Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, refused to sign a permission slip assigning an officer to escort her until the Texas House convenes Wednesday. It’s part of the back-and-forth in the fight over redistricting.
Pictured wearing a bonnet and draped with a blanket while sleeping on the Texas House floor Monday night, Collier is expected to spend Tuesday night inside the Capitol after refusing to sign a paper assigning an officer to watch her.
“The speaker has said that unless members, Democratic members, sign a piece of paper agreeing to be released into the custody of DPS to ensure a return on Wednesday at 10 a.m., we are not free to leave, and I have refused to sign,” Collier said in an interview with NBC News Monday night.
On Tuesday afternoon, at least four other Democratic lawmakers, Reps. Mihaela Plesa, Rhetta Bowers, Penny Morales Shaw and Casandra Garcia Hernandez ripped up their permission slips to join Collier.
“I didn’t feel like I should be obligated to sign a piece of paper to be able to leave the floor, because we’re all adults here. It’s a show of power over people, and that’s what they’re doing now. They’re showing that they have power over us, and that’s why they’re using the force of law enforcement,” Collier said.
After spending two weeks out of state to break quorum, Texas House Democrats who fled to Chicago returned to Austin on Monday.
They left the state in protest of Gov. Greg Abbott’s push to pass new congressional maps during the first special session. Former President Donald Trump has pressed Texas lawmakers to redraw the lines to give Republicans five more seats in Congress in next year’s midterm elections.
Now that the Texas House Democrats are back, there are enough members present for a quorum.
As a consequence for leaving the state during the special session, Democrats must pay $500 per day missed.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, also ordered Democrats to sign a permission slip to have a DPS officer escort them across the state until they return Wednesday for the second special session.
In a statement, Burrows said, “Rep. Collier’s choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules. I am choosing to spend my time focused on moving the important legislation on the call to overhaul camp safety, provide property tax reform and eliminate the STAAR test — the results Texans care about.”
“It’s a waste of money by the state. These DPS officers could be looking for pedophiles and human traffickers, but instead, they’re being asked to trail Democratic state representatives to ensure that they return to the Capitol so that they can pass their racist maps. They know no bounds to their quest for power at the cost of Black and Brown voters,” Collier said.
Collier, who is in her seventh term, also filed a legal complaint in court arguing the government doesn’t have the power to compel any Texas citizen or elected official into pre-emptive custody.
“Because of the political theater, they’re saying that we have to get permission to leave, to come back, and while we’re gone, we have to be in the custody of a DPS officer, and there’s no crime that has been committed yet. We are being instructed that if I want to leave, I’ve got to agree to be in their custody,” Collier said, implying it would be different if they were in session.
She said she’s only allowed in the chambers or her office, and can’t leave the Capitol without a Department of Public Safety officer.
In a statement, she wrote, “I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts. When I press that button to vote, I know these maps will harm my constituents — I won’t just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination.”
On Tuesday, Democratic county leaders in Dallas and Tarrant counties expressed their support for Collier’s actions during commissioners court.
“I want to say thank to Rep. Collier for her principled stance on defense of legislative dignity and democratic representation,” said Alisa Simmons, Tarrant County commissioner for Precinct 2. “While the others signed the permission slip, Rep. Collier said, ‘No way, I’m not doing it. Rep. Collier understood that signing such a document, treatment as something less than a full citizen and an elected official.’”
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price said during their meeting, “Thank you for the courage to do what everybody else should have done. Don’t sign no permission slip.”
As the political theater plays out on both sides of the aisle, experts say the outcome is already decided.
“No, it will make no difference to the ultimate outcome. Republicans are going to pass their map intact or very nearly so tomorrow. It’s already passed the Texas Senate. It needs only the approval of the House, and they have no inclination and frankly no reason to make any alterations or to make any concessions to Democrats,” said Matthew Wilson, political science professor at Southern Methodist University. “So there’s nothing that the Democrats can do to obstruct the eventual outcome here. All of their efforts have been aimed at raising the national salience of this issue and at triggering efforts in other states to try to offset what Republicans are doing here.”
He said from a political standpoint, it raises Collier’s profile.
“In return, it really raises her profile and gets attention both in her own district and statewide and earns goodwill among Democratic activists who are really angered about this whole redistricting process as it has unfolded,” Wilson said. “So it was a wise political move on her part.”
Wilson said the recent events have been remarkable.
“It’s been pretty remarkable. It certainly has dialed up the intensity beyond what we’ve seen even in previous quorum breaks. And Texas is kind of unusual in having these quorum breaks because most states just require a majority of the legislature to be present to create a quorum. Texas is unusual in requiring two-thirds, and that’s what allows the potential for these kinds of theatrics and these prolonged flights out of state. But you know the Republicans have played hardball this time to a greater extent than they have in the past—levying fines, issuing arrest warrants, releasing these Democratic state legislators only upon signing these pledges to return and subject to DPS surveillance. So it really has been a remarkable escalation in the level of partisan hostility that we’ve seen in Austin.”