Gov. Greg Abbott sets date for special legislative session on voting bill
AUSTIN, Texas -- Gov. Greg Abbott has set a special session of the Texas Legislature starting July 8, his office announced Tuesday.
Abbott's office did not specify what legislative priorities will be included on the special session agenda and said in an advisory that such items "will be announced prior to the convening of the special session."
The video below is from a one-on-one interview with Abbott published on June 3, 2021, regarding the failed voting bill.
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Abbott has already said that he plans to ask state lawmakers to work on two priority elections and bail bills that died in the final hours of the regular legislative session after House Democrats walked out of the chamber. More recently, Abbott has said the agenda for the Legislature's overtime round will also include further restricting in schools the teaching of critical race theory, which refers to an academic discipline that views race as a social construct.
READ ALSO: Special session required in order for Senate Bill 7 to pass
Lawmakers were already expected to return to the Legislature this calendar year for a special session focused on redrawing the state's political maps and doling out billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funds.
But after Abbott's elections and bail priority bills died in May, the governor said he would call lawmakers back to work on that legislation as well as a host of other issues. The special session focused on redistricting and the coronavirus recovery funding, he has said, will happen sometime in September or October.
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