Former University of Texas Regent Wallace Hall intends to match the reward offered by the Texas Government Crime Stoppers for information leading to the arrest of State Representatives who are missing from the House Chamber.
The grant will double the organization’s bounty on each missing lawmaker to $5,000.
Government Crime Stoppers is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the lawmakers, which will result in their return to the chamber to vote on SB 7, a bill to change Texas voting laws. Citizens can submit tips through a button on the organization’s website.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled in August that Democrat lawmakers who are absent from the House chamber could be arrested and detained. Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan signed arrest warrants on August 10 for 52 Democratic state representatives who have failed to appear in the House chamber for a special session called by Governor Greg Abbott.
The 30-day session was convened to consider election integrity legislation and other bills. A quorum of at least 100 members must be present for the House to proceed.
Hall told the Austin Journal he intends to match up to 23 reward payments by the crime stopper group, which is the number of missing House members needed to establish a quorum.
“In a functioning Democracy, elected officials cannot escape the will of citizens,” Hall said. “Texas legislators have a history of avoiding their responsibilities and hiding the facts to undermine the will of the people, but it rarely ends well for the legislators.”
Hall has experience with the crime stoppers group, which in 2019 offered rewards for tips relating to a federal college admissions investigation. Hall made his own investigation of abuses at the University of Texas at Austin public while he served as a regent for the University. The Republican-led House responded by forming a special legislative committee to impeach Hall. The effort failed, and the FBI Varsity Blues investigation led to the arrest of numerous parents and officials at universities around the country, including at the University of Texas at Austin.
“Politicians who take money and free dinners from people and then get their kids into universities are engaging in the same quid pro quo arrangements as the guy who got caught taking cash for the same service,” Hall told the Texas Monitor in March 2019. “If a hotline was opened for whistleblowers to turn in cheaters it would be flooded because everybody knows who cheated.”
According to a poll from the Texas Public Policy Foundation that was reported in the Houston Daily, 54% of Texans oppose walkouts by lawmakers that prevent the legislature from operating.
Lawmakers who are arrested can only be brought to the House chamber and will not face criminal charges or fines, according to Crime Stoppers. The website states that tips submitted through the site “that lead directly to the arrest of missing lawmakers” will be eligible for the reward.
The Democrat walkout began in late May to prevent the passage of SB 7, which they claimed would result in voter suppression. Republican leaders claim the bill reforms the state’s voting processes, including provisions to limit early voting hours and require identification for voting-by-mail