Texas House Speaker says he'll charter a plane back to Austin for Democrats who fled to Washington to stop Republicans passing election legislation
Texas’ GOP House Speaker plans to charter a plane that will be ‘on standby’ in Washington, DC, on Saturday so that Democratic lawmakers can return to Austin after skipping out on a key vote on election reform.
‘I am demanding all of our colleagues in DC to contact my staff immediately in order to secure their seat on the plane and return to Austin in order to do the state's business,’ Dade Phelan said in a statement on Thursday.
‘The State of Texas is waiting.’
Phelan on Thursday sacked a Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso, from his position as speaker pro tempore of the House.
The move was done in retaliation for Democrats busting a quorum and fleeing to the nation’s capital in order to prevent the Texas state legislature from passing controversial election bills.
On Wednesday, Phelan called on the 'runaway' Democrats to return their $221-a-day allowances after they fled the state on Monday.
Phelan also said they should be stripped of the per diem until they returned to their jobs.
'While these Texas Democrats collect taxpayer money as they ride on private jets to meet with the Washington elite, those who remain in the chamber await their return to begin work on providing our retired teachers a 13th check, protecting our foster kids, and providing taxpayer relief,' Phelan said in a statement.
Dade Phelan, the Speaker of the House in Texas, has demanded that the Democrats who fled his state to avoid voting on a bill be stripped of their $221-a-day allowance. He also announced on Thursday that he plans to charter a plane that will be 'on standby' in Washington, DC on Saturday so that the Democratic lawmakers can return home
It took at least 51 House Democrats walking out for them to break quorum.
According to the Texas Tribune, 58 representatives and nine senators are now in Washington, meaning there are now 67 in total, receiving $14,807 per day.
If each of them have been there since Monday, the total is now $44,421.
Chris Turner, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, then said he expects his colleagues will decline receiving those payments.
'Those per diems are paid out at the end of the month, so that would be several weeks away,' Turner said on Wednesday.
'I anticipate members are going to decline them.'
The Texas Ethics Commission states: 'The Texas Supreme Court has interpreted this constitutional per diem as being a compensation payment to a legislator in consideration for all services rendered throughout his or her term.
'Accordingly, legislators are entitled to a per diem for each day of session, regardless of how many days were actually attended. Similarly, legislators are not required to provide evidence of actual expenditures to receive this per diem.'
Phelan is pictured on Wednesday in the half-empty chamber in Austin, Texas
Turner reiterated the Democrats' insistence that taxpayer money was not being spent on the trip, saying it was being paid for by fundraising.
He spoke after Texas Senator Ted Cruz tore into Vice President Kamala Harris for comparing the runaway Texas Democrats to Selma marchers and other civil rights leaders.
'It's actually pretty ridiculous,' he said on Fox News Channel Wednesday.
'Last I checked, the heroic civil rights protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge were not in a private chartered jet, they didn't have a case of Miller Lite next to them.'
Sen. Ted Cruz appeared on Fox News Channel Wednesday and said it was 'ridiculous' for Vice President Kamala Harris to compare the runaway Texas Democrats to civil rights leaders
Vice President Kamala Harris compared the runaway Texas Democrats to civil rights leaders, something that was mocked Wednesday by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz
Texas Democrats are still receiving a $221 per diem despite fleeing to Washington. They were photographed Tuesday morning in front of the Washington Plaza Hotel, an older property that was recently renovated and boast a large, outdoor swimming pool
The Texas Democrats are staying at the Washington Plaza Hotel, an older property that was recently renovated and boasts an impressive outdoor pool. The room rate is currently $199 a night, which is higher than average for the hotel
The group insists no taxpayer money has been spent on the $100,000 to charter two private jets to get from Austin to D.C. They are pictured on Monday, flying to Washington
The bills were passed by the state Senate on Tuesday.
The lawmakers say they are prepared to stay in D.C. until the end of the 30-day special session called by Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, which still has 26 days remaining.
Currently, the group is staying at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Northwest Washington, D.C., where rooms are going for $199 a night - higher than average for the older property.
The hotel was built in 1962 close to D.C.'s Thomas Circle, was recently renovated and boasts a large outdoor pool.
Trey Martinez Fischer, one of the runaway Democratic representatives, said Tuesday that Texas Democrats, through campaign funds and other private fundraising efforts, are fully paying for the trip.
The group insists no taxpayer money has been spent on the $100,000 to charter two private jets to get from Austin to D.C. or the several thousand dollars per night to stay at the hotel.
Also on Tuesday, several of the lawmakers said they are not worried about threats that they will be arrested once stepping foot back in Texas.
On Wednesday, Cruz repeated that threat on Fox News Channel.
'And if these House Democrats continue pulling this stunt, they're going to be arrested,' Cruz said.
'And the Texas Constitution gives ample authority to arrest legislators who are trying to shut down the operation of government and to forcibly make them present on the House floor so that the wheels of government can continue to turn.'
'So when their stunt is over, the legislature will do its job,' the Texas Republican added.
Cruz also predicted that the Democrats would 'fail.'
'Look, these are partisan Democrats playing a political stunt and they're desperate for media attention. They're getting it. The Biden administration wants to play politics, and so they're doing that,' he said. 'But this is going to fail. They're going to eventually have to come home.'
'And when they come home, the governor has rightly said he will continue to call special sessions until Texas passes voter integrity law to protect the integrity of elections,' Cruz said.
The group met with one of Cruz's Democratic colleagues, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, on Capitol Hill Wednesday – and some towed their children along with them.
At least two Texas House members brought their children with them when fleeing Austin to the nation's capital this week.
A young girl joined her mother as the group was pictured speaking with Warren on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon.
At one point she was being held by her mother, and then was pictured sitting on the floor and looking at a picture book with a puppy on the cover.
While none of the lawmakers were wearing face coverings, the young girl was. The FDA has not approved emergency use for the vaccine for children under 12-years-old.
On Tuesday morning, while leaving Washington Plaza Hotel for a press conference on Capitol Hill, a representative was seen walking hand-in-hand with her masked-up grade school-age son.
It is unclear how many children came along for the ride with their lawmaker parents or if they will also remain in Washington for that full time.
Texas Democratic lawmakers met with Senator Elizabeth Warren on Capitol Hill on Wednesday
One lawmaker brought to the Capitol her young daughter, who at one point sat on the ground to look at a picture book with a puppy on the cover
Progressive Senator Warren speaks to Texas state representatives in Washington D.C. – one woman can be seen holding her daughter during the visit
On Tuesday night, Abbott slammed President Joe Biden for 'spreading disinformation' with a speech he delivered earlier that day in Philadelphia saying GOP voting bills are 'the most significant threat to democracy since the Civil War.'
'Biden has a pattern of spreading misinformation & he's at it again today,' Abbott said in a tweet.
'The [Texas Legislature] is passing a law that EXPANDS early voting hours & prevents mail-in ballot fraud. Texas is making it EASIER to vote & harder to cheat,' he added.
The Texas Senate bill would allow voting from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. – an increase of three hours on weekdays and 10 hours on Sundays – and would lower the population threshold from 100,000 to 30,000 for counties to open the polling booths for at least 12 hours in the week before Election Day.
Mail voters would also be asked to verify their identities with a state ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number in a bid to get rid of signature verification that accounts for a higher number of rejected ballots.
'Once again, President Biden ignores the facts,' Abbott said in a video attached to his Tuesday evening tweet. 'The fact is that Texas is passing a law that expands—not reduces—the hours of early voting.
Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott late on Tuesday slammed President Biden for 'spreading disinformation' with his speech saying GOP voting bills are 'the most significant threat to democracy since the Civil War'
'That's more than many states, including President Biden's home state of Delaware, which has zero hours of early voting,' Abbott added.
Biden has upped his rhetoric claiming the allegedly 'restrictive' voting bills, which are being proposed and passed across the country, are an 'un-American' throwback to Jim Crow laws.
The White House and Capitol Hill Democrats are using the latest stunt from Texas Democrats to push for the expansion of voting rights and access in the passage of H.R. 1, the For the People Act.
Democrats argue the law would increase access and expand the right to vote for minority and poor communities, while Republicans argue it opens the way for a slew of fraud – especially since the bill does include requiring identification in the form of government-issued ID to cast a ballot.
The Texas state Senate approved their version of the election reform bill on Tuesday, but the legislation has been stalled because the House Democrats broke the quorum of having two-thirds of lawmakers present by fleeing.
Texas Democrats believe the two bills passing through the state legislature would make it harder to vote and fled the state in two private jets and headed to Washington D.C. to block Republicans getting it through
The House voted on Tuesday that the runaways would be arrested on their return to the state, but the group has vowed to stay in Washington, D.C. until the 30-day session is up.
At best, the Democrats fleeing to the nation's capital from Austin on two private jets chartered at $100,000 on Monday is just a delay tactic or PR stunt. After the special session is up on August 7, Abbott can just call another one.
Biden on Tuesday launched an assault on attempts by Republican-controlled states to change voting rights laws, blasting them as a 'threat to democracy' and vowing to protect 'free and fair elections.'
'This is election subversion. It is the most dangerous threat to voting in the integrity of free and fair elections in our history,' he said, speaking at the historic National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
Republicans say their new laws protect election security and argue the federal government shouldn't be involved in a state issue. Democrats claim the state laws will make it harder to vote, particularly for minority groups, which tend to vote Democratic.
In a 25-minute speech that traced the history of the voting rights movement, Biden veered between attacks on Donald Trump and Republicans who are undermining confidence in American elections and defending his own administration's work on the voting rights.
His speech came as faces criticism from Democrats, including some of his faithful supporters, that he has not done enough on the issue amid fears his party could lose control of the House and Senate in next year's midterm election.
Biden called on Congress to pass Democrats' two key voting rights legislation, which are being held up by GOP lawmakers. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has called them 'a craven political calculation' that shows 'disdain for the American people.'
But, in his remarks, Biden offered few solid ideas on how to counter the new round of state laws. He did not mention the Senate filibuster, which many of his Democratic allies want to be removed as an obstacle to federal voting rights legislation.
'I'm not filibustering now,' Biden said after his speech, when reporters asked him about the issue.
Biden spoke at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, just steps from Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed
President Biden spoke with supporters after his speech
Biden targeted Trump in his speech even as he did not mention his predecessor by name. But he made it clear who he was referring to as he denounced the 'big lie' along with the 'bullies and merchants of fear and peddlers of lies.'
'The Big Lie is just that - a big lie,' he said, referring to Trump's false claim that he won the 2020 election. Trump called Biden's victory 'the big lie' and falsely claimed to be the victim of voting fraud.
The crowd - nearly 300 people made up of local elected officials, national and local civil rights leaders, voting rights advocates, labor leaders and other officials - burst into applause.
'In America, if you lose, you accept the results, you follow the constitution,' Biden said, referring to Trump's continual attempts to cast doubt on the 2020 results.
'You try again. You don't call facts fake, and then try to bring down the American experiment just because you're unhappy. That's not statesmanship. That's selfishness,' he added.
He also blasted a litany of events that he said hurt Americans' right to vote, including poll taxes, literacy tests, terrorizing voters in the 1950s and 60s, and even a recent Supreme Court decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act.
Biden made the case that the right to vote is the most essential, fundamental one to America's democracy.
'Perhaps the most important of those things, the most fundamental of those things, is the right to vote freely, the right to vote fairly, the right to have your vote counted,' he said.
'It's up to all of us to protect that right. This is a test of our time,' he declared.
'Time and again we've had further threats to the right to vote, free and fair elections, and each time we found a way to overcome,' he said.
He blasted the spate of state laws that have been passed restricting voting rights. As of June 21, 17 states enacted 28 new laws that restrict access to right to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
'Republican members of the state legislatures are trying to pass 21st century Jim Crow laws,' the president said in remarks at the National Constitution Center.
'They want to make it so hard and inconvenient they hope people don't vote at all. That's what this is about,' he noted.
'Have you no shame?,' he asked those Republican state legislatures.
He described the laws as 'odious' and 'vicious.' He praised civil rights groups that are challenging them in courts.
And he called the state laws the most significant threat to democracy since the Civil War, adding that not even the Confederate Army breached the U.S. Capitol building, unlike the MAGA supporters on January 6th, who attempted to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election.
'We're facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. Confederate back then never breached the Capital as insurrectionists did on January 6th. I'm saying not this to alarm but because you should alarmed,' he said.
President Joe Biden greets people as he arrives to deliver his speech on voting rights
There were nearly 300 people in attendance and the audience as made up of local elected officials, national and local civil rights leaders, voting rights advocates, labor leaders and other officials
President Joe Biden talks with the Rev. Al Sharpton after his speech
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