Abbott Gives Trump Chance for Input
as Cain Sponsor Role May Be at Risk

Capitol Inside
June 22, 2021

Governor Greg Abbott announced on Tuesday that he's bringing state lawmakers back to Austin for a special session that's set to begin on July 8 with an opening agenda that he said he would reveal at some point when they return.

Abbott has vowed in recent weeks to call a special session for the sake of giving GOP legislators a second shot at passing a controversial measure that restricts voter access in Texas in line with a template that the national party has been peddling in battleground states. Republican leaders and legislators fumbled the election bill throughout the regular session before a monumental collapse on the final weekend of the regular session last month.

The GOP's epic ineptitude on the voting measure has spawned speculation inside the Capital City beltway that House Speaker Dade Phelan may assign the bill to a special committee that he would give him an excuse for replacing Republican State Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park as the chief House sponsor.

Abbott could be waiting to fashion laundry list for the upcoming special session until he has a chance to meet with Donald Trump at a photo op on the border in Texas next week. The special gathering that will give the Legislature a chance to approve its budget for the next two years for the second time in two months in the aftermath of Abbott's veto of Article 10 last week.

Abbott had appeared to be eying a later start date for the summer session until being informed that Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar's office would need two weeks to get the funds for the Legislature's operating expenses flowing again before fiscal year ends on August 31.

Abbott might feel inclined to save the reboot of spending on the legislative branch until lawmakers have approved everything he demands from them in the summer session. Legislators would not be able to undo the defunding veto until Abbott added it officially to the special session call.

Phelan had appointed Cain to chair the Elections Committee after his election to the lower chamber's top leadership post in January. While House Democrats buried the elections legislation with a walkout at the end of the regular session.

But Democrats exposed a conference report on the voting limits in Senate Bill 7 as a product that had been corrupted by a last-minute power grab. Cain has pointed the finger at the Senate conferees for allegedly sneaking nearly two dozen restrictions into the ostensible conference committee compromise without his or his fellow House negotiators knowledge. Cain's counterpart on the bargaining panel - GOP State Senator Bryan Hughes of Mineola - has suggested that the conferees from the lower chamber had been the real culprits in the bill's nose dive.

more to come ...