Proposed House Rules Would Not Allow Minority Party Chairs

The proposed rules for the Texas House this session would ban minority party members from chairing committees but would expand the powers of vice chairs and require that they be filled by minority members. The House is set to discuss the rules at 2 p.m. today.

Under the proposal, first reported by the Quorum Report, chairs would work together with their vice chairs to set the committee’s agenda. Each chair would schedule the committee’s work and decide when to consider items only “in direct consultation with the vice-chair of the committee,” according to the proposed rule.

The chair also would “ensure” that vice chairs would have the authority to designate witnesses to be invited to testify at public hearings, including by videoconference, and that “measures or matters designated by the vice-chair are promptly scheduled for a public hearing.”

Vice chairs also would have the authority to direct the composition of an impact statement on any measure, a power previously only held by chairs.

The proposed rules would satisfy the state Republican Party platform calling for an end to the traditional appointment of some Democratic chairs to committees when Republicans control the House.

By guaranteeing vice chair spots for Democrats, it also would offer some consolation to the 49 Democrats that voted for Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, for House speaker.

House Resolution 4, submitted early on Thursday morning by Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, also would establish two new standing committees.

The Delivery of Government Efficiency Committee would have 13 members to oversee fraud and government inefficiency and accountability while also considering matters of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

The 11-member Intergovernmental Affairs Committee would be responsible for county and municipal government issues, land use regulations and the intersection of municipal and federal issues with the State of Texas. It would have the combined jurisdictions of the County Affairs and Urban Affairs committees, which would be abolished under the proposal.

Four other standing committees also would be abolished, on Business and Industry, Defense and Veterans Affairs, Juvenile Justice and Family Issues and Resolutions Calendars. 

The Business and Industry Committee’s former jurisdiction would be given to the Trade, Workforce, and Economic Development Committee, the new name for what last session was called the International Relations and Economic Development Committee.

Defense and Veterans Affairs’s jurisdiction would be merged into the new Homeland Security, Public Safety, and Veterans Affairs Committee, an expansion of last session’s Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee.

The Juvenile Justice and Family Issues Committee’s purview would be split between the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and the Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee. Both of those committees also would establish new permanent standing subcommittees on those transferred issues.

Finally, the Resolutions Calendars Committee would be absorbed into the Local and Consent Calendars Committee.

The House is scheduled to take up discussion of the resolution at 2 p.m. today. Tune in to the livestream on the House website here.