Caucus Bid to Hit Dems Harder for Holdout
Falls Short to the Dismay of Conservatives
Capitol Inside
August 25, 2025
Rumblings on a potential speaker's race percolated on Monday after the Texas House GOP Caucus decided to cut some slack for Democrats on Monday with a vote that tabled a motion to censure those who hijacked a congressional redistricting bill with more substantial penalties than those they already face.
The caucus shot down the censure proposal on a 44-27 vote that did not sit well with conservatives who'd pushed to crack down harder on Democrats who were absent during the final two weeks of the initial Texas summer session. The motion fell three votes short of the two-thirds threshold that it needed to pass.
"I am extremely disappointed that the motion to censure the democrats that fled the state has failed," rookie Republican State Rep. Janis Holt of Silsbee said. "I voted to censure! 27 of my GOP colleagues chose to not hold them accountable in this way."
The motion called for Democrats who were absent to be punished with the loss of chairmanships and vice-chairs on House committees, the loss of seniority credit and reductions in office budgets for the amount of time they missed while away from the Capitol. The House Administration Committee has assessed the quorum-busting lawmakers fines topping $9,300 apiece - a total that includes $7,000 for missing 14 days at a cost of $500 per day and $2,300 more to foot the bill for a state police search that came up completely empty.
The House Republicans who backed the censure bid see the monetary fines as a slap on the wrist for tactics that Governor Greg Abbott portrayed as criminal felonies. Abbott sought with success to have the Texas Supreme Court remove State Rep. Gene Wu of Houston from office as a result of a key role he had in the walkout. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit to have the high court give the boot to 13 House Democrats including Wu for missing time in a protest against the GOP's new congressional map.
GOP State Rep. Charlie Geren of Fort Worth informed Democrats of the fines as the Administration Committee chairman. The Democrats are prohibited from paying the penalties for the walkout from campaign accounts.
But the fight on the censure motion appeared to be an early test of Speaker Dustin Burrows' strength in the GOP caucus in his first year as the chamber's top leader - a post that he depended substantially on Democrats to win. Conservatives blamed Burrows for the motion's rejection.
The current House roster includes 88 Republicans. Half that number backed the move to punish Democrats more severely by chipping away at their clout. But Burrows or another Republican would have the inside track for the next speaker's election if they had the 27 caucus members who opposed the censure push and most of the Democrats in their camp.
The U.S. House map that triggered the squabbling on sanctions for Democrats cleared the Texas Senate early Saturday morning and was signed in the House on Monday.
Another freshman Republican - State Rep. Mitch Little of Lewisville - set the stage for the censure debate last week with a letter that posed a series of questions on how the caucus should handle the punishment phase of the Texas redistricting battle. Little raised the specter of stripping chairs and vice-chairmanships from the Democrats who broke quorum. But he also questioned whether the caucus can punish for past actions and how the rules could be changed to prevent walkouts in the future.
Some House Republicans have found themselves being censured by activists who control county GOP organizations for siding with Burrows in the leadership election in January over the caucus nominee.
more to come ...
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