Abbott calls 2nd special session, Texas Democrats remain MIA

(The Center Square) – With the first special legislative session ending on Friday, and Gov. Greg Abbott calling a second special session to convene on Saturday, several Texas House Democrats still in Washington, D.C., say they don’t plan on returning any time soon.

“If you’re looking for us to telegraph exactly what we’re going to do over the next couple days, we’re not going to do that at this time,” state Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie and the head of the House Democratic Caucus, said at a news conference. “The governor would love us to do that, but we’re not going to.”

Rep. Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, said, “We know exactly what it takes to deny quorum. We know exactly how many Republicans are playing hooky, we know how many Republicans have COVID, we know how many Republicans aren’t on the floor, we know there’s a new Republican who’s a member of Congress. So we can count, and we’re managing that count on an hourly basis.”

From the interviews, House Democrats essentially said they are going to do their best to make it difficult for the House to conduct business during the next session. The House, comprised of 82 Republicans and 67 Democrats, needs 100 members to be present in order to conduct business.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Dallas Democrats solicited care packages from taxpayers to send to House Democrats that could easily be purchased in their hotels. They asked for “Dr. Pepper, salsa, hard candy, hairspray, travel toiletries, hand sanitizers, sewing kits, first aid, and/or money to pay shipping,” while lawmakers have been collecting more than $230 a day per diem while not conducting House business.

No Democrat who absconded has been arrested, as Gov. Greg Abbott pledged that they would be, even after Rep. Philip Cortez, D-San Antonio, came back to Austin then left again for Washington, D.C.

Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan placed a call on the House floor the first day the Democrats broke quorum, his spokesperson Enrique Marquez told The Center Square. “Arrest authority extends only within the boundaries of the State of Texas and not to Washington D.C. or Europe. Speaker Phelan issued a civil arrest warrant for Rep. Philip Cortez.”

Cortez currently serves as the chairman of the House Urban Affairs Committee. Of the 34 standing House committees, 10 are chaired by Democrats who broke quorum. Phelan has not stripped them of their chairmanships.

Marquez said that “the House rule dictating that chairmen serve at the pleasure of the Speaker was eliminated in the 73rd Legislature, approximately 28 years ago.” Of those in leadership positions allotted by the Speaker to House Democrats, Marquez said that Phelan only removed Rep. Joe Moody as speaker pro tem, because it is a position that serves at the pleasure of the speaker.

House Chairman of the Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee, Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, said, “This Chairman should’ve been arrested, retained for purpose of a quorum, and not allowed to leave the state. A majority of the Texas House voted to ensure that would happen. Why he wasn’t I don’t know. But Texas House members – and all the people of Texas – deserve an answer.”

Phelan’s office maintains that he doesn’t have the authority to strip absent lawmakers of their chairmanships, vice chairmanships, committee memberships, or seniority privileges, even though he appointed them to their positions near the beginning of the regular session, which began in January.

One member who absconded, Rep. Leo Pacheco, D-San Antonio, who didn’t go to Washington, D.C., or to Austin, and remained in Texas, wasn’t arrested because he received permission from the Speaker not to be there. Instead of fulfilling his legislative duties in Austin, he said, “I have to work for a living and can’t afford to be away from Texas.”

Marquez says “Pacheo checked in with the journal clerk during the first special session.”

Of the absent Democrats in Austin, two reportedly went to Portugal on vacation.

Dave Carney, Gov. Greg Abbott’s political consultant, tweeted that two lawmakers were vacationing in Europe, whom Rep. Jared Patterson, R–Frisco, identified as Democratic Reps. Julie Johnson of Farmers Branch and Jessica Gonzalez of Dallas.

Texas Monthly reporter Jonathan Tilove tweeted that he “can confirm [Johnson] and her wife & [González] and her fiancé are in Portugal for a vacation they had been planning, with non-refundable tickets, for a year-and-a-half.”

Their vacation “is at odds with Democrats’ insistence that they would use their time away to advocate for federal voting rights legislation in the nation’s capital,” the Texas Tribune reports.

Neither Johnson nor González, nor any of their staff members, responded to multiple requests for comment from several news outlets.

However, in a text exchange with the San Antonio Express-News , González said the Portugal trip was nothing but “rumors” and said “no one has shown proof.”

“These are rumors, period,” she said. “End of story.”

But neither lawmaker is in Washington, D.C., the Texas Democratic Caucus confirms, and Johnson and González were confirmed to be “still participating in caucus meetings via ZOOM.”

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