A committee of the Texas House of Representatives voted late Friday afternoon to impose financial penalties totaling nearly $422,000 on Democratic House members who broke quorum last August to try to prevent the Republican-led Legislature from passing a controversial mid-decade congressional redistricting plan.
The GOP-led Committee on House Administration imposed $303,000 in fines on the 50-plus Democratic members for being absent without leave during the first and second special sessions of the 89th Legislature. The committee assessed an additional $118,889.81 penalty to reimburse the Texas Department of Public Safety for expenses incurred in trying to compel those members to return to the chamber.
Under House rules, the members being penalized may not use political fundraising in order to pay the fines or reimbursement expenses — in this case more than $8,000 per member.
The committee voted 6-5 along party lines, under a motion by state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, the committee chair, after taking testimony in executive session for more than six hours. Geren made no statement other than to read out the terms of the motion.
Several Democrats on the committee gave closing statements before the final vote. State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, pointed to Republican rhetoric against Democrats during the quorum break — including threats by Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to force the expulsion from office of Democrats who had fled the state.
“Americans just like us from both sides of the aisle have been murdered over politics in the past year,” Moody said. “We can’t play any part in bringing that to Texas. If we do, one day, we’ll be sitting in a room like this, talking about the death of someone we worked with, someone we looked in the eye and broke bread with, and yes, sometimes disagreed with. When that happens, no amount of political points will have been worth it.”
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In a statement, state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said the caucus was looking at options to respond.
“The House can enforce its rules, and members can use constitutional tools when our constituents’ representation is under attack,” Wu said. “But if leadership is going to impose thousands of dollars in personal penalties, it has to provide timely notice, transparent records and a meaningful chance to respond. That did not happen today.”
See here for the previous update. The first question I have is what about the members who won’t be returning to the House? Is Charlie Geren going to sic a collections agency on, say, James Talarico or Chris Turner? I think they’d be on pretty firm ground telling them to pound sand. What steps will the Republicans take to enforce the collection notice on the members who do return? Well, if Dan Patrick’s nightmare comes true, then the new House majority ought to be able to pass a rule to obviate the penalties. If not, then I would assume there would be legal action taken by the House Dem caucus over any attempted penalties or other consequences for non-payment by individual members. The state constitution expressly allows for quorum breaking, after all. They may not prevail in court, but it would slow things down. Long story short, I have no idea. Imposing the fines and collecting on them are two different things. We’re a long way from the latter happening.