By james art 
The Texas Legislature is more like the US Congress.
Last week, the Republican state House approved new rules that bar Democrats from serving as committee chairs, a move that reflects the Legislature’s rapid shift toward Washington-style politics that has excluded the minority party from powerful leadership positions.
Democrats will serve as vice chairs of the House committee, which some lawmakers said is a return to the Texas tradition of power-sharing. But vice presidents don’t have nearly the power enjoyed by presidents, who can push or kill legislation and are better positioned to pass legislation.
“Texas politics is now national politics,” said University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus, who watched last week’s home rule debate. “It’s really hard to divorce what’s happening at the federal level from what’s now happening at the state level.”
Rottinghaus said signs Austin is more like Washington include “a kind of majority rule with abandon” and parties that are “divided over strategy and ideology.”
“You have leaders who are willing to say whatever they can to look at the base, and that looks like national politics to me,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming and maybe inevitable, but definitely national politics is here.”
Even with more Washington flavor, Texas has some differences. The state’s diversity, including its small towns and rural areas, creates opportunities for unique coalitions within and between the two parties. Republicans and Democrats still talk to each other, and party voices are more common in Washington than in Austin.
“There’s still a Texas bark on that nationalized political chest,” Rottinghouse said. “But I think it’s getting harder and harder for members to really see across the aisle.”
Since taking control of the Texas House in 2003, Republicans have almost always had the power to pass their priority legislation. Things got tight during the 2009 session, when Democrats held a two-seat majority. Since then, Republicans have held a solid enough majority to pass legislation Democrats loathe, including the nation’s toughest abortion ban, new voting restrictions and immigration and border measures.
That’s not enough for GOP activists or Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Senate speaker, who has not named a Democratic chairperson this session. They want total dominance, even though their biggest problem is often with members of their own party. not democratic chairs.
The push to bar Democrats from serving as committee chairs began years ago, but picked up steam last year when Republicans complained that key legislation had been stalled or killed. While Democrats were blamed, most of the legislation, including a school voucher plan sought by Gov. Greg Abbott, died because it lacked Republican support.
That makes the issue of Democrats serving as committee chairs a red herring. In 2024 Abbott campaigned against Republicans who blocked his proposal to allow families to use public funds to send their children to private schools. He didn’t need to wage a political war against the Democrats.
As with most of the legislation sought by Republicans, Democratic support is not required for passage. There are 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats in the House.
The rules debate was an early political test for newly minted House Speaker Dustin Burroughs, R-Lubbock. He was elected with the support of a majority of Democrats who irked supporters of his opponent, reporter David Cook, R-Mansfield, who was endorsed by the House Republican caucus.
Some House Republicans grumbled about Democrats even serving as vice chairs and about a separate rule allowing Democrats to lead 11 newly created subcommittees. Members of the majority party cannot serve as vice presidents, according to the resolution approved last week.
The challenge for Burroughs is getting the House to approve most of the legislation sought by Republican House members and leaders like Abbott. At the top of the list are the plan for private school vouchers, property tax cuts and infrastructure improvements.
There will be other priorities, and Burrow is tasked with doing it in a 140-day regular session. That means the most important actions taken by storms and House members are not whether Democrats should be committee heads, but whether strategies can be developed to make it easier for bills to move through committees and onto the House floor. within a strict time frame.
“If you look at the legislative output in partisan times, it’s going down. It’s just a fact,” Rottinghaus said. “That’s something we’ve seen in all the legislatures and at the federal level.”
“It’s because there’s just too much demand, too many bills being submitted,” Rottinghaus added. “A lot of them are political messaging bills, and not all of them can pass.”
The way the legislature is structured discourages fruitful passage of the bill. There isn’t enough time.
“When you mix that with polarization and with the internal divisions of the parties, it makes for a toxic combination of very little to get done,” Rottinghaus said.
For Republicans, it’s about getting on the same page and passing as much legislation as time allows.
Democrats are now free from the guise of power-sharing, at least as it pertains to executive committees, and Dallas County could be at the center of a Democratic retreat.
Reporter Ana-Maria Ramos of Richardson was a Democratic candidate for speaker who was eliminated in the first round of voting. In the second and final vote, she supported Cook, calling it a protest vote against Burroughs because of his record of supporting President Donald Trump’s policies. Ramos questioned why Democrats gave up their leverage to support Burroughs.
Ramos wrote on X: “As Republicans try to silence us by banning Democratic Speakers, this is a prime opportunity for us to speak up even louder and come together to fight for the 12.4 million Texans who represent House Democrats. The battle continues. “
Nationally, control of Congress often switches parties. Since Trump was first elected in 2016, both parties have controlled the House and Senate. Republican majorities currently control both houses of Congress.
Texas Democrats are in worse trouble. Republicans have controlled the House since 2003. since 1999 and the Senate. this way. Democrats have not won a statewide race since 1994.
For both parties, the key to legislative success is winning elections.
The winners set the agenda and now elect the team leaders in the House.