WHO: All who support the tea party principles of Limited Government, Fiscal Sanity, Personal Responsibility, Rule of Law, and National and State Sovereignty, whether you belong to a group, attend meetings or not! Dozens and dozens of tea parties from around the state are participating!
WHAT: First ever statewide tea party rally
WHERE: South Steps of the Texas Capitol Building in Austin
WHEN: Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Rally Before The Rally – 11:30-noon
Rally – noon-1pm
Breakout Sessions – 2:00pm and 3:30pm (see link below)
Citizen Lobbying – 1:30-5:00pm (names of Reps to visit and talking points provided via flyer)
WHY: To check on legislation mid-session and to show the combined strength of Texas tea partiers
SPEAKERS:
Brandon Darby, Managing Director of Breitbart Texas
Michael Quinn Sullivan, President of Empower Texans/Texans for Fiscal Responsibility
Jonathan Stickland, Texas’ #1 most conservative State Representative (District 92)
and more!
More info, see: https://www.facebook.com/events/1592471564298347/
Category: NTCL Communications
NULLIFICATION bill-Texas Balance of Power Act
Rep. Dan Flynn (Canton), has authored legislation to create the Joint Legislative Committee on Nullification (HB 98). A gold star goes to Flynn!
The Chair of the House Select Committee on State & Federal Power & Responsibility has joint authored the bill, Rep. Phil King (Weatherford), which merits a gold star as well, because it will be Rep. King’s committee Continue reading “NULLIFICATION bill-Texas Balance of Power Act”
Do you support the 10th Amendment?
FRIDAY IS THE LAST DAY TO FILE LEGISLATION
Do you support the 10th Amendment?
Do you think amending the U.S. Constitution will restore your freedom?
CALL YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS (REPRESENTATIVE and SENATOR)
HERE IS A DRAFTED RESOLUTION WAITING FOR AN AUTHOR TO CARRY IT (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5osUEitCWr0dzNqWC0xQ3Fyb28/view?usp=sharing )
Your legislator can not say it’s too late to work on this. NOT SO. It’s been processed by the Texas Legislative Council (see the alpha-numeric number at the bottom left corner of each page) and ready to go, just sitting at the Texas Legislative Council waiting for him or her to pick it up and file it. FRIDAY IS THE LAST DAY TO FILE LEGISLATION Continue reading “Do you support the 10th Amendment?”
29 COMMITTEE HEARINGS NEXT WEEK
The 84th Legislature will heat up next week, with 29 Committee Hearings scheduled as of today.
Here’s a sampling of bills that are scheduled to be heard:
FINANCE
• Committees on Finance continue their hearings
EDUCATION
• Compensatory education allotment funding to provide assistance with child care to students at risk of dropping out of school.
• Testing of students with limited English proficiency
• notifying a parent or guardian whether an employee of a school is appointed school marshal Continue reading “29 COMMITTEE HEARINGS NEXT WEEK”
ACTION ITEM -TWO 2nd AMENDMENT BILLS- scheduled for THURSDAY
Please read these bills and if you are interested, please contact the committee members and voice your support/opposition. You do not have to reside in the committee members’ district to have an impact on these bills! The committee is charged with representing all Texans on those bills heard in their committee, It is their duty to allow the body of the entire Senate to discuss and vote on bills after they have passed out of the committee. It is at that time each senator should vote according to their district.
Bills to be heard in the State Affairs [SENATE Committee]
TIME & DATE: 9:00 AM, Thursday, February 12, 2015
PLACE: E1.016 (Hearing Room)
SB 11 Birdwell | et al.
Relating to the carrying of concealed handguns on the campuses of and certain other locations associated with institutions of higher education.
SB 17 Estes [ REVISED agenda – SB 17 added, SB 346 removed]
Relating to the authority of a person who is licensed to carry a handgun to openly carry a holstered handgun; creating a criminal offense; providing penalties.
Continue reading “ACTION ITEM -TWO 2nd AMENDMENT BILLS- scheduled for THURSDAY”
HUMAN TRAFFICKING COMMITTEE Public Hearing in DALLAS
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
TIME & DATE: 10:00 AM, Thursday, September 25, 2014
PLACE: Dallas, Texas
CHAIR: Sen. Huffman and Rep. Thompson, Senfronia
The Joint Interim Committee to Study Human Trafficking will hear invited and public testimony on Thursday, September 25th at 10:00 a.m. at
Dallas Police Department
Jack Evans Police Headquarters
Donald Stafford Conference Room
1400 S. Lamar Street
Dallas, Texas 75215
The Committee will:
Hear testimony on services and resources available to victims of human trafficking; and
Discuss current efforts in North Texas region to combat human trafficking.
Public testimony will be limited to 2 minutes per person.
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/83R/schedules/html/C9002014092510001.HTM
…find more legislative public hearings: https://ntcl.org/resources/calendar/
DPS – More Smoke & Mirrors; by quoting 3 words
(updated 9-10-14 @ 3:00pm)
Smoke & mirrors can fool the best citizen activist but, sifting through the smoke and splintered facts with patience can uncover the truth. Taking a statement out of context, and quoting one section of the Texas Transportation Code can claim just about anything a director of the Department of Public Safety may wish to claim, but the truth is found when the entire Code is read, especially when legislative intent is examined.
The current Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety was allowed to 
write a brief article in a Dallas paper on Sept. 3, 2014, attempting to “clear up any misconceptions related to the legality of the expanded fingerprinting process within Texas driver’s license system”, claiming DPS authority by quoting three words from the Texas Transportation Code; “thumbprints or fingerprints”. Continue reading “DPS – More Smoke & Mirrors; by quoting 3 words”
DPS is Violating Legislative Intent
-posted by Barbara Harless
The law states that individuals applying for original driver licenses, renewal drivers licenses, applicants applying for duplicate drivers licenses and personal identification certificates, must render thumbprints or index fingerprints (if a thumb is not available), along with an Image Verification System Photo (facial recognition photo).
The Texas DPS has been collecting full sets of 10 digit fingerprints, against legislative intent, since April that this blogger knows of. Dave Lieber with the Dallas Morning News reports that all 10 digits were being collected as early as January 2014 (see DMN links below).
Here is the legislative history:
– 1967 HB 354 (60th Legislature) – Added thumbprints or index fingerprints (if a thumb was not available) requirement to Continue reading “DPS is Violating Legislative Intent”
Freedom in Texas is Trending the Wrong Way
A study at George Mason University revealed that the level of freedom in Texas has declined over the past 4 years. While we can take pride in still being near the top of the list, I’d suggest we focus on why we are worse off than before, even though the a majority of our lawmakers are so-called ‘conservatives’ and would say freedom is one of their top priorities. It is important to measure a person’s actions against their words– If our elected officials are voting or acting to increase spending, increase debt, or punish victim-less crimes, they are contributing to the trend towards less freedom. It is our responsibility to correct the trend.
Texas prides itself on being a freedom-loving state, and at 14th in rank its citizens have something to be proud of. However, its policies are sometimes not as consistent with individual liberty as the rhetoric of its officials and citizens would suggest.
Common Roadblocks to Homeschooling
by Thatcher Townson — Texas Home School Coalition
“There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.” President Ronald Reagan. Liberty also contracts when government gets involved in how the laws of physics are taught, would liberty shrink if the government determined that parents could not teach their children physics? Fortunately, it is legal to homeschool in all 50 states; however, there are roadblocks. Common roadblocks include daytime curfews, truancy laws, and state approval of curriculum or teachers.
Dallas provides us with an example of a daytime curfew. The Dallas curfew prohibits students under the age of 17 from being outside school from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm on school days. By Texas law, cities can enact daytime curfews, and many do not have exemptions for homeschooling. This can expose homeschooling families to fines and court proceedings.
Truancy laws in Texas state that students cannot have more than 10 unexcused absences in a 6-month period. If a student has too many absences, they are prosecuted and can receive fines and other forms of punishment such as community service. Although there is a homeschooling exemption in the law, it is easy for school districts to use the law, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to harm homeschoolers. In other states, truancy laws are much harder to avoid because the requirements to homeschool are more stringent.
A separate, though closely related, roadblock is curriculum or teacher approval. Fortunately, in Texas homeschools are labeled as private schools and are lightly regulated. However, in other states such as California it can be difficult to homeschool. In California, one must either hire a certified tutor for 3 hours a day, 175 days a year, or one must be a part of a public or private school home study program. These laws effectively force parents to either become certified by the state, or enroll their children in public or private schools. These restrictions also exacerbate issues with truancy laws, because homeschool students not being taught by a certified teacher or enrolled in a public or private school are truants. In California, I would be a truant.
There are “good intentions” behind each of these roadblocks, but each can limit parental rights and liberty. This is why it is vital to have organizations like the Texas Home School Coalition fighting to keep government limited, so that liberty and parental rights can expand.