Action News- April 2023
Joyce LeBombard | Published on 4/4/2023
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Things have certainly heated up in the Texas Legislature with 54 days left in the regular session. Last week, 24 bills were heard with less than 48 hours notice in the House and Senate. Thank you to all who responded to our action alerts!
With our Take Action Center, we make it easy for you to email the committee members who are hearing the bills, or if a bill is voted out of committee, to your legislators. While we provide the email template, the email comes from you (not from LWV Texas), so feel free to use it as is or update it with how a bill will impact you personally or others you know.
If you prefer to call your legislators or to testify in person, please feel free to use the talking points we provide in our action alerts. We encourage everyone to call or testify if that is your preference! You can find the contact information for your legislators also in the Take Action Center. But remember, you are calling or testifying on your own behalf and not on behalf of the League. Testimony on behalf of the League is only given if specifically approved by me or Elisabeth MacNamara, LWVTX VP of Advocacy.
If you call or testify on your own behalf using our action alert information, please also email via the Take Action Center, as it helps us track the responses to our action alerts.
We haven't had time to make any Letter to the Editor templates yet. However, the capability is still available for you within theactionalert. Feel free to pull information from theactionalert description, "learn more" tab, or use the legislator email template to help craft your Letter to the Editor.
For the 88th legislative session so far, we have sent over 43,000 emails to legislators, and over 24,000 of those were just last week! Thank you for the actions you have taken - they do make a difference!
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88th Legislative Session Advocacy Update - Everything, Everywhere All at Once
by Elisabeth MacNamara
In 2021, the Heartbeat Bill banned abortion after six weeks by creating a cause ofactionagainst abortion providers by any person anywhere seeking an award of $10,000. The demise of Roe v. Wade did not result in the demise of the Heartbeat law. Mothers are suffering from lack of emergency care because the law gives their doctors no clear guidance on when to intervene to save the mother’s life.
In 2023, vague language in overly broad legislation seems to be a feature, not a flaw, of much of the legislation impacting elections. In fact, one bill author bluntly stated that he had intentionally made his language vague to create a big hammer to use against counties with election administrators. Similarly, the author of a bill allowing any violation of the election code to be tried in any county adjoining the one in which the violation is alleged to have occurred told fellow House Election Committee members that
his intent was to remove these cases from prosecutors he believed would refuse to pursue them. The author refused to concede that his scheme could result in multiple counties pursuing charges at the same time.
On March 15, the League testified against HB 2127, a sweeping preemption bill aimed at municipal ordinances offering more protections for their residents than required by state law. This bill and its companion, SB 814, strip municipalities of governmental immunity in suits against these ordinances and allow those lawsuits to be filed in any county in the state. This invites everyone to sue everywhere all at once.
A government of laws clearly defines what is permissible so we know what not to do. Due process of law guarantees a fair trial if we make a mistake. Vague laws without due process can be struck down but only if someone is willing to test them. As we are seeing, we are more likely to avoid the risk which is exactly what these laws are designed to do.
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Extreme Elections Bills Make their Way Through the House and Senate
by Stephanie Swanson
Last week proved to be a very challenging week for voting rights advocates. The House Elections and Senate State Affairs Committees cued up a barrage of bills which would reshape how our elections are administered and who would be responsible for them.
On short notice, the Senate State Affairs Committee heard nearly a dozen election bills at the same time as the House Elections Committee. The goodnewsis that dozens of witnesses showed up to testify, mainly against these bills. And almost 25,000 of emails were sent or calls made via our TakeActionCenter!The badnewsis they couldn’t be in two places at once, although quite a few managed.
Read more, including a list of all of the bills adversely impacting Election Administration and voters, here.
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Women's Healthcare and Reproductive Rights Update
by Catherine Maxwell
This coming week, LWVTX is issuing anActionAlert to support HB 12, which provides twelve months of postpartum healthcare to maternity Medicaid patients. It is moving to the Senate. The Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition has asked LWVTX to reach out to our Senators between April 3rd - April 7th when the bill should be presented to that chamber. (See the Action Alert in the Take Action! section below.)
Read the full update here.
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LWVTX Take Action Center & Action Alerts!
There are a lot of bills being considered in committees and in the full House and Senate right now that need our attention. Use our Take Action Center to email your legislators, look up your legislator's phone number to call them, or write a letter to the editor. Take action on these priority issues and more:
- NEW! Support 12 Months of Care for New Mothers-Supporting HB 12 allows moms to keep Medicaid health insurance for 12 months post-partum.
- NEW! SB 814 is Costly State Overreach-SB 814 eliminates the ability for local government to regulate business and commerce to protect workers, residents, and the environment and much more.
- Texas Public Schools Need More Money, Not Less-Educational Savings Accounts are vouchers by another name. Vouchers divert taxpayer dollars from public schools to pay for private school tuition and other vendors. Oppose SB 8.
- Our Vote is Our Choice, But It Could Put Us Behind Bars-SB 2 would increase penalties for ineligible voters and criminalize simple mistakes.
- Protect Local Control Over Local Elections-HB 3611 would ban ranked choice voting in all elections in Texas including local nonpartisan races.
- Don't Withdraw From ERIC-SB 1070 would withdraw Texas from a 34-state information sharing programs that allow states to obtain accurate information on voters who have died or moved out of state.
- Protect Election Administrators-HB 2020 would allow the Secretary of State to remove a local election administrator based on ill-defined criteria.
- Protect the Power of Local Elected Officials-The Senate will vote soon on four bills that will hamper local elected officials from protecting their constituents and responding to the needs of their communities.
- Oppose HB 5053 as Vague and Arbitrary-HB 5053 allows violations of the Election Code to be tried in counties or districts adjoining the county or district in which the alleged offense occurred.
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Election Protection Volunteers Needed for Certain Counties
Election Protection helps voters when they encounter problems at the polls and operates a hotline to empower voters with information about how to vote. Volunteers are needed for the following priority counties: Arlington, Austin, Dallas, Galveston, Houston, Lubbock, Port Aransas, and Rio Grande Valley (Brownsville and Hidalgo).
If you live in one of these areas, please ask your members to sign up for an Election Protection training to be a field monitor, roving monitor, or social media monitor. For the training schedule and to sign up, click here.
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Provide Testimony at the Redistricting Hearing
The House Redistricting Committee will be holding a hearing on their map on Wednesday, March 5th at 8:00 AM CST. You can find the hearing notice here.
While the House has said that they will be "ratifying" the exact same map that was passed last session, we do not know if legislators plan to offer any new amendments (changes) to the map. In order to be prepared for all scenarios, please plan to resubmit the redistricting testimony that you provided last session on the House map.
Read the full update here.
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LWV South Central Texas
Photo credit: La Grange Area Chamber of Commerce Facebook page. LWV South Central Texas recognized local women mayors at their Women's History Month celebration "Women Making History" on March 12th at Sengelmann Hall in Schulenburg. Read more here and here.
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LWV Cy-Fair
Photo credit: HCSO Community Engagement Division Facebook page. LWV Cy-Fair sat down with Harris County Sheriff Office's Community Engagement Division to talk about how they can work together to enhance community engagement. Read more here.
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LWV El Paso
Photo credit: League of Women Voters of El Paso Facebook page. In just one week, LWV El Paso registered 272 eligible high school students to vote! Read more here.
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LWV Fort Bend
Photo credit: League of Women Voters of Fort Bend Facebook page. The LWV Fort Bend Volunteer Deputy Voter Registrars (VDVRs) were busy helping people register to vote at the International Art & Kite Festival on March 25th in Sugar Land. Read more here.
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Josephine Elaine Talarski, 1936 - 2023
From past LWVTX president, Grace Chimene: "It was a joy and an honor to support Elaine's work as Issue Chair of the League of Women Voters of Texas' position on Drug Laws and Policy. Even though she was small in stature, she stood out in her advocacy work. Legislators listened with respect to the tiny former military nurse during her testimony at the Texas Capitol to reduce penalties for possession of a small amount marihuana and for medical use of cannabis. As a former nurse myself, I understood her dedication to public health and democracy. Elaine's dedication and energy were inspiring."
Read Josephine's obituary here.
Photo credit: JoNeen Serna
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League of Women Voters of Texas
1212 Guadalupe St. #107
Austin Texas, 78701
(512) 472-1100
lwvtexas@lwvtexas.org
lwvtexas.org
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