Harrison Forces Burrows Hand on Quorum
for Two Days in House Without Calendars
Capitol Inside
March 29, 2025
The Texas House set an apparent record on Saturday when it met for 9 seconds before Speaker Dustin Burrows shut it down without a quorum for the second time in two days in a move that State Rep. Brian Harrison prompted with demands for formal roll calls.
Harrison - a Midlothian Republican who's blasted Burrows at every turn this year - branded the House as a "lawless" institution on social media after Burrows announced a quorum on Friday before an official verification showed 66 members to be present in a chamber that needs a minimum of 100 on the floor to meet.
Burrows adjourned the House immediately without a roll call on Saturday when leaders said it was forced to be in session for reasons that remained hazy. Harrison sent a memo to the speaker this morning with a demand for another roll call vote that Burrows headed off with the candid admission that the chamber did not have a sufficient number of members to conduct business.
"My staff counted only 28 members (out of 150) that bothered to show up for work this morning," Harrison said in a post today on X.
Harrison has emerged as the leader of a group of GOP conservatives that's grown decidedly smaller since Burrows claimed the gavel in January. Harrison reminded the speaker in the note on Saturday that the Texas Constitution and House rules require quorums with at least two out every three members present. Harrison sought to portray the maneuvering as a victory against corruption in the Austin swamp.
“I’m very proud to have objected and to require strict enforcement,” Harrison said. “Speaker Burrows is conducting what I call ‘operation run out the call’ because he is trying to run the clock out on Republican priorities that he doesn’t want to be blamed for killing.”
Harrison - ironically - had complained relentless about the House wasting time with repeated extended weekends in the regular session's opening months while the Senate was sending major legislation to the House. Both chambers had to officially agree to the long breaks as a constitutional mandate. Harrison said the House should be working longer hours before moving to hamstring it with tactics that prevented the representatives who did report to work from doing anything for two days.
But the victory may have been hollow in light of the fact that the House had no legislation scheduled for debate on the calendars for Friday and Saturday. So the lack of quorums had no effect on the chamber's production that's been limited to committees up to now.
Based on the Friday roll call and Harrison's estimate for turnout today, the House did not field enough members for a single quorum in two days combined with 91 when both are added together.
more to come ...
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