Texas Governor Urges Business Protection From Pandemic Lawsuits

Texas needs to protect businesses from lawsuits during the pandemic and pass laws to prevent reductions in city police budgets, Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday night in his State of the State address.

“Texas businesses that have operated in good faith shouldn’t have their livelihoods destroyed by frivolous lawsuits,” Abbott (R) said. “I am asking the Legislature to quickly get a bill to my desk that provides civil liability protections for individuals, businesses, and health-care providers that operated safely during the pandemic.”

The governor underscored that request in his address as one of five emergency measures—effectively allowing lawmakers to fast-track those items if they choose.

Lawmakers are prohibited by the state constitution from passing legislation during the first 60 days of a regular session unless declared an emergency prioritized by the governor. The new legislative session began Jan. 12.

While calling Texas’s recovery from the pandemic the state’s “most pressing health priority,” Abbott said the state also needs to ensure that Texas cities don’t “follow the lead of cities like Portland and Seattle and Minneapolis by defunding the police,” saying the approach “invites crime and chaos” into communities.

“To keep Texans safe, and to discourage cities from going down this dangerous path, we must pass laws that prevent cities from defunding police,” he said.

The Texas governor has long expressed his displeasure with the Austin City Council’s August vote to pare its police department budget by $144 million. He had previously floated measures, including freezing property tax revenues, for cities that cut police budgets.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R)

Photographer: Lynda M. Gonzalez-Pool/Getty Images

He also designated as emergency items expansion of broadband access, “election integrity” to foster trust in election outcomes, and fixing what he called a “broken bail system that recklessly allows dangerous criminals back onto the streets.”

Abbott said the state’s most pressing health priority “is to help Texans recover from the pandemic,” saying the state had exceeded two million vaccinations.“

He also called upon lawmakers to “erect a complete barrier” to protect the state from having its gun rights infringed upon. “Politicians from the federal level to the local level have shouted, ‘Heck yes, the government is coming to get your guns,’” he said. “Texas must be a Second Amendment sanctuary state.”

The governor noted the earlier suspension of regulations during the public health crisis, including allowing restaurants to sell margaritas and other taxable beverages to go and allowing easier access to doctors through telemedicine.

“That is why I am asking the Legislature to make permanent some of the regulatory relief that I authorized,” he said. “This will cut red tape and unleash the full might of the Texas economy.”

The Texas governor said lawmakers must also balance the state budget without increasing taxes.

State Rep. Donna Howard (D) said before the speech that she hoped Abbott would concentrate on getting Texans vaccinated and safely back to work and school, saying “the real crisis is this continuing ineffective, inefficient vaccine distribution system.”