(Austin) – Much of that attention in the nation’s capital these last few weeks is now being diverted back home to the Lone Star State as representatives continue their work during the 87th Annual Texas Legislative Session.
At the start of the session on Tuesday, Jan. 12, state leaders returned to Austin to tackle the 140-day schedule. At the time, the Seguin Daily News featured the return for Seguin and Guadalupe County’s State Representative John Kuempel. This week, the SDN takes a look at the start of the session and the ultimate goals for the area’s other state leader Senator Judith Zaffirini.
Zaffirini, the second highest-ranking senator and highest-ranking woman senator in the state, shares her thoughts this week as she begins her representation of Senate District 21.
Zaffirini says due to COVID-19 restrictions, her experience earlier this month more than proved that this session would be unlike any that she’s ever experienced before.
“I’m usually surrounded by family and friends. I usually have my husband, my son, my daughter-in-law, my grandchildren and lots of friends and people from the University of Laredo and throughout the district. They are on the floor, through the gallery, they are everywhere and this time, I sat there alone and typically on the years that I’m sworn in, we have even more people and the senators go to the front to be sworn in. This time, we stood at our desk alone and were sworn in. It was very very different. I didn’t have anybody at my desk, on the senate floor or in the chamber. Not anybody and it was practically empty upstairs. There were a few family members who were there. Senators were allowed to have one person on the floor with them at their desk, but most people did not because our priority is the health and safety of the people of Texas beginning with of course, our families. So, I didn’t want to invite anyone and then have that person feel obligated to come. So, I stood there by myself,” said Zaffirini.
Although the typically lengthy and crowded opening-day ceremony was disrupted, the senator says she is not deterred by the uncertainty of the remaining 100 plus days.
However, Zaffirini says issues related to COVID are being prioritized at the state capitol. She says safety will remain key in the months ahead.
“We want to make sure that the staff, all those people who work at the capitol and all those people who keep the capitol safe – for example – law enforcement officers especially our Department of Public Safety Troopers that they are all safe too and so we talked about different kind of policies. There was a lot of debate. There was a lot of disagreements. There’s some people who are more worried than others but in the end, we agreed that people should be tested. That if they are coming to the capitol, they should be tested because this is a pandemic and so access to the capitol has to be different and of course, the capitol is the people’s house. It belongs to the people but when there is a pandemic, we have to accept our responsibility to ensure that the peoples’ house is safe. Now, everyone has to enter through the north and there are tents available there for testing, so people have to either show that they have been tested or be tested right there and wait 15 minutes for the results of the test,” said Zaffirini.
Due to the pandemic, Zaffirini says some of the most disappointing changes will be the elimination of certain traditions and the reduction of guests who will be arriving at their front steps.
“Of course, the capacity will be limited so that we won’t have throngs of people throughout the capitol. Typically, Tuesdays for example is what they call White Coat Day and doctors from throughout the state are always there and they are there in force and other groups come in and they have their lobby days, and they are there in force. Well, we won’t be having those lobby days anymore. We just can’t have them because hundreds of people typically come in and of course, that is a risk to those who work and those who visit there. We might do a few with very little access but I’m not encouraging anyone to come to the capitol unless they have a compelling reason to do so,” said Zaffirini.
At this time, Zaffirini has pre-filed 42 legislative measures which includes 39 bills and 3 joint resolutions – all of which Zaffirini says are reflective of her priorities.
“We would be facing a $1 billion deficit but we have done that before. In fact, we have saved $5 billion deficits and $11 billion deficits and we dealt with that. We have been able to deal with it this time. We have a billion dollars and it’s not as large as we feared but it is still significant. My priority as the Senator for District 21 which includes Seguin will be to protect education including public education and higher education and the health and human services budget and to do my very best to ensure that those budgets are not cut. I also believe that this is also not the time to raise taxes. There are many people who say ‘oh, well just raise taxes.’ This is not the time to raise taxes in anyway. People are very very concerned and there are many people who have financial problems, many people who are newly unemployed, who are newly in the low-income situation where before, they were doing well and so we have to ensure that there is no discussion of increasing taxes in anyway. Simultaneously, we have to look at other sources of revenues – for example the rainy-day fund. This is the time to look at the rainy-day fund. If this isn’t a rainy day, what is?” said Zaffirini.
Enhancements found in some of her pieces of legislation would expand Medicaid, provide student loan debt assistance to frontline workers, expand access to pre-kindergarten for 3-year-olds and make higher education and community colleges tuition-free for persons with an annual household income of less than $100,000.
Again, Zaffirini says she’s confident that they will be able to avoid potentially devastating cuts to education, higher education and health and human services.
Redistricting will also be a much-discussed topic. She says once legislators receive data from the U.S. Census Bureau, they will conduct their once-per-decade redrawing of the Texas House, Senate, Congressional and State Board of Education maps.
“Redistricting is among our most important tasks as legislators,” said Zaffirini. “I look forward to a fair and transparent process that I hope will prioritize community interests rather than partisan advantage.”
She says despite the challenges this past year, there has been a silver lining regarding her commitment to constituents. She says thanks to technology, she has been able to network with even more residents – over 360,000 to be exact.
“I as a senator have changed in many ways because of the pandemic. For example, I have always had an open-door policy and my policy is to accept an appointment with any constituent who wants to meet with me and then we work very hard to return every phone call, to answer every email, to respond to every letter. But during the pandemic, we hadn’t been able to have the appointments, so we went to virtual appointments and at the beginning of the session, we were totally up to date with every single request for an appointment that had been made. Now, that would have been even more difficult during session because we are in session for so long and we have so many different hearings and what not so it makes appointments more difficult, but we are going to continue to meet by Zoom. My staff will continue to work virtually which means that we won’t be having in person appointments, but we will schedule appointments by Zoom and incredibly what we realize at the end before we started session is we actually reached more people than we would have otherwise,” said Zaffirini.
Zaffirini and her staff continue to accept appointments via Zoom.
They may be reached at either her capitol office at 512-463-0121, or at her Laredo office, 956-722-2293. Constituents may also email the senator at judith.zaffirini@senate.texas.
