The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - January 15, 2021

Episode Date: January 15, 2021

On our Weekly Roundup podcast, the reporting team discusses the opening day of the 87th legislative session, rules changes in the chambers, and the election of a new Texas House speaker. They also cover updates to the Tinslee Lewis story, Trump’s visit to the border in Texas, public school dropout numbers, and a bill filed to address implicit bias in law enforcement. 

Howdy, folks. Welcome to a very special edition of the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the legislature is back in Austin. Our team talks about the opening day of the 87th legislative session, rules changes in both the chambers, and the election of a new Texas House speaker. We also cover updates to the Tinsley Lewis story, Trump's visit to the border in Texas, public school dropout numbers, and a bill filed to address implicit bias in law enforcement. Folks, this week marks our 100th podcast. So if you like what you hear, please leave us a review, share our podcast with a friend. We love getting to give our listeners

a rundown of the Texas political scene each week. And these action items help us reach more people. Thanks for sticking with us for 100 episodes and we hope you enjoy. Hello, hello. I'm here with Daniel Friend, Isaiah Mitchell, Hayden Sparks, and Brad Johnson. Gentlemen, this week's session started, so we have a lot to talk about. Yes. Yes, we do. Yeah. Sort of.

Sort of? Well, a lot happened. A lot happened. A lot's going to happen today. We're recording Thursday morning. Brad knows all about this. Also correct. Yes.

You guys are not helping me at all this morning This is going to be a great podcast And morally you are correct Wow morally What is session Says Isaiah Isaiah do you want to tell us what session is I was asking you all

Daniel tell us what session is I know what session is I didn't know what session was until I'm not going to admit when I found out what session was. So in Texas, you have a regular legislative session every two years or every other year, I suppose. However you want to say it, you could say it either way. I guess they're both accurate. But that's when the legislature meets. Constitutionally, that's when they are required to meet for a period of up to 140 days. So 140 days is usually how long they take. And so that's when the legislature meets, makes laws is probably going to be a point of debate later on in this session, is the legislature can't call themselves to a session outside of this regular time.

They can only be called by the governor. And so, of course, last year with the pandemic, there was some questions of whether or not the legislature should have been able to call themselves to address that problem. Only the governor could have called them to a session and he didn't. Which we call special sessions here in Texas. Yes. And that previously has been used to address all sorts of different kinds of issues. Back in 2017 was the last time a special session was called. Governor Abbott laid out 20 priority items that the legislature could address. And during that special session, it's a 30-day period. The legislature can only address the issues that the governor places on the agenda. All sorts of other things can happen.

Amendments can be added. You can file a bill that pertains to those kinds of issues, but it has to pertain to what the governor has laid out. We'll see if that happens. Most folks believe a special session will happen in some way, shape, or form this year. So we'll see what happens. Good stuff. Bradley, we're going to come straight to you. We're going to ping-pong between you and Daniel to give us a little bit of a session overview and end with

isaiah i think you skipped something first though what did i skip this is our 100th podcast yes it is yes it is our 100th podcast is that like 100 just like our weekly roundups or is this including like the interviews that we've done in total in total cool 100 yeah well shout out to everyone who has stuck with us through 100 podcasts with that said i will now answer your question about the legislature and i wrote a piece about a preview of what uh you know what to expect to come sign you die okay explain what sign die is. That is the last day of the legislature. It's when the, it's when they gavel out, they sine die. Yeah.

So that's when the sine dies. Yeah. If you want to put it that way. It is 140 days after the, they gavel in, which was Tuesday. So, um, that will be later this year and we will see what the legislature comes up with. But there are a number of issues that Texans should pay attention to. First and foremost is the budget. Constitutionally, every session, the one requirement that the legislature passes is a budget and a balanced budget. Now this year, with the sales tax revenue woes especially,

but tax collections in general have been down pretty much across the board, there's a lot of concern about how much is going to have to be cut in the budget. Last time we increased the budget by $15 billion, and that's a substantial sum of money. This time, they're probably going to have to cut in some way, shape, or form. We don't know how they're going to do that. We've seen the governor order the agencies to cut their budgets by 5%. But when you delve further into it, that only applies to 40% of the budget. And I haven't heard

seen or heard of any um actual five percent budget cuts coming to fruition as of yet but has there been any comment from state leaders after that initial ask nope okay so the follow-up and i've tried yeah but i've got no answers so um we'll see what happens but they keep touting it they keep referring to it so it's at least still on their minds. They haven't given up on it completely. But going into this session, they have to set a budget for the next biennium. Which a biennium is? A budget set for two years because that's how often the legislature meets.

They have the power of the purse. They get to decide appropriations. They're the ones that set the budget, and they do it through a period of two years. The Texas Comptroller had an announcement this week, the biennial revenue estimate. He is required to do that twice a year. And he did that earlier this week. It was on Monday. He announced a projected $950 million deficit at the end of this biennium. Now, that's a lot sunnier of a prediction than from July when he projected a $4.6 billion deficit.

So things have improved quite a bit relative to that. Now, that's still a deficit. And that is a big problem that the legislature is going to have to deal with. They're going to have to move money from somewhere and to, to pay off that deficit because they constitutionally have to have a balanced budget. And then moving forward, they have, um, he estimated they have $112.5 billion available to form a budget for the next biennium. My guess is some of a fraction of that will go towards the deficit this time.

And then we're going to see, you know, who knows what we're going to see, basically. We may have two special sessions, you know, depending on what happens. There may be appropriations amended to that during those times. We don't know. But the budgetary process is going to be long. It's going to be boring. But also, if you are a numbers nerd, also exciting because especially with the surrounding circumstances of the pandemic and the government mandated closures that have caused this, the tightening of the purse strings for the state. So that's something to watch.

Another thing to watch is the emergency powers. We saw Governor Abbott exercise near carte blanche power through this entire year. And I think that, you know, well, there's already a lot of possibilities out there, but we don't know which way it's going to go. So, you know, something to look at would be Representative Brooks Landgraf's bill that would limit, that would prevent the governor from unilaterally extending the disaster declaration beyond 60 days without consent of the legislature. And this entire year, the legislature has not been able to convene because they cannot convene themselves. And if you have this catch-22 in state code where

the governor would have to call them into session and he'd be effectively opening the door for limitation of his own power. And so, you know, that's something that people on both sides recognize as a problem. Yeah. Well, I think it's worth noting that folks of all political stripes are talking about this as an issue, this legislative session. And for at the end of the day, whether or not something passes the house or the senate depending on how supported it is in either chamber the governor has to sign that legislation into law right there's going to be this different kind of dynamic with these legislators and it's also worth noting you know when the governor declares just for a little broader context when the governor declares a

disaster as he did with the covid19 said hey there's a statewide disaster in all 254 counties in Texas, that unlocks power for him, due to Texas's Disaster Act that you've covered extensively, that he then is able to, you know, do certain things or make certain calls that he would not constitutionally be able to do previously, it unlocks a certain power of the executive office. And so, you know, legislators this session are really going after this and saying, hey, we don't think that the legislature should not have had a say in what you did and the different calls you made, whether it be lockdowns, whether it be, you know, movement of the National Guard, all these different things that happened due to COVID really brought a spotlight to the governor's power when a disaster is declared.

Good stuff. In terms of other things, there's another constitutionally required big ticket item that has to be addressed this session. Walk us through that. Yes, that is redistricting. And every 10 years, the census is released. And the new district lines have to be drawn. Um, constitutionally they have to do that. And this is the session obviously falls on, on that, um, that line. And so, uh, the census has been delayed a bit. So I don't,

Daniel may speak on how much that would, that would delay the process. I'm not sure exactly. I'll talk to that a little bit later. That came up actually during the Senate rules. Senator Joanne Huffman actually introduced a rule that was specific to redistricting and kind of talked about those delays, which it's really all up in the air. We have no idea. Yeah. And it may be something that's tackled in a special session, too. So there's just that issue particularly is up in the air.

For sure. Good stuff. Well, Brad, thank you for covering that for us. It's definitely going to be an interesting session. So, Daniel, we're going to come straight to you. Let's talk through. OK, so we had a preview. Here's what the legislators are going to be focused on primarily.

Here's some of the big issues that are already at the forefront of the discussion and the debate. Daniel, walk us through what happened on opening day and what that looked like at the Capitol. I know all of us here at the Texan were over at the Capitol for most of opening day. Walk us through what happened and give us a little bit of insight. On opening day, we went over to the Capitol, which was the first time that we've been over there. Well, we went over there last week. Last year, it was closed from the greater part of the year because of the COVID restrictions and also because of the protests and the riots that happened last June. But they reopened it last week. We went over there.

We went over there this week for the opening day of session, which was when the House and the Senate both met for the first time since, I guess, 2019 was the last time that they met entirely. And so the Senate gaveled in. They nominated their or they elected their senator, the president pro tempore, pro tempore, pro tempore. However you want to say that. They elected that position. To be fair, there are many ways that people we you know people say this yes and i was i was listening to them we even googled it talk about this listen to youtube videos of how to say this word senators were saying it differently so the the president pro tem there you go an honorary position mostly um you know i suppose at one time i don't know

the history of it too well i suppose at one time, I don't know the history of it too well. I suppose at one time it might've had a little bit more significance. Really the most notable thing about it is if the governor and lieutenant governor, you know, God forbid, become incapacitated somehow, or if they're both out of the state, then the president pro tem takes the place of the governor or the lieutenant governor, whichever one is absent. If both are absent than the governor. So he's third in line. So he's third in line.

It's kind of like the Speaker of the House for the U.S. government. That same kind of succession line. So the president pro tem this time is going to be Senator Brian Birdwell for the regular session. Sometimes they elect a President Pro Tem during the interim, a different one. Sometimes it's the same. I don't know how they decide that, but we'll find out. So he will be the President Pro Tem. He was elected. And then while that was going on, the House was also meeting, kind of going over their procedures, you know, swearing in all the House members.

And then they proceeded to elect the Speaker of the House. Yeah. And yeah, that was something that Brad was covering. Yeah, Brad has all the details on that. And I think it is worth noting, you know, in the Senate and in the House, the chambers are right across the rotunda from each other. The governor is speaking in both at different points. The ceremonies are happening in each respective chamber. So the governor, I believe he started in the Senate and then he went over to the House.

Which is just an interesting thing that the governor literally makes his way across the Capitol to address the other body. And it really was a shorter ceremony than previous sessions. This is usually something that is very, like the pomp and circumstances is very fun to watch. Usually, there's a lot of comment from the governor on the floor of the house, you have all the members, their spouses, their families, this cycle, it was much more limited in terms of who could actually be in the chamber, or, you know, either chamber, and the gallery terms of who could actually be in the chamber or either chamber. And the gallery, instead of being open to the public or people purchasing tickets or buying tickets or reserving tickets to be up in the gallery, that's where a lot of the spouses

were. The social distancing protocols were much more stringent this cycle for obvious reasons. COVID is still on the minds of everybody. But it was a very different opening ceremony than we've seen previously. The Capitol was, I mean, it was largely empty compared to previous sessions. Usually you're shoulder to shoulder, you're bumping people walking by. There's activists from all across the state, lobbyists. This time, I think the state guard, the DPS troopers outnumbered the people who were in the Capitol and there just to watch. I ran into just a couple people that weren't staffers that, you know, were there running around doing their thing, who did not work in the building or were not press. And even press, it was hard to find a

lot of the members of the press walking around. So it just felt like a very different opening day. At one point, I was standing by the rotunda and I'm looking out because you can sit, you know, stand in the rotunda and look up and see all the different levels. The only people and the rotunda, usually there's kids looking over the railings, families, press, legislators. It was just all just different DPS troopers on different levels of the rotunda. Like that's who was there for opening day. We were COVID tested upon entry. There were tents outside.

It was very, it was a very interesting opening day for sure. And I would say that the National Guard troopers that were there, everybody was on high alert after the incident last week at the U.S. Capitol. There were some people talking about how there were going to be threats at the state Capitol. There was even one media report that was like, there's armed protesters outside. I didn't see any armed protesters. Even if you did, that's not very unusual in Texas. Particularly at the Capitol. carrying it the proper way. Um, but there, there were no, no violent protests or anything like that. It was very, very peaceful, very calm. Um, and then also on your point about Abbott, uh, giving his, his little speech to both chambers, I was trying to watch both chambers at once though. That is a little bit tricky to do. Um, but I did get his speech in full at the

Senate that he gave. Um, and he did, he did give a little bit of detail of what he kind of expects to happen throughout session. Now, his role in the legislative process is very limited, but he does play a big political role in kind of leading the charge on different things. And so that was still notable. In his speech, he said, over the next 140 days, we have the opportunity to put Texas on a trajectory to make our state even more extraordinary. And this is where he gets the more policy points. He said that means tackling COVID-19 challenges, ensuring better access to health care for all Texans. It means supporting our law enforcement officers and keeping our community safe.

It means safeguarding freedom for all Texans, and it means getting Texans back to work. So those are some issues that you kind of see will be coming up. You know, COVID-19 policies, you know, policies related to pandemic emergencies, policies related to healthcare. I'm sure that will be a big subject, especially among Democrats. And then also, you know, backing law enforcement. Of course, during the campaign, Abbott made a big deal about back the blue. That was one of his things that he pushed. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out in the legislative process. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for covering that for us. It was definitely a different opening day. But I think we all, regardless, we're excited that it was happening

and that legislators are back in Austin. It's quite a time. Bradley, speaking of which, Daniel, set you up really well earlier. Speaking of which. And then- That's a good one. Oh, gosh. Lord in heaven, you boys. I made a pun earlier that he was trying to pick out a tie, and he said people told him different things. And I'm like, Oh, so I guess it's tied now.

I didn't even realize it. Wow. Did that make you sad that you did not realize it? It did. It made, it made me sad that I didn't realize it. It made me happy that I am subconsciously punning. Wow.

Subconsciously practicing your art. Yeah. My gosh. Brad is on a panel today, folks. So, you know, make sure to, well, yeah, you won't be able to tune in because it'll be after this podcast is released but brad is on a panel our

own bradley he's growing up so quickly technically brad was on a panel yes technically brad was on a panel in a previous day that is both factually and morally correct are you gonna keep okay well earlier daniel set you up with a great runway to talk about your next topic. We tangent. We had a tangent. We went on to something else. But walk us through a big part

of what the House did on opening day. It was perhaps the biggest development. No, not perhaps. It was by far the biggest development in the House. And walk us through what happened there. Yeah. So they elected and swore in a new speaker, Representative Dade Phelan, the third speaker in as many sessions. And, you know, he kind of, it was both a very brief path to the speakership for him.

And then since then, it has kind of just been an elongated run up to this moment hurry up and wait yes and there was the vote itself was overwhelming um only two representatives voted against him were uh brian slayton and jeff casen both new members um casen of course is taking over for now former state rep jonathan stickland who is often the no vote, the lone no vote on many pieces of legislation. It's just crazy to think Jonathan Stickland's not in the legislature. I think for a lot of folks in Austin, it's just a weird idea that, you know, this looming figure of impending bill massacre is no longer in the legislature. It's crazy. Yes. And I'm sure speaker feet now

speaker feeling is very happy about that um so feeling as you know we talked about in podcasts before he outmaneuvered seven other candidates um he know, he was supported by both Democrats and Republicans when he first came out with his list of support. Uh, the Texas GOP chair, Alan West dug in hard against him and likely will continue to. Um, but you know, the speaker has a wide array of backing, uh, obviously with only two no votes. a wide array of backing obviously with only two no votes and he kind of laid out in his speech things that he would be watching for and uh advancing most most specifically he cited that

we're going to pass an alcohol to go law this in in texas that was that law was the law prohibiting alcohol sales to go was suspended by abbott within the emergency powers and uh you know they're looking to put that into permanent law particularly as a relief for small businesses or a restaurant the restaurant industry who were unable to serve folks in-house yeah and as he described it as an unnecessary burden regulatory burden and um you know the the pandemic kind of shone a spotlight on that and many other regulatory burdens but this is the one that they've really uh keyed in on and bill has already been filed by representative charlie garan so So I expect that to pass pretty overwhelmingly. Another couple of the things he laid out was he mentioned that he doesn't foresee the House in particular going for tax increases or increased fees in order to balance the budget. He does not see that in the cards. Obviously,

that's an indication that he himself is not supportive of that. So, that's one aspect. Another one that just constantly comes up every session is expanding Medicaid. And every session, session. It's been rejected soundly. You know, I would expect that to happen again. But when asked about it, Phelan stated something like, you know, we can have a robust discussion on a Texas solution that is revenue neutral and doesn't tie us to billions of dollars in future expenditures. And that is one of the concerns about Medicaid is that there have been a lot of states that they projected to join the Medicaid on the expansion was far less, far fewer than what actually the number of people that actually enrolled. So that, you know, the state is on the hook for parts of that.

And it's fiscally constraining. And so that's been a big reason why Texas has avoided doing that thus far. One other thing that Speaker Phelan mentioned was that something pertaining to something that I had mentioned earlier in this podcast, the emergency powers. He was pretty conciliatory and friendly to the idea that Governor Abbott was in a between a rock and a hard place with these. And he it seemed to me that he was not on board with wholesale reform of the emergency powers. He mentioned something about, you know, we can we can discuss pandemic specific laws or changes. But he does like alcohol to go or those more tangible items i think that would indirectly be part of it but more of just if you're going to

put in a a change such as um you know restrict the governor's ability to directly affecting emergency disaster orders yeah you would put it in with the specific stipulation that it applies to only pandemics um at least that's the feeling i got from what he said but he kind of danced around the question a little bit as well yeah so um you know those are some things that that obviously speaker phelan himself um felt the need to to address and um you know we'll see how he does and he obviously with his predecessor that's you know that distrust even though he was not involved that distrust is still there between the chair it's the speaker it's position itself and the body and so he he's going to have to navigate that. Um, you know, I, I think he's already done a good job of quelling opposition, uh,

not by fist, but by, uh, diplomacy. Whatever other behind the scenes method that might be. Oliver Inch, yes. So,

um, you know, that's, thus commences the, the Phelan speakership tenure. So, um, That's thus commences the Phelan speakership tenure. So that's going to be an important aspect to watch for any legislation that comes up. Yeah. And even just in terms of, you know, support from the body, there were nominating speeches for members of both political parties.

That was that's very, I'd say, typical. That usually is how it works, particularly when someone has the support that Phelan did when he ascended to the speakership. Near unanimous. Yes. So that isn't, you know, is not that odd. And certainly the two no votes were something that was also something that was relatively unsurprising as well. Yes. So it'll be interesting to see how that shifts or changes throughout the

course of the legislative session and you know even folks who voted yes on his speakership this time may have reservations um and have been vocal about it throughout the course of his ascension so we'll see how that turns out and what legislation is allowed through the chamber and also the speakership is really an administrative role right in many different ways and it can turn into something that is uh like the power that you can wield is far more extensive than what some speakers wield. So there are different, you know, methodologies by which you can be speaker. So it'll be interesting to see what he subscribes to.

Yep. Absolutely. Awesome coverage. Daniel, we're coming back to you. Let's switch back over to the Senate. There are all sorts of things that were on the table in terms of rules walk us through first of all a little bit of a preview or just an explanation of the rules that govern the the senate and what the debate looked like so the senate is a little bit different than the house there are a few fewer members. You know, there's 31 instead of 150. So a big difference there.

They were able to kind of crank out the rules a lot faster. They're a little bit, I think, looser with the rules in general. And so amending them is a little bit of a smoother process. But still this year, there are a few different things that came up, uh, that they had to kind of wrestle with. Um, and so those, those big things would be the COVID COVID-19 protocols, um, how the Senate is going to deal with that. Um, they also talked about redistricting, um, and what the redistricting committee would look like, especially in light of the delays to the census. And then finally, a more political change was changing a super majority from 19 members

to 18 members, which, you know, they went from a originally a two-thirds rule, you know, 10 years ago to a three-fifths rule in 2015 yeah and now they're dropping down to a five-ninths rule which i argue should be a four-sevenths rule but check his twitter at daniel hold your friend to see the math walk us through just really fast explain what a super majority is why so a super majority um you know there are different vote thresholds required to do different things in any body um and so the senate you know sometimes there are a like in the u.s senate there's often a two-thirds majority uh for things to be able to be passed um you know that was that was the case with

uh supreme court nominations until if you remember the talk about nuclear option and lowering the requirement to pass those nominees um from a two-thirds majority to a simple majority. Similar to that debate that was very political, you have the debate in the Texas Senate where in order for Republicans to pass legislation. Republicans are in the majority. Even in the past election, I think Republicans voted about 55% of, or the Texans voted 55% toward Republicans on average. And so, you know, the Republicans do control the House and the Senate, but it's not by a vast majority. It's not even by the majority that it was in the last session. At 19, Republicans lost a seat because for a short period of time, they were lucky enough to have a senator in a kind of more of a blue district with Senator Pete Flores, but he lost his election to

Senator Roland Gutierrez this past November. And so with that change uh now republicans are wanting to still pass legislation so the house you know they're not quite as um republican lowercase republican they're more democratic it's easier to i i think it's fair to say that it's easier to pass uh legislation through the house than it is through the Senate. Is that a fair? I mean, there's different things that can be killed. It's easier to get stuff on the floor, I would say. Maybe, but also it really depends on who you are, who the member is, right? And what favor they have with the leader of each chamber. I'd also say there is more opportunity, or

just even more accepted opportunity in the house to kill bills point of orders um that can be kind of a war waged it's like throwing grenades back and forth between author and opposition but yeah i think would you say that it's it's kind of fair to say that the minority the democrats are able to get things passed in the house probably easier than they are in the Senate. Likely, yes. I mean, there's exceptions to everything. Yes, but probably.

There's a lot of legislation that goes through that is not really partisan. It might be more the rural-urban divide and other bills that are not really partisan. But, you know, in order to preserve kind of that Republican control, the Senate is making it easier to bring Republican legislation that, that those partisan priorities, uh, to the floor. So if there are unanimous support from Republicans of 18 members who say, let's vote on this, they can vote on it. Um, now if one of those Republicans, uh now uh is like well maybe i don't want to they they're probably in a better negotiating position now um because historically

been uh senator kelselger out from west texas i mean even during the property tax debate from the previous session he was the person that you know lieutenant governor dan patrick really had to twist his arm and say okay you know we want to get this to the floor. We want to talk through these issues. And there were some disagreements he had with very big marquee pieces of legislation. So we say we've seen that previously and it's going to be the same thing this time. It's going to be the same thing. Now, of course, it's dealing with one Republican instead of having to kind of persuade Democrats to come over to the exact.

Yeah. So I think that's, that's why it's still tilted in their favor. There's still going to be, you know, some, some politics going on, of course.

But that's, that's the basis of the rule change to the five ninth rule. You say with some regret. Yes. I all ended there. that's good stuff were there were there any surprises that happened during the the rules debate was there anything that caught you off guard also i think i do think it's worth noting the house you know today when they debate the rules um are it's going to be much fire more fiery in the senate um i believe there was even one point you know senator brian hughes was um kind of the head of all of this he was the author of the

resolution and it was interesting to see you know democrats get up and you know speak in their opposition to particularly the big rule change and you know they're like oh gosh we're all just so polite all the time i think you know senator carol alvarado at one point was like you know senator hughes it's just hard to be, you know, how did she say it? But she was essentially talking about the politeness that is just part of the decorum of the Senate, right? And she's a former House member. It was just funny to watch. Yeah.

The one that really caught me was when Senator John Whitmire stood up and asked Senator Hughes, he said, you know, would you mind if I called you a snake oil salesman? And he was responding, well, I don't mind at all. I mean, I am a politician and a lawyer. It's a great response. Kind of a very humorous thing. And, you know, Senator Hughes didn't even try to dance around the political drive for this. I don't remember which Democrat stood up and asked him, but one of them asked big driving factors in this um because you know republicans did elect a majority and we want to you know uh have that majority right now a lot of democrats were asking you know if you

want to maintain the majority why don't you just go with a simple majority um the the texas senate from what it sounded like uh you know someone someone asked Senator Hughes how other states do this. And he said that when they looked into it, Texas is really kind of unique in that it does have a higher threshold and not just a simple majority to bring general legislation to the floor. And so, you know, there was some criticism from Democrats were like, well, why don't we just go with a simple majority then? Why, why have a, uh, the, the five ninths rule instead of just 50, 50. Um, and so there was some debate about that. And of course, Senator Hughes's response. And I think the Republicans were saying, that there still needs to be some respect for the minority. Now, of course, all the Democrats then came up and said, well, it doesn't feel like we're being respected.

Why not the 4.5 out of 9th rule? Yeah. And so I think Senator Royce West was even like, well, I'm going to respect the majority and say, let's do a 16 rule or something. So, um, yes, that was, that was very interesting debate. Um, and then, you know, when they did vote on it, it was his vote is on a partisan line. Um, now this, that specific rule was included in a package of rules, uh, which I haven't actually seen the text for it's not published online yet. When it is, I'll go through and see if there's anything else interesting in there.

But when they voted, they voted on the rules separate from everything else in the package. And on that vote, it was a very partisan line, 18 to 13. And then when they voted on the other portion of the rules package, it was unanimous. So really, that was like the main contentious point there. Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. Yeah.

So I'd say one thing really fast. The rules, and you already talked about this, are so important in both the House and the Senate because they really do dictate, you know, the power of each individual member. And if one member actually can find ways to, if they're in any sort of way disenfranchised by leadership, to bring something to the floor or to be able to raise a question or to kill a bill. There's all sorts of different things that rules allow legislatively that grant power to the individual members. So it's nerdy. It's an odd conversation. It's convoluted. And it's something that most folks, you know, just in the public who are living their everyday lives for, you know, right reasons don't know happen. But it's important to know this in just that it provides transparency measures for, you know, the public opportunities for members to bring things up or have power to legislate in ways that represent their district, whatever that looks like.

So this is a big conversation. And today at the House, that debate will be big as well. Yes. Today being Thursday. Today being Thursday. So yesterday for you, if you're listening, when this comes out on Friday, which you should be listening to it on Friday. But if you want to listen to it, you know, a year from now, that's cool, too.

It's good stuff. Good stuff. Isaiah and Hayden, we're going to chat with you guys. You guys have been so patient uh as we talk session and brad and daniel talk what they're what they've been covering this week so thank you for being so gracious you guys are awesome oh that's all right i don't like the sound of my own voice that's why i'm so quiet during the podcast also i was sharing a mic with brad earlier and i didn't want to like lunge at him and grab the mic and pull it over to me so

you know br Brad deserves it. That's why I've been so quiet. Brad deserves it. Next time, just to get it done. Isaiah, we're going to go straight to you. One story we've been covering for a long time here at the Texan you followed up with today or this week. Walk us through what happened. All right.

So that is the story of little Tinsley Lewis, a baby in Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, who has been gravely ill essentially since her birth. She was born with a rare condition and expected to be terminal in December of 2019. It was expected that she only had five months to live. Now, you know, her second birthday is coming up in February of this year, and she won a little victory at the U.S. Supreme Court this week. Yeah. And what did that look like? What did the Supreme Court rule?

And what does this mean for Tinsley going forward? So the U.S. Supreme Court denied the hospital a writ of certiorari. And in layman's terms, that means that they're going to let a lower decision that favored Tinsley stand. Are you questioning my pronunciation of a... No, I'm sorry. I'm... Daniel's causing havoc on Slack. Yeah.

Oh, Slack. You're just fine, Isaiah. So, yeah, so what that means in layman's terms is that previously, in the long and convoluted legal history of little Tinsley's life, she found favor at an appeals court in fort worth that that rule that she could remain on life support the reason why this was in conflict in the first place is because of something called the 10-day rule in the uh the texas advance directives act yes yes you got it ta-da for short so what this means is that that this law allows doctors to refuse care to a patient without liability after they invoke a review before their hospital's ethics committee.

So this process took place with Tinsley. The hospital's ethics committee found that they believed it would be unethical to keep Tinsley alive or, you know, to phrase it more sympathetically to their point, it would be ethical to allow Tinsley to die. And the family sued and they initially lost at a district court, and then found favor at an appeals court ruling that Tinsley could remain on life support past the 10 day deadline. So what happened at the Supreme Court was that after appealing to the Texas Supreme Court, where the hospital lost there as well, the US Supreme Court was that after appealing to the Texas Supreme Court, where the hospital lost there as well, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to deny their request for writ of certiorari. And by doing so, let the appeals court decision stand and keep Tinsley on life support to

hopefully see her second birthday this February. Yeah, absolutely. And real fast, just give us a quick overview of the condition that Tinsley has. And as well as, you know, this 10 day rule is something that has been targeted by pro-life groups for a very long time. But walk us through just a little bit of those details. Sure. So her condition is called Epstein's anomaly and it, it affects her heart and lungs. There are some doctors, one in Galveston, one from an institute in Michigan that believe her condition is treatable and with procedures

that I don't know enough about to describe, but it's a rare condition that is often terminal. And the 10-day rule is just one part of the Texas advanced directives act. And, um, you know, it, it sets, it's self-descriptive. It sets a 10 day deadline, um, that can be invoked, uh, after a review by hospital's ethics committee. Yeah, absolutely. Advocates for the rule say it is the, um, the, uh, empathetic or compassionate thing to do when someone is struggling with their life. And, um, you know, folks who oppose say that it is something that prematurely terminates a life.

Yeah. And it's really meant to, to help doctors in the writ of certiorari, the hospital described it as a safe Harbor for doctors and hospitals facing the most difficult, sensitive situations in patient care. Those were patients demand a course of treatment, often an end-of-life settings, contrary to the doctor's moral, ethical, and medical judgment. So, you know, the idea is to protect a doctor's conscientious objection to continuing care for a patient that, as you pointed out, would, in the doctor's opinion, just continue suffering. Right. Certainly.

Well, Isaiah, thank you for covering such a heavy and difficult topic for us. Hayden, we're going to come to you next. The president visited Texas. He did. Wow. Walk us through the details of that and why he was here. Well, the president in the final days of his administration visited Alamo, Texas,

which, let's get something straight right off the bat. The Alamo is not in Alamo, Texas. That is in San Antonio. Alamo is a town that is in the McAllen area. And Trump went down there to tout the completion of more than 450 miles of his border wall. Yeah. So in terms of the rhetoric that was used down there, what was the purpose?

I mean, it is, you know, unpack for us why the president in his final days in office would take the time to come to Texas and particularly visit this border wall. What was the whole either political or, you know, policy oriented approach to this? Well, Trump has a reason to take a victory lap at this point, because he is, of course, facing impeachment. He has been impeached. He hadn't been impeached yet when he made this point, because he is, of course, facing impeachment. He has been impeached. He hadn't been impeached yet when he made this speech, but he was facing that. And after the events of last week, I believe President Trump is trying to shift his tone from bewailing the election to touting some of his accomplishments during his tenure as president. So he, in fact, thanked Commissioner Mark Morgan, who has been a huge supporter of the wall and who has said that it shapes the behavior of drug cartels. He thanked Commissioner Morgan and all Border Patrol agents

for their work. And he went on to describe a lot of other accomplishments of his administration or things that he wants to be remembered by. However, because of the setting of this speech, the setting of this appearance, the border wall and border security and immigration issues were really the focus of his speech. Absolutely. In terms of, you know, what he promised on the campaign trail versus what actually came to fruition. Walk us through a little bit of that and how this ends his administration, particularly. I mean, there are so many different things to talk about just in terms of Trump and the end of his administration with the events of last week, particularly looming overhead. But walk us through this specific policy issue. Well, you know, the border wall and immigration have been fixtures in American politics for

several years now because of President Trump. And he originally promised, he said, we're going to build a wall, and we're going to make Mexico pay for it. Well, we did build a wall. It wasn't the stone wall that maybe a lot of people pictured. And Mexico did not pay for it. The United States paid for it with some controversial funding measures. In fact, he diverted a great deal of cash away from the Defense Department $3.8 billion in order to pay for this project, which was mostly comprised of steel and concrete barrier. So the nation of Mexico did not pay for the wall. However, 450 miles or 452 miles has been completed, according to CBP. And about 730 miles have been approved for funding, according to the administration. So President-elect Biden has, in fact, threatened to stop construction of the wall.

That's a really thorny issue because, of course, this is a project that is already well underway. And he would face an uphill battle trying to put the brakes on that project, though, because of President-elect Biden's criticisms of this wall, he may in fact try to pause this project or try to reverse some of the immigration policies that Trump has implemented. However, that would that will prove difficult for him. And but he has he has the political capital, at least because a lot of people are upset about this wall. A lot of people think it symbolizes things that are not good for our country. However, at least Commissioner Morgan and a lot of Border Patrol officials have said that this does shape the behavior of drug cartels and it makes it easier for them to curb illegal and dangerous activity. Absolutely. Well, thank you for covering

that for us. And it'll be very, very fascinating to see what actions are taken by the incoming administration in response to what has already been completed at the border. Yeah, Daniel, go for it. Yeah, just to add to that a little bit about some more context on Biden's plans. You know, he has said that it was one of his campaign promises to stop the building of the wall. Now, like you said, it's a little bit thorny. Some reports have come out. I believe it was the Army, whatever it is, the infrastructure stuff.

Army Corps of Engineers. Army Corps of Engineers, that's the one. Kind of did a study on the cost of the border wall. Now there are some contracts that are already in place. And so the government has already promised to spend X amount of money. And so if they cancel the contracts, they still have to pay the fees, uh, for, you know, some of the fees for that contract, they have to pay for the materials that they've already spent. They have to figure out what to do with those materials. So there's some difficulty there. You know, it would, uh, potentially still save some of the money that is, has been appropriated for that purpose. Um,

so, you know, you can, you can say that Biden is saving money and you're accurate. You can say that he's wasting money and you're accurate too. It just depends on how you look at it. So the government is set to spend X amount of dollars on the wall, and they can either spend all that on the wall or they can spend less of it and not have a wall. Right. That's not complicated. Right. And there's also the added element politically of most administrations probably aim to implement their own policies and to advance their own reforms instead of reversing the reforms of their predecessors.

So that may be another angle that President-elect Biden considers after he's inaugurated is, do I want to implement my own vision for immigration or reverse President Trump's vision of immigration? So I think that politically is something we're going to see play out very soon as he takes office. And another thing to note, also Representative Philemon Vela, who's a border Democrat in Texas, filed a bill in Congress this week that would appropriate $6 billion for border security. At the same time, he's criticizing the wall. He's saying that there needs to be more increased security measures taken at ports of entry rather than focusing on a wall. So there's some debate there, but I think there's bipartisan support for increased

security. It's just, how do you go about doing that? So we'll see how the Biden administration carries that out. Good stuff. Well, thank you for covering that Hayden. We appreciate you making sure that that was, you know, covered for our readers. Isaiah, we're coming to you. One thing we've covered on and off has been, you know, the different public school dropout numbers in light of COVID-19 and particularly just as folks are either wary of school districts approaches to handling the virus and the implementation thereof or, you know, being concerned about their children contracting the virus. Walk us through some numbers that came from Texas's education arm today. Sure. Yeah. So according to a recently published Texas Education Agency study,

Texas public schools saw a pretty steep enrollment decline between this school year and the last. And these kinds of studies normally would take place at the end of a school year. But naturally, a lot of people are curious about this data now because it's been an exceptional couple of school years. And the numbers show that students are leaving public schools in droves. Yeah, absolutely. So walk us through particularly what categories had the steepest decline and what this looks like for online learning? Sure. So the steepest decline was in the pre-kindergarten category.

And I'm pulling up these numbers now, but that that had the biggest numbers in both the percentage and in the raw amount of students leaving. So this is a comparison from October of 2019 and October of 2020. So around the second month of school. Yeah. And the pre-K category, there was a negative 22% difference. So 22% decline from 2019. And that amounts to over 55,000 pre-kindergarteners being taken out of public schools. We don't know if they're going to home schools or, you know, private schools. Yeah. We just don't know yet. We should at the end of the school year, but they'll collect it at the end and publish it much later. That's,

they collect those in their graduation and dropout reports, which, which also kind of weigh into this story. Yeah. Also another piece of data that, that shines through is that online learning has been immensely unpopular. Over 700,000 students that began the year online, returned to the classroom in person by the second month of school. And that that bit of data isn't a comparison between 2019 and 2020. That's between September and October of the school year. So does that include, you know, public schools who started at the beginning of the school year?

Virtually, I know that there was some COVID restrictions then. Is that? Yes. Including those? Okay. Yes, it does. That's, yeah, it's good that you pointed that out, because sometimes it's optional. at other campuses it wasn't. So, and even then there are campuses where schools were ordered to close down and some of them didn't because they were private. Yeah, that's a good point. The data just say that 700,000 students began the year learning, you know, from their computer. And by October they return to campus. Yeah.

What does this mean for homeschool withdrawals? Homeschool withdrawals have been increasing for a long time. And interestingly, public school enrollment has also been increasing for a long time. We should have this story out by yesterday. So by then, we'll have more detailed analysis in the article on the reports that I mentioned earlier, graduation and dropout reports. Those are a little bit more detailed on why students leave and where they go after. Do they graduate? Do they go to another state?

Do they go to a private school or homeschool? We know all that in those reports. And in this study for this week, that would just be a pretty gargantuan task to get some data that we really want quickly. So what we know from the graduation and dropout reports that are more annual are that public school enrollment has been increasing gradually. And homeschool withdrawals have been increasing a lot more sharply. Since the late 90s, homeschool withdrawals have increased by something like 227%. And public school enrollment has increased by 46%. So more children are being born and they're going into Texas public schools.

Yeah, folks are moving to Texas also. Right. Yeah, that's another good point. But a greater proportion of them each year are getting pulled out to be homeschooled. So this year might be exceptional in that it could be the first year. It could start turning the trend of increased enrollment around. It would almost certainly be an outlier once the pandemic wanes. But we won't know that just yet. And we'll have a little bit more detailed analysis on that point in the article.

I love it. Well, thank you for making sure that our readers are informed on that hayden we're coming back to you uh this will be our last topic for the day and you're gonna you're gonna wrap us up and end us out talk to us about a bill uh proposed in the legislature where you've done a lot of different you know pieces examining you know legislation that's been filed ahead of the 87th legislature walk us through the specific one that deals with law enforcement. There's a new bill, and this is not the only bill that addresses implicit bias, but this bill would require implicit bias training for police officers in the Lone Star State. It would make it mandatory as part of the minimum curriculum requirements for a training to address the thoughts and feelings of police officers in our state.

And those thoughts and feelings about social groups or different groups that peace officers interact with on the job would be the target of these trainings. And it really arises from some of the controversy that came out of last year with respect to police and race issues. But this is the latest proposal to require implicit bias training for law enforcement, and they would have to complete that training if it wasn't part of their basic training to become a law enforcement official, they would have to do it within two years of licensure. Got it. And in terms of what is already required, and you know, maybe the partisan lines of who would support this kind of legislation, walk us through that. Well, we reached out to Representative Collier's office, Nicole Collier, a Democrat of Fort Worth

is the author of this legislation. And we did get in touch with her office, Nicole Collier, a Democrat of Fort Worth, is the author of this legislation. And we did get in touch with her office. We have not heard back from them. So I am still in the process of exploring the intentions behind this legislation. But it is not the only piece of legislation that addresses implicit bias. This is definitely a more progressive concern because the two sides of this debate are if you enter a certain occupation where you deal with diverse groups of people, then you should be trained to deal with those diverse groups of people. However, on the other hand, you have this feeling or not this principle within law enforcement and the public

at large, that recoils at this idea that that the police are inherently racist, or that law enforcement are inherently racist, or even doctors and different medical professionals who are the targets of other pieces of legislation. I think there are sentiments that we don't need legislation to regulate the thoughts and feelings of people who are in these professions. But because these professions are regulated by the Occupations Code, it is a legislative role for them to decide which education programs and which continuing education requirements are going to be implemented. So I don't have a crystal ball. However, I imagine that this is going to be a pretty partisan issue in the 87th legislature. Certainly. Thank you for covering that for us. It'll be very interesting to see what police reform measures are taken up and considered in

the house seriously right a lot of things are filed not everything will actually be considered or even passed through a committee so it'll be interesting to see what makes it to the forefront well gentlemen brad headed over to the capitol to make sure he was watching the house rules as they gavel in for the day but i want to talk about with the three of you, you know, my favorite three. You're welcome. Do you think Brad's going to listen to this? I don't know. That's kind of what I'm testing to see is if he does.

Kind of like how you didn't listen to the one that we mentioned you. Yeah, but I listen to the podcast every week, but I didn't listen in time for that one. Evidently, I did not listen quickly enough. But I want to talk, you know, a lot of folks professionally use a platform called Slack to communicate, to ensure that their work gets done. And one of the fun things about and one of the things that is particularly fun about Slack is you can change your nickname. And I think our team has taken real advantage of this we have definitely there are every i feel like every week there's a new flavor of name and maybe we maybe everyone subscribes and jumps on board the train of that theme for the week maybe nobody does maybe connie burton does

i miss the theme memos like right now there's this theme. Everyone has bro in their nickname and I don't know how that got started. I believe it refers to a Geico commercial. It does. Like a very old Geico commercial. That was remade, I think. Oh, was it remade? Yeah. There's like an old one and then there's like a sort of old one.

Yeah. Brad really missed out on that opportunity because right now his name is just Brad, but it could be Brode. I mean, because the puns are like Brod Toto Chip, Teddy Roosevelt, Vincent Ben, you know, and then just Brad. Yeah. It's staring him right in the face. Let's just continue to roast him while he's gone. Also, anytime any of y'all, I mean, this is how this works.

Anytime any of y'all will be absent from the podcast, this is what will happen. So just take it as a warning. Noted. Noted. are will be absent from the podcast this is what will happen so just uh take it as a warning um but noted you noted but yeah our founder and ceo connie burton her name is bro tato chip delightful former senator from the great tarrant county is uh bro tato chip i hope you enjoyed your job it's been a great run i've had a great time. Bye Mac. Phil Burton, you know,

our, our, our amazing Phil is Vincent Vanbrough. Pretty awesome. For Christmas. I was Isaiah Jingle Bellington. I was really proud of that one. Holly was Holly Jolly Christmas. It was perfect.

I enjoyed that one. Yeah. Much cleaner. Daniel's just Daniel. I know. Well, you were Daniel Von Friend. I thought about, I was Daniel von Friend for a little bit. I had like a llama sitting on my shoulder and I photoshopped an eye patch on me. It was great.

It was somehow a complete picture of who Daniel is as a person. It's true. Thank you all so much for listening. If you've been enjoying our podcast, it would be awesome if you would review us on iTunes. And if there's a guest you'd love to hear on our show, give us a shout on Twitter. Tweet at The Texan News. We're so proud to have you standing with us as we seek to provide real journalism in an age of disinformation. We're paid for exclusively by readers like you.

So it's important we all do our part to support the Texan by subscribing and telling your friends about us. God bless you, and God bless Texas. you