(C) Texas Tribune This story was originally published by Texas Tribune and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Blast - May 1, 2025 [1] ['The Texas Tribune'] Date: 2025-05 The problem for leadership is they need Democratic support to adopt proposed constitutional amendments, like Gov. Greg Abbott ’s priority measure on bail. There are 11 days left for House committees to report House bills and joint resolutions to the calendars committees. By 10 p.m. the next day, the Calendars Committee must announce the last daily House calendar with HBs and HJRs. The House must then preliminary pass most HBs and HJRs two days later and finally pass them the following day. It’s the most specific the band of conservative hardliners have gotten since they took down the House’s local and consent calendar in an effort to force leadership to act. “He had initially told us, ‘It’s a great bill, love the bill.’ We have three joint authors from State Affairs, but Chairman King won’t give it a hearing” Rep. Steve Toth , R-The Woodlands, said. “Texans will not forgive our massive Republican majority if we fail to protect children from groomers.” The members named several committee chairs whose committees haven’t advanced their bills yet. No one came up more than Ken King , R-Canadian, chair of the House State Affairs Committee. Conservatives said he’s blocking E-Verify legislation, both the House and the Senate’s bathroom bills and legislation addressing when children come out as transgender at school. Ten or so members joined Rep. Tony Tinderholt , R-Arlington, for an announcement in which they presented 79 bills they’d like to see passed. Members named at least 37 specific bills, with topics including immigration, vaccine policies, protecting children, elections and gun rights. The Texas House’s right flank today finally articulated some of the bills they want to see moving as the House approaches key deadlines in the session calendar. Abbott doesn’t always weigh in so publicly with a specific policy ask in the middle of session. The governor swooped in at the very end of the 2023 session in an attempt to mediate a property tax deal between the House and the Senate, for example. But rarely has he suggested an amendment to legislation. That could be hard for Democrats — of which Republicans need at least 12 to approve a constitutional amendment — to stomach. Discussions are ongoing between Huffman and Rep. Joe Moody , D-El Paso, on how to get to 100 yeas. Abbott said that Huffman was “in agreement” with his proposals and was “in favor of a modification of her JR.” The Houston Republican’s office has not responded to the Tribune’s request for comment. That would go further than state Sen. Joan Huffman ’s bail legislation, Senate Joint Resolution 5 , which would simply allow judges to deny bail in a wider array of cases than the state Constitution currently permits. SJR 5 does not make pretrial detention the default. The Senate approved the legislation in February. Speaking at a press conference in Houston yesterday, Abbott outlined a plan in which defendants would have to prove that they are not a danger to public safety, and that they will appear in court, for judges to be able to set bail in those cases. Gov. Greg Abbott threw a wrench in the bail debate when he called for a constitutional amendment instructing judges to “automatically deny bail” for certain violent crimes, such as murder, rape and human trafficking. Nationally, fewer than 9% of students who have been in foster care will graduate from a higher education institution. But through an innovative program, Texas Woman’s University is working to change that. Read more. PENDING CENSURES: CAPRIGLIONE, GEREN AND MCQUEENEY The Tarrant County GOP’s resolutions committee prepared censures against Reps. Giovanni Capriglione, Charlie Geren and John McQueeney last week, with the goal of removing the three from the primary ballot in 2026. Those resolutions became public this week, and the County Executive Committee will meet on May 8 and consider whether to adopt the censures. Let’s take a look, because there are some surprising justifications buried in these documents. Each member got docked for voting for Dustin Burrows for House speaker instead of the Republican caucus’ nominee, for voting to take long weekends and for supporting and stifling debate on the House rules. Those weren’t surprising. Additionally, Capriglione, of Southlake, was censured for filing House Bill 10, the House’s DOGE bill. The Senate version, Senate Bill 14, became the first bill signed by Gov. Greg Abbott this session. Geren, of Fort Worth, was reprimanded for circumventing the usual housekeeping resolution process by having his committee, the House Administration Committee, take up the content of the resolution to avoid debate. The resolution also criticizes him for filing House Joint Resolution 137, the casino gambling and sports betting resolution, and for — as House Administration chair — allowing the House Appropriations subcommittees to meet in formal meetings without video recordings. McQueeney’s gets interesting. The Fort Worth freshman’s resolution docked him for voting against an amendment to the state budget that would’ve audited Operation Lone Star, voting for the overall budget and voting against an amendment to the voucher bill on disclosing sexual crimes against a child or student by a member of the governing body. The committee also docked him for co-sponsoring the House’s original education savings account bill, House Bill 3, which was substantially similar to Senate Bill 2. “This bill opposed the 9th Principle of the Republican platform, by enabling government interference and subsidies to Private Schools, and conflicts with the 4th Principle, which Limits government power to those items enumerated in the United States and Texas Constitutions,” according to the resolution. All three resolutions call on the State Republican Executive Committee to enable the Tarrant GOP to remove the representatives from the GOP ballot in 2026. They want the SREC to take it up at its next meeting. 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