September 1, 2019      1:55 PM

SB: Bonnen scandal leaves Texas Legislature unready to address gun violence even if Abbott called a special session

Despite demands for the governor to call a special in response to mass shootings, it’s not his fault that the first order of business in the House might be to entertain a motion to vacate the chair while a chaos agent stands ready to release audio evidence of a conversation that “might make a sailor blush”

About this time in 2017, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick had just made a mockery of the legislative process, using Sunset legislation as his leverage to force Gov. Greg Abbott’s hand in calling a special session to focus on a failed proposal to create restrictions on where certain Texans could legally use public facilities. The national spectacle aside, the point was that the process was used and abused, making special sessions even riskier than ever with a risk averse governor at the helm of state government.

But now Patrick’s shenanigans are not the issue. The scandal surrounding Speaker Dennis Bonnen has created an environment in which the governor cannot be fully blamed for the lack of immediate legislative action in the wake of two mass shootings across the Great State this summer.

One more time for the people in the back: The presiding officer’s first standing order is to protect the institution. Because that post was abandoned, even momentarily by Bonnen in his meeting with Empower Texans spokesman Michael Quinn Sullivan, the House would likely not be ready to respond to a growing crisis.

By Scott Braddock

Copyright September 01, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved