Don’t let Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick change Texas Senate rule that encourages bipartisanship
For 70 years, the Texas Senate had a “two-thirds rule” requiring 21 of the 31 senators to vote to bring a bill to the floor for debate.
In 2015, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — in a partisan move — pushed through a change to lower the requirement to 19 votes. That allowed the chamber’s 20 Republicans to control the flow of legislation and pass a bill without Democratic support.
Now that Republicans lost a seat in the 2020 elections, Patrick wants to again lower the threshold, this time to 18 votes. It’s yet another blow to bipartisanship. And it’s the same trick former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled over judicial nominations. It backfired spectacularly on the Democrats when Republicans did the same for Supreme Court seats, allowing the GOP majority to confirm three Trump nominees with Democrats helpless to stop them.
We don’t want Texas senators to let Dan Patrick become the Harry Reid of the Texas Senate.
As former Republican senators (one of whom, Bill Ratliff, also served as lieutenant governor), we continue to oppose the erosion of the Texas Senate’s rule. This path is bad for the Senate, the Legislature and the state of Texas.
As conservatives, we disagree with the idea that if you can’t win, you change the rules. Play by the rules and do your job, even when it is hard.
To those outside the Capitol arena, a debate over Senate procedural rules may seem in the weeds or irrelevant. But this rule strongly influences what legislation will affect the lives of all Texans.
A stronger rule encourages, even forces, senators to work with colleagues across the political aisle. In our experience, working in a bipartisan manner led to better legislation and made the Senate a more collegial body.
Democratic and Republican lieutenant governors such as Bill Hobby, Bob Bullock, Rick Perry, Bill Ratliff and David Dewhurst had successful terms for decades under the two-thirds rule. It could be argued that this rule made them better leaders and improved the landmark legislation they passed.
True conservatives should support making the passage of legislation a little more difficult. We’ve all seen more bills we wanted to kill than pass. After all, the best government is less government. The two-thirds rule helped root out legislation that was highly controversial and didn’t enjoy widespread support. This allowed the Senate to stay focused and not get distracted by highly partisan or bitter issues that damage relationships and the chamber’s integrity.
Some of us served in the Texas Senate when there were six Republicans and 25 Democrats. We were on the other side of this rule. When Republicans became the majority, we declined to change the rules.
We refused to do it because we knew the health and the future of the Senate was more important than any one person or the next election. Nothing has changed. We oppose watering down the rule, regardless of which party is in control.
To paraphrase former President John F. Kennedy, in a speech he gave at Rice University in Houston, we do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard.
Patrick’s desire to keep changing the rules only highlights his inability to lead and his desire to make his job easy.
We urge Texas senators in 2021 to reject any attempt to change this important rule. What goes around comes around. One day, Democrats will be in control and will use this rule to their advantage.
He who laughs today weeps tomorrow.