Gov. Greg Abbott has made good on his threat to withhold legislative funding in response to the second Democratic walkout on election security legislation.
"Funding should not be provided for those who quit their job early, leaving their state with unfinished business and exposing taxpayers to higher costs for an additional legislative session," Abbott said in a statement.
House Democratic Caucus Chair Chris Turner of Grand Prairie called the governor's action an "abuse of power."
State Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo) said that Abbott doesn't deserve to have line-item veto authority after slashing lawmakers' funding and negatively impacting staffers' jobs.
Seliger believes the measure was done out of Abbott’s dissatisfaction that he couldn’t pass his voting reform after the Senate Democrats fled the state in an effort to stall the bill that anchored the Special Session the governor had called.
"Out of frustration, the governor vetoed all funding for the Legislative Branch because Democrats broke quorum. But, vetoing this funding doesn't punish legislators who left. It punishes regular hard-working folks who have nothing to do with voting for or against bills," Seliger said.
Seliger filed a bill in the Special Legislative Session designed at removing the governor’s line-item veto power that is largely symbolic because the Texas Legislature can’t pass any laws with the Democrats who fled the state not amongst the rank and file.
“We now have less than four weeks before the veto eliminates pay for Capitol post office staff, researchers, caseworkers in district offices, those responsible for answering open record requests, etc.,” Siegler tweeted.
While Abbott may be bothered that he can’t pass election reform, his action on withholding funding has already been reversed in a meeting that took only 14 minutes.
The Texas House Appropriations Committee unanimously approved a bill to restore legislative funding.