Chairman Terry Wilson on Dade Phelan's conservative record

Texas Defense Chairman Terry Wilson on Dade Phelan’s conservative record

During his two terms as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dade Phelan accomplished key conservative goals, including lowering property taxes, passing constitutional provisions, banning abortion, securing elections, lowering prescription drug costs and combating woke ideologies that target children in Texas.

When I was first elected to the Texas House in 2016, no one could have imagined that so many conservative priorities would be accomplished so quickly.

Yet Dade Phelan, your state representative and Speaker of the House of Representatives, made this possible. Unfortunately, some within the Republican Party are trying to hide these achievements from voters as they profit from spreading misinformation and creating internal conflict.

That is why I want to put things right before the second round of elections on 28 May, especially in the area of border security.

Recently, groups like Texans United for a Conservative Majority and Texans for Strong Borders spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on misleading ads in House District 21, falsely claiming that Speaker Phelan supported open borders and blocked the creation of a specialized border defense force.

The border between Texas and Mexico. Funded by the same West Texas mega donor who backs David Covey’s campaign, these groups are led by a disgraced advisor who defended former Rep.

Bryan Slaton’s predatory behavior and held strategic meetings with a neo-self-proclaimed Nazi during Hamas attacks on Israel.

Simply put, these groups have bad intentions and are not telling the truth. They are known for distorting the facts to serve their own interests, but voters deserve to hear the truth from someone who witnessed the events.

Before the legislative session, some of my colleagues and I introduced a bill to create a new specialized agency to strengthen law enforcement along the border.

Speaker Phelan prioritized this bill by assigning it a low number, HB 20, indicating its importance. Unfortunately, during the debate on the bill, he was faced with a procedural challenge known as a “point of order,” which any representative can invoke if he or she believes a bill violates legislative rules or procedures. HB 20 addressed two major issues: creating a new border force and giving law enforcement additional powers if the governor declared an invasion.

A point of order was raised because the Texas Constitution requires bills to be limited to a single subject.

The point of order was upheld and the bill was defeated. Speaker Phelan’s opponents unfairly politicized this outcome, hiding the fact that he tried to save this policy by merging it with another bill, HB 7, which passed the House by a vote of 88 to 58 .

Unfortunately, the Senate prevented it from becoming law by adding unnecessary changes. This again violated the single subject rule, making the bill dead on arrival.

The Senate added a provision to create a criminal offense for migrants entering the state illegally — a great idea, but better suited for its own separate bill.

This law was eventually passed as SB 4, which is now the strictest border security law in the country.

In addition, the Legislature under Speaker Phelan has spent more than $6.5 billion on border security and wall construction, increased support for Governor Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, designated foreign cartels as terrorist organizations, and added resources to local border courts to address their growing caseloads. to deal with.

Critics’ claims that no progress has been made on border security because one provision of a bill has failed are completely unfair and misleading.

No state has done more for the nation’s border security than Texas, thanks to the combined efforts of President Phelan and Governor Abbott.

Anyone who says otherwise is acting in bad faith to mislead voters, and I urge you to reject their false claims at the ballot box later this month.

The idea for a Special Border Force was born out of a desire for new and creative solutions to our state’s border crisis.

This work continues, and as we approach the 89th Parliament, our commitment to strengthening state security remains steadfast.

Together we will continue to make Texas a safer and stronger state.