Senate presses forward passing GOP voting and bail bills, as Texas House in chaos over Democrats’ decampment – By James Barragan and Jolie McCullough (Texas Tribune) / July 13 2021
If the House Democrats who skipped town to block voting legislation don’t return before the special session ends, the Senate bills will languish without becoming law.
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As Democrats fled the state to avoid voting on a GOP priority elections bill that would restrict voting rights in the state, the Texas Senate approved the bill Tuesday with a party-line vote of 18-4.
The Senate passed the controversial elections bill — and bail legislation — a day after 51 House Democrats decamped to Washington, D.C., to avoid voting on the elections bill in their chamber. If the Democrats don’t return before the special session ends, the Senate bills will languish.
Eight Senate Democrats announced Tuesday they had also fled to the nation’s capital — a ninth was expected to arrive that evening — on the same day as their chamber was set to vote on the elections bill. But the Senate kept a quorum with 22 of its 31 members present and was able to vote on the bill.
Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, the elections bill’s author, pushed back against Democratic criticisms of the bill as a means of voter suppression and said his legislation included “common sense reforms” to ensure the integrity of elections.
CONTINUE > https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/13/voting-bill-texas-senate/
