Thirty-nine hours.
That’s the total amount of time our lawmakers in Austin actually spent gaveled in and officially working for the people of Texas over the past four months.
Despite a cost of $1 million per 30-day session, legislators have worked less than a total work week over the past four sessions. Instead of what the Governor and each of us expected them to address, our Texas House Representatives collected their per diem while campaigning in their districts.
While there are many questions we as taxpayers should be asking, given that we are just months from the Republican Primary, perhaps the most important is: Who can be held accountable for this utter mismanagement? The answer is simple: Speaker Dade Phelan and every single representative who voted for him and operates within his web of influence.
In the time that Phelan squandered from the start of the regular session to now, well over 1.2 million illegals have crossed into Texas, and the newly passed criminal offense law does not go into effect until March 2024.
We Texans must ask: Are we getting our money’s worth out of all these special sessions? Is our Representative a “Dade Phelan” lieutenant? For those in House District 64, your Representative vocally supported Phelan. Lynn Stucky was among the three who received the largest contributions from Phelan leading up to the March 2022 Republican Primary.
As your representative for Wise and Denton County, I will answer to you and not to House leadership. I will stand for our conservative principles, even if I stand alone.
For Texas,
Andy Hopper
Candidate for Texas House District 64