Page 83 - Quorum News Today

With paramilitary groups linked to the colombian government. mr guevara, a former member of congress, was intercepted as he drove his car on a highway in the capital, caracas. usually, whenever theres an important measure to be discussed in a legislative chamber, political parties make sure that all their delegates are present to maximise their voting options. but in texas this afternoon, a large number of democrat politicians travelled away from the state parliament and headed for washington in...

Letters were delivered to the house journal clerk directing the house to lock our voting machines and not unlock them until we provide express permission to do so upon our return to the capitol. so with that it is my privilege now to introduce a great fighter along time advocate in the fight for voting rights the chairman of the mexican american caucus from dallas, texas. [applause] >> [speaking spanish] >> bill: the voting legislation that has been proposed by republicans in the state house bac...

Sure that we preserve the right to vote in the state of texas. >> texas democrats risked being arrested by fleeing the state, as nbc news details. quote, absent lawmakers can be legally compelled to return to the capitol, and the source said democrats expect state republicans to ask the department of public safety to track them down. the texas house speaker issued a statement saying, the texas house will use every available resource, under the texas constitution and the unanimously-passed house ...

To the texas legislature at 6:00 in the morning on saturday to start their waiting in line for their turn to speak. some of them didnt actually have a chance to testify until 1:00 a.m. on sunday. one committee hearing on this bill lasted almost a full 24 hours. in the end all of the democratic amendments were voted down by all the republicans. republicans did not listen to the arguments against the bill to what most of their constituents were telling them. in both the texas house and the senate ...

Whats important here. the important thing here is democracy. whats important is our constitutional rights to vote. i am in the legislature. we have house rules and house practice, but the rules and practices do not trump our constitutional rights. very good example, we have a right to be in the house chamber, by rule, but we have a constitutional right that says we can leave in a quorum, shut down business of the legislature, and thats what we did. we shouldnt let a senate tradition infringe on ...

As you just heard, more than 50 democratic members of the texas house have left texas to stop republicans from passing the latest iteration of their voter suppression legislation, and youre going to hear primarily from some of my colleagues today, because we have so many strong voices in our caucus. we want to give them the opportunity to speak to the public, but just for everyones awareness, procedurally how this works is, theres 150 members of the texas house. it takes two-thirds of the body p...

Governors would help return you to texas. do you feel that you will, still, make attempts in washington to contact senator manchin and senator sinema? >> there was a delegation of house members who came to washington a few weeks ago, after the first time we broke quorum, to meet with senator manchin. i, myself, went to west virginia, about two weeks ago, to participate in a voting rights rally. where the freedom ride -- the new freedom ride landed in west virginia and heard from his constituents...

In this case they havent just fled the state because that denies the quorum. they have fled the state specifically to come to washington because washington is the one place this disaster in texas and this disaster in every other state where republicans are rolling back voting rights can be fixed. if there is a federal voting rights back stop at the federal level, then states will not have the option to bring their voting rights down below a floor set at the federal level. it doesnt mean the fede...

They worried those red state governors might somehow help texas republicans force the democrats back into texas to reestablish the quorum. that is the drama were dealing with and why the texas democrats are in washington tonight. the planes have just landed in the past hour. theyre not only trying to throw a wrench in the works on trying to stop this voter suppression bill from passing in texas but picked d.c. ultimately not as a purely symbolic thing but because they r begging for a federal res...

Theyve gone in this fight. this morning the remaining lawmakers in the texas house voted for the sergeant at arms to track the missing members down. the states republican governor has vowed to have them arrested once theyre back in the state. >> once they step back into the state of texas, they will be arrested and brought to the texas capitol and we will be conducting business. >> lets go to nbcs priscilla thompson at the texas state capitol in austin. walk us through the latest. practically do...