The Texas Tribune held a preview event of the 2021 Legislative Session. Tribune politics reporter Cassi Pollock sat down with members of the Texas House—state Reps. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg; Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth; Four Price, R-Amarillo; and Toni Rose, D-Dallas—to discuss their top legislative priorities ahead of the 2021 session. Following that, Tribune senior politics reporter Patrick Svitek leads a conversation with state Sens. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio; Charles Perry, R-Lubbock; Beverly Powell, D-Burleson; and Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood; on the agenda for the Texas Senate. A video of the discussion can be found here.
This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.
House Agenda
- Pollock – Does the November election impact the 87th? How can the House come together?
- Goldman – campaign in past and “now we legislate”, focus on issues like budget, health and human services; they solved water and long-term transportation so, in his opinion, health and human services is next
- Pollock – Phelan is likely Speaker, what will you ask for in committee assignments and what role will you serve?
- Rose – Working on issues that impact her districts, “will bloom wherever I am planted”
- Canales – Last session was Chair of Transportation, believes may be a good place but wherever Speaker team says he will be best is where is wants to go
- Price – Agree with Rose, difficult task, want to go where he will be most beneficial to the body
- Goldman – Thinks Chairmen on this call did a great job, enjoyed his service but willing to go where he is sent
- Pollock – So many unknowns but members will have latitude for their offices, how will you run your office?
- Canales – Communicating on common areas he shares with lawmakers, keep members of staff safe, don’t know how it will unfold until rules are passed, use common sense, his staff will wear mask, sanitize hands, etc need to balance rights of people to be in House with safety
- Price – Exactly right, situation is fluid, most members will operate own respective offices that make sense, work on PPE/barrier on desk and air filters throughout, his office will remain open to whoever wants to come in but sure they will try to schedule it
- Rose – Her district was heavily impacted so it has heightened her awareness, currently have protocols in place, but as far as she is concerned everyone has COVID and will be treated as such – remain safe and cautious
- Goldman – Agree with comments overall, as long as they are there the Capitol should be open to people of Texas as long as they do it safely
- Pollock – Redistricting overall? When will we get data and what are you expecting this time?
- Price – Process is challenging under any set of circumstances, it could be delayed a bit based on Census Bureau, has good estimates from demographers and lege council but it is a tough process to go through
- Rose – in 2013 did handle some redistricting and only Democrat to get an amendment passed; hope to continue good working relationships and work out issues
- Goldman – Been told to expect the unexpected; has been major turnover in last decade in that there have been more who have not been through redistricting than those who have
- Canales – Thinks rather than partisan fight it will be a delegation fight; more issues in lines in North Texas than in South Texas
- Pollock – How we maintain funding in HB 3?
- Canales – Deficit is not insurmountable and believe they will rally around keeping promise they have made
- Pollock – Why has legislature failed to extend Medicaid?
- Price – Biggest concern with full expansion is the cost and how to pay for it
- Pollock – How long do you think the legislature will be in town?
- Canales – No idea on end but it starts on February; thinks they will have a special since they have some people up for re-election who will need to re-energize their base and that is typically the tool used; believes a special other than redistricting and has a lot of red meat in it
- Rose – Hope not; but does believes there will be a special session for at least redistricting
- Price – But for… but for redistricting thinks they could all the work done and get out of there on time and could possibly still get it done by May or at least by end of June
- Goldman – Agrees with Price, it will all depend on the Census data and when they get the results back
Senate Agenda
- Svitek – Plans for safety in 87th?
- Menendez – Hope it is a work environment in most safe and professional way, don’t want to endanger anyone
- Perry – Public testimony needs to be done in public, tested before you come to the Capitol and may need rules to allow this process
- Perry – Most of redistricting could be in virtual format
- Powell – Agree, have seen a bit of what it looks like to stay safe during hearings, have transparency issues they need to preserve
- Taylor – Understand it will be slower to start, not a whole lot of chamber days but hope is in middle and end of session it will look more like a normal session but admits he is an eternal optimist
- Svitek – Top priorities to get done this session?
- Perry – Rural Texas issues such as broadband, health care (SB 170 last session and needs to be a priority), water rights/not letting water in Permian Basin go to waste, DSRIP money critical components, expedited 1115 waiver
- Powell – Preserve funding in HB 3, workforce development, expand health care coverage
- Taylor – Concur on education sentiment, made transformative changes so they want to protect those, storm barrier/storm surge protection
- Menendez – see issues that plague rural areas similar to those of intercity like broadband, also need available health care and hospital beds, need to expand or whatever we call it people need medical home so ERs are not primary care, many districts are having to re-tool HVAC/air filtration systems, claims on unemployment, help for small businesses and medical cannabis
- Svitek – Thoughts on Medicaid expansion?
- Powell – Optimistic, talking to colleagues about this as well, time to take common sense approach to cover health care needs
- Svitek – Multiple levels of Texans being affected, what can legislature do to provide relief?
- Powell – Look back to Great Depression that begin in 2008, need to educate the workforce, believes will see a rescaling of workforce
- Taylor – Community colleges play a huge role for workforce, provide a good business environment (taxes low and regulations reasonable), budget and hope they can do something similar as they have before
- Perry – On budget they have a playbook from before/ agrees with Taylor, liability shields at state level if Federal does not do it, borrowed to pay off unemployment claims so need to find ways to use COVID dollars to help businesses on that
- Svitek – Will state vote on any aid packages in session?
- Perry – Thinks there are some unused COVID dollars, not as doom and gloom on budget and feels more optimistic this session
- Svitek – Any thoughts on making voting easier?
- Menendez – Expand voting by mail and it has shown it can be done safely and securely, need to prepare for Pandemics going forward
- Taylor – People will want to make sure vote by mail is done properly, it is a process and most of those states doing that have taken several years to get where they are now