As the 1 p.m. deadline for a quorum call came and went, Texas Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows announced a series of actions to hit House Democrats in their pocketbooks.
Speaker Burrows announced 96 members of the Texas House clocked in for duty Friday at 1 p.m. The roll call board showed 95 members present. One other member was on the House floor but did not activate his light. This means eight Democrats were present. The House rules require 100 members to be present to conduct business.
Burrows declared a series of actions designed to hit the quorum-busting Democrats financially.
First, Burrows stated that members who were absent without an excuse to break quorum would no longer receive their paychecks or per diem payments via electronic deposit. Instead, the speaker said, the members will have to pick up their checks in person at the Capitol.
He also announced the withholding of 30 percent of the absent member’s monthly operating budgets. These funds “will be reserved and made unavailable for expenditure,” he stated.
Furthermore, members must be present in person to make specific requests. These include requests for travel reimbursement, changes to staff salaries, and approval of newsletters.
The speaker ordered all members to be present on Monday and be ready to conduct the business of the House.
The speaker, in conjunction with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, took additional actions to compel the presence of the jet-setting Democrats who fled to Illinois, California, and other states.
“Yesterday, Attorney General Ken Paxton and I took action to domesticate the civil arrest warrants in the state of Illinois seeking to make them enforceable beyond Texas state lines. I expect suits in other states will be forthcoming,” the speaker announced during the brief pro forma session of the Legislature.
He added that the Sergeant of Arms of the Illinois House of Representatives for their help in returning absent members of the Texas House. He said that additional suits will be filed in other states where the Democrats are hiding out.
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Breitbart Texas reported that the Texas Supreme Court set a 5 p.m. CDT deadline for Democrat Caucus Chairman Gene Wu to respond to an Emergency Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto filed by Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday. The suit filed by the governor seeks to vacate the seats of the quorum-breaking Democrat House members.
“Today I took emergency action to begin the removal from office of derelict Democrat Texas House members who refuse to show up for the special session,” Governor Abbott (R) wrote in a post on Tuesday. The governor filed the suit directly with the Texas Supreme Court to quickly “make clear the authority I have to bring the lawsuit (for removal of legislators from their offices).”
On Sunday, Abbott ordered the House Democrats who fled the state to break quorum to return to work or he would take action to vacate their legislative seats and appoint replacements, Breitbart Texas reported.
“This truancy ends now,” Governor Abbott said in a Sunday night statement. “The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025.” The governor said he will invoke “Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the absent Democrats from their elected office.”
The governor stated:
In that Opinion, the Attorney General considered “whether Texas law allows for a determination that a legislator has vacated office” if they intentionally break quorum. The Attorney General concluded that “whether a specific legislator abandoned his or her office such that a vacancy occurred will be a fact question for a court.”
Sunday afternoon, Texas House Democrats fled the state to Illinois to stop the State Legislature from moving forward on plans to redistrict Texas Congressional Districts, Breitbart News’ Elizabeth Weibel reported. Democrat Caucus Chair Gene Wu (D-Houston) said the governor is “using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal.”
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran and serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.
