Governor Greg Abbott’s first special legislative session this year appears headed for an abrupt end after House Democrats fled the state to protest the Texas GOP’s cynical exploitation of the deadly Fourth of July Hill Country floods to enact redistricting that would, at President Donald Trump’s orders, rig the maps to deliver Republicans up to five new congressional seats. Upon adjournment Friday, Abbott said he will immediately call another special session with the same agenda.
Before decamping to Illinois and other blue states, Democrats argued Abbott’s emergency powers already grant him the ability to unilaterally enact flood relief for the tragedy-stricken Hill Country. In a July 21 letter, House Democrats called on Speaker Dustin Burrows to prioritize flood response before any other business, arguing the GOP is deliberately holding flood relief hostage to Trump’s redistricting plan by putting the maps first on the agenda. Republicans have in turn attacked Democrats for abandoning their posts—and Hill Country flood victims.
In fact, the Texas GOP has had years to prioritize such critical disaster-response legislation but has instead refused to engage with hundreds of related proposed bills to better prepare for disasters and ensure more resilience to climate change. Such bills are once again going ignored as part of a longer pattern of climate-reactive discussions at the Legislature in which Republicans pull their collective fingers out of their ears only to offer piecemeal relief in the aftermath of deadly disaster.
