The Speaker of the Texas House has called on the ‘runaway’ Democrats to return their $221-a-day allowances after they fled the state on Monday to thwart the passing of election bills.
Dade Phelan said they should be stripped of the per diem until they returned to their jobs.
‘While these Texas Democrats collect taxpayer money as they ride on private jets to meet with the Washington elite, those who remain in the chamber await their return to begin work on providing our retired teachers a 13th check, protecting our foster kids, and providing taxpayer relief,’ Phelan said in a statement.
Dade Phelan, the Speaker of the House in Texas, has demanded that the Democrats who fled his state to avoid voting on a bill be stripped of their $221-a-day allowance
It took at least 51 House Democrats walking out for them to break quorum.
According to the Texas Tribune, 58 representatives and nine senators are now in Washington, meaning there are now 67 in total, receiving $14,807 per day.
If each of them have been there since Monday, the total is now $44,421.
Chris Turner, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, then said he expects his colleagues will decline receiving those payments.
‘Those per diems are paid out at the end of the month, so that would be several weeks away,’ Turner said on Wednesday.
‘I anticipate members are going to decline them.’
The Texas Ethics Commission states: ‘The Texas Supreme Court has interpreted this constitutional per diem as being a compensation payment to a legislator in consideration for all services rendered throughout his or her term.
‘Accordingly, legislators are entitled to a per diem for each day of session, regardless of how many days were actually attended. Similarly, legislators are not required to provide evidence of actual expenditures to receive this per diem.’
Phelan is pictured on Wednesday in the half-empty chamber in Austin, Texas
Turner reiterated the Democrats’ insistence that taxpayer money was not being spent on the trip, saying it was being paid for by fundraising.
He spoke after Texas Senator Ted Cruz tore into Vice President Kamala Harris for comparing the runaway Texas Democrats to Selma marchers and other civil rights leaders.
‘It’s actually pretty ridiculous,’ he said on Fox News Channel Wednesday.
‘Last I checked, the heroic civil rights protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge were not in a private chartered jet, they didn’t have a case of Miller Lite next to them.’
Sen. Ted Cruz appeared on Fox News Channel Wednesday and said it was ‘ridiculous’ for Vice President Kamala Harris to compare the runaway Texas Democrats to civil rights leaders
Vice President Kamala Harris compared the runaway Texas Democrats to civil rights leaders, something that was mocked Wednesday by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz
Texas Democrats are still receiving a $221 per diem despite fleeing to Washington. They were photographed Tuesday morning in front of the Washington Plaza Hotel, an older property that was recently renovated and boast a large, outdoor swimming pool
The Texas Democrats are staying at the Washington Plaza Hotel, an older property that was recently renovated and boasts an impressive outdoor pool. The room rate is currently $199 a night, which is higher than average for the hotel
The group insists no taxpayer money has been spent on the $100,000 to charter two private jets to get from Austin to D.C. They are pictured on Monday, flying to Washington
The bills were passed by the state Senate on Tuesday.
The lawmakers say they are prepared to stay in D.C. until the end of the 30-day special session called by Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, which still has 26 days remaining.
Currently, the group is staying at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Northwest Washington, D.C., where rooms are going for $199 a night – higher than average for the older property.
The hotel was built in 1962 close to D.C.’s Thomas Circle, was recently renovated and boasts a large outdoor pool.
Trey Martinez Fischer, one of the runaway Democratic representatives, said Tuesday that Texas Democrats, through campaign funds and other private fundraising efforts, are fully paying for the trip.
The group insists no taxpayer money has been spent on the $100,000 to charter two private jets to get from Austin to D.C. or the several thousand dollars per night to stay at the hotel.
Also on Tuesday, several of the lawmakers said they are not worried about threats that they will be arrested once stepping foot back in Texas.
On Wednesday, Cruz repeated that threat on Fox News Channel.
‘And if these House Democrats continue pulling this stunt, they’re going to be arrested,’ Cruz said.
‘And the Texas Constitution gives ample authority to arrest legislators who are trying to shut down the operation of government and to forcibly make them present on the House floor so that the wheels of government can continue to turn.’
‘So when their stunt is over, the legislature will do its job,’ the Texas Republican added.
Cruz also predicted that the Democrats would ‘fail.’
‘Look, these are partisan Democrats playing a political stunt and they’re desperate for media attention. They’re getting it. The Biden administration wants to play politics, and so they’re doing that,’ he said. ‘But this is going to fail. They’re going to eventually have to come home.’
‘And when they come home, the governor has rightly said he will continue to call special sessions until Texas passes voter integrity law to protect the integrity of elections,’ Cruz said.
The group met with one of Cruz’s Democratic colleagues, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, on Capitol Hill Wednesday – and some towed their children along with them.
At least two Texas House members brought their children with them when fleeing Austin to the nation’s capital this week.
A young girl joined her mother as the group was pictured speaking with Warren on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon.
At one point she was being held by her mother, and then was pictured sitting on the floor and looking at a picture book with a puppy on the cover.
While none of the lawmakers were wearing face coverings, the young girl was. The FDA has not approved emergency use for the vaccine for children under 12-years-old.
On Tuesday morning, while leaving Washington Plaza Hotel for a press conference on Capitol Hill, a representative was seen walking hand-in-hand with her masked-up grade school-age son.
It is unclear how many children came along for the ride with their lawmaker parents or if they will also remain in Washington for that full time.
Texas Democratic lawmakers met with Senator Elizabeth Warren on Capitol Hill on Wednesday
One lawmaker brought to the Capitol her young daughter, who at one point sat on the ground to look at a picture book with a puppy on the cover
Progressive Senator Warren speaks to Texas state representatives in Washington D.C. – one woman can be seen holding her daughter during the visit
On Tuesday night, Abbott slammed President Joe Biden for ‘spreading disinformation’ with a speech he delivered earlier that day in Philadelphia saying GOP voting bills are ‘the most significant threat to democracy since the Civil War.’
‘Biden has a pattern of spreading misinformation & he’s at it again today,’ Abbott said in a tweet.
‘The [Texas Legislature] is passing a law that EXPANDS early voting hours & prevents mail-in ballot fraud. Texas is making it EASIER to vote & harder to cheat,’ he added.
The Texas Senate bill would allow voting from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. – an increase of three hours on weekdays and 10 hours on Sundays – and would lower the population threshold from 100,000 to 30,000 for counties to open the polling booths for at least 12 hours in the week before Election Day.
Mail voters would also be asked to verify their identities with a state ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number in a bid to get rid of signature verification that accounts for a higher number of rejected ballots.
‘Once again, President Biden ignores the facts,’ Abbott said in a video attached to his Tuesday evening tweet. ‘The fact is that Texas is passing a law that expands—not reduces—the hours of early voting.
Texas’ Republican Governor Greg Abbott late on Tuesday slammed President Biden for ‘spreading disinformation’ with his speech saying GOP voting bills are ‘the most significant threat to democracy since the Civil War’
‘That’s more than many states, including President Biden’s home state of Delaware, which has zero hours of early voting,’ Abbott added.
Biden has upped his rhetoric claiming the allegedly ‘restrictive’ voting bills, which are being proposed and passed across the country, are an ‘un-American’ throwback to Jim Crow laws.
The White House and Capitol Hill Democrats are using the latest stunt from Texas Democrats to push for the expansion of voting rights and access in the passage of H.R. 1, the For the People Act.
Democrats argue the law would increase access and expand the right to vote for minority and poor communities, while Republicans argue it opens the way for a slew of fraud – especially since the bill does include requiring identification in the form of government-issued ID to cast a ballot.
The Texas state Senate approved their version of the election reform bill on Tuesday, but the legislation has been stalled because the House Democrats broke the quorum of having two-thirds of lawmakers present by fleeing.
Texas Democrats believe the two bills passing through the state legislature would make it harder to vote and fled the state in two private jets and headed to Washington D.C. to block Republicans getting it through
The House voted on Tuesday that the runaways would be arrested on their return to the state, but the group has vowed to stay in Washington, D.C. until the 30-day session is up.
At best, the Democrats fleeing to the nation’s capital from Austin on two private jets chartered at $100,000 on Monday is just a delay tactic or PR stunt. After the special session is up on August 7, Abbott can just call another one.
Biden on Tuesday launched an assault on attempts by Republican-controlled states to change voting rights laws, blasting them as a ‘threat to democracy’ and vowing to protect ‘free and fair elections.’
‘This is election subversion. It is the most dangerous threat to voting in the integrity of free and fair elections in our history,’ he said, speaking at the historic National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
Republicans say their new laws protect election security and argue the federal government shouldn’t be involved in a state issue. Democrats claim the state laws will make it harder to vote, particularly for minority groups, which tend to vote Democratic.
In a 25-minute speech that traced the history of the voting rights movement, Biden veered between attacks on Donald Trump and Republicans who are undermining confidence in American elections and defending his own administration’s work on the voting rights.
His speech came as faces criticism from Democrats, including some of his faithful supporters, that he has not done enough on the issue amid fears his party could lose control of the House and Senate in next year’s midterm election.
Biden called on Congress to pass Democrats’ two key voting rights legislation, which are being held up by GOP lawmakers. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has called them ‘a craven political calculation’ that shows ‘disdain for the American people.’
But, in his remarks, Biden offered few solid ideas on how to counter the new round of state laws. He did not mention the Senate filibuster, which many of his Democratic allies want to be removed as an obstacle to federal voting rights legislation.
‘I’m not filibustering now,’ Biden said after his speech, when reporters asked him about the issue.
Biden spoke at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, just steps from Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed
President Biden spoke with supporters after his speech
Biden targeted Trump in his speech even as he did not mention his predecessor by name. But he made it clear who he was referring to as he denounced the ‘big lie’ along with the ‘bullies and merchants of fear and peddlers of lies.’
‘The Big Lie is just that – a big lie,’ he said, referring to Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 election. Trump called Biden’s victory ‘the big lie’ and falsely claimed to be the victim of voting fraud.
The crowd – nearly 300 people made up of local elected officials, national and local civil rights leaders, voting rights advocates, labor leaders and other officials – burst into applause.
‘In America, if you lose, you accept the results, you follow the constitution,’ Biden said, referring to Trump’s continual attempts to cast doubt on the 2020 results.
‘You try again. You don’t call facts fake, and then try to bring down the American experiment just because you’re unhappy. That’s not statesmanship. That’s selfishness,’ he added.
He also blasted a litany of events that he said hurt Americans’ right to vote, including poll taxes, literacy tests, terrorizing voters in the 1950s and 60s, and even a recent Supreme Court decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act.
Biden made the case that the right to vote is the most essential, fundamental one to America’s democracy.
‘Perhaps the most important of those things, the most fundamental of those things, is the right to vote freely, the right to vote fairly, the right to have your vote counted,’ he said.
‘It’s up to all of us to protect that right. This is a test of our time,’ he declared.
‘Time and again we’ve had further threats to the right to vote, free and fair elections, and each time we found a way to overcome,’ he said.
He blasted the spate of state laws that have been passed restricting voting rights. As of June 21, 17 states enacted 28 new laws that restrict access to right to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
‘Republican members of the state legislatures are trying to pass 21st century Jim Crow laws,’ the president said in remarks at the National Constitution Center.
‘They want to make it so hard and inconvenient they hope people don’t vote at all. That’s what this is about,’ he noted.
‘Have you no shame?,’ he asked those Republican state legislatures.
He described the laws as ‘odious’ and ‘vicious.’ He praised civil rights groups that are challenging them in courts.
And he called the state laws the most significant threat to democracy since the Civil War, adding that not even the Confederate Army breached the U.S. Capitol building, unlike the MAGA supporters on January 6th, who attempted to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election.
‘We’re facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. Confederate back then never breached the Capital as insurrectionists did on January 6th. I’m saying not this to alarm but because you should alarmed,’ he said.
President Joe Biden greets people as he arrives to deliver his speech on voting rights
There were nearly 300 people in attendance and the audience as made up of local elected officials, national and local civil rights leaders, voting rights advocates, labor leaders and other officials
President Joe Biden talks with the Rev. Al Sharpton after his speech
Biden’s speech was intended as a call to arms as Democrats worry not enough is being done to counter the new state voting laws ahead of the midterm election.
Democrats fear the new spate of voting rights laws will harm them at the voting booth in the 2022 contest, costing them control of the House and Senate.
When it comes to voting rights, Biden is fighting a two-prong battle: on the state level where Republican-controlled legislatures are passing restrictive measures and on a national level, where he doesn’t have the numbers in the Senate to pass federal legislation.
Many of those states passed the measures after Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, when former President Donald Trump falsely claimed he won and was the victim of voter fraud.
Trump slammed Biden’s remarks, mocking Biden for saying in his speech that 150 million people voted. Nearly 158.4 million Americans cast ballots in 2020 with 81 million for Biden, 74 million for Trump and the rest for third-party contenders.
‘Biden just said 150 people voted in the 2020 Presidential Election (Scam!). On the assumption that he meant 150 million people, and based on the fact that I got 75 million+++, that would mean that Biden got 75 million votes, which is 6 million votes less than what they said they got. So what is that all about? Are they already conceding 6 million votes?,’ Trump said in a statement late Tuesday.
And Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who is retiring, defending the new state voting laws: ‘Suggesting that election integrity measures such as voter ID and prohibitions on ballot harvesting are reminiscent of Jim Crow is false, offensive, and trivializes a dark period of actual systemic racism in parts of America. President Biden knows that the state laws he has attacked are in many cases less restrictive than that of his own home state of Delaware.’
The location of Biden’s speech on Tuesday has deep symbolic meaning. The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were both signed at Independence Hall, just steps away from the National Constitution Center.
The center is also the location of where Barack Obama gave his famous ‘A More Perfect Union’ speech during his 2008 campaign, where he tackled the issue of race, America and a ‘more perfect union.’
On voting rights, Biden is balancing his struggle with the states with his own limitations in passing legislation on a national level.
His administration is using other tools at its disposal. The Justice Department is suing Georgia for its new voting rights law, which critics say makes it harder for black people to vote. Attorney General Merrick Garland has hinted there may be more action to come.
House Democrats, meanwhile, passed a sweeping voting rights bill in June but it failed in the 50-50 Senate, where all Republicans united to block it from moving forward.
The massive election overhaul bill was aimed at protecting and expanding voting rights and reforming campaign finance laws.
That June failure increased focus on the Senate filibuster, which requires any legislation to have 60 votes in order to move forward. If left in place, odds of the Democrats’ two voting rights measures – For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act – becoming law are slim.
Many Democrats, including some Biden allies, have expressed frustration with the lack of White House push to reform the filibuster.
Some Biden supporters point out he was elected with broad support from black voters, who are at most risk from the new state voting restrictions.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a longtime Biden ally, urged this week that the filibuster be modified for voting rights legislation.
Clyburn told Politico if the Democrats’ two voting laws don’t pass Congress: ‘Democrats can kiss the majority goodbye.’
Biden met with civil rights activists at the White House last week but his focus has been on fighting the COVID pandemic, increasing the vaccination rate and passing a massive infrastructure bill.
Donald Trump continues to push the false claim he won the election and sow seeds of doubt about election integrity in the United States
Texas Democratic State House members hold a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Trump blasted Biden’s Philadelphia trip in a bizarrely worded statement on Tuesday where he focused on an attempt by a lone Republican state lawmaker in Pennsylvania who is trying to audit the 2020 election.
‘Philadelphia was a cesspool of corruption, which will soon be revealed by the audit. Why are they so concerned that a President, who never goes anywhere, would hop onto beautiful Air Force One and head to Philadelphia if it were an honest election?,’ Trump said.
Multiple audits in multiple states have confirmed Biden’s election victory and shown no evidence of voter fraud.
While Biden pushing the issue in Philadelphia, the birthplace of democracy, he’ll have help in his public pressure campaign from a group of Texas Democrats, who fled their state on private jets Monday to keep the state legislature from passing new restrictive voting laws.
The group of Texans were on Capitol Hill Tuesday to lobby for national voting legislation.
Meanwhile Republicans in the Texas State House voted 76-4 to arrest the wayward Democrats but, by crossing state lines, they have escaped jurisdiction of Texas law enforcement.
Texas House rules allow the sergeant-at-arms to arrest members who are not present at the Capitol for a vote – and the show of disapproval Tuesday could result in the lawmakers’ arrest when they land back in the Lone Star State.
The Tuesday vote doesn’t hold much weight as long as the Democrats remain in Washington since by crossing state lines they have escaped jurisdiction of Texas law enforcement.
‘If there are any House Sargent at Arms looking for me… I’m definitely in the Texas Capitol building, somewhere,’ one Democratic state representative tweeted in taunting his colleagues back in Texas on Tuesday.
Gene Wu continued: ‘Keep looking. Don’t stop.’
Shortly after, he followed up with another tweet saying: ‘Getting warmer…’
He was slammed by critics on Twitter who claim he is making light of the situation and basking in the attention from the fleeing stunt.
Despite the avoid tactic from Democrats, Governor Abbott can just call another session whenever they set foot back in Texas and make sure they attend by having law enforcement appointed by the Sergeant at Arms bring them to the State House.
Vice President Kamala Harris met with the group of lawmakers on Tuesday evening.
It is not immediately clear if President Joe Biden plans to meet with them, but White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, when asked if he supports their decision: ‘He applauds their courage.’