AUSTIN – Tuesday, January 14 marks the start of Texas’ 89th legislative session. Lawmakers will meet on Tuesday to be sworn in and the House will hold a Speaker election.  

After the day’s swearing in and administrative votes, lawmakers will move on to debate and votes on House rules, with committee meetings likely to start in late February or early March. 

In a statement regarding the start of the legislative session, executive director, Anthony Gutierrez shared the following:

“Our legislature only meets for a few months every two years, so it is absolutely vital that lawmakers put aside partisan gamesmanship and get right to work on the biggest problems facing Texas.  

“Common Cause Texas has been working to protect and advance democracy in Texas since 1970 and for us, there are obvious problems with democracy and transparency that the legislature must prioritize.  

“First, we continue to have far too few Texans actually participating in our democracy. Texas perpetually ranks near the bottom when it comes to participation in elections.  

There are a number of simple, common sense, nonpartisan reforms lawmakers could adopt that would at least begin to address our participation problem.  

“Adopting online voter registration would represent a monumental leap forward for our archaic voter registration system. Fixing the law that requires public schools to offer voter registration twice a year to eligible students would begin to build a culture of civic participation. And enacting contribution limits for state offices would provide a more level playing field so the wealthy are not able to so easily bend policy in their direction.  

“As we advocate for positive reforms, we’ll also be vigilant in defending our democratic system by fighting attempts to end the popular countywide polling place program, expand the oversight powers of the Secretary of State, or end early voting.  

“Since 1970, Common Cause Texas and our tens of thousands of members have been staunch defenders of our democratic system, and lawmakers can expect more of same in this legislative session.” 

On Tuesday, January 14 at 12:00 p.m. ET, Common Cause’s state leaders will also host the first press briefing in a series called Protecting Democracy in the South to discuss voting rights concerns and legislative updates for the southern states. 

State leaders, including from Texas, will share what new voting rights, ethics, and other democracy-related policy issues they’ll be watching as we look ahead to the legislative session at the state level. 

To register, click here. 

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