Governor and GOP Leaders Could Clash
on Fed Stimulus with House Bill Bypass

Capitol Inside
April 12, 2021

Governor Greg Abbott could be cut out of the decision-making process on how the state will spend a federal infusion of almost $39 billion in coronavirus pandemic stimulus money if a proposal that Texas House leaders are backing became law.

The possibility of a confrontation between the Texas governor and lawmakers on the emergency assistance appeared to be looming on Monday as the House Appropriations Committee voted on Monday for a two-year spending plan that doesn't have the stimulus funding incorporated into it.

The budget-writing panel approved a $251.5 billion spending plan for fiscal 2022 and 2023 on a vote of 26-0. The House committee wrapped the budget that it had been shaping into Senate Bill 1, which cleared the upper chamber on a unanimous vote last week.

The House budget has an overall price tag that is $774 million more than senators voted to spend during the next two years. The House expects to have the spending proposal on the floor for debate later this week.

The final appropriations bill will be hammered out by a conference committee that will be led by a pair of Republicans in State Senator Jane Nelson of Flower Mound and State Rep. Greg Bonnen of Friendswood - the chairs of the budget panels on the east and west sides of the rotunda respectively.

With legislators leaving tens of billions in one-time federal funding on the table for the time being, the big fight could pit GOP leaders against the Republican governor if Abbott wants a say in how the money will be doled out. That seems highly ironic in light of the fact that Democrats who control Congress passed the emergency financial assistance for states at President Joe Biden's urging wihout a single Republican vote.

Abbott presumably would have the power to kill some if not all of the spending from the federal bonus pool with the use of his line-item veto power if the state received the balance of the stimulus cash before the end of the regular session late next month.

The task of dividing the federal stimulus funding up would fall to the Legislative Budget Board if it hasn't been earmarked by the time the regular session adjourns. But spending decisions that the LBB makes through the use of budget execution authority was contingent on the governor's approval.

GOP Speaker Dade Phelan's team appears to have a potential gubernatorial bypass with House Bill 2021. HB 2021 would give the responsibility of earmarking the federal stimulus assistance to the leaders of both chambers and the chairs and vice chairs of the Senate Finance Committee and Appropriations Committee in the west wing.

Bonnen - the older brother of former House Speaker Dennis Bonnen - is sponsoring HB 2021 in his role as the Appropriations Committee chairman. Another one of Phelan's highest-ranking allies - Republican State Rep. Will Metcalf of Conroe - is the co-author on the bill that would create a Board of Administration on Federal Funds.

Abbott could veto HB 2021 and call a special session for the purpose of appropriating the special funds that Texas is receiving courtesy of the Biden White House and Democrats in Congress exclusively.