Texas House Partisanship Blocks Memorial Resolutions, Including Cecile Richards

The Texas House on Thursday passed up the opportunity to honor the life and memory of former Austin Mayor and Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton. The same day it also declined to honor the late U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston.

And there was no formal House remembrance for George William Strake Jr., the former Texas secretary of state who later chaired the state Republican Party when it was just starting to get a toehold on state government. Nor was there one for L. Clifford Davis, a pioneering Black judge from Fort Worth who 71 years ago helped outlaw segregation in the nation's public schools.

The events that led to those four and 14 others who had recently died not getting honored had nothing to do with their politics, the quality of their accomplishments or how they chose to live their lives. But those events had everything to do with the one other person whose name was also listed on the House Memorial Resolutions Calendar for April 17: Cecile Richards.

State Rep. Donna Howard, an Austin Democrat, in February filed a resolution to honor Richards, the daughter of the late Gov. Ann Richards, who died Jan. 20 at 67 after battling brain cancer. In her own right, the younger Richards was best known for being the national president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund for 12 years ending in 2018.

As is the Texas House custom, sets of memorial resolutions are bundled together and adopted without much controversy in the early moments of the daily floor sessions. And typically, there's no common theme among the names bundled together, other than they had belonged to people of some prominence with a Texas connection.

But Richards' presence on the list was a nonstarter for a cadre of Republican House members because Planned Parenthood operates clinics that perform legal abortions in other states. It also provides such health services as cervical and breast cancer screenings, but the objection to Richards focused on abortion.

That the House would even consider honoring Richards, said Rep. Andy Hopper, R-Decatur, "is an affront to the dignity of this chamber." Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, questioned the appropriateness of placing Richards' name on the calendar just days before Easter.

Several Democrats reminded the Republicans who had spoken against Richards that the House traditionally has cordoned off partisanship whenever members bring resolutions to honor friends and constituents who have died.

Rep. Ramon Romero, D-Fort Worth, pointed out that more than two dozen Republicans were sponsoring a resolution on Thursday's calendar honoring the late Texas GOP activist and organizer Jill Glover, and that no Democrat stood in the way.

"We don't have to agree (politically), but if somebody meant something to you, to me, the tradition of this House is that we honor those persons whether we agree with that person's life or not," Romero said.

But Rep. Nate Shatzline, who represents a solidly Republican district anchored in another part of Fort Worth, said House tradition must take second place when it comes to the issue of abortion.

"We are a pro-life state, and we have passed legislation that lines up with our biblical values that says life begins at conception," Shatzline said.

So, all 19 memorial resolutions on Thursday's calendar were sent back to committee. Under House rules, their sponsors can seek to have them added to a future calendar. And that will likely happen with most of them, including for Jackson Lee, who died in July after serving nearly 29 years in Congress.

It would not be surprising if the memorial resolution honoring Keeton — the former mayor, Austin school board president and a two-term state comptroller who died last month — finds its way back to the House floor. Coincidentally, it too was filed by Howard.

But in her remarks on the House floor Thursday, Howard appeared to have no appetite for the sort of divisiveness that Richards' resolution met. Now in her 21st year in office, Howard recalled the warmth and support that came her way in 2019 from her House colleagues when her husband was stricken with the incapacitating illness that would claim his life the following year.

A resolution honoring Derek Howard's life was offered in 2021 by Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, and was adopted without opposition.

Howard told the House on Thursday that during that difficult time, she had considered the 149 other members of the chamber "my family," any political differences notwithstanding. Howard also used her speaking time to praise Richards, saying her impact on Texas politics was not limited to her advocacy for abortion rights.

With a nod toward the sometimes heated debate over whether Richards was worthy of the memorial resolution, Howard added wryly, "and she's clearly continuing to have an impact on us."