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The Blast: The real doghouse and the lack of women chairs [1]
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Date: 2025-02
Feb 14, 2025 | View in browser
By Renzo Downey and The Texas Tribune Politics Team
21 days until SXSW begins
28 days until the 60-day bill filing deadline
108 days until sine die
The Blast will be off on Monday for Presidents Day. See you Wednesday.
House committee assignment roundup, round two Readers and sources contributed a few more thoughts about the Texas House committee assignments after yesterday’s surprise Blast. It merits a second look at the assignments.
The real doghouse
If the Delivery of Government Efficiency Committee is the doghouse — or DOGE house — then Corrections is the pound.
Corrections is chaired by Sam Harless, R-Spring, who switched from David Cook of Mansfield to Dustin Burrows of Lubbock on the second ballot of the speaker election. Second-term Rep. Venton Jones, D-Dallas, got treated nicely with a vice chair appointment to the committee in addition to a membership role on the Appropriations Committee. But after that, things start to fall apart. Harless and Jones are the only committee members who supported Burrows on at least one ballot.
Freshmen David Lowe , R-North Richland Hills, and Trey Wharton , R-Huntsville, lucked into the committee by seniority appointment. Democratic members Alma Allen of Houston and Terry Meza of Irving abstained from the second round after supporting Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos , D-Richardson, on the first ballot.
, R-North Richland Hills, and , R-Huntsville, lucked into the committee by seniority appointment. Democratic members of Houston and of Irving abstained from the second round after supporting Rep. , D-Richardson, on the first ballot. The rest of the Corrections Committee is made up of some of the loudest Cook supporters: Brian Harrison of Midlothian, J.M. Lozano of Kingsville and Nate Schatzline of Fort Worth. Austin fares well, and dual roles for Democrats
Austin Democratic Reps. John Bucy, Sheryl Cole and James Talarico are each vice chairs of a committee and a subcommittee. Area Democrats Lulu Flores, Donna Howard and Erin Zwiener are also vice chairs of a subcommittee.
Beyond the Austin area, Oscar Longoria of Mission is on the Trade, Workforce and Economic Development Committee and chairs the panel’s subcommittee on workforce and vice chairs its subcommittee on international relations. He previously chaired the Business and Insurance Committee, which got absorbed into the buffed up Trade, Workforce and Economic Development panel.
Republican Will Metcalf, R-Conroe, is the only Republican with dual roles as chair of Culture, Recreation and Tourism and vice chair of the State Affairs Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Broadband.
While most of the House has kept any disagreements with committee assignments quiet, Lowe complained that six Democrats are subcommittee chairs. Moreover, Tarrant County GOP Chair Bo French, a potential 2026 Senate candidate, pointed out that Burrows naming El Paso Democrat Joe Moody as the speaker pro tempore violates Plank 213 of the Republican Party of Texas Platform, which could be the basis for a potential censure.
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Committee assignment roundup continued The lack of women chairs
With 53, the Texas House has more women than ever before. Yet, the House now has the fewest number of women chairs since the 69th Legislature in 1985.
There are two. Angie Chen Button, R-Richardson, chairs the Trade, Workforce and Economic Development Committee, and Lacey Hull, R-Houston, chairs the Human Services Committee.
Yes, part of the reason there are only two chairwomen is that the House adopted rules limiting committee chairmanships to Republicans. Moreover, Button and Hull were the only two Republican women in their third term or later who supported Burrows. But it goes beyond that.
There are 12 subcommittees, and while Burrows appointed Democrats, Cook supporters and second-term members to fill some of those subcommittee chairmanships, he appointed no women.
Notably, he appointed retired educator Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston, to chair the Public Health Committee and Cook-supporting businessman James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, to lead the Public Health Committee’s new Subcommittee on Disease Prevention and Women’s and Children’s Health.
The big committee is vice chaired by Liz Campos, D-San Antonio, and the subcommittee is vice chaired by Bucy.
“Two men leading that committee is just infuriating,” one female Democratic staffer told The Blast.
Counting select and subcommittee chairs, the House has the fewest number of women chairs since the 64th Legislature in 1975. That session, Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, then a second-term member, chaired the Labor Committee, and freshman Wilhelmina Delco, D-Austin, led the three-person Public Education Subcommittee on Special Populations.
That’s a lot of trivia to throw at you, but critics point out that it could lead to a lack of female input in the “good ol’ boys club” of leadership. Women’s issues will spring up in the Public Health subcommittee, but they’ll also come up in panels like the male-dominated Insurance Committee, where members will have to pitch Chair Jay Dean of Longview and Vice Chair Hubert Vo of Houston on why women’s insurance issues matter.
“These policy areas affect our lives,” the staffer continued. “If we’re not at the table, issues that are important to us won’t be discussed.”
Vice Chair Erin Gámez of Brownsville is the only woman on the General Investigating Committee, which is responsible for investigating sexual assault allegations within the House.
Additionally, the decreasing number of women chairs is emblematic of a larger trend.
While the number of women members in both parties has been steadily increasing for decades, the number of women chairs has been steadily decreasing from eight in the 84th Legislature in 2015.
It’s not just the phasing out of Democrats. The number of Republican women chairs has also been decreasing from five that session. The current “good ol’ boys club” solidified under Speaker Dennis Bonnen in 2019.
On the flip side, the growing disparity between women members and chairs speaks to the wave of Republican women that is young now but may soon rise through the ranks of House seniority. There are nine Republican freshman women this session, and six Republican women are in their second year.
The speaker’s office assures members they considered their requests when determining committee assignments. It could be that the individual women of the House got exactly what they asked for. We won’t know that without seeing the list of what members requested.
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Musk’s eyes are for Texas ❤️ Elon Musk is focusing the attention of Republicans across the county to Speaker Dustin Burrows and the effort to pass education savings accounts in Texas.
After President Donald Trump commended Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick for “the biggest launch of a School Choice program in American History” with the passage of Senate Bill 2 last week, Musk early this morning tweeted at the new speaker.
“I hope Dustin Burrows passes school choice in Texas to give kids a chance,” Musk said. “If kids only have one school option and it’s bad, then it’s like they never had a chance at all.”
The post spurred a short string of corny potential AI Valentine’s Day cards between Burrows and Patrick.
The takeaway is that Trump, Musk and Republicans are watching the Texas House. The focus is currently on education savings accounts, but that could extend to other issues.
Abbott returns to ESA fight ground zero As part of his push for education savings accounts, Gov. Greg Abbott is back to taking his “Parent Empowerment Night” events on the road. On Monday, he’ll be in San Antonio, which in many ways became ground zero for his ESA push at the ballot box.
When Abbott stops in San Antonio on Monday evening, he’ll bring a Republican entourage of Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, Public Education Committee Chair Brad Buckley of Salado, and San Antonio Reps. Mark Dorazio, Marc LaHood and John Lujan.
Abbott backed LaHood in his primary against anti-voucher Rep. Steve Allison, who went as far as to endorse the Democrat after LaHood knocked him out. Both LaHood’s and Lujan’s races were top targets for Democrats in the general election.
Now that House Republicans are mostly in line with Abbott over education savings accounts, the governor is back to beefing with Democrats on social media.
Yesterday, he called Rep. Gina Hinojosa of Austin the former head of the “woke” Austin school board and asked House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu of Houston, “Did your private school teach you math?” Today, he called Rep. Mary González of Clint a “fake doctor,” alluding to the “Dr.” honorific she uses because of her doctoral degree in education from the University of Texas at Austin. He twice ridiculed former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, calling him a “repeat loser.”
House Bill 8, signed into law in 2023, transformed community college funding in Texas to better meet student needs and address workforce demands. More than a year later, how are Texas community colleges faring?
Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera, the Tribune’s education and urban affairs editor, will talk with community college administrators, students and other stakeholders about the impact they’re seeing on enrollment and academic outcomes, changes to programs like free tuition initiatives, dual credit programs and transfer incentives, and the challenges and opportunities they anticipate in the future.
Confirmed speakers include: Daisy Donjuan , recent graduate of Dallas College; current student at Austin College
, recent graduate of Dallas College; current student at Austin College Ray Martinez , president and CEO, Texas Association of Community Colleges
, president and CEO, Texas Association of Community Colleges Jeremy McMillen, president, Grayson College Doors open at Texas Woman’s University in Denton at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 26, and the one-hour event begins at noon. Lunch is provided.
RSVP today
HIDDEN IMAGE The Blast is off on Monday for Presidents Day, so here’s what you need to know till Wednesday:
The Senate will convene at 11 a.m. on Tuesday.
The House will convene at 2 p.m. on Tuesday. The Senate intent calendar for Tuesday includes three pieces of Sen. Joan Huffman’s bail package: Senate Joint Resolution 1, Senate Bill 9 and Senate Bill 40. That means those measures will be eligible for consideration on the floor on Wednesday. Committee hearings: The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to meet at 8 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday’s agenda includes overviews of the 2026-27 revenue estimate, Economic Stabilization Fund and the House’s budget proposal. Wednesday’s agenda includes overviews of public education funding, employee and teacher retirement system pensions and property tax funding
The Senate Business and Commerce Committee will meet at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday to consider 11 bills, including the priority measure to establish the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, Senate Bill 21. View the list of upcoming meeting notices here and here.
HIDDEN IMAGE Republican Party of Texas Chair Abraham George posted on social media yesterday that “President Trump has FIRED all federal prosecutors appointed by Biden. Too bad we can’t get rid of Obama lawyer from Texas House!” In case you, like George, missed it, Hugh Brady is gone.
HIDDEN IMAGE U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York will join U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey , D-Fort Worth, in Veasey’s district tomorrow for a roundtable on Medicaid.
of New York will join U.S. Rep. , D-Fort Worth, in Veasey’s district tomorrow for a roundtable on Medicaid. Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz , R-Florida, will be the keynote speaker and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will be the featured speaker at the Williamson County Republican Party’s annual Reagan Day Dinner tomorrow in Georgetown.
, R-Florida, will be the keynote speaker and Texas Attorney General will be the featured speaker at the Williamson County Republican Party’s annual Reagan Day Dinner tomorrow in Georgetown. Fenoglio Boots will be in the Capitol on Tuesday through Thursday on the invitation of state Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, with a members-only fitting on Tuesday afternoon.
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HIDDEN IMAGE Rep. Pat Curry’s video from last night, including the responses from Rep. Jeff Leach and Current Revolt: HIDDEN IMAGE
HIDDEN IMAGE Do you or someone in your office have a birthday you’d like mentioned? Email us.
(Feb. 14) State Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney
(Feb. 15) State Rep. Mano DeAyala, R-Houston
(Feb. 17) State Rep. Harold Dutton Jr., D-Houston
(Feb. 18) State Rep. Salman Bhojani, D-Euless
(Feb. 18) State Rep. Andy Hopper, R-Decatur
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