The Texas House GOP excludes democrats from the highest posts in the committees

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The Texas House of Representatives voted on Thursday for the ban on members of the minority party to sit in the ruling commissions, thus achieving a major objective for conservative republicans – and upsetting a tradition of sharing the power in place since the 1970s.

The desire to prohibit democrats with the leadership committees of the Chamber was a rallying cry for conservative activists who considered the sharing of power with the minority party as a betrayal of republican voters. They said that continuing to grant management positions to the Democrats had blocked conservative legislation that they themselves and the Republican Party of Texas supported.

Now, none of the Chambers of the Texas Legislative Assembly will have members of the minority party at the head of a committee for the first time since 1969, according to the legislative Reference Library.

“This represents a radical change compared to the current state of this legislature,” said representative Harold Dutton, a Democrat in Houston who is the third oldest legislator in the Chamber, elected for the first time in 1984.

Allowing Democrats to continue directing legislative commissions was a major point of friction in the race for the chairmanship. The Democrats rose to the side of President Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican, because the other candidate in the running, the Republican of Mansfield, David Cook, was committed to preventing them from accessing management positions. Burrows did not rule on the issue, saying that he would leave the decision to the 150 members of the chambers – a sign that the Democrats considered an opening in pursuit of the long tradition of sharing the power of the Chamber.

The vote in favor of the change of rules was approved by 116 votes to 23. With 61 Republicans and 55 democrats voting for.

In a major turning point, some of the most conservative legislators in the Chamber opposed the opening of a debate on the change in rules. Representative Tony Tinderholt, an Arlington Republican, said this decision seemed to “impose rules” without the possibility of discussion and give more power to the Democrats. Tinderholt asked his colleagues to postpone the debate on the rules on Monday.

At a press conference after the vote, the Democrats seemed to be resigned to the idea of ​​losing their ability to chair the commissions, but said they had kept their sits at the chamber table. The representative Gene Wu, a Houston legislator who directs House Democratic Caucus, made fun of the supporters of the hard line, like Tinderholt, who voted against change.

“People who were most screaming against the ban on democratic chairs voted against the ban on democratic chairs,” he said. “What I think you have seen here today is the United Chamber and working on a set of rules that, even if they have harmed Democrats and reduces our power, give us at least a certain ability to interact in the process and to meet the needs of our voters. “

According to the new rules, the committees of the Chamber will be led by a member of the majority party and the vice-presidents will be members of the minority party. This would deprive the Democrats of key management posts, but would give them a minimum of power sharing in the House.

Conservative activists and politicians said it left the door open to the Democrats to continue to shoot the strings within the new sub-committees created under this year’s rules. Unlike previous years, where commissions of commissions appointed sub-committees, the rules of this year allow the president to appoint the managers and members of the permanent sub-committees.

Key committees like public health, where abortion legislation could be discussed, and the ways and means, where land taxes will be levied, will have sub-comities.

The Chamber will have fewer permanent commissions than the previous session, the legislators abolishing and condensing its 34 permanent commissions at 30. The legislators have created a whole new commission on “government efficiency”, or DOGE, in the blink of an eye New federal group led by the billionaire of Elon Musk technology. This committee will focus on the elimination of ineffectiveness in state services as well as the supervision of open government issues and the booming field of artificial intelligence.

The legislators have abolished eight commissions: trade and industry, county affairs, defense and business of veterans, internal security and public security, international relations and economic development, justice for minors and family issues, resolutions and urban affairs calendars. But they have gathered many of the tasks of these committees in three new committees appointed domestic security, public security and affairs of veterans; Intergovernmental affairs; and trade, labor and economic development.

Five of the eight abolished committees were previously led by Democrats and two by Republicans: JM Lozano de Kingsville and Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City, who voted against Burrows during the presidency race.

Burrows is expected to appoint the presidents of the committees in the coming weeks. Under the state law, the legislative body cannot approve any bill during the first 60 days of the session, unless it is designated as an emergency by the governor.

But Thursday’s vote could mark the start of a more controversial session. Republicans opposed to the resolution aimed at modifying the rules had planned to propose amendments that would respond to some of their concerns. But after about an hour of debate, representative Jared Patterson, a Republican of Frisco who is a lieutenant of Burrows, gathered 67 signatures of his colleagues legislators to end the debate and call for the vote on the resolution. Only 25 signatures are necessary to call such a motion.

Representative Mike Schofield, a Katy Republican who wanted to continue the debate, vehemently spoken against the Patterson motion and warned that he and his allies would use similar tactics later during the session.

“I also know how to get 25 votes, and I promise you that if you do this to us, we will do it,” he said.

More than 100 members of the two parties voted to end the debate.

After the vote on the regulations of the Chamber, Schofield told Texas Tribune: “The way we maintain this place in good working order and prevent him from exploding is to let everyone express himself. What we have decided today, it is not to do this anymore, that we “” we are going to reduce things and no one has the opportunity to say anything about it or to represent its voters. “

Renzo Downey and SNHuh Dey contributed to this report.