AUSTIN, TX — In defiance of the Governor’s special session call, Senator Nathan Johnson (D-Dallas) filed Senate Joint Resolution 4, to limit statewide elected officials to two terms in office. Johnson’s bill mirrors 2013 legislation authored by Republican Senator Kevin Eltife, and co-authored by then-Senator / now Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, along with current Republican Senators Charles Schwertner and Robert Nichols and Democratic Senator Juan Hinojosa. That bill passed the Senate 27-4, but failed in the House.
Johnson said he filed the bill, despite term limits not being the subject of the Governor’s call, because:
“After the latest round of additions to the already overladen special session, it’s fair to say the Governor has gone rogue. He’s running special sessions as if the Legislature were composed of his employees, there to serve his political calculations no matter their own opinions and no matter the damage to the state.
This is what happens when you give too much power to one individual for too long. In office since 2014, a fourth term would give Abbott 16 years to control state bureaucracy – and the staggering campaign cash that that control draws.
The Republican majority has over time again and again ceded their legislative power and function to the executive branch. The Governor now feels empowered to govern by fiat, using special sessions to ram through whatever his pollsters suggest will please donors and primary election base voters. Gone is respect for the legislative branch and for their connection to their constituents.
This is a historical aberration, and not a good one. Legislatures once guarded their power fiercely. Today, Republican majorities yield it willingly. I do wonder: are they truly content with breaking the balance of power so carefully constructed by our Framers?
There is no hoping for limited government while giving the executive branch unlimited tenure.”
About Senator Nathan Johnson: Senator Nathan Johnson represents almost a million Dallas County residents in Senate District 16. He serves on the Senate committees on Business and Commerce, Jurisprudence (Vice-Chair), Economic Development, Transportation, and Water, Agriculture & Rural Affairs.
