State reps: 2021 legislative session marred by hyperpartisanship

McALLEN — Difficult. Disheartening. Disturbing. Testy. Appalling.

Those were just some of the words used to describe what it was like inside the Texas Capitol during the 86th Legislature — a session which, after its normal January through May run, went on to reconvene for four special sessions throughout the summer and fall of 2021.

It was the four lawmakers who represent Hidalgo County in the Texas House of Representatives who thus described the contentious 2021 legislative session.

The quartet — Terry Canales, Sergio Muñoz, Bobby Guerra and Oscar D. Longoria — spoke during a panel discussion that was hosted by the McAllen Chamber of Commerce at the Radisson Hotel on Thursday afternoon. The discussion was moderated by former McAllen Mayor Jim Darling.

It was an unprecedented level of hyperpartisanship that marred progress at the capitol last year. From bills restricting voting and education, to a continuing shift of the political baseline affecting the way lawmakers talk to each other, the 86th legislature suffered some “wounds” that have yet to heal over, the lawmakers said.

“Since 2013, the legislature has changed pretty drastically. Most of the moderate Republicans are gone,” Canales said at the start of the discussion in response to a question on how things have changed since he first took office.

“The GOP has moved further to the right, which makes it more difficult for us to get things done, practical things. … Things seem to be getting politically harder for us because of the way the political spectrum has swayed farther to the right,” Canales further said.

Muñoz, whose tenure in Austin started just two years before Canales, echoed his colleague’s sentiments, saying, “What I’ve seen has been that loss of being able to sit down and talk about the issues without getting offended, without taking it personal.”

Muñoz added that — in their bid to go all-out on hot button issues — some lawmakers seem to have forgotten they can find common ground with their peers on other matters, and that has, in turn, hindered cross-aisle cooperation.

For Guerra, the sudden influx of lawmakers with such uncompromising attitudes meant that much of the legislative session was “very, very testy.”

So testy, in fact, that a large contingent of Democratic lawmakers fled Austin in an attempt to thwart a restrictive voting bill that had been championed by Gov. Greg Abbott and the state’s most conservative Republicans.

Just hours before the regular session’s midnight deadline was set to pass, Democratic lawmakers left the legislative chamber. The move broke quorum and killed Senate Bill 7, which called for the reduction of polling hours, gave greater latitude to partisan poll watchers, and reduced or revoked the availability of alternate voting methods, such as drive-thru voting.

Days later, Abbott convened a special session to push through the voting bill and other Republican priorities which had failed to pass during the five-month regular session.

But again, Democratic lawmakers revolted.

Some 50 representatives fled to Washington, D.C. in a move that again denied Republicans the ability to make quorum.

The governor threatened to have the lawmakers arrested and the walkout fizzled after 38 days, with the Texas delegation unable to sway Congress to pass federal voting legislation that would have superseded the state’s more restrictive bill.

The voting bill ultimately passed and was signed into law by Abbott in September.

Back at Thursday’s luncheon, Canales called its passage the most negative piece of legislation to make it out of the 2021 session.

“We had an opportunity to make it easier for people to vote and harder to cheat at the ballot box. And we didn’t do that,” Canales said.

“And we really could have done something meaningful, but what we’ve done is make it harder to vote and created some ‘gotchas’ and some problems that… have not occurred, but they very well could,” he said.

But it wasn’t just changes to the state’s election system that had the Valley lawmakers disheartened. Bills that called for more restrictions in education and local government control also gave cause for concern.

“I think also legislation that was aimed at trying to rewrite history, what’s taught at our schools, etc. … (it) affects not only our business community, but our community as a whole when we start micromanaging what people should be doing in the classroom,” Muñoz said.

Muñoz was referring to House Bill 3979, the bill that addressed the teaching of co-called “critical race theory” in Texas schools.

The bill severely limits how Texas teachers approach discussions about current events, and about racism.

“When you look at the list of books that are being pulled from some of these libraries… it is appalling. Appalling,” Guerra said.

“And I don’t understand why many of them have been banned because somebody decided we don’t like this word or that word. Give me a break,” he added, to applause from the audience.

Longoria agreed with his colleagues, saying that the charged discussions those issues sparked often deflated talks overall.

“Whenever we address these issues, you don’t debate them, you argue them. And literally, it will suck out the entire air from the room and it leaves a real bitter taste in everyone’s mouths for weeks on end,” Longoria said.

But, despite the walkout, despite the unhealed wounds and the national headlines, not everything about the 86th legislature was bad.

The hurdles lawmakers faced — from political differences to COVID-19 — forced them to think outside the box, Longoria said.

The pandemic hastened discussions about expanding access to broadband internet and telemedicine, which led to the passage of bills relating to those issues.

Canales said he was most proud of the passage of bills aimed at supporting the state’s ports of entry, including bills that addressed permitting processes, agricultural inspections and legislation that strengthened partnerships with the federal government.

“One of the greatest resources that we have in the Rio Grande Valley are our ports of entry. They’re billion dollar economic engines and so, moving forward and making sure they got the resources to expedite these projects and work with the federal government, I would say is some of the biggest things that we accomplished last session,” Canales said.