AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Hours after more than 50 Texas House Democrats fled the state to stall progress on election integrity legislation, the remaining House members voted Tuesday to send law enforcement after them, as the lower chamber's efforts in the special session ground to a halt.
House members voted 76-4 Tuesday morning, strictly along party lines, to issue a "call of the House" in an attempt to regain a quorum, which would require a minimum of 100 of the 150 members to be present. A second motion, which also passed by a 76-4 vote, called on the House Sergeant at Arms, or appointed officers, to "send for all absentees... under warrant of arrest if necessary."
The four nay votes came from the four remaining Democrats in the House chamber Tuesday morning - Reps. Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City, Tracy King of Batesville, Eddie Morales Jr. of Eagle Pass and John Turner of Dallas.
With much of the House Democratic Caucus in Washington D.C., law enforcement has little or no ability to actually coerce the lawmakers to return to the state, lacking jurisdiction in the nation's capital. However, should any of the members return to the state, they could be arrested and forced back to the Capitol.
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Rep. Chris Turner (D-Grand Prairie), chairman of the caucus, has promised that enough Democrats will remain out of the state to deny a quorum through the end of the special session on August 6.
Turner, speaking in Washington Tuesday morning, said the Democrats will focus their efforts on getting national leaders to act on voting rights. "We can’t hold this tide back forever. We’re buying some time. We need Congress and all of our federal leaders to use that time wisely,” he said.
The broken quorum effectively derails the special session, with the House paralyzed and unable to conduct business. Several House committee meetings scheduled for Tuesday were also canceled due to a lack of quorum.
Gov. Greg Abbott, speaking Monday night with KVUE-TV in Austin, promised that the legislative priorities would be passed eventually, regardless of the Democrats' stalling tactics. "I can and I will continue to call a special session after special session after special session all the way up until election next year," said Abbott. "And so if these people want to be hanging out wherever they're hanging out on this taxpayer-paid junket, they're going to have to be prepared to do it for well over a year. As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done. Everybody who has a job must show up to do that job, just like your viewers on watching right now. State representatives have that same responsibility."
Lawmakers are expected to be called back for at least one more special session later in the fall, when redistricting and allocating some $16 billion in federal coronavirus funding are expected to be on the agenda.