Greg Abbott Misses Deadline on His Top Priority

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has missed another deadline on his top legislative priority, putting his school voucher bill in limbo for the third time this year.

The inaction over Abbott’s top priorities stems from a bitter intraparty feud between House Speaker Dade Phelan and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who began the year fighting over the state’s property taxes and the House impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Last week, Patrick blasted his rival on social media, writing, “Speaker Dade Phelan and the Texas House have just wasted another special session with no action on the legislative priorities of the governor, the Senate, and the majority of Texas voters.”

The state Legislature’s third special session ended on Tuesday morning without a deal on the private school vouchers that Abbott called lawmakers back to work to pass. Phelan adjourned the chamber after telling his colleagues he expects the governor to call them all back that evening for a fourth special session.

The program, which would give parents educational tax dollars to send their children to private or religious schools instead of public school, has faced opposition from a united Democratic coalition and two dozen Republicans who represent rural areas. Critics of the education savings account proposal argue that it would take away money from Texas’ public school systems, which are often a lifeline for rural communities.

Newsweek reached out to Abbott’s office via email for comment and to Phelan via phone for comment.

The governor’s desperate attempts to get the bill passed signal that it “may be the most difficult piece of legislation in the history of the state of Texas,” Phelan told the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday. Texas lawmakers have never met for more than three special sessions in a single year in the Legislature’s 176-year history.

Even Republicans who support Abbott’s bill are unnerved over how the back-to-back special session will pan out.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in the building who knows where the votes are,” Republican Representative Matt Schaefer, who backs the vouchers, told the Chronicle shortly after the third session concluded.

There’s been no public signaling that Republican holdouts are prepared to change their opinion, even as the House’s lead education policymaker introduced several concessions, including an overall bump to public school funding, and despite Abbott’s claims last week that he struck a deal with Phelan’s negotiating team.

The Senate was able to pass the voucher bill on the sixth day of the special session, but the House never held a hearing on the legislation nor advanced it to a floor vote.

Abbott also failed to get two immigration bills passed during the special session, which included one that empowered police to arrest people who were found unlawfully entering the state from Mexico and another that approved $1.5 billion in state funding for a border wall.