Dan Patrick Blasts Dade Phelan, Says It’s Time For A New Speaker

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The 4th Special Session of the Texas Legislature ended on Tuesday, a day before it was actually scheduled to end and once again it ended with legislation either not getting votes, or being left to die. Education Savings Accounts, Governor Abbott's signature piece of legislation was basically killed in the House after members voted to strip ESA's from a school funding bill.

FULL AUDIO, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick on The Chad Hasty Show:

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick joined The Chad Hasty Show on Tuesday and blasted the House Speaker, Dade Phelan, for his inaction in the final days of the special session.

The House had six days left in session from last Friday until tomorrow (Wednesday) when the official end would be, and they did absolutely nothing. So they didn't pass Senate Bill 2, the teacher pay. They didn't pass Senate Bill 1, the school choice as you know. We sent them a bill to add $800 million for school security, they didn't pass that. And we sent a bill because we are being sued by 6 different people on the process of the election, the constitutional amendments. That if we don't win in court, everything from property tax relief to teacher retirement checks, every other amendment that people overwhelmingly passed could be held up for months, a year or more. We passed a bill, Senate Bill 6 that no matter what the court did, these constitutional amendments would go into effect. Because those property tax cuts come now, teacher retirement checks, retired teachers 75 and over would be getting a check for $7500. So Dade, complained last week that he didn't have time, well the session is 30 days Chad. 6 days out of 30 is 20 percent of the session, he had plenty of time to pass a bill.

Patrick blasted Phelan as "incompetent" and urged Republican voters to ask House candidates if they planned on supporting Dade Phelan for House Speaker. Patrick also said that under Phelan, the House is dysfunctional.

During the interview Patrick also said that Phelan wouldn't allow some conservative legislation pass because of the Democrats that support Phelan as Speaker. Patrick also said that Phelan is a "poor communicator" who likes to look tough and look like a conservative but is a "border line Democrat".

Patrick reiterated several times that the House had plenty of time to pass legislation from last Friday that the Senate had approved. "Everybody sees through this. You can't say we didn't have time to do it when you have six days left."

Look, Dade is simply not a leader. Period, end of story. And he doesn't know how the system works, he thinks he does.

At the end of the interview Patrick ended the interview with, "We need a new Speaker".

Listen to the full interview below.

FULL AUDIO, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick on The Chad Hasty Show: