Absent Dems Getting Bill for OT that DPS
Logs with Stakeouts at Empty Residences
Capitol Inside
August 11, 2025
GOP Speaker Dustin Burrows unveiled a hotline for tips on missing Texas House Democrats on Monday when he also revealed that the state police have stakeouts underway at the homes of the lawmakers who were absent again at the outset of the second week of a walkout on a congressional redistricting plan.
After failing to field a quorum for the fifth time in five attempts in the past eight days, Burrows appeared to show his hand on strategy in an update on tactics for getting Democrats back in the chamber for a vote in special session on a map that was drawn to give the GOP five additional U.S. House seats before the 2026 elections.
"The Department of Public Safety has special agents deployed in every region of Texas," Burrows said from the dais. "The House has deputized dozens of officers and dispatched them across the state. They are set up outside members' homes, conducting surveillance, knocking on doors, calling their phones multiple times a day."
Then came the bad news. "So far, no one's home," the speaker acknowledged. "But the search continues and it will not stop."
Burrows said the DPS had been pursuing "credible" tips and leads on the whereabouts of absent Democrats from members of the public. While none of those panned out, they prompted the creation of a special telephone line that people outside law enforcement can use to keep House officials and law enforcement authorities abreast on possible sightings or other information that would lead to absent Democrats arrests and hauling back to Austin.
The speaker spelled out the number twice for the members on the floor and visitors in the gallery above it. Burrows said to call 866-786-5972 with information on the Democrats. But Burrows said the tips would be useful for Democrats who "happen to be" in Texas.
Burrows comments on the DPS activities up to now in the hunt for House Democrats appeared to go against the grain of traditional investigating techniques. Stakeouts require a significant element of surprise to be successful if the actual apprehension of their targets is the chief priority. Surveillance rarely is effective if the subjects know they're being followed and watched.
The most obvious reason to tout the police strategy in the hunt for wayward Democrats would be for the sake of appearances as Governor Greg Abbott and GOP lawmakers say and do everything they can think of to make it look like they're trying as hard as they possibly can to reclaim a quorum for a vote on their map.
But the speaker said that Democrats would be billed for the overtime expenses that the DPS racks up searching their neighborhoods where they know the absent legislators won't be found. That could explain why Burrows tipped his hand. The speaker declined to mention the intervention of the FBI that U.S. Senator John Cornyn and Abbott have promised for several days in the search for House Democrats who out of state.
The FBI's ride to the rescue on congressional redistricting has yet to materialize and is not expected because the agency does not have the authority to pursue suspects who are not wanted on any federal offense. After parroting Cornyn's claims on the FBI joining the hunt for errant Democrats, Abbott dropped the federal agents from the narrative he promoted on Sunday on conservative news shows.
more to come ...
| 
