[Texas] House Leadership Blocking Ban on Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying

Texas Scorecard ^ | April 1, 2025 | Brandon Waltens

[JeepersFreepers]

State Rep. Brent Money (R–Greenville) says that taxpayer-funded lobbying—a long-standing target of conservative activists—won’t be getting a hearing in the House State Affairs Committee.

“For the last few days, we have been trying to get particularly taxpayer-funded lobbying pushed through State Affairs,” said Money in an interview with Texas Scorecard. “Middleton’s Senate Bill 19 has been sitting in there since late March—over a month. And so it’s just like, where is it? Can we get it moved?”

According to Money, he spoke directly with both House Speaker Dustin Burrows and State Affairs Committee Chairman Ken King about the issue. The response was not encouraging.

“Ken King has said that he is not going to [hear] taxpayer-funded lobbying at all,” Money revealed. He added that Speaker Burrows has declined to recognize his motions that would allow the bill to be moved to a different committee.

Taxpayer-funded lobbying has been a legislative priority of the Republican Party of Texas for years, and Senate Bill 19, authored by Sen. Mayes Middleton (R–Galveston), would prohibit cities and counties from spending taxpayer dollars to lobby the legislature.

Money said King’s refusal appears to stem from his opposition to the legislation itself.

“Basically, he doesn’t like the two bills—Middleton’s and David Spiller’s—and he’s afraid that they’re going to be stronger than what he’s comfortable with,” Money said. “I think he would say this: he just disagrees with the policy. And so you have a chairman who’s, at least on that policy, not in alignment with the party. And so he’s holding it up.”

Even more frustrating to some lawmakers is that King himself signed the “Texas Conservative Commitment,” a pledge that explicitly supports banning taxpayer-funded lobbying.

“He signed the conservative commitment, which most of us didn’t sign because we thought it was too weak,” said Money. “But even that had a promise to end taxpayer-funded lobbying.”

With just over a month left in the session, options to move the bill are running thin. When he was asked what recourse lawmakers have left, Money admitted it’s limited.

“We can hope that Ken King will change his mind, honor the conservative commitment that he made, and at least get one of those bills to the floor so we can debate it,” he said. “We can continue to try to pressure Speaker Burrows to let a different chairman make that decision. Very, very small, almost zero chance of that actually happening.”

Chairman Ken King did not respond to a request for comment.

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TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: funding; house; lobbying; taxpayer; texas

[JeepersFreepers]

The primary reason that a coterie of RINOs join all democrats to elect a RINO speaker of the Texas House year after year is to ensure that key Republican priorities are prevented from being brought to a vote to avoid accountability. The current bill to ban cities and counties from spending taxpayer dollars to lobby is a current example. These lobbyists work against the interests of the taxpayers. This practice continues year after year even though Texans continue to elect a Republican majority in both houses.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Texas is being run by Democrats and RINOs, in defiance of the wishes of the voters. As long as RINOs keep getting voted in, this is never going to change.

[adorno]

All lobbying is paid for by taxpayers. (Logically)

But collected taxes are not intended to be used to support any lobbying. Lobbying is NOT a government function.

[adorno]

Texas is being run by Democrats and RINOs,

Huh? I've been misled for a long time with people saying that Texas was a red state. Live and learn. ;)

[Resolute Conservative]

Maybe not run, but they do have influence and muck things up with RINO help.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I moved here two years ago. The voters are red. The legislature is, at best, kind of purple.

[JeepersFreepers]

The Texas Senate and Executive branch is reliably red. Only the House is run by RINOs and Democrats. The House blocks Republican priorities from being enacted. It is difficult for Democrats to be elected in Texas so Democrats run as RINOs and voters are to stupid to recognize the deception.

[Round Earther]

Sure, state house members who will one day leave office and become lobbyists themselves are the ones calling for a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbyists.