By a vote of 92-to-45 the Texas House passed on 2nd reading House Bill 3, also known as the Pandemic Disaster Response bill.
According to the legislation Governor Greg Abbott would retain executive powers, but there would be legislative oversight. “It creates an oversight committee that has powers to strike down any order, waiver or suspension of pandemic or terminate the disaster declaration itself,” said State Rep. Dustin Burrows, the author of the bill.
Some of the more significant orders like business shutdowns and mask mandates would come under committee review after 30 days. That would mean automatically those orders cannot go for more than 30 days unless the committee were to meet or the legislature was called back for a special session.
One of the more controversial amendments would have taken mask mandate powers away from the Governor and local governments. Rep. Cody Vasut’s Amendment number 8 would have prohibited an executive order from implementing a mask mandate. “If there’s going to be a mask mandate it has to come from the Legislature,” said Vasut. The amendment was rejected 71-to-72 after several different attempts to vote one it; one due to voting machine errors.
The bill would also ensure that constitutional rights are protected by the courts during a pandemic. It would protect the freedom of religion by prohibiting the closure of places of worship and the Second Amendment by prohibiting the closure of fire arms stores during a pandemic.