Summary of 88th Texas Legislature
My absence from writing over the past eight weeks resulted from my emersion and subsequent reconciliation of the 88th Texas Legislative session. Legislators and advocates celebrated narrowly focused victories for Medical liberty, protecting Texas children, and preventing discrimination by financial companies, although in the context of the current global unfolding, I regret to report that a considerable volume of dangerous legislation became law. And many critical bills proposed to protect the privacy and safety of Texas families were intentionally left to die without a hearing or via the many procedural machinations used to corrupt our representative form of lawmaking.
This session, my first as a volunteer advocate, consisted of attending and testifying in many committee hearings in the Texas House and Senate, meeting with House reps and Senators, advocating for and against proposed legislation, and swimming against the violent currents of globalism, which in summary appears to have considerable, if not controlling influence over Texas politics.
I extend the deepest gratitude to the few handfuls of House Reps and Senators who have availed themselves of the gravity of global events and have exhibited a willingness to fight for the constitutional rights of their constituents over the pervasive and ever-expanding Federal government and the international money pulling its strings.
Venue into politics
In January of 2022, I co-founded Texas For Liberty, with the sole mission to enroll Texas Sheriff's and citizens to sign a petition supporting the rights of Texans to deny medical treatments without persecution or discrimination. After four months of repeated calls to 254 Sheriff's, we secured 60 signatures to support a coalition effort by thirty legislators calling on Governor Greg Abbott to enact a fourth special session to end COVID mandates. That never happened.
In January 2023, with the legislative session about to begin, I co-founded the Texas Liberty Council, which brought together twenty-two (22) leading advocates fighting for policy to secure medical liberty, first amendment/privacy, and age-appropriate education content (i.e., ending the sexualization of children in schools). Admittedly, I was the least experienced among us. The objective was to meet every few weeks during the legislative session to monitor and track the nearly 7,000 proposed bills and organize a collective effort to shift policy and lawmaking around our three core objectives.
Long-term, I am an optimist. I surrendered to volunteer advocacy with expectations that our efforts might muster sufficient clout and public awareness to prevent some of the disturbing initiatives to centralize global government and protect constitutional rights in a state reportedly run by conservatives. I have come to believe that the process of politics is failing America at every level. State government is no exception.
It is important to note that well-intentioned legislators operate within the confines of a system that forces negotiation of our fundamental rights with large corporations and where financial conflicts of interests lead to compromises they would not otherwise make. And most feel compelled to include bill language that refers to unconstitutional Federal law to avoid the risks and painful delays of litigation.
While there is no doubt a Path to Local Liberty, the subject of a book I am currently writing, I do not believe that politics, at least in the short term, is the primary theater to change the course of our state or nation. I have diminished faith that Texas or America can change the outcome of our current political system before suffering and division rise to a level unexperienced since our nation's founding. Not only are many citizens brazenly confused and ignoring current reality, but with few exceptions, most elected officials, both Liberal and Conservative, are either consciously or unconsciously supporting the globalist push toward the destruction of Liberty and human rights and the totalitarian Agenda 2030, otherwise known as the Great Reset and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Democrats promoting censorship and pharmaceutical mandates and Republicans enabling corporations to violate our inalienable rights appear directed toward the same outcome. We hear rhetoric from the Governor about fighting the illegal immigration crisis and ending medical mandates; then, Republicans, in name only, kill the very bills that address these emergencies. Nowhere do we find more talented actors than in elected office, whose words suppose freedom and whose actions appear in service to global Capital. In times past, we could dismiss such financial conflicts and corruption as having a marginal effect on our families. We have reached a point where the values and actions of large global corporations and many elected officials are blatantly antithetical to the health and well-being of Texans and our future.
It is important to consider what global elites are publicly lobbying for:
- No privacy or human rights
- For corporations to own our data, including DNA, genetic, and biometric data produced by our unique person.
- Perennial programs for genetically modifying medicines
- Open borders
- Instead of promoting unconditional Love and seeking to eliminate the root causes of suffering, using identity politics and healthy human compassion as weapons to dismantle parental and Natural rights, cultural and religious institutions, women's sports, and iconic American brands to make way for the homogenization of global corporate monopolies and the egalitarian fallacy of communism.
- To destroy the United States Constitution and corrupt all elected and administrative offices in place to defend our constitution, including judges, District Attorneys, and now local Sheriffs.
The following is an abbreviated summary of bills I tracked this session. For those new to the legislative process, there are often identical bills filed in the House and Senate (with different bill numbers), which increases the likelihood of one making it into the opposing chamber, through which all legislation must pass with majority support to become law.
Pay particular attention to the description of bills, which did not even make it into or through committee. Many of these bills were filed early in the session, with ample time to move through the process. Most were intentionally withheld from committee hearings or killed through the legislative process, which is filled with many procedural violations of democratic due process. I have attached some of my public testimony for context.
Medical Liberty
Signed into Law
SB 29 (Birdwell) - Prevents mandates for COVID vaccination, masking, and business closure.
HB 44 (Swanson) - Prevents discrimination of Medicaid patients based on vaccination status.
HB 609 (Vasut) - Eliminates liability for Texas businesses that do not require vaccination.
Never heard or died in Committee or House/Senate Floor
SB 177 (Middleton) / HB 81(Harrison) – Requires informed consent and permits refusal of COVID vaccine.
SB 1024 (Kolkhorst) – Prevents COVID vaccine and mask mandates in schools.
SB 2086 (Kolkhorst) - Introduces DNA ownership by individuals (instead of corporations)
SJR 66 (Hall) - Constitutional amendment guaranteeing Texans the right to deny medical treatments.
SB 265 (Perry) - Requires all doctors to report vaccine injuries.
HB 4589 (Vasut) – Prevents widely available Digital Identification systems (which store data) from storing or accessing medical data.
First Amendment/Privacy
Signed into Law
HB 4 (Capriglione) - This supposed data privacy law has many carve-outs and codifies into law that corporations own and control our data. I vehemently opposed this bill in public testimony, supported by the Speaker and many House reps, as it will do little to protect Texans from government and corporate privacy violations, including the newly proposed National Digital Health ID program underway in the United States.
HB 18 (Slawson) – Seeks to protect children from online predatory behavior yet requires parents to provide confidential information to online service providers. Imagine demanding parents give a consent form including their personal data for children to enter a toy store or ice cream shop instead of establishing and strictly enforcing laws against exposing children to harmful content.
SB 656 (Zaffarini) – Allows disabled persons to submit doctor and health data to TxDOT, inadvertently giving TxDOT a license to create a Digital ID and store our private medical records.
HB 2545 (Capriglione) – Establishes data privacy requirements for genetic data collection companies like Ancestry.com – Senator Kolkhorst added an excellent amendment about DNA ownership.
SB 1607 (Kolkhorst) – Prevents discrimination by certain financial services firms like Paypal.
SB 1446 (Hughes) – Prevents Texas State Pension funds from investing based on ESG.
SB 1060 (Hughes) – Prevents Insurance companies from discriminating based on ESG.
HB 2453 (Gullien) – Digital Licenses for TDLR Occupations (Barber, etc..) Introduces the concept of Digital Identification for the Texas Dept of Licensing and Regulation.
Never Heard or died in Committee or House/Senate Floor
SCR 25 (Parker) – Texas Constitutional Amendment against Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
HB 71 (Canales) – Digital Driver's License – the basis for Digital Identification Systems – Voted out of House and died in Senate Transportation.
HJR 146 (Capriglione) / SJR 67 (Parker) – Constitutional amendment securing the right for Texans to use precious metals, cryptocurrency, or cash in lieu of the coming Central Bank Digital Currency.
Border Security
Did not pass House when returned from Senate
HB 7 (Guillien) – Originally one of the most meaningful border bills proposed, it was gutted and largely rendered mute by removing amendments that created the only path to Governor establishing powers to secure our borders.
Killed on the floor by the Speaker of the House
HB 20 (Schaeffer) – The Speaker of the House single-handedly killed this bill he claimed publicly to support.
Education & Children
Signed into Law
HB 900 (Patterson) – Eliminates sexually explicit books from children's school libraries.
SB 14 (Campbell) – Prevents gender modification for children.
SB 12 (Hughes) – Restricts sexually explicit performances in front of children.
Law enforcement, Sheriffs, and the Medical Police State
Signed into Law
SB 1124 (King) – In addition to requiring a Peace Officers license to run for the office of Sheriff, this bill prioritizes special permissions for Federal Law Enforcement and military training as prerequisites to becoming a Texas Sheriff. The office of Sheriff is the last man in every county with both a duty and clear Supreme Court precedence acknowledging his/her right to defend local citizens from unlawful and unconstitutional Federal activity. Unfortunately, Federal officials and law enforcement officers are groomed in training environments that do not teach and empower the constitutional oath or duties of office. This creates a dangerous opportunity for those seeking to corrupt public offices such as judges, District Attorneys, etc. We need Sheriffs that will stand up to unconstitutional Federal activity and laws which deny our fundamental rights, and we must remove any obstacles to the integrity of this crucial elected office. We should all be concerned about attempts to politicize Sheriff’s as has occurred in King County, Oregon where the office of Sheriff was removed from election ballots and made an ‘appointed’ position.
SB 1624 (Zaffarinni) – One of the most concerning bills signed by the Governor, this new Texas Law allows hospitals and emergency rooms to detain patients (and possibly guests) of patients for 'mental health' conditions. Currently, a law enforcement officer must confirm the patient's mental health status before detention can occur; this bill permits hospitals to issue a warrant, and a judge, with no independent verification, to determine whether a hospital can involuntarily detain a patient. Consider that nearly 4,000 requests for involuntary detainment occurred in 2017, and many were dismissed upon assessment by a peace officer. Have we forgotten that most of the western hemisphere became a medical police state during COVID? Doctors and public health agencies have proven they make mistakes and are not the ultimate arbiter of optimal health outcomes. If another pandemic occurs, this is a dangerous precedent that could allow conditions in Texas to model third-world dictatorships. As concerning, this language was never mentioned or included in any prior drafts until the final negotiation on the House floor.
SB 1698 (Kolkhorst) – Allows Medical Inspector General to enroll law enforcement, including elected Sheriff's, in a program to enforce Medicaid claims, potentially giving them salaries and benefits that could attract them away from their primary duties and offices.
Additionally, you may find it interesting to peruse the many Republican led bills that were vetoed by Governor Greg Abbott.
Many legislative processes usurp the ideals of representative government.
The following are a few of the many ways the Texas legislative process undermines our democratic values and the representative function of lawmaking.
- Extremely rushed timeline – Two months to file bills and two months to pass through committee hearings and both chambers.
- Overwhelming number of bills makes it easier to sneak bad legislation through and provides cover to justify killing 'unwanted' bills.
- Negotiation with corporate 'stakeholders' over fundamental constitutional rights such as privacy, body sovereignty, etc.
- Well-written bills carried by well-intentioned legislators that propose solutions with unintentional consequences, such as privacy violations and diminution of parental or other inalienable rights.
- Bills that codify Natural rights outlined in the constitution into civil rights, moving rights into the purview and authority of legislators and civil law.
- Insufficient time for advocates to prepare for committee hearings as calendars post Friday for Monday meetings offer little time to read bills and track amendments.
- Referring to Federal Law (some of which is unconstitutional) and other case law' opinions' by codifying them into Texas bills – inadvertently nationalizing Texas Law
- The push to 'get bills passed' – Given there are so many bills, it becomes a feat of great reward to simply get a bill passed through the process, which becomes the primary aim, often at the expense of damning negotiation with corporate ' stakeholders,' lobby groups, and industry, assuming they don't choose to kill your bill through many other means.
- Committee Chairs directly control what legislation is heard and often what is or is not voted out of committee.
- Calendars committee in the House determines whether bills go to the floor for a vote.
- The Speaker of the House and the Lt. Governor wield incredible power to influence committee chairs and to acknowledge/dismiss points of order (House), suspend the rules (Senate), and other procedural tactics that permit and kill bills.
- Weak financial penalties for bad actors and removing legal recourse of citizens by requiring the Attorney General sue, creating a bottleneck and a political strongman that usurps judicial due process and responsibility for corporations violating constitutional rights.
I intend to develop and propose solutions to some of these issues upon having more time to metabolize my recent experience and consult colleagues to discuss possibilities and consequences. Stand by for more on these issues.
There will come a time to transform the legislative process and reclaim the fairness and duty originally intended. In the interim, we need legislators willing to fight against corruption, to risk their political status with the Speaker and Lt Governor, stop negotiating our inalienable rights away with corporate stakeholders, and end the submission to unconstitutional Federal law and court opinions that violate our Liberties. A simple, non-partisan legislative approach is to prevent businesses from violating constitutional rights and overcoming financial conflicts of interest by empowering individual and parental choice.
Summary
My colleagues in advocacy report that this session was one of the most successful in recent history. I acknowledge the tireless efforts of many legislators and advocates to stop concerning bills and for supporting legislation to further the privacy, sovereignty, and safety of Texas families. There are many topics I simply could not prioritize as my primary goal was to defend our most fundamental rights which, in my humble opinion, suffered defeats by corporate influences with seemingly little loyalty to Texas or our children.
Primary efforts of legislation related to Medical Liberty were spent on bills that narrowly allowed restrictions to COVID-19 mandates, which did little to provide broader protections against the Pharma-co-opted medical establishment and standardized medicine. Nor did any legislation address the perverse limitations of liability, which eliminate much of the responsibility of vaccine companies and the medical community for gross over-prescriptions of virtually every category of allopathic drugs.
Secondly, Data Privacy laws have been passed in name only. Texas legislators not only passed but broadly supported HB-4, HB-18, and other bills which codified into law that corporations own our data and that parents must disclose private information about themselves for their children to navigate most online businesses that serve content to minors. Consider the National Digital Health ID System, currently being developed and implemented by a taxpayer-funded, unconstitutional Federal agency, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. States are now ‘mandated’ to maintain a health information database and private healthcare providers are ‘required’ to upload complete medical records. Other forms of personal data that supposedly affect ‘health outcomes’ such as neighborhood, income, hobbies, food purchases, and other activities will be stored. Like vaccine passports, this collocated and commingled data can and certainly will be used to discriminate against American citizens. In other words, the One-Health, vaccine passport system is already in place in the United States. HB-4 does NOTHING to protect Texans against this, as I repeatedly warned in public testimony. Instead of defining that citizens own their data and requiring the Texas government, medical corporations, higher education institutions, non-profits, and all other industries comply with a basic data privacy standard specifically for Texas, HB-4 refers to Federal legislation like HIPPA, COPPA, and many other corporate negotiated (if not written) Federal laws which do little to protect Texas citizens from data privacy violations. My question to several committees was, are Facebook and Google respecting our privacy today? Then why would we defer to Federal Law, inadvertently codifying many existing pro-corporate loopholes into Texas law? The thought leaders of the World Economic Forum openly claim that the primary mechanism of global corporate governance and power will be achieved by corporations owning data and becoming a direct form of government through a private social credit system. HB-4 and many other state and international data privacy laws have laid the groundwork for exactly that. See my proposal for a universal data privacy law in a prior essay, The Frontier of Liberty.
Outside of Senator Tan Parkers SB 1403, border security bills were a treasonous effort by top conservative leadership after what appeared to be tireless attempts by several well-intentioned Senators and House Reps. To be clear, I support a safe, sensible immigration policy that brings entire families into the United States at the pace needed to fill employment. What is happening now is a well-documented, US taxpayer-funded, and Federal Law enforcement aided invasion of our state and nation primarily by known criminals, victims of the sex-trade, and military-aged men. For more details, follow Michael Yon, the world's most experienced war reporter who has presented abundant evidence of funding sources, US Federal involvement, coordinated transportation, and even newly constructed 'camps' housing these immigrants before their arrival into the United States. The fact that the Speaker of the House killed his own border bill, HB-20, should be highly concerning to all Texans.
I understand this message is heavy. I have spent a considerable portion of the last month digesting this. Politics appears to be a challenging venue for meaningful change; we are naïve to assume elected officials will stop the war we currently find ourselves engaged in. Change must occur at the grassroots, at the local level.
The Path to Local Liberty
While I remain hopeful for the future of our state, our nation, and our politics, our current political system is functioning on behalf of global money, not local citizens. Like our farms, change must begin at the most fundamental level, starting with roots and soil; Localism will balance globalism.
Until integrity returns to elections and campaign finance, and the majority of elected leadership are loyal to their Constitutional oath, politics will not likely not be the stage for transformation and certainly not salvation. We must remain engaged and aware at the political level and do everything possible to support political candidates who will defend the Constitution instead of enabling the Great Reset and the system of slavery it seeks.
To restore sovereignty and Liberty in our local communities, we must create and support a parallel society to address basic needs from agriculture to education, practice peaceful non-compliance toward authoritarian government and global corporations (arguably one and the same), and build resilient local communities and economic systems independent of centralized mechanisms of control. And we must stop local city and county governments from accepting Federal money that furthers unconstitutional overreach and erodes local sovereignty.
As a result of my experience at the Capital, I have decided to focus my efforts and writing largely on pragmatic solutions, which center around three primary issues: local food production and trade, conscious entrepreneurship with philanthropic missions to solve critical problems (more urgent than CO2 sequestration), and building local community. While these may seem like ideological solutions to change the course of civilization, creating the world we want may be a more effective trajectory than fighting against a system hell-bent on destroying Liberty and natural biology.
I propose we build thriving local markets and communities that are free and well.
Buy local. Grow food. Support your local farmer's market. Start a business that produces necessary, natural goods and services. Join or build a local community. And pray that peace, fidelity, and Liberty return to our nation and this earth.