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The Texas Legislature is approaching the end of a stalemate that has lasted 29 days after Democratic members left the state to block a GOP voting bill, the Associated Press reported. The House of Representatives now needs five members to return to reconvene
Last month, more than 50 Texas Democrats went to Washington, D.C., but many returned on Monday, bringing the Legislature closer to a quorum as Republicans try to pass an election measure. Some still remain in Washington, with a few criticizing those who returned to the state Capitol.
"Since the beginning of the quorum break, I have been very honest about our options in Texas—we don't have many. This is by design," said one Democrat who returned to Texas, Representative James Talarico. "Under one-party rule, democracy suffers."
State Senate Republicans are pushing a voting bill similar to the one blocked by Democrats when they walked out last month. "My expectation is that enough members will honor their obligation to show up and do the people's work," said the chairman of the House Republican Caucus, Representative Jim Murphy.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:
Republicans are now on the brink of having enough lawmakers to push forward with the legislation. The stalemate has started to weaken as more Democrats who fled to Washington begin shuffling back into the state Capitol, believing their point has been made as they also feel the strain of a long absence away from home.
The group that is staying behind—which last weekend was less than half the more than 50 Democrats who originally fled to Washington—is not large enough to keep denying the Legislature a quorum.
In another setback for Democrats, the Texas Supreme Court on Monday rejected their lawsuit that sought to overturn Republican Governor Greg Abbott vetoing the paychecks of more than 2,000 legislative staffers after Democrats walked out on the voting bill the first time in May.
Abbott has said the Legislature can restore the funding in a special session. He had also threatened Democrats with arrest after they had left Texas, but those that returned did so voluntarily.
For a second time this summer, Republicans on Monday authorized locking the doors of the House chamber so that lawmakers could only leave with permission. They will return Tuesday, which would mark four days into a 30-day special session that is now the GOP's third attempt to pass an elections overhaul.
Texas would ban 24-hour polling locations and drive-thru voting and give partisan poll watchers more access under the bill that Democrats have twice foiled. But in the end, the Democrats find themselves in much the same position they were in a month ago: without the votes to permanently block the bill in the Texas Capitol, and without the votes to pass federal legislation in Congress.
