June 2, 2025 11:39 AM Sen. Perry elected President Pro Tempore of the Texas Senate
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June 2, 2025 10:00 AM Video: Patrick has incredible session then fumbles the end KVUE TV anchor Ashley Goudeau and Quorum Report Editor Scott Braddock discuss the final days of the legislative session |
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June 2, 2025 9:46 AM TEA announces state takeover of Houston ISD to last two more yearsTexas Education Agency also removed and replaced four appointed members of the Board of Managers |
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June 1, 2025 7:43 PM The 2025 Loco and Dissent Calendar
A few
weeks ago, with nearly everyone in the Texas Capitol community
sounding pretty miserable, a friend asked when the Loco
and Dissent Calendar would be released. I went back and looked at the Quorum
Report archives to see the previous release dates. I’m happy to report
that we are on track. But when that friend asked about the Calendar, I started
thinking about whether the audience even has the stomach for it this year. It’s
been rough, fer sure. But it doesn’t matter if y’all do, does it? In a space
like this, ceremony and traditions are important. The Loco
and Dissent Calendar is one of those traditions. Here’s the
short history of it for those who don’t know. Decades ago, before the advent of
the internet, hard copies of the satirical calendar would show up on the desks
of lawmakers as if it were one of the real Texas House calendars.
Members would read it and quickly figure out it was something else: An often
funny and sometimes biting look at what had transpired over the prior 5 months.
Then in 1998, when Mr. Kronberg pioneered online journalism in Texas, the anonymous
writers of the calendar asked if Quorum Report would distribute the calendar
electronically. Back in those days, we would post a news item to QR and then
call people to ask if they could see it. Some of you can remember back that
far. No matter
how many times I say it, some of you will never believe that Mr. Kronberg and I
have nothing to do with the production of the Loco and Dissent Calendar. We
take no ownership of the content – no matter how funny, unfunny, or downright
offensive it may be. So, here is our usual disclaimer: We have
nothing to do with the production of the calendar. It is often racy, profane,
and we do not even bother to read it before posting. The contents belong to the
writers, an anonymous group – we swear we do not even know who they are – and
the Quorum Report is solely the distribution vehicle. Our agreement with the anonymous
writers has always been that QR will send it out for the capitol community, and
it will not be password protected so that all can laugh, be offended, or
whatever. Here is
the 2025 Loco
and Dissent Calendar. |
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June 1, 2025 7:39 PM Houston Christian conservative leader Dave Welch passed away The head of the Texas Pastor Council and Houston Area Pastor Council died of a heart attack, per Sen. Bettencourt |
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June 1, 2025 6:31 PM Compassionate use deal appears to expand the program in a way closer to what the House had proposed than the Senate version
Chairman Ken King says the deal is 15 licenses and satellite locations. Chronic pain without prior opioid use, traumatic brain injuries, and Crohn's Disease are included. The Texas House signed off on the CCR on a vote of 138 to 1 |
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June 1, 2025 3:36 PM GOP leaders say they will try again next time on standardized testing after HB4 died in conference overnight
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June 1, 2025 3:30 PM Last-minute bid to save judicial pay raises as Chair Huffman requests an eleventh hour conference committee Chairman Leach agrees to go to conference with the Senate on this |
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June 1, 2025 1:03 AM Senate Bill 30 appears to die in conference
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May 31, 2025 3:40 PM Trying to break the House vs Senate deadlock on judicial pay, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Blacklock offers compromise language
Check out
his memo to
lawmakers here. |
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May 31, 2025 3:01 PM New language is slipped into Space Commission bill aimed at closing highways and beaches near Musk owned Starbase The conference committee report on HB 5246 is eligible for consideration later today |
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May 31, 2025 2:58 PM Texas House signs off on the budget 107 to 21
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May 31, 2025 12:24 PM Gov. Abbott plans a big bill signing ceremony at Houston Crime Stoppers Tuesday on bail reform, signaling he is satisfied on the issue and ready for the victory lap
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May 31, 2025 11:24 AM With sine die approaching, Chair Leach and Lt. Gov. Patrick appear to be at an impasse on a judicial pay increase"To be clear, the Senate has rejected the House’s judicial pay raise bill because, in our version, we did not give legislators an automatic pension increase,” Leach said. “That was the House’s position, is the House’s position and will remain the House’s position.” After last
night's procedural gymnastics in the Texas Senate, House
Judiciary Chairman Jeff Leach and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick
are at an impasse on raising pay for judges across the state. In
something of a novel approach, Patrick's Senate didn't request a conference
with the House after Chair Leach delinked judicial pay and lawmakers' pensions
in a Senate bill. Instead, the Senate moved to concur on
all House amendments to the bill except the decoupling and sent the House a
resolution asking lawmakers in the lower chamber to just retreat from that
language. It's
weird. I know. On social
media, Lt. Gov. Patrick argued that if judges don't get a pay increase now,
it's the House's fault. The rest of the story, subscribers only By Scott Braddock |
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May 30, 2025 10:58 PM Senate does procedural gymnastics in fight over delinking judicial pay and lawmaker pensions "Historic." An alternative to the conference committee process? The Senate tries to essentially create a line-item veto for the Lt. Gov., instead of a conference committee, when senators don’t agree with House changes to a Senate Bill In a moment that even seasoned Capitol Veterans found confusing, the Texas Senate led by Lt. Gov. Dan
Patrick decided that the Texas House
changes to a Senate bill about judicial pay should not go to a conference
committee and instead came up with what looks like a new way handle that kind of
disagreement between the two chambers. SB 293 by Chair Joan Huffman was
going to follow the tradition of linking judicial pay increases to increases in
pensions for lawmakers, but the House sought to delink those things and instead
solely increase judicial pay. Senators don’t agree with that. As one said, “we
sacrifice a lot to be here serving” and argued that the two things should still
be linked. But the way
it played out even confused one GOP legislator, Sen. Charles Schwertner,
who asked “what happens next” after the Senate’s move tonight. The rest of the story, subscribers only By Scott Braddock |
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May 30, 2025 9:41 PM Lt. Gov. Patrick sides with a Democrat and kills a proposal to increase judicial pay without also increasing lawmaker pensionsIt sounds like Chairman Leach and Chair Huffman had an agreement to increase judicial pay without simultaneously increasing lawmaker pensions, but the Senate reneged and just killed that proposal. The House could still now agree to the judicial pay increase if it's linked to increasing pensions for lawmakers |
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May 30, 2025 7:46 PM President Trump says Texas House lawmakers should abandon their changes to the immigration crackdown in SB 8 and pass the Texas Senate versionLt. Gov. Patrick is tweeting out Trump's statement tonight |
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May 30, 2025 4:20 PM National VFW says the group stands with veterans in Texas asking Gov. Abbott to veto proposed ban of THC Veterans met with Abbott's legislative director Robert Howden and said they asked for a meeting with Abbott personally and want him to veto SB3 |
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May 30, 2025 3:43 PM Loco and Dissent Calendar is set for Sunday
The motion
in writing from the Chair of the Loco and Dissent Committee can be downloaded
here. |
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May 29, 2025 2:19 PM Slew of conservative bills including a top Texas GOP priority die in the Texas Senate after significant procedural mistake by Lt. Gov. PatrickWhile he’s calling other people “stupid,” Patrick could pay more attention to the rules he created and how they interact with constitutional rules. Mocking those who often critique Texas House leadership, some observers asked, "Are the Democrats running the Senate?" As time
was running out last night for the Texas Senate to act on some of
the Republican Party of Texas’ top priorities, Chairman Abraham
George was frantically telling grassroots activists to “call your senators
now!” Chairman George on social media told the party faithful there were “Only
a couple of hours left!” And there was
time to make certain things happen if Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick had not made
a critical procedural mistake that even Democrats did not at first realize had had
given them a rare chance to block conservative legislation in the chamber where
Patrick rules with an iron fist. “Democrats
don’t have muscle memory for what to do in those situations,” said a Senate source.
But eventually, they figured it out and quite a few conservative priority bills
died after Patrick made what can charitably be described as a significant procedural
error. The measures that were quietly killed would have restricted “sexual content”
in city libraries, cracked down on DEI at medical schools, and punished the City
of Austin for various reasons. Here’s what
happened. The rest of the story, subscribers only By Scott Braddock |
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May 28, 2025 1:43 PM SJR 87 dies in Texas HouseAs deadline for reconsideration passes, at least five House members who voted yes on bail reform yesterday are not on floor |
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May 28, 2025 11:12 AM Video: Patrick threatens to crack down on debate in the Texas Senate if senators want their words recorded in the journalVeteran Sen. Royce West, in office for more than three decades, said he could not remember any time that a presiding officer had suggested senators should vote on whether to place their words in the Senate journal. Patrick said "There's a first time for everything." |
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May 27, 2025 4:35 PM Conference Committee Report on the Texas budget is now expected Wednesday
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May 27, 2025 3:17 PM After verification vote SJR 87, denial of bail for certain repeat offenders, fails in the Texas House 97-40 was the final count after vote verification |
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May 27, 2025 2:12 PM AG Paxton hung out in the Texas House members lounge after showing up on the floor without permissionChairman Geren says Paxton showed up on the House floor today and was asked to go to the lounge because he hadn't asked permission. The Attorney General is not listed in Texas House rules as one of the people with automatic permission to be on the floor when the House is in session |
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May 27, 2025 12:41 PM SB 30 tort reform postponed in the Texas House until Wednesday morning
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May 26, 2025 9:40 PM A hollowed out version of TLR's top priority SB 30 advances in the Texas House on a vote of 94 to 52
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May 26, 2025 3:36 PM Kronberg: Abbott risks becoming the face of widely unpopular THC ban Patrick set the trap and Burrows led his members into a bad vote but the political debris will stick to the Governor Now that Speaker Dustin Burrows has apparently
collaborated with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to hotbox House
members into what may well prove to be a politically terrible vote banning and
criminalizing THC in exchange for teacher pay raises, Governor Greg Abbott
gets to decide whether he wants to own the issue. We use the word collaboration intentionally. The Lieutenant Governor
laid out the roadmap for how he intended to force the House into doing
something the members did not want to do. There were at
least a half a dozen choke points at which the Speaker could have exercised
leverage to protect his members from this but he elected
not to do so. Rather than defend the will of the House on money for schools, Burrows
abandoned the House plan before the ink was dry and immediately endorsed the
Patrick plan leading some to conclude that he deferred to the power of one
rather than the 142 who voted for a carefully negotiated House blueprint for Texas
public school funding. As members are discovering, THC has become an integral part of the
fabric of Texas society. While the lieutenant governor’s last-minute come to Jesus acknowledgment that THC is a valuable tool for chronic
pain, expanding compassionate care still leaves cuts off the access of millions
of Texans who have it today. What was a personal choice now requires
permission of the nanny state and still excludes many who suffer from PTSD,
sleep issues, the parents of children suffering seizures, those seeking an
alternative to alcohol, and of course all adults over 21. After they were manipulated by the lieutenant governor and
abandoned by their Speaker, House members are wondering if constituent blowback
will be sustained. Every session has an issue that comes to define it. While Abbott’s
signature issue of the session was supposed to be a multi-year battle to pass “school
choice,” he may well be more remembered as the governor who banned THC. The rest of the story, subscribers only By Harvey Kronberg |
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May 26, 2025 11:10 AM Chair Hunter changes film incentives proposal to $300 million per biennium instead of $500 millionThe House added an amendment on third reading trimming Lt. Gov. Patrick's proposal down from $500 million |
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Copyright June 02, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved 