By Stephen Reeves

Fellowship Southwest is active at the Capitol in Austin during this legislative session. This week we have registered support or opposition to bills related to public education, immigration, and predatory lending. We most often do our work in coalition with others. For a list of coalitions and organizations we pay attention to, see last week’s newsletter.

This is a particularly intense moment of the session as bills begin passing one chamber or the other, and committees are all active holding long hearings considering important bills. Committees are where so much of the work is done debating and amending bills and where your voice can have a real impact. Be sure to look up which committees your Senator and Representative serve.

Public Education - Last week, on the same day the full Senate passed SB8 establishing a voucher-like program, a strong majority of House members voted for a budget amendment prohibiting state funds from being spent on vouchers. While the House vote showed substantial opposition to vouchers, the fight is far from over. On Tuesday of this week the House Education Committee heard a number of voucher bills. FSW was there to “drop a card” registering our opposition to these proposals and submit written testimony similar to what I published a few weeks ago in response to SB8. Vouchers will continue to be a big debate until the legislature adjourns Sine Die in late May. While it is yet to be determined which bill will ultimately carry a voucher program, given the high profile nature of the debate we encourage you to call your state Representative and Senator and urge them to oppose any and all voucher programs. We’ll continue to update you via our newsletter and encourage you to sign up for updates from Pastors for Texas Children.

Immigration - Immigration policy is largely made at the federal level. The anti-immigrant political climate in Texas means we’ll mostly be playing defense this session - hoping to stop punitive and inhumane legislation. Yesterday the House State Affairs committee heard numerous bills related to immigration and border enforcement, most of which we hope never become law. The day began with a press conference and rally by members of the TRUST Coalition. I was there in support and FSW registered our opposition to two particularly dangerous bills.

HB 20 would solidify the state’s militarized response to the humanitarian crisis at the border. Under Operation Loan Star, Texas has already spent over $4.5 billion on the deployment of DPS Troopers and National Guard service members to try and deter migrants from crossing the border. This bill would create the “Border Protection Unit” within the Department of Public Safety with a mandate to arrest, detain and deter people “crossing the border,” though their activities would be statewide. The unit would be run by a Border Unit Chief appointed by, reporting to, and only removable by the Governor.  Among the numerous alarming provisions, the unit could recruit and deputize law abiding citizens without a felony conviction to join these efforts and immunize those commissioned or deputized by the Border Protection Unit from all civil or criminal liability. Opponents have labeled this a state sponsored vigilante program.

HB 7 would institutionalize many aspects of Gov. Abbott’s controversial Operation Loan Star. The bill would allow counties in the border region to establish “border protection” courts to oversee “border issues” thereby creating a parallel criminal system alongside our existing courts. It would also give responsibility to the new “Border Protection Unit” (established by HB 20) to oversee construction of a border wall with Texas taxpayer dollars.

The House State Affairs committee heard testimony until the wee hours of this morning, mostly from those opposed to these bills, many of whom traveled from border communities to be there. You can read an account from the Texas Tribune here. We encourage you to call your House members and urge them to oppose these bills.

Predatory Lending - The state of Texas has few laws protecting borrowers from predatory payday and auto title lending and our loans are among the most expensive in the nation with APRs averaging 664%. This practice preys upon the desperate and vulnerable in need of quick cash, and in many cases leads to a debt trap that is difficult to escape. The impact is often most acute in Black communities. Many of the customers who fall victim to these debt-trap loans are single mothers. I’ve been active in the fight to reform these usurious products since 2009. (You can find more background on the issue at the CBF Advocacy website.) Since 2011, and in response to a lack of action at the state level, 49 Texas cities have passed ordinances that attempt to better regulate the lenders operating within their city limits. While there appears to be little appetite for the necessary reforms from this legislature, there is a need to protect the existing city ordinances from being preempted and invalidated. Fellowship Southwest has registered our opposition to bills that would result in preemption, new loopholes that would expand payday lending, and others that would allow different lenders to offer usurious loans.

The legislature undermining the power of cities is a recurring theme in Texas. Among the many problematic bills that would preempt local payday ordinances are SB 814, SB 149, HB 2350, HB 2266 and HB 2127. We’ll let you know when your voice is most needed. I encourage you to sign up for update from the Texas Fair Lending Alliance.