May 21, 2021      6:17 PM

HK: Did the Budget Conference Committee, the Speaker, and the Governor sucker punch the Texas House?

Abbott’s pledge of adding legislative oversight to a fall special session should perhaps be viewed in light of his past broken promises to Texas House members and the retribution faced by lawmakers who challenged his authority

In passing the Appropriations Act, the Texas House unanimously adopted the Morrison Amendment demanding legislative oversight over the expenditure of around $16 billion in federal Coronavirus funds earmarked for this state. The will of the House could not be more emphatic.

Yet when the Conference Committee report was released, QR was the first to report all such oversight language had been stripped—a rare middle finger salute to the House. In effect, a governor who had dedicated the entire session to passing legislation to bolster his next election would now be the only arbiter of how the money would be distributed.

To say that appropriators and rank and file members were enraged was an understatement. The words “slush fund” come to mind and given the Governor’s political history, an equitable distribution could be legitimately questioned.

Apparently responding to our story, the Governor e-mailed members the following: “As everybody knows, I will be calling a special session for redistricting in the fall, and have committed to Lt. Governor Patrick, Speaker Phelan, Chairs Nelson and Bonnen, and Vice Chairs Lucio and Gonzalez that I will place the allocation of the nearly $16 billion in Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Relief federal funds on the same special call so the entire legislature can participate in the allocation process in a way that best serves all Texans.”

In other words, a vague commitment to allow the Legislature to “participate.”

Frankly, that is not good enough given Abbott’s past history.

By Harvey Kronberg

Copyright May 21, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved