{"id":241765,"date":"2026-04-09T09:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/241765\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T09:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:39:07","slug":"house-moves-closer-to-imposing-fines-against-quorum-busting-democrats-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/241765\/","title":{"rendered":"House moves closer to imposing fines against quorum-busting Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Rep. Gene Wu, left, and other Democratic lawmakers board a plane at Signature Aviation at the South Terminal on Sunday, August. 3, 2025 in Austin, Texas. Texas Democrats fled the state in an effort to delay Republicans’ plans to redraw the state’s congressional map.<\/p>\n

Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n

A group of Texas House members will meet on Friday as Republicans try to figure out how far they will go to collect fines levied on the dozens of Democrats<\/a> who broke quorum last summer to fight redistricting.<\/p>\n

The GOP-led House administration committee will convene behind closed doors to consider the financial penalties, according to a meeting notice.<\/a> State Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, who chairs the panel, did not return a call for comment on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In January, Geren notified more than 50 of the 62 Democrats that each owes $9,200 in fines and other charges for impeding the progress of the House by not showing up in the Capitol last August as lawmakers deliberated a plan to overhaul the state’s congressional map. The charges include a $7,000 fee for being absent, plus another $2,000 to cover the $125,000 the state spent trying to round them up and bring them back to Austin. The fines cannot be paid with campaign cash, meaning members must personally foot the bill.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

In lieu of a formal appeal, the Democrats who broke quorum have sent letters to the administration committee protesting the methods used to calculate the penalties, said Taylor Rush, a spokesman for the House Democratic Caucus.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Texas House showdown over walkouts reflects a deeper divide<\/a><\/p>\n

“We understood what the rules are. We knew that there was going to be a price to pay, in this case, a monetary cost,” said Democratic Rep. Ramon Romero, who chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. “Our lawyers believe that there may be some constitutional grounds for defense, and certainly they believe that there is lots of due process that has not occurred yet.”<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

The House administration committee’s meeting notice says it will hear invited testimony, but did not disclose the speakers. Members of the bipartisan committee include state Rep. James\u00a0Talarico, an Austin Democrat who is the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate and is among the members facing a fine.<\/p>\n

In an interview Tuesday, Republican Rep. Cody\u00a0Vasut of Angleton, who\u00a0pushed the\u00a0stricter penalties\u00a0for quorum-breakers, said he expects the administration committee to enforce the rule.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“My hope for (levying the penalties) would be to help persuade my colleagues that the costs of breaking quorum exceed the benefit, and I’m optimistic that that will be the case going forward,” he said. Vasut pointed out that refusing to pay the fines could also result in members losing money for staff and other officeholder expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But another Republican who supported assessing the punishment called the process an exercise in “bad kabuki theater” because it has been allowed to drag out for so many months.<\/p>\n

“There’s been zero punishment,” said state Rep. Brian Harrison,\u00a0R-Midlothian. “I mean, not one Democrat had their seniority taken away. Not one Democrat has had their vice chairmanship stripped away. Not one Democrat has had their chairmanship revoked. Not one Democrat has been forced to pay even a single dollar. Hell, they still have their parking spots.”<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

House rules first adopted after a similar quorum break by Democrats in 2021 allow the chamber to impose financial penalties on members who leave en masse to grind the chamber to a halt.\u00a0Republicans voted to update those rules\u00a0after last year’s quorum break to escalate the punishment, including taking away seniority, committee chairmanships and stiffer financial penalties<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Democrats finally did return to the Capitol last summer, they were paired with escorts from the Texas Department of Public Safety, who made sure they showed up to the House chamber when Republicans pushed the redistricting plan over the line.<\/p>\n

Democratic state Reps. Ron Reynolds of Houston and John Bucy of Austin said that although their party ultimately lost the redistricting battle in Texas, the quorum break enabled it to win the larger war. By some members fleeing to Illinois, with side trips to California and other Democrat-run states, they said Texas Democrats were able to focus the national spotlight on the effort pushed by President Donald Trump to redraw congressional maps to benefit Republicans ahead of this year’s midterm election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They also pointed out that voters in California, in response to the Texas’ move, enacted a new map to give Democrats in their state five more winnable seats \u2014 the same number Republicans drew for themselves in Texas.<\/p>\n

“I’m proud of the ripple effect it had across this nation,”\u00a0Bucy said. “We’re going to continue to stand up for our constituents and resisting these fines.”<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

Reynolds said he would\u00a0ultimately pay the find if forced, but it wouldn’t change his behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“My pockets will be lighter if we ultimately lose,” he said. “But I would definitely (break quorum) again, even if (the fine) was doubled. I’ll be just be a lot poorer.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Rep. Gene Wu, left, and other Democratic lawmakers board a plane at Signature Aviation at the South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-241765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-texas","9":"tag-texas-headlines","10":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}