Legislative Priorities Report for December 4, 2020
Last July, delegates to the State Republican Party of Texas voted on eight Legislative Priorities they want to see passed into law this upcoming legislative session. These eight priorities are:
Election Integrity
Require citizenship verification of each voter, and felony penalties for Election Code violations that threaten election integrity.
Religious Freedom
Restore the rights of individuals, organizations, and businesses, to exercise their sincerely held religious beliefs by prohibiting local ordinances, state laws, or executive orders that violate those rights.
Children and Gender Modification
Abolish the following practices for minors: intervention to prevent natural progression of puberty; administration of opposite sex hormones; and performance of any type of gender reassignment surgery.
Abolition of Abortion
Abolish abortion by ensuring the right to life and equal protection of the laws to all preborn children from the moment of fertilization.
Constitutional Carry
Restore legal Texas firearms owners’ rights to carry them openly or concealed without a permit, while maintaining the option of a permit for reciprocity purposes.
Monument Protection
All monuments or markers in our state shall be protected by law from being removed, defaced, destroyed, or otherwise dishonored. In particular, specific protection shall be given to the Alamo Cenotaph which shall not be removed from its current location off the Alamo Battlefield footprint.
School Choice for All
Empower parents and guardians to choose from public, private, charter, or homeschool options for their children’s education using tax credits or exemptions without government restraint or intrusion.
Ban Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying
Abolish all forms of taxpayer-funded lobbying.
Chairman West, with the vigorous urging of many Texas Republican voters, has also charged us with an additional priority: reigning in executive power. This priority calls on the legislature to curtail the power of the governor to extend the Disaster Act and enable local officials to enact restrictions on individual liberties of Texans. Our citizens — especially our vulnerable populations of children and seniors — are suffering due to isolation, and mask and other unscientific mandates. Small businesses are being destroyed from occupancy and other unconstitutional ordinances. This must stop.
The purpose of the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) is to ensure our elected officials are passing legislation that reflects our principles and Party platform. The Legislative Priorities Committee is responsible for working with our Republican legislators to craft and pass the priorities as designated by our delegates every two years at the state convention. We also inform and equip our Republican voters with actions they can carry out to support the passage of these priorities.
To that end, as Chair of the Legislative Priorities Committee, I will update you weekly on progress. We measure success as passing each one of these priorities, and expect our Republican representatives and senators to rise to the occasion this session to work in concert with the will of the Republican voters who put them in office.
The Democrats have come out of the gate quickly filing a number of bills that are in opposition to our priorities. But Democrats did not win the state of Texas in this past election, Republicans did, so we will seize this opportunity to keep Texas free through fair elections. We will restore our religious liberties and keep our children alive and safe and educated as parents see fit. We will ensure our Second Amendment rights are unhindered, and our monuments intact as they remind us of our history, mistakes included. Finally, we will make sure citizens do not pay lobbyists to work against our interests.
The failure of the last legislative session — to enact the will of the Party that won the State House, Senate, and Governor’s office — must not repeat itself this session. And our Capitol must be open to the people of the State of Texas, as specified in the Texas Constitutions, with no restrictions.
These are challenging times, and truly we are on the verge of losing to those who want socialism and a compliant populace. However, we are Texans, and with God’s grace, we can save Texas. The first thing you can do is call your state representative, state senator, and the governor’s office and ask that they open the Capitol and pass these Legislative Priorities!
For God and Texas,
Jill Glover
SREC, SD 12
Chair, SREC Legislative Priorities Committee
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