On Thursday, the Texas House passed their permanent rules for the 89th Legislature. Rules which, for the next two years, will govern how the Texas House operates, including floor proceedings, committees and more. 

While some might look on something like the “rules” as being relatively inconsequential or innocuous, that could not be further from the truth. 

The rules package, filed as HR 4, was authored by State Rep. Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi). After being delayed by a week, the 230+ page resolution was filed at roughly 4:00am, just a few hours before the House was scheduled to debate and vote on it. 

In an effort to delay the vote and allow more time for review, State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R-Arlington) proposed postponing consideration of the rules. However, his motion was dismissed by Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock). 

The Rules package included sweeping changes, such as: 

• Banning minority party committee chairs, but,
• Required minority party vice-chairs, 
• Entrusted vice-chairs with sweeping new powers, 
• Created new standing sub-committees (that can be chaired by the minority party),
• Imposed mask mandates in committee hearings, 
• And more…

Before any amendments to the rules were allowed to be brought up for debate or vote, State Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco) invoked a procedural move known as a “motion for the previous question.” Often referred to as a “nuclear option,” this rare tactic immediately ends debate and forces an up-or-down vote. Patterson’s motion passed with a 107-35 vote. This cut off any opportunity for amendments or further discussion on the proposed rules.

The changes to the rules underscore two important developments for taxpayers to understand: 

Firstly, the moderate Republicans that partnered with Democrats to elect Speaker Burrows are now able to claim that they “banned democrat committee chairs.” At the same time, these status-quo Republicans helped to expand the power of democrats through new committees and vice-chair authorities. 

Secondly, on the whole, despite Democrats being barred from chairing standing committees, the new rules present a net power-gain for the Democrat House Caucus. 

This is highlighted by the fact that nearly every democrat present voted FOR the rules package (once again, a rules packaged that many republicans on Speaker Burrow’s team claims “bans democrat chairs”): 

After the vote, Democrats bragged about their success at a press conference:

House leadership and their allies have preserved the power-sharing arrangements with Democrats, an arrangement that comes at the expense of advancing conservative and pro-taxpayer agendas. 

With the rules approved, the Texas House adjourned until Monday, leaving lawmakers and constituents with the weekend to digest the outcome. The battle over House rules has set the tone for what is likely to be a contentious legislative session, with reform-minded Republicans gearing up for continued clashes with House leadership and their democrat allies.

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