Abbott Sets Special Session to Kick Off
after Lawmakers Cleared Out for Night
Capitol Inside
May 29, 2023
Governor Greg Abbott gave Texas lawmakers a couple of hours off for dinner before summoning them into a special session that he set to get under way on Monday night after lawmakers had already left the Capitol building for the evening.
Abbott scheduled the special session to begin at 9 p.m. and announced it at 9:06 p.m. on Twitter. The Senate had adjourned sine die about 20 minutes before 7 p.m. shortly after the House had called it quits in regular session after 11th hour negotiations on property tax compromise had collapsed without a deal. But Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick warned senators that they'd be coming back and advised them to return to the chamber at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday even though he said that Abbott could set the special session to start tonight.
Abbott said that he planned to call multiple special sessions for the sake of completing the Legislature's work on a slew of issues that ended without resolutions in regular session. But Abbott said that the event that he dubbed Special Session #1 would be limited at the outset to property taxes and border security in the form of a bill to raise the penalties for smuggling migrants into the state.
Abbott didn't mention the task that the Senate will be facing this summer with the Attorney General Ken Paxton impeachment saga that will culminate in a trial on 20 formal charges that the House approved on Saturday and the Senate received formally today. The governor could be close to naming a temporary replacement for Paxton, who's been suspended from his statewide post until he gets a chance to clear his name in the east wing. Patrick said today that the trial could begin in August.
more to come ...
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