Republican Accountability Project billboard in Times Square in New York City - Photo Twitter @AccountableGOP

 

 

Lawmakers Could Be Back for Vaccines
and Audits that Trump Has Demanded

Capitol Inside
October 18, 2021

A fourth special session could be lurking on the horizon with the Texas House showing no interest up to now in election audits or legislation that would ban businesses from protecting the health and safety of employees by requiring them to be vaccination as a condition of employment and advancement.

Governor Greg Abbott has been in the same corner with House GOP leaders so far by ignoring Donald Trump's demands for a bill that would initiate an investigation into the results of the 2020 Texas election that the Republicans won.

Abbott and the House have given Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Trump the cold shoulder on the forensic election audits proposal in Senate Bill 47 in the current special session that must end no later than Tuesday at midnight. GOP Speaker Dade Phelan and Abbott have some new cover for the snubbing of Patrick and Trump with the unveiling on Monday of billboards that show the former president bowing with the message TRUMP LOST and NO MORE "AUDITS" here and other battleground states.

Bankrolled by a new group Republicans for Voting Rights, the giant road signs are going up in states that Democratic President Joe Biden won like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin along with Texas and Florida where Trump emerged victorious in his failed re-election bid. The RVR - an initiative by the Republican Accountability Project - hoisted the inaugural billboard in Times Square in the heart of New York City this past weekend.

Phelan has been out on a limb alone - however - as far as the vaccine mandate prohibition that Abbott added to the current special session call this month after taking the same basic action in an executive order. Patrick has set the vaccination requirement ban in Senate Bill 51 for a vote on the upper chamber floor on Monday.

But SB 51 could be massive poison pill for the GOP in Texas where the titans of the old-guard party establishment establishment like the Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the Texas Medical Association, the Texas Civil Justice League, the Texas Association of Business and other major statewide organizations are vehemently opposed to the measure.

The business and professional groups that want the Legislature to bury the vaccine mandate ban had been the financial lifeblood of the GOP since its emergence as the state's majority party 20 years ago. But the House and Senate Republicans demonstrated the Trump base is their highest priority now with a slew of new laws that are based on problems that don't exist with election, critical race theory, social media censorship and regulation and other issues that were fabricated.

Abbott and Patrick both appear to think that they can ignore TLR and the other groups that the Republicans rode to the pinnacle power here and get away with it. But rank and file Republican lawmakers may not perceive them to be as invincible as the governor and Senate president seem to do - and a majority of the ruling party's members in Austin would rather not be forced to vote against groups that have put and kept them in power.

Abbott could decide to call lawmakers back for yet another special session if they spurn him on SB 51. Some Republicans in Austin are concerned that the governor could continue to call special sessions until the general election in 2022 when he and Patrick hope to be on the ballot for re-election.

more to come ...

 


 

 


 

 

 

Texas Legislative Council Maps and Data

 

Copyright 2003-2021 Capitol Inside