Texas Republicans: Democrats can pick up their paychecks in person
The Texas House gaveled in and out without a quorum again on Friday, as Republicans grew annoyed with Democratic lawmakers who left the state to prevent a vote on a redistricting bill that President Donald Trump urged them to pass.
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced at Friday’s session that Democrats would be required to collect their monthly paychecks and per diems in person.
“While the Constitution forbids us from withholding pay, it does not dictate how we issue the pay,” Burrows said.
Texas House Minority Leader Gene Wu scoffed at the threat. “Members of the legislature are paid $600 a month. Foregoing our monthly salary is a far smaller cost than the price of inaction,” he said in a statement.
Republican leaders are also freezing Democrats’ monthly operating budgets. “Absent members must also appear in person” to get approval for travel reimbursements or other House services, said Burrows.
The speaker said the Texas House “has also contacted the sergeant at arms of the Illinois House of Representatives, requesting their direct assistance in returning absent members.”
But that request isn’t making much headway further north. “No member of the Illinois House is responsible for attendance at Texas’ undemocratic sham of session,” said Jon Maxson, director of communications for the Illinois House Speaker.
“We are continuing to explore new avenues to compel a quorum, and will keep pressing forward until the job is done,” Burrows told the members who were in attendance Friday, pointing to the other item on the agenda — disaster relief for floods that plagued the state last month — as a reason to return.
“Every hour you remain away is time stolen from those Texans in need,” he said, referring to the redistricting bill that Republicans strategically attached to flooding relief.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has called the threats “grandstanding,” saying his state will protect the Texas Democrats and that the civil complaints issued in Texas have no bearing on Illinois.
Friday’s House action came hours after a suburban Chicago hotel complex where Democratic legislators had been staying received a second death threat.
The local police department, in coordination with the Kane County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad and the Explosive Detection K-9 Unit, searched the area and found no explosive device, according to a statement. There were 70 guests at the hotel center at the time.
A person close to the Texas Democrats, granted anonymity for security reasons, said they left the hotel after a bomb threat earlier in the week and declined to identify the delegation’s current location.