(The Center Square) – State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Waxahachie, has called on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to hold an emergency legislative session to “restore separation of powers” and limit gubernatorial emergency powers.
The state constitution stipulates that only the governor can call an emergency session.
After a blue tsunami swept through Texas on Election Day with Democrats taking control of all statewide offices, the Texas House and the head of the Texas Senate, Harrison said Republicans still have control of the government and must act.
Newly elected Democrats won’t be sworn into office until mid-January and “we still have total power in Texas and must act like it,” he said of Abbott and the Republican-majority Legislature. They have 10 weeks “to restore separation of powers and limit the emergency powers that Governor-Elect Hinojosa is set to inherit, which would allow her to destroy liberty in Texas by executive fiat,” he said in statement emailed to The Center Square and published on social media.
With a slim Republican majority in the Texas Senate, it will be difficult to get legislation passed. Hinojosa could advance policies through a series of executive orders, and she is expected to rescind many Abbott issued.
Harrison was referring to a 1975-era Disaster Declaration Act, which the Legislature recently amended. Prior to amending it, Abbott cited the law to justify issuing executive orders imposing COVID-19 lockdown policies and was repeatedly sued.
In one lawsuit, five Republican lawmakers and 2,000 plaintiffs sued, arguing a $295 million contract between the state and a New York company to implement contact tracing and a mass surveillance program was unconstitutional, The Center Square reported.
Republicans and business owners also sued, arguing the 1975 law was unconstitutional and that Abbott couldn’t use it to shut down businesses, mandate capacity limits or dictate that religious services be held online. Under Abbott, businesses were shut down for roughly six months and Republicans decried executive overreach, The Center Square reported.
One small business owner who defied his orders was Dallas salon owner, Shelley Luther, who kept her business open and went to jail. The Texas Supreme Court intervened, ordering her release and later unanimously threw out a contempt order against her. She was later elected to the Texas House and won reelection on Tuesday.
“No governor, Republican or Democrat, should have unchecked emergency powers,” Harrison said. “Now that Texas has elected a Democrat governor, the urgency is undeniable … and inaction is intolerable. Never ending emergency powers are antithetical to representative government and render people powerless.
“Legislative bodies allowing a single executive branch official to both write and enforce laws is the biggest threat to our constitutional system of divided government and should be opposed irrespective of which political party runs the executive branch,” Harrison said.
Harrison called for the Legislature to enact a bill he previously filed to limit emergency powers, HB 911. It prohibits a governor from suspending or modifying statutes, sunsets emergency orders within 30 days if the Legislature doesn’t ratify it and prohibits the governor from reissuing emergency orders that expired or the legislature rejected. It also requires emergency orders to be narrowly tailored and for expedited judicial review.
If Abbott doesn’t call a special legislative session, Hinojosa “will inherit the powers of a dictator,” Harrison added. “Due to the absurd (and almost certainly unconstitutional) Texas emergency powers laws,” she will “literally have the power to modify laws, ignore laws, or create and enforce laws – including criminal laws – on a whim.”
On Thursday, Hinojosa announced a bipartisan transition team vowing to work with Republicans, The Center Square reported.
Over the years, Harrison, an advocate for limited government and fiscal constraint, has called on Abbott to call special legislative sessions to address dozens of issues.
They include putting “Texas on a path to eliminate property taxes,” immediately cutting taxes, banning local property tax hikes unless approved by voters, ending “excessive” budget spending, banning taxpayer funded lobbying and ending corporate welfare, including for data centers.
Under Abbott, the state has granted billions of dollars in grants and tax breaks to multi-million and billion-dollar corporations, The Center Square reported. Eleven years ago, Abbott signed a bill into law giving $3 billion in tax cuts to data centers, which Hinojosa highlighted in her campaign. Texans overwhelmingly oppose data center construction and argue directives Abbott issued were too little, too late, The Center Square reported.
Harrison also called on Abbott to call an emergency session to “stop funding DEI and liberal Hollywood.” Last year, Abbott signed a bill into law championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to give $2.5 billion of taxpayer money to Hollywood companies filming in Texas against public opposition. Patrick was ousted on Tuesday.
Harrison also called for a special session to ban Sharia law, and to enact multiple laws related to birth tourism. In 2023 alone, he called for a dozen issues to be added to a special session Abbott had called.
Over the years, Abbott never called special sessions in response to Harrison’s multiple requests. In 2023, executive emergency powers and banning covid vaccine mandates were added to a special session Abbott had called, issues Harrison requested to be added. A vaccine mandate ban that was enacted didn’t apply to students in private, nursing or medical schools, which Harrison had requested.
