An attempt to remove Lubbock Republican Rep. Dustin Burrows as Texas House speaker overwhelmingly failed in a vote on the chamber floor on Wednesday morning.
Midlothian Republican Rep. Brian Harrison, one of the most extreme conservatives in Texas elective office, brought Resolution 823 to the floor soon after Burrows called the chamber to order on Wednesday morning.
In urging the rest of the body to back his proposal, Harrison called Burrows’s leadership as speaker “lawless, corrupt” and “unethical.”
When Burrows was elected speaker in January with support from Democrats, he “[betrayed] the voters of Texas when he cut a deal with the minority party to effectively give the minority party control of this chamber,” Harrison said.
Burrows beat out Mansfield Republican David Cook in that contest, who with the backing of the state GOP had pledged to end the yearslong tradition of appointing members of the minority party to chair some committees.
After winning the speakership, Burrows eventually announced rules for the chamber that would appoint Republicans, the majority party, as chairs of all House committees, while also stipulating that all committee vice chairs be held by Democrats. A strong majority of the House, including a majority of Republicans, voted to adopt that set of rules in January. Harrison voted against that proposal.
Doubling down on that assertion, Harrison later said Burrows “has chosen to take this body in a hard left direction where we are growing government … [and] increasing spending.”
Both the House and Senate budget proposals would spend the state’s surplus money on property tax cuts for homeowners and establishing a voucher program to use public money for private school tuition, top priorities of staunchly conservative Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
Both budgets also set aside money to increase teacher pay and raise public school funding, another Abbott priority, but school districts and Democrats have been firmly dissatisfied with the size of that increase, which would not be nearly enough to keep school funding flat after inflation from the last time it was set in 2019.
And last session, Burrows and Cook had almost identically conservative voting records, according to a Rice University analysis.
Still, Harrison alleged, under Burrows, “members, especially conservative members of this body, [have] been routinely silenced.”
He pointed out that the Legislature already is more than three-fifths of the way through the session, and the House has not yet passed any of Gov. Greg Abbott’s legislative priorities.
The House Public Education Committee last week approved a pair of bills that would boost teacher pay and school funding and establish a private school voucher program, sending them to the House floor for a vote of the full body.
After Harrison concluded his remarks, Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, moved to table Harrison’s resolution indefinitely. That motion passed on a vote of 141-2, with five members present not voting and two members absent.
