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The Senate committees continued to meet and vote out bills through July 16, but the House suspended all committee meetings due to the lack of a quorum.Most Democrats have gone to Washington, D.C. to work for the “For the People” voting rights act.

The Senate Committees passed bills on election restrictions (SB 1), transgender athletes (SB 2 and 32), Social Studies curriculum (SB 3), drug-induced abortion (SB 4), child abuse and family violence (SB 72), and discussed the status of the electricity grid and its management.The League delivered testimony on several of these bills. But the bills go nowhere until the House meets to take them up.

They also passedHJR 3. HJR3 would amend the bail statute of the Constitution to require bail for violent, sex, or human trafficking offenses. It would also require the “least restrictive” bail or personal bond for non-violent crimes.If passed by the House, HJR 3 will appear on the November ballot.

This Special Session ends on August 6. Governor Abbott has called for another Special Session starting on August 8. See LWVTX Voting Rights and Election Law Issue Chair Cinde Weatherby's blog update here.

Threats to voting rights are front and center in this special session. During the regular session, we helped stop the omnibus election bill in the House - now we need to stop HB 3! It was voted out of committee Sunday morning and is now headed to the House floor.

Our alerts will have a pre-written letter to the editor and these are so effective in educating the broader public, especially in suburban and rural areas.When you send your letter to legislators, you get the option to send the Letter to the Editor, with a list of the local media in your area. Click which paper to send it to, and it goes with your name and address directly to that paper. (You can click up to six papers).

The large city papers get numerous letters and may require more contact information, so instead, choose the small suburban and rural papers in your area.My suburban weekly paper has printed two of our letters!You can also modify and personalize the letter with your experiences before sending.