POWERFUL TESTIMONY AGAINST HB 1605
Lynn Davenport spoke against HB 1605, Morath’s Amplify Bill. You can get involved, too. Go to Austin and let your voice be heard in these very important committee hearings.
THIS WEEK IN AUSTIN
TUESDAY, MAR 28
HB 446 Craddick / Rose / Leach / Frank / Davis / et al.
Relating to the terminology used in statute to refer to intellectual
disability and certain references to abolished health and human services
agencies.
HB 300 Howard / Button / Neave Criado / Thierry / Leach / et
al.
Relating to an exemption from sales and use taxes for certain family care
items.
HB 590 Bailes
Relating to the labeling and sale of Texas honey.
HB 608 Shaheen
Relating to the sale of fireworks before and during the Diwali holiday.
WEDNESDAY, MAR 29
HB 727 Rose
Relating to the applicability of the death penalty to a capital offense
committed by a person with severe mental illness.
HB 584 Capriglione
Relating to the development of a state information technology credential
offered by public junior colleges or public technical institutes to address
shortages in the state information resources workforce.
HB 624 Harris, Cody
Relating to emergency medical transport by fire fighters of certain
patients.
HB 28 Slawson
Relating to enhancing the punishment for certain conduct constituting the
criminal offense of aggravated assault
SAY “NO” TO PREDATORY GAMBLING
Do you support casino gambling under the guise of “family entertainment?” The push is on for resort gambling casinos in Texas. If you’re concerned about the very real negative consequences of predatory gambling, let your elected officials know how you feel. Call them or email them. Message them on social media. Big gambling corporations want a piece of Texas. You have a choice. Contact your elected officials today.
ALERT: HEARINGS IN AUSTIN THIS WEEK
On Tuesday, 3/21 the House Select Committee on Community Safety is meeting at 2:00 in E2.012. They will be addressing the following bills:
HB 165
HB 175
HB 636
HB 902
HB 1229
HB 1760
HB2076
HB 2242
HB 2454
HB 2780
HB 3443
HB 3539
HCR 36
Also on Tuesday, there is the Election Integrity rally at St Joseph’s at 6:30.
On Wednesday, 3/22 the House County Affairs Committee (CAf) is meeting at 10:30 in E2.012 to discuss HB 899. While this bill is intended to regulate noise in residential districts, GOA is opposed to this bill.
On Wednesday, 3/22 the Senate Transportation committee is meeting to discuss SB505 electric vehicles in E1.016 at 8:00.
Also on 3/22 at 9:00, the Senate Natural Resources & Economic Development committee (NRE) is holding their meeting in E1.012 addressing the following bills:
SB 502
SB 604
SB 784 greenhouse gases
SB 1114 greenhouse gases
MORE TO FOLLOW…
BILL ALERT: Regarding Texas Senate Bill 728 and Texas House Bill 2780 (companion bill)…
Although this bill passed in the Senate unanimously, there are some concerns that center around the issues of enhanced background checks, to include juvenile mental health records and intellectual disability information.
SENATE VOTES ON GUN RIGHTS BILL
This will be of concern to many. SB 728 already passed through the Senate, unanimously, and is waiting to be referred to committee in the Texas House.
SOURCE: TEXAS GUN RIGHTS
March 14, 2023
The never ending battle to defend gun rights from the left is already exhaustive enough.
Now, we have Republicans in Austin locking arms with radical Texas Democrats to make Texas law mirror Biden’s gun control agenda!
Call Republican Speaker Dade Phelan at (512) 463-1000 and urge him to OPPOSE ALL gun control, especially Dan Patrick’s Gun Registry Expansion (SB 728).
Last summer, Republican turncoat US Senator John Cornyn compromised with anti-gun Democrats to dump millions of juvenile records into the National Instant Check System (NICS) and expand the list of prohibited persons for purchasing firearms.
In-spite of the Texas Second Amendment Sanctuary law being passed in 2021 — which was meant to protect Texans from Biden gun control — anti-gun Republican Sen. Joan Huffman is side-stepping the law by opting to bring state law in-line with federal law by filing SB 728.
This draconian scheme will funnel millions more records of law-abiding Texans into NICS, banning them from possessing or purchasing firearms.
Worse, SB 728 already passed through the Senate and is waiting to be referred to committee in the Texas House.
Proponents claim the intent is to “keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals.” If that were the case, we wouldn’t be opposing this bill.
But the reality couldn’t be further from the truth, and the devil is ALWAYS in the details.
Under SB 728, adult residents of Texas with certain juvenile offenses will be barred from possessing firearms due to indiscretions as a youth.
Worse, the bill FORCES state reporting to NICS on ALL future juvenile inpatient mental health cases, and opens the records of individuals retroactively who received inpatient mental care after the age of 16 – including the overwhelming majority of cases where there is NO violent risk, and the mental health issue is resolved.
More plainly stated, SB 728 discourages kids from coming forward to seek help for mental health issues by stigmatizing them and removing their Second Amendment rights for the rest of their lives.
NICS is a broken system that needs to be abolished, not expanded.
In fact, more than 94% of firearms purchase denials from NICS are false positives, meaning 94% of those individuals are falsely denied — often because individuals have the same name, or a similar name, to someone who is prohibited from possessing firearms.
Simply put, funneling millions more names into this already flawed system is a recipe for disaster.
We must take action to ensure that these bills – or any bill to expand the Federal gun registry – don’t see the light of day.
It’s sad but not surprising that Senator Joan Huffman is pushing this gun ban database expansion: she’s Lt. Governor Dan Patrick’s pet RINO and is often used to do the anti-gun dirty work he doesn’t want to take the blame for.
I’m sure you will remember how both Huffman and Patrick were the thorn in gun owners’ side for open carry, campus carry, and Constitutional Carry – fighting AGAINST the restoration of our Second Amendment rights every step of the way over the past decade… trying to keep Texas in lock-step with liberal, anti-gun bastions like California, New York, Illinois and Connecticut.
And of course, as recently as 2019, Lt. Gov. Patrick called for a MASSIVE NICS expansion through Universal Gun Registration, just as we’re seeing President Biden now ram through by executive order at the federal level.
Thanks to the overwhelming, relentless pressure from Texas Gun Rights members and supporters from across the state, we were able to overcome the hurdles from Lt. Governor Patrick and Senator Huffman to FINALLY make Texas a pro-gun state.
But to make sure Texas remains strong on gun rights, I need you to call House Speaker Dade Phelan at (512) 4631-1000 and tell him to OPPOSE Dan Patrick’s Gun Registry Expansion (SB 728).
Together, we will protect Texans from this assault on their gun rights.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE:
The 88th legislative session continues, as bill filing ended last Friday, March 10 with 9,114 bills filed in the House and Senate. We are thrilled that the Senate has moved our first Legislative Priority bill to its intent calendar, which means that it will come to the Senate floor for a vote in the next few days.
SB 2, filed by Senators Hughes, Bettencourt, and Springer is a Protect Our Elections priority bill and restores the penalty for voter fraud from a misdemeanor to a felony. We appreciate these senators filing this bill. Representative Toth has filed a companion bill in the House, HB 4198, and many other similar bills have been filed as well.
The Senate has also scheduled SB 14, one of our approved bills for Ban Gender Modification of Children, for a committee hearing in State Affairs this Thursday, March 16 at 9:30 am. Senator Campbell is bill author, and it has a companion bill in the House by Representative Oliverson.
On March 3, the Legislative Priorities Committee met and approved more bills, bringing our current total to 128. We are continuing to discuss bills filed and will have more approved soon. This is stunning number as it is more than double the number of approved priority bills last session. We are very encouraged that more of our legislators are listening to the voters that sent them to Austin and filing bills on the priorities we requested.
In the last few days of bill filing, we have seen some very good bills addressing not only Protect Our Elections, but also Securing the Border, Banning Gender Modification of Children, and Parental Rights and Education. We anticipate many more approved bills.
Governor Abbott named two of our priorities, Educational Freedom and Securing the Border, among his priorities for this session. Lt. Gov. Patrick included many of our priorities on his list, including items under Protect Our Elections, Ban Gender Modification of Children, Stop Sexualizing of Texas Kids, and Parental Rights and Educational Freedom. We appreciate the support of these priorities.
We are also pleased that Speaker Phelan named Rep. Jared Patterson’s bill, HB 1655/HB 900 as a priority bill. This bill is known as the READER act, and restricts sexually explicit books in school libraries. Speaker Phelan has also designated Rep. Schaefer’s bill, HB 20, on Securing the Border, as priority legislation. We look forward to working with these representatives to getting these important bills passed.
ACTION STEPS:
1. Contact your representative and senator and ask that they sign on as co-authors to our Legislative Priority bills. You can find that bill list here. Send them a copy of the list.
2. Please contact these members of Senate State Affairs committee and urge them to pass SB 14 out of committee:
Morgan LaMantia D 512-463-0127
Jose Menendez D 512-463-0126
Judith Zaffirini D 512-463-0121
3. Please also thank Sens. Hughes, Paxton, Bettencourt, Birdwell, Parker, Perry and Schwertner for their support of the bill.
4. Come to Austin on Monday, March 20 as several of our grassroots groups are holding a rally at 12:45 at the Capitol to support Ban Gender Modification of Children. They will meet in the rotunda at 9 AM for office visits to legislators.
This is a great opportunity for you, the concerned constituent, to get involved in the legislative process.
Clearly the Speaker’s designated priority bills are irreconcilable to the Legislative Priorities of the Republican Party of Texas as made clear in Houston last June by over 6,000 members at the 2022 convention.
For Immediate Release : From Speaker Phelan
Chris was honored to be the honored guest of Rep. Carrie Isaac to the Legislative Prayer breakfast in Austin. Thereafter, he hand delivered almost 600 legislative priority cards completed by the members of the Kendall County CEC, Kendall County Rep. Club, Blanco County Rep. Women, and New Braunfels Conservatives. Cards were delivered to Speaker Phelan, Senator Campbell, House Rep. #73 Carrie Isaac, and House Rep. #19 Ellen Troxclair.
You must be logged in to post a comment.