Perry backs Phelan for Speaker

AUSTIN — Our news partners at KETK report that Texas lawmakers submitted over 1,500 bills as the filing period opened on Tuesday, setting a new record for the most number of bills filed on the first day.

Some staffers even camped out in the hallway behind the Senate chamber to secure their spot in line — more of a symbolic move than a strategic one, as there is no real advantage to filing a bill early. Last year, fewer than 15% of bills filed became law — only 1,169 of the more than 8,000 filed.

“A lot of pent-up demand for legislation… certainly Republicans have been emboldened by the election results here in Texas,” publisher of Quorum Report and veteran Capitol analyst Harvey Kronberg said.

Some of the first bills filed this year targeted border security as Republicans look to bolster their immigration enforcement under a new Trump administration. Some of Tuesday’s bills would restrict undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition, require proof of citizenship to register to vote, and allow Texas to negotiate with Mexico on border security.

Democrats filed bills addressing abortion and voting access, including a bill to create an exception for rape in the abortion ban and to allow electronic and same-day voter registration.

The marquee items, though, are still unclear. State leadership will prioritize school choice – a plan to use public money to subsidize private school tuition – another reduction in property taxes, and new border security efforts. Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to name each of those measures and more as an “emergency item,” allowing lawmakers to work on them earlier than other bills.

One big question at the Capitol is who will be the next House Speaker. Speaker Dade Phelan currently faces a challenge from Mansfield Republican David Cook.

Democrats Ana-Maria Ramos and John Bryant also filed to run for Speaker. Republicans will hold the majority in the House in the next session by an 88 – 62 margin, realistically making the Speaker vote a contest between Cook and Phelan.

Former Governor Rick Perry is working to help Phelan retain the Speaker’s gavel. Ryan Chandler spoke with Perry about how he sees the race and what he believes is at stake for the state.

Chandler: How confident are you that Speaker Phelan will remain Speaker Phelan?

Perry: Oh, he’s got the votes to be elected speaker, I’m not concerned about that. What I’m trying to help these members focus on is, how do we move forward in this state? They had a great session last session. Obviously, one of the issues that’s out in front of us is that of our public schools and school choice. I’m a big proponent of school choice, have been for 20 plus years, and I will suggest to you that these education savings accounts that’s going to go forward, that’s going to pass this session of the legislature. And, you know, just helping the members understand, here’s the focus we need to have.

There’s a Nuclear Caucus this session of the legislature. We’ve already talked about small modular reactors. Members of the Legislature are understanding that is important. Even in a state that has this great amount of fossil fuels available to us, we need to have an all of the above energy policy. I supported wind energy, I supported solar energy. I think the federal government’s gone a little over the top on all of the subsidies that they give. Let the market figure this out, but all of those sources of energy are really important for a state growing as much as Texas is we’re going to need it all if we’re going to be luring artificial intelligence data centers in here, we’re going to need a lot of power. So let’s figure out how to make it available.

Chandler: You say Speaker Phelan has the votes, a lot of people are asking, where and who are those votes? We know Representative (David) Cook has put out a list of 48 Republicans who’ve pledged their support to him. How does that stack up with your internal math? Will you be publishing a list of support soon?

Perry: I will suggest we’ll just wait until the votes happen and and see who was right. I’m not sure I could pick Representative Cook out of a lineup. I’m sure he’s a fine young man, and wish him well, but he’s not going to be the speaker when the gavel comes down.

Chandler: Does the pathway for Speaker Phelan — I would assume it would run through keeping Democratic support and then supplementing with Republicans. Does that make sense?

Perry: Yeah, it makes total sense. I’ve been dealing with the legislative process for 40 years now. I came in January of 1985 and there have always been Democrats as chairs when we had Republican speakers, I suggest that will continue to. We are a diverse state, and I think you sit down and you work with Democrats. I’m not going to change my philosophy. I’m going to keep my philosophy and my beliefs, but I’m going to work with you.

I’ll give you a great example. Representative, Senfronia Thompson. She is as different as I am as you can be. She’s a female African American, left-leaning trial lawyer from Houston, Texas. I’m a country boy, Anglo male and Republican. But we found things that we could work on together. And Representative Thompson, she and I don’t agree on a lot of philosophical things in the grand scheme of things, but we found places we could work together. And this was on child sexual trafficking the last session that I was governor in 2013.

My point is this: saying to the Democrats, ‘we don’t like you and you’re banned to the hinterland’ is bad public policy, and quite frankly, it’s just a bad look. We’re the Republican Party. We’re the majority party, but we need to be open to other people’s ideas. Talk to us. You’re not gonna run the show. You are not going to come and and brow beat us into doing things we don’t want to do, but we’ll work with you. We’re all Texans, and I think that’s a really important message

Speaker Phelan has basically said, ‘Look, we’re going to work with you.’ You’re part of this. We’re going to need your votes for constitutional amendments that require 100 votes, and there’s not 100 Republicans. So you’re going to have to work with the Democrats, find out ways to do it in a thoughtful way. This idea of Texas turning into Washington, D.C. and we won’t even talk to each other because you have the wrong initial behind your name. I think that’s really bad long term policy, and I know it’s bad short-term policy .So I think Speaker Phelan properly has the right outlook. He’s going to be the speaker. And we need to come together and, frankly, quit all of this fighting that’s going on. And, what’s best for Texas? That ought to be the question to everything that’s out.”

Republicans backing Cook are skeptical of Perry’s claim that Phelan has the votes to be Speaker. Newly elected Rep. Mitch Little reacted to the interview on social media, calling on Phelan to name his supporters.

“Post the names,” Little wrote.

Many elected Republicans oppose the traditional practice of allowing members from the minority party to chair committees, positions of influence. Phelan has continued that tradition.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick does not allow Democrats to chair Senate committees. He has been a vocal critic of Phelan and his approach to running the lower chambers.

“People ask me all the time about the difference between the Texas House and the Texas Senate. The difference is that the Speaker allows Democrats to control him on many important conservative issues,” Patrick posted earlier this week on X. “He kills a lot of conservative legislation by ensuring it never reaches the floor for a vote. And if it does get to the floor, he makes sure it’s watered down, killed on a point of order, or voted down—like he did with school choice,” Patrick wrote.