By Philip Jankowski and Karen Brooks Harper
Staff Writers
Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN — The Texas House resumed official business Monday for the first time in the two weeks since Democrats left the state to block congressional redistricting and threw the chamber into frustrated stasis.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows counted 120 members on the House floor – well over the 100 needed to establish a quorum – and immediately began the process of referring a stack of bills to start the committee process.
Among that legislation was a proposal for a new congressional map that could flip five Democrat seats to Republican. Others included flood relief legislation, abortion legislation and proposals to regulate the state’s consumable-hemp industry.
“The House has been through a tumultuous two weeks, but this institution long predates us,” Burrows said after the House gaveled in. “It will long outlast each of us. 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. It will withstand this too, and will remain as a chamber where the majority has the right to prevail, the minority has the right to be heard.”
Texas House Democrats were declaring victory Monday when they returned to Austin to begin work anew on a partisan redistricting of the state’s congressional seats.
Burrows instructed the House members who had fled the state to leave only with written permission from the House and in the custody of Texas Department of Public Safety personnel “who will ensure your return” when the chamber reconvenes Wednesday.
He warned that the schedule would be intense and fast-paced over the next couple of weeks and told members to keep it civil.
“We are done waiting,” Burrows said. “Now is the time for action.”
Just before the House convened at noon, anti-redistricting protesters lined the stairs outside the House chamber and cheered a line of Democrats, including Dallas Reps. Toni Rose and Rafael Anchía as they streamed into the chamber, all but guaranteeing a quorum.
“We’re here to continue the fight against these maps, and get it into federal court,” Rep. Chris Turner, D-Arlington, said when he returned to his desk for the first time since early August.
Half an hour after opening the House session, Burrows gaveled out — and Democrats lined up outside his office to collect their permission slip and meet their assigned agent from the DPS.
House Administration Chairman Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, was heard telling one lawmaker that the assigned agent “will be your best friend.”
Democrats and their assigned DPS officers and agents exchanged cell phone numbers on the House floor and tried to work out logistics such as whether the agent would travel to home districts or just be in touch with local law enforcement to transfer custody.
Work in the Texas House had remained at a standstill since Democrats left the state to block a partisan redistricting plan on Aug. 4. Their absence led Burrows, R-Lubbock, on Friday to end a first special session early. Gov. Greg Abbott quickly called a second special session the same day.
The Texas House Democratic Caucus said their quorum-breaking flight from Texas, which denied the chamber a constitutionally required two-thirds majority to carry out business, brought national attention to Texas’ bitter redistricting fight. Spreading their message has led several states – most notably California – to pursue congressional redistricting to counteract any Republican gains in Texas.
Republicans proposed a new map of the state’s 38 congressional districts that could flip as many as five Democratic seats to Republican control in hopes of preserving a GOP majority in the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm election.
Though that redistricting plan is expected to pass during the second special session, House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, said Democrats will take their fight to the courts.
“We’re returning to Texas more dangerous to Republicans’ plans than when we left,” Wu said in a statement. “Our return allows us to build the legal record necessary to defeat this racist map in court, take our message to communities across the state and country, and inspire legislators across the country how to fight these undemocratic redistricting schemes in their own statehouses.”
Democrats could be playing with fire. Several Republicans in the Texas Legislature now want the redistricting effort expanded to redraw district maps for the Texas House and Senate. Gov. Greg Abbott has also floated the idea of seeking to flip more than five Democratic seats in the congressional map.
