Abbott Confirms Two Special Sessions for the Texas Legislature

Governor Greg Abbott confirmed that there will be two special sessions that would allow legislators to complete unfinished business. The announcement took place this morning during an interview on Chad Hasty’s program, a conservative radio show from Lubbock.

One of these sessions will be aimed to continue addressing funding for the American Rescue Plan and the redistricting process, this one was already expected to take place during the fall.

Additionally, another special session will be scheduled to address election integrity -also known as voter suppression- as well as bail reform legislation. The bill regarding the matter, SB7, got killed Sunday night, when Texas Democrats walked out of the state capitol, thus effectively killing the controversial legislation. 

“I expect legislators to have worked out their differences prior to arriving back at the Capitol so that they can hit the ground running to pass legislation related to these emergency items and other priority legislation. During the special session, we will continue to advance policies that put the people of Texas first,” said Abbott in a statement.  

During the interview, Abbott was asked to name who was to blame for the failures to pass priority items.

 “I’m not going to engage in ‘Monday morning quarterbacking,’ but I’ll treat this as halftime. We didn’t get this done in the first half, but we’ll get there in the second half.” he responded.  

According to The Texan, there are still over 1,000 bills left for the governor to consider -such as permitless carry-  but outside of those two key issues, Abbott declined to specify what may find its way into his special session agenda — and specifically declined to comment when asked about the inclusion of emergency powers reform that did not make it across the finish line.

The details of the additional session remain unknown.