Rep. Brian Harrison Calls Out 'Trainwreck Legislative Session'

State Rep. Brian Harrison didn’t mince words when reflecting on the 89th Texas legislative session: “Just about everything” went wrong.

State Rep. Brian Harrison didn’t mince words when reflecting on the 89th Texas legislative session: “Just about everything” went wrong.

In a blistering post-session assessment with The Dallas Express, the Waxahachie Republican said the session marked a dramatic failure of conservative governance, charging that GOP leadership enabled the growth of government, increased spending, and squandered a historic opportunity to cut property taxes.

“The Texas government has been too weak, too liberal, for too long,” Harrison said. “We trampled liberty on the way to becoming a progressive liberal nanny state.”

For Harrison, who served in the first Trump administration and has allied with Texas’ medical freedom and anti-DEI movements, the clearest symbol of misplaced priorities came in the form of a pop icon. “We spent more time deliberating and voting on Beyoncé than we did property tax elimination,” he said. “And as crazy as that sounds, it is literally true.”

The failure to deliver sweeping property tax relief dominated much of Harrison’s critique.

Despite a $24 billion surplus, he said the legislature failed to give Texans the relief they demanded. “If we had one job this session, it was to get the crushing burden of property taxes under control,” Harrison said. “Instead, we spent it on liberal pet projects.”

One of the most prominent examples he cited was a bill to allocate $1.5 billion in taxpayer money to Hollywood production incentives, a dramatic increase from the $200 million spent last session. “That’s Texans going to work so government can steal their wages to give it to rich Hollywood liberals,” Harrison said. “It’s immoral. It’s unethical.”

Harrison also condemned the passage of Senate Bill 3, which bans certain hemp-derived products, calling it “destructive of liberty.” He said the bill would push consumers into dangerous black markets and reverse the loosened restrictions created under President Trump in 2018. “I think I’m the only member of the Legislature who asked the governor to veto SB3,” he said.

He also singled out the legislature’s near-total ban on flavored vaping products, despite Trump’s support for vaping as a harm-reduction alternative to cigarettes. “The Texas House is going directly against Trump policy on both counts,” he said.

The legislature’s fiscal policy also drew fire from Harrison, who called the state’s budget—SB1—“the most reckless, bloated, liberal progressive budget in the history of Texas.” He pointed out that it represented a 42% increase in state funds over the past two budget cycles. “There is no defense—none—for any Republican who voted for that,” he said. “Every time the government increases spending, it is stealing from Texans. That makes them less free.”

Harrison warned that this session expanded the government’s cultural influence as well, particularly through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and university funding. “Texas has not banned DEI in any way, shape, or form,” he said. “Our public universities are still allowed to engage in DEI in their classrooms.”

He added that the state government, including agencies like TxDOT, continues to award contracts based on DEI criteria. “I had a state agency admit in a hearing that they’ve awarded over $1 billion in DEI-based contracts,” he said.

On higher education, Harrison said lawmakers had doubled down on “transgender indoctrination,” funding universities that offer LGBTQ studies and programming. “Every public university in Texas has LGBTQ coursework,” he said. “Guess what funded that? SB1. Everybody who voted for SB1 voted for DEI and transgender indoctrination.”

Harrison also expressed frustration that the legislature failed to advance HB 3175, which would have made ivermectin available over the counter. “Making medicines like ivermectin available should have been the least controversial thing we did down here,” he said, adding that the session signaled a lack of seriousness on medical freedom. He blamed House leadership—specifically then-Calendar Committee Chairman (now Speaker) Dustin Burrows—for blocking legislation that would have ended COVID-19 vaccine mandates for students in the last session and this session. “We could have done that two years ago,” Harrison said.

When asked where to place blame, Harrison was blunt: “The people responsible for the bad legislation in Austin are Republicans. Completely. Texans are starving for bold, unapologetic, conservative leadership. We don’t have that right now.”

Still, Harrison acknowledged that a few positive outcomes emerged. He praised HB 3441, authored by Rep. Shelley Luther, which allows Texans to sue vaccine manufacturers that advertise in the state if someone is injured. But even that, he said, was a partial correction of previous government overreach. “Almost all of the good things fall into one of three categories: they’re either too weak, undo a previous bad, or are years overdue,” he said.

Harrison also criticized the education savings account (ESA) program passed this session as misleading. While he voted for it, he emphasized that it would serve only about 1% of Texas students. “This is not universal school choice,” he said. “And to get it passed, we had to give Democrats a billion-dollar payoff.”

Could there be a special session with the type of "bold" leadership he seeks? Harrison is not optimistic. "To my knowledge, I'm the only legislator who has asked for a special session."

As the legislature adjourns, Harrison said his message to constituents is clear: “The Texas government has lost its way. Top to bottom.”

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