After 140-days of regular session and 90-days of special called sessions, it appears Governor Abbott is sending the legislature home, at least for the rest of the year.
What came out of the special legislative sessions? Redistricting was the main thing and all four maps which needed to be redrawn and signed by the Governor passed the House and Senate and were sent to the Governor during the third special session.
As a result of redistricting the Texas House and Senate, there will be some changes in how Arlington is represented in the Texas Legislature. The number of state Representatives will fall from five to four. District 93, currently represent by Matt Krause, will not cover any part of Arlington on the new map. (Rep Krause has announced as a candidate for Attorney General and will not run for his old seat in 2022.) District 92, now represented by Jeff Cason, will move south to pick up much of old District 93. Tony Tinderholt’s District 94 will move farther north in Arlington. The districts represented by David Cook and Chris Turner will continue to split south Arlington. It is expected that the new lines will produce two likely Republican districts and two likely Democratic districts.
The new State Senate map has District 22 currently represented by Brian Birdwell, picking up a large swath of new area on the eastern Tarrant County border as far north as Euless. Senate District 10, now represented by Beverly Powell, loses much of Arlington and picks up seven rural counties stretching all the way to Brown County. Senate District 9, Kelly Hancock’s District, will be contained within Tarrant County and continue to cover a large portion of Arlington. It is likely that all three Senate Districts in Arlington will be held by Republicans.
The map for the US House of Representatives impacts Arlington by adding Roger Williams District 25 to a large portion of west Arlington. Congressional District 6 represented by Jake Ellzey, will lose a portion of Arlington and stretch farther north in Dallas County. Congressman Mark Veasey’s District 33 will wrap around Arlington, into Dallas County, and then curve back into east Arlington.
The dog restraint bill that passed in the regular session and was vetoed by Governor Abbott, got a rewrite and passed into law in the third special. Requiring transgender high school athletes to compete based on the gender on their birth certificate passed.
What failed to pass was a prohibition against private companies requiring vaccines of their employees. The Lt. Governor has publicly asked for a special session to address the vaccine issue, but the Governor appears to be resisting it, for now.
If you think this legislative session was a marathon, the longest in recent history was the 71st Texas Legislature in 1989 with six called special sessions, four of which occurred in 1990. The families and businesses of our state legislators are counting on the Governor not to go for the record.