Texas Republicans set vote on flood bills with Democrats absent

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas House Republicans teed up a slate of bills addressing the deadly July 4 Hill Country floods on Monday, but Democrats’ continued boycott left the chamber without the quorum needed to vote – setting the stage for Republicans to use the flood relief measures as leverage against their absent colleagues.

The Texas House has remained at an impasse since Aug. 4, after enough Democrats refused to show up at the Capitol to block a vote on a partisan congressional redistricting proposal. So far, Democrats’ denial of a constitutionally required two-thirds quorum has blocked only redistricting.

That continued Monday after the House fell four members shy of the 100 needed to conduct legislative business.

But Monday’s advancement of five bills related to the floods now hands Republicans fresh political leverage in their attempts to convince enough Democrats to return to Austin to restore a quorum in the Texas House.

“The only thing standing between Texas and real disaster relief is whether our absent colleagues decide to show up tomorrow,” House Speaker Dustin Burrows said from the House floor Monday.

The flood bills are set for a vote at 10 a.m. Tuesday. The five pieces of legislation include House Bill 1, which requires the state to develop a mass fatality training program for justices of the peace in counties without a medical examiner.

Other flood-related proposals advanced Monday would address first responders’ communications; expand a taxpayer fund for broadband access or response, communications and early warning systems in disasters and other emergencies; require some riverside campgrounds to develop disaster plans; and combat disaster relief fraud.

The July 4 floods killed at least 137 people. The damage was most severe in Kerr County, where 27 children and counselors were killed at an all-girls summer camp near Hunt.

The Senate could vote on redistricting Tuesday when it comes in session at 11 a.m.

At a news conference Monday in northwest Chicago, Rep. Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat and chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said absent Democrats would return to Texas if flood bills are placed ahead of redistricting.

“We have said point blank, time after time after time that if Gov. (Greg) Abbott says, ‘We will take care of the people of the state of Texas first,’ – if he makes that commitment today, we’ll be back,” Wu said.

House Democrats were joined by Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin Monday. The quorum breakers had intended to meet with Durbin last week, but canceled the event after a bomb threat was made to the St. Charles, Ill., hotel where they had been staying.

They have since moved to a secret location in the Chicago area.

Rep. Mihaela Plesa, D-Dallas, said that since the bomb threat, her colleagues have received racist attacks. Texas Republican leaders, including Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn have also taken action against Democrats with lawsuits and calling on the FBI to track them.

Burrows issued civil arrest warrants for absent Democrats, empowering state law enforcement to force them to return to the Capitol. Paxton has filed a pair of lawsuits in an attempt to require law enforcement in Illinois and California to enforce those warrants.

Plesa said state law enforcement has visited her North Dallas home multiple times, including Monday morning. Abbott posted a wanted poster of Plesa Monday on social media. She is one of 13 House members Paxton is trying to remove from office.

“We will not be intimidated,” Plesa said. “We will not be bullied into silence, and we will not surrender like the governor has to the demands of corrupt D.C. politicians.”

Burrows said law enforcement officers have fanned out across Texas in search of absent Democrats. They have been dispatched to lawmakers’ homes, and Burrows said several officers were present at a Saturday rally in Fort Worth led by Beto O’Rourke after they received tips that some absent Democrats might attend.

“They are set up outside members’ homes, conducting surveillance, knocking on doors, calling their phones multiple times a day,” Burrows said. “So far, no one’s home, but the search continues and it will not stop.

The Texas House had been scheduled to vote on the redistricting proposal Monday.

It would transform three Democratically held districts, including a North Texas seat represented by Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch, from liberal strongholds to districts that would sharply favor Republicans.

Two South Texas swing districts would also be shifted to the right.

Trump has called on Texas lawmakers to flip at least five Democratic seats to Republican control in hopes of maintaining a GOP majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterm election.