The chair, presiding officer of the Texas House, announced Monday that the House has deputized officers and deployed Department of Public Safety agents across the state to locate absent members ahead of floor votes on five disaster-response bills. The chair said the calendars committee had placed House Bills 1, 2, 18, 19 and 20 on the Tuesday calendar and described the measures as “not symbolic bills.”

The announcement came after the roll call showed 96 members present and “a quorum is not present,” the chair said. The chair said strict enforcement had been requested by Representatives Raymond Munoz, Eddie Morales, Moody Martinez, Longoria, Mary Gonzalez, Cortez and Canales and warned members: “You must vote from your desk and for yourself.”

Explaining enforcement tactics, the chair said law-enforcement personnel were “set up outside members homes, conducting surveillance, knocking on doors, calling their phones multiple times a day.” The chair added, “We have deputized dozens of officers and dispatched them across the state,” and said the House had asked DPS to establish a tip line for leads on members’ whereabouts: “That phone number is (866) 786-5972.”

The chair also said the House would keep records of related expenses and would hold absent members financially responsible under the chamber’s rules: “Understand that we are keeping receipts for every gallon of gas, every mile traveled, and every hour of overtime associated with the pursuit of these missing members. Under Rule 5, Section 3 of the House rules, those breaking quorum will be held financially responsible for the costs they've created, not the taxpayers.”

The calendars committee, the chair said, placed the five bills on the Tuesday calendar by a unanimous 6-to-0 vote. The chair described the bills as measures to expand the Texas Division of Emergency Management's authority, create an interoperability council for emergency communications, assist local governments with communications equipment, require flood plans at outdoor campgrounds and protect the public from post-disaster donation fraud.

Procedurally, the chair said written permission would be entered in the journal for members present to leave the chamber and return at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Representative Guerin moved that “the house stand adjourn until 10AM Tuesday,” the chair called for objection and, hearing none, declared the House adjourned.

No floor votes on the five bills occurred in the session covered in this transcript; the chair framed the upcoming Tuesday session as the moment those measures would be considered.