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Texas House chair announces enforcement steps to compel absent members as flood-recovery bill awaits quorum
Summary
With 95 members present and no quorum, the House chair said Attorney General Ken Paxton and House leaders have pursued cross‑state enforcement and enacted administrative policies to pressure absent members to return; Rep. Greg Bonney said he will file House Bill 3, the chamber's flood‑recovery priority, but it cannot be referred without a quorum.
The chair of the Texas House announced a suite of enforcement measures and administrative changes after the chamber failed to reach a quorum, and said Rep. Greg Bonney would file House Bill 3, the House’s priority flood‑recovery and infrastructure bill.
The chair told members that “Attorney General Ken Paxton and I took action to domesticate the civil arrest warrants in the state of Illinois, seeking to make them enforceable beyond Texas state lines,” and that House administration had contacted the sergeant at arms of the Illinois House of Representatives for assistance. The chair said the Department of Public Safety was “working to track down absent members in an effort to return them to our chamber.”
Why it matters: Without a quorum the House cannot refer bills to committee or advance priority legislation. The chair said HB 3, developed “after 25 hours of testimony from Texans whose lives were upended by the July 4 floods,” cannot be referred while members remain absent, and urged members to return so the…
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