subcommittee chairs and vice chairs. The Rules he so “proudly” voted for require the Speaker to appoint Permanent Standing Subcommittee members.
“The speaker shall appoint the chair and vice-chair of
each standing procedural committee and permanent standing
subcommittee and the remaining membership of each such [the]
committee and subcommittee.”
And, there is no provision in the rules prohibiting the Speaker from appointing Dem Chairs to these 12 Permanent Standing Subcommittees. The additional words “permanent standing subcommittee” were not added in the Rules section below as they were in many other Rules sections.
If, at the time the speaker announces the membership of standing committees, the members of the house of one political party constitute a majority of the membership of the house, the speaker shall designate a member of that party to serve as chair of each standing committee. The speaker shall not designate a member of that party to serve as vice-chair of a standing committee.
I verified with three House members that these Rules allow the Speaker to appoint Democrats as chairs of any of these “Permanent Standing Subcommittees”, that the Speaker could assign bills directly to them, and that committee and subcommittee chairs would have the same powers to hold hearings on bills, refer them out unchanged or with substitutions, offer amendments, or just ignore them.
We’ll see when Speaker Dustin Burrows announces committee and subcommittee appointments. They were due this Friday, January 31, but Burrows announced yesterday that those appointments would be delayed.
If even one Democrat is appointed as a chair of any Permanent Standing Subcommittee, Gerdes’ words “I proudly voted to implement a new House rule that BANS the appointment of minority party chairs to lead committees in the Texas House” will ring hollow and untrue.