Today at the Roundhouse, Feb. 27
Budget: The Senate Finance Committee plans to take up the $10.8 billion budget the House sent it earlier this week, reviewing specific sections with Legislative Finance Committee staff. It's not clear if the committee will vote on it.
Plastic bag ban: A move to ban single-use plastic bags and require retail stores to charge 10 cents per paper bag goes before its first committee, the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee, in the morning.
On the floor: The House floor has nearly 50 bills on its calendar, including a measure to make every session 45 days with no bill discussion limits, a proposed Paid Family and Medical Leave Act and a bill to implement a 6% liquor sales tax. Floor leadership often decides the day of which bills to take up.
Music to your ears: It's New Mexico Philharmonics Day at the Roundhouse, and there's also an invite-only reception in the evening. It's also Apprenticeship Day and Animal Protection Lobby Day.
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40 minutes ago
What to know about redistricting fights as Texas Democrats return and California starts work
Republicans can move ahead with redrawing Texas' congressional districts now that Democratic lawmakers have returned to the state. Efforts to thwart President Donald Trump's push to tilt the political map for next year's midterm elections in his favor shifted to California. Dozens of Texas Democrats ended a two-week walkout Monday after Democrats in California heeded Gov. Gavin Newsom's call to counter the GOP effort in Texas. In California, the Democratic-supermajority Legislature faces tight deadlines, and a plan would have to be approved by voters in November. Republicans have more options for mid-decade redistricting than Democrats because they control more statehouses, and they've talked about redrawing districts in Florida, Indiana and Missouri. Here's what to know. Both Trump and the Democrats are looking ahead to the 2026 midterms knowing that they often go against the president's party, as they did during Trump's first term in 2018. Republicans currently have a seven-seat majority in the 435-member House. State legislatures draw the lines after each U.S. census in most states — including Texas — and only a few dozen House districts are competitive. In Texas, Republicans hold 25 of 38 seats, and they're trying to increase that to 30. In California, Democrats have 43 of the 52 seats, and they're trying to boost that to 48, to wipe out the advantage the GOP would gain from redrawing lines in Texas. In some ways, the nation's most-populous state, California, is a reverse-mirror image of the nation's second most-populous state, Texas. Democrats are even more firmly in control of state government there than Republicans are in Texas, with Democratic supermajorities in both California legislative chambers. But California's districts were drawn by an independent commission created by a statewide vote in 2008 after years of intense partisan battles over redistricting. Democrats are trying to avoid legal challenges to a new map by asking voters to approve it as an exception to the normal process, which would require a special election in November. Texas has no such commission, so its Legislature doesn't have to seek voters' approval for its maps. California lawmakers were returning Monday to the state capital from a summer break. They are scheduled to remain in session through Sept. 12. Republicans have solid majorities in both chambers of the Texas Legislature, and a Democrat hasn't won statewide office there since 1994. But Texas is among a handful of states where two-thirds of each chamber must be present to conduct business, and the GOP majorities are not that large. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott already had called a special legislative session when Trump began pushing for a new congressional map, but GOP lawmakers could not conduct business after most Democratic lawmakers left for blue states, including California, Illinois and Massachusetts. But there were pressures on Democrats against holding out longer. They were away from their families and nonlegislative jobs, and their walkout also prevented lawmakers from providing relief to the Texas Hill Country ravaged by deadly flash flooding in July. They also faced fines of $500 per day, as well as efforts to oust some of them from office.
Time Magazine
an hour ago
- Time Magazine
Texas Democrat Locked in State Capitol for Refusing Mandatory Escort
Rep. Nicole Collier, a Democrat representing Fort Worth, claims that she's been unlawfully locked in the Texas House chambers, where she remained overnight Monday and may stay for days until the issue is resolved. Collier was one of dozens of Democrats who fled the state earlier this month to break quorum in an effort to block a vote on a contentious redistricting plan backed by President Donald Trump that would favor Republican candidates in the 2026 midterm elections. Some of the representatives returned on Monday for the start of a second special session but GOP Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows is requiring that they be escorted by state troopers when leaving the House chamber to prevent another walkout. Collier, however, said she would not agree to such monitoring. 'I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts,' Collier said in a statement to media outlets. 'My constituents sent me to Austin to protect their voices and rights,' she said. 'When I press that button to vote, I know these maps will harm my constituents—I won't just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination.' Proposed Texas maps kicked off interstate redistricting fight Texas GOP leaders have criticized the Democrats that fled for having 'abandoned their duties.' Earlier this month, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit to remove 13 representatives from office over their continued absence on Aug. 8, while Gov. Greg Abbott requested that the Texas Supreme Court vacate the seat of House Democratic leader Gene Wu. Litigation is ongoing, although it's not clear how the members' return will affect the suits. Even so, the passage of the redistricting plan is all but guaranteed. The Texas Senate redistricting committee approved the maps on Sunday, and the Republican-majority upper chamber could vote on the plan as soon as this Wednesday. 'We knew that this was something we were not going to be able to stop,' Rep. Ramon Romero, one of the Democrats who fled, told the Fort Worth Report. 'We could slow it down, though, and that's exactly what we did.' Texas Republicans were energized by the Democrats' return. 'Representatives come and go. Issues rise and fall. But this body has endured wars, economic depressions and quorum breaks dating back to the very first session,' Burrows said at Monday's session. 'We are done waiting. We have a quorum. Now is the time for action.' Trump posted on Truth Social, 'Please pass this Map, ASAP.' Trump had earlier threatened to involve Federal Bureau of Investigations officers in bringing back the representatives. The Democrats' return to the state comes after California launched its own redistricting plan that would counter the Texas Republicans' efforts. Several more states—Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New York, and Ohio—have also entered redistricting battles. Redistricting typically happens once every 10 years, after the U.S. census, which was last conducted in 2020. But Trump and his allies began lobbying for Republican states to redraw their congressional lines sooner, in order to gain an advantage in next year's midterms. 'Now that the nation is involved in this fight, some Texas Democrats are coming back to fight these racist maps in the legislature and then in the courts,' Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder said in a statement Monday. 'Texans can see that the Republicans would rather serve Trump than serve the interests of Texans.' Wu told the Houston Chronicle that the Democrats will challenge the legality of the maps. Many Democrats, though, did not return on Monday. 'Even if California and New York redistrict and successfully get rid of Republicans, that doesn't help my district,' Rep. Jolanda Jones, who did not return to Texas, told the New York Times. 'We will lose one Black seat in Houston and one Black seat in Dallas. That's unacceptable.' Collier alleges 'illegal confinement' Collier told CBS that she could go to her office with a police escort and with Department of Public Safety officers stationed outside or she could remain inside the chamber. She told the Fort Worth Report that she does not know how long she will be there for. Collier has filed a habeas corpus petition to a Travis County court alleging her 'illegal confinement.' Another Democratic representative, Ann Johnson, signed the permission slip but remained with Collier for some time after objecting to being followed by an officer. Johnson eventually left the chamber. 'This is another exercise of authority and power over people of color, over people who resist,' said Collier, who is the former chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. 'This exercise, this requirement that we be trailed by DPS officers who could be out there fighting crime is not only a waste of taxpayer dollars, but is also offensive to the dignity of each one of us who has been elected by our constituents to come here and fight.' Collier's attention-grabbing move has been applauded by Democrats across the state and country. 'As a former Texas State Rep, let me be clear: LOCKING Rep. Nicole Collier inside the chamber is beyond outrageous,' U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D, Texas) posted on X. 'Forcing elected officials to sign 'permission slips' and take police escorts to leave? That's not procedure. That's some old Jim Crow playbook.' Democratic state senator Roland Gutierrez, who visited Collier in the chamber, posted a video of a group of supporters gathered inside the Texas Capitol building that was chanting, 'Let her out.'
2 hours ago
A look at Texas' redistricting walkout and California's response, by the numbers
A walkout by Democratic legislators in Texas has ended and Republicans arranged to push a plan for redrawing the state's congressional districts through the GOP-controlled Legislature and give President Donald Trump a better political landscape. Democrats' boycott of daily sessions kept the House from passing a new map because the state constitution requires 100 of the chamber's 150 members to be present to do business. Democrats hold 62 seats. A national, partisan brawl over redistricting has now started to shift to California, where Democrats are hoping to impose a new map that offsets any advantage Trump and his fellow Republicans might gain in Texas. Here's a breakdown by the numbers. Texas is the nation's second most-populous state and has 38 congressional seats. Republicans hold 25 of them but are hoping to boost that number to 30. Their goal is to make it easier for the GOP to hold on to its slim U.S. House majority in the 2026 midterm elections, so that Democrats have little ability to thwart Trump's agenda and can't initiate investigations of his administration. Democrats hold 43 of 52 congressional seats in California, the nation's most populous state. At Gov. Gavin Newsom's urging, they've drafted a proposal to increase the number to 48. However, the current map was drawn by an independent commission created though a voter-approved ballot initiative in 2008. To avoid legal challenges, Democrats want to put their proposal on the ballot in a special election in November. Redistricting usually happens after the once-a-decade population count by the U.S. Census Bureau and sometimes in response to a court ruling. Changes are required to keep a state's congressional districts equal in population after people move into or out of an area. Trump is pushing for a rare mid-decade redistricting in Texas, and Republicans are also considering it in other states including Missouri, Florida and Indiana. Republicans currently hold 219 seats in the U.S. House, seven more than the 212 held by Democrats. Four of the chamber's 435 seats are vacant, three of them previously held by Democrats. Midterm elections most often go against the president's party. In 2018, during Trump's first term, Democrats had a net gain of 41 seats to capture the House majority. Most House Democrats left Texas on Aug. 3 and stayed outside the state for 15 days. They fled to blue states like Illinois, California and Massachusetts to stay out of the reach of the Texas law enforcement officers trying to bring them back. Many of the same lawmakers also walked out in 2021 for 38 days to protest GOP proposals for new voting restrictions. Once they returned, Republicans passed them into law. The Democrats who bolted for other states and returned now have an around-the-clock escort from Texas Department of Public Safety officers to make sure they return to the Capitol, House Speaker Dustin Burrows' office said. Burrows' office did not provide more details, calling it an ongoing law enforcement operation. Plainclothes officers escorted them from the chamber after Monday's session.
