Day 58: Austin Is A Circus And The Clowns Are In Charge

Another day, another round of bad bills and Republican meltdowns.

Yesterday, the Subcommittee on Appropriations for Articles VI, VII, and VIII met for a closed meeting. Why it was a closed meeting is beyond me. Still, one of Brian Harrison’s (R-HD10) people recorded a few minutes of it, which was later posted online by Texas Scorecard personality Kambree. It seemingly shows Harrison attempting to add a white supremacy rider into the budget. It was voted down, but that was enough to cause the right to cry online.

Here is the video (the audio isn’t great):

Look at the body language in the room. Almost no one will even make eye contact with Harrison. They really, really hate him.

After last week’s racist outburst, when Harrison made a 33-year civil servant with two engineering degrees cry after implying that Black people weren’t qualified to work in government, it’s no wonder they refuse to even look at him.

Yesterday, his rider attacked DEI and would have barred state-funded institutions from actively working to combat discrimination.

Harrison is all too eager to protect the status quo of systematic inequality. Of course, he blamed Representative Walle (D-HD140) for failing to adopt the rider, not because Walle doesn’t subscribe to his racism but because Walle is a Democrat.

Democrats are so mean. They’re stopping me from being racist. Whaaaaa!

I want to bring your attention to one of the responses in one of Harrison’s many crybaby posts from yesterday:

Brian’s constant lies about the Texas House are depressing the Republican base. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they’re finally going to wake up and realize that the GOP sucks at governing. But it’s fuel for their Civil War.

He was batting 1000 yesterday.

He’s talking about Ana-Maria Ramos (D-HD102). And it should come as no surprise, but he’s lying. Again. Here’s the clip:

The Secretary of State legitimately purged citizens with Latino last names from the voter rolls and was sued over it. Ramos questioned the Texas Secretary of State’s history of disenfranchising voters, whether intentionally or not. She wanted to know what steps have been taken to prevent wrongful disenfranchisement in the future.

Republicans don’t fact-check, though. So, they’ll never know Harrison was lying.

The drama around meme-Dade.

Yesterday, former Speaker Dade Phelan (R-HD21) introduced HB366 in the House Committee on State Affairs. This bill will ban the publication, distribution, or broadcast of political ads that contain altered images, audio, or video of a candidate or officeholder if the depicted events never occurred.

For example, recently, a hacker put an AI video of Trump kissing Elon’s feet on a loop on all the TVs at HUD. That would be an example of an altered video of an officeholder in an event that never occurred. Phelan’s bill would make it illegal to use videos like that in a political ad.

This has sent Republicans into full-blown panic mode, convinced that Phelan is coming for their memes. This led to them flooding social media with Dade Phelan memes like this:

Once a Republican hates you, they hate you forever. Poor Dade. It’s funny, though.

Carl Tepper (R-HD84) moves to defund the police.

It’s a little ironic, considering that for years, Republicans accused Democrats of wanting to defund the police without any evidence that they ever said or pushed for that. Yet, we have Republicans in DC defunding law enforcement with the FBI, and in Austin, Carl Tepper has moved to defund the Austin Police. It should be noted that Tepper is from Lubbock.

Under Tepper’s bill, HB470, the Capital Complex boundaries would be expanded south to Lady Bird Lake and west to Colorado Street, covering more of downtown Austin. DPS would be primarily responsible for law enforcement and security in this area, replacing APD and defunding them.

As many of the Democrats on the committee pointed out, Tepper is from Lubbock, not Austin. So, why is he trying to make laws for Austin? Because Austin is blue and Lubbock is red. Every session, Republicans push for laws over blue areas where they don’t live. It’s just how they are.

Further, it would be an attack on local control in Austin, as it would be a state takeover of city responsibilities. It’s an unnecessary power grab.

HB32 - A Republican-backed bill making it easier and faster for landlords to kick tenants out.

I didn’t get the screen recording, but the bill debate is HERE if you want to see it.

HB32 by Angie Chen-Button (R-HD112) removes legal protections for renters, allowing landlords to kick out tenants without due process. Tenants facing eviction won’t be able to file counterclaims in justice court. Cities and counties couldn’t pass emergency measures (like eviction moratoriums during a crisis) without state approval.

The hearing for this bill took place yesterday in the Committee on Judiciary and Criminal Jurisprudence and lasted nearly four hours.

Texas already has some of the weakest tenant protections in the country. This bill makes it even easier for landlords to kick people out with minimal legal barriers. It will accelerates housing instability and houselessness. More evictions mean more people forced into unstable housing, shelters, or the streets. It disproportionately harms low-income Texans, people of color, and single mothers.

If passed, this bill will supercharge Texas’s eviction crisis, forcing more people out of their homes with minimal due process, and we would see the houselessness rate in Texas rapidly expand.

More irony from Texas Republicans who have criminalized being houseless and now want to exacerbate that problem.

The Texas Legislature is in full swing, and the chaos is just getting started.

We’re seeing the usual Republican power grabs, bad-faith arguments, and nonsensical infighting, all while they push for policies that hurt working-class Texans. Whether it’s Harrison throwing a tantrum over DEI, Tepper’s obsession with controlling a city he doesn’t live in, or the right’s full-blown meltdown over Dade Phelan’s meme bill, it’s clear that the GOP’s priorities have nothing to do with actual governance. Meanwhile, bills like HB 32 show that when they do legislate, it’s in service of landlords, corporations, and the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

But as much as Republicans are trying to steamroll their agenda, anything can happen in a session like this. Some of these bills will get gutted or quietly killed. Others will pass with unintended consequences that come back to bite their authors. And if history is any indication, GOP infighting could derail everything. The only certainty is that the Texas Legislature will remain as unpredictable as ever, full of backroom deals, political stunts, and last-minute twists.

• March 14: The last day Legislators can file bills.

• June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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