URGENT ACTION NEEDED TO PASS anti-SANCTUARY CITY LEGISLATION!

URGENT ACTION NEEDED
TODAY, TOMORROW & THIS WEEKEND
TO PASS SANCTUARY CITY LEGISLATION!  

On 5/18/11 the Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee was to hear and vote on HB 12, the anti-sanctuary city legislation that Governor Perry said was an "emergency item" this session.  Because of back door deals and disagreements between the House and Senate, SB 9 (which does not contain the needed provisions of HB 12) was substituted by the committee with the apparent blessing of the Commitee Chair, Sen. Tommy Williams and other Republicans.  THIS CANNOT STAND!

WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME FOLKS -  THE ONLY WAY THIS BILL GETS PASSED IS IF WE FLOOD THESE PEOPLE WITH CALLS (PREFERRABLY) & EMAILS.  LEAVE MESSAGES IF NECESSARY BECAUSE THE ILLEGAL ALIENS & THEIR SUPPORTERS ARE SHOWING UP ENMASSE!   

MOST IMPORTANTLY CONTACT THE COMMITTEE CHAIRS, CO-CHAIRS, COMMITTEE CLERKS, GOVERNOR PERRY, SPEAKER STRAUS, YOUR SENATOR & REPRESENTATIVE, & LT. GOV. DEWHURST!

Without going into the details of the tricks that are being played, this is the main message: 

"Pass HB 12 this session to end the dangerous practice of providing sanctuary to illegal aliens in Texas.  Law enforcement officers, citizens, and other residents (both legal and illegal) have been killed and suffered severe injury because criminal illegal aliens are being allowed to live in our communities (without fear).   This "magnet" must end this session."

GOVERNOR RICK PERRY: 
Citizen's Opinion Hotline [for Texas callers]:
(800) 252-9600
Office of the Governor Fax:
(512) 463-1849
Email Governor Perry (Select I'm Registering an Opinion)
http://governor.state.tx.us/contact/
 
SPEAKER JOE STRAUS:
(512) 463-1000 
(512) 463-0675 Fax
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/member-page/email/?district=121&session=82

 House Homeland Security & Public Safety Commitee:
All Numbers (512) Area Code

Clerk: Steven Schar - 463-0133 
Chair: Rep. Sid Miller - 463-0628 sid.miller@house.state.tx.us 
Vice Chair: Rep. Allen Fletcher - 463-0661 allen.fletcher@house.state.tx.us
Members: Rep. Marva Beck - 463-0508 marva.beck@house.state.tx.us
 Rep. Lon Burnam  - 463-0740  lon.burnam@house.state.tx.us
 Rep. Joe Driver - 463-0574  joe.driver@house.state.tx.us
 Rep. Dan Flynn - 463-0880  dan.flynn@house.state.tx.us
 Rep. Barbara Mallory Caraway - 463-0664
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/member-page/email/?district=110&session=82
 Rep. Aaron Pena - 463-0426  aaron.pena@house.state.tx.us
 Rep. Armando Walle - 463-0924  armando.walle@house.state.tx.us


Senate Committee: Transportation & Homeland Security
 
Clerk: Tulsi Reddy -  463-0067
 
Chair:  Sen. Tommy Williams - 463-0104 / 512-463-6373 Fax
tommy.williams@senate.state.tx.us
 
Vice-Chair:  Sen. Kirk Watson 512-463-0114 / 512-463-5949 Fax
kirk.watson@senate.state.tx.us
 
WHO REPRESENTS ME?:   http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/
 

JOIN IRCOT ON FACEBOOK & spread the word then PLEASE.....

 Thanks for JOINING FORCES WITH US and being engaged in this battle!

Visit our website at:
www.ircot.com

Summary of 4th Citizen Lobbyist Trip to Austin

Summary of 4th Citizen Lobbyist Trip to Austin

The first stop, as always, was Governor Perry’s reception office.  The reception within the Governor’s ceremonial office is always very cool toward their seemingly unwelcome constituents.  Of course, the Governor is never “in” or available to speak with constituents, at least not without being a “someone” with an appointment. We’re used to the attitude and ignore it, knowing it’s our right to be in his office telling him how to do his job.

Next, we dropped off a statement at Governor Perry’s business office.  The staffer in the office recognized our group from previous lobbying trips and was very receptive.  We took the opportunity to reiterate our stand on the SBOE redistricting map and requesting that Perry veto the map.  We also delivered copies of the letter to his Constituency Communications office and to his policy advisor, Molly Rutledge. 

Below is the text of our message to Governor Perry:

REASON FOR OUR VISIT:

As a Tea Party we have sent leadership and members to Austin for the past 4 weeks to lobby against HB600.  We are extremely dissatisfied with the redistricting of the SBOE, as the map eliminates several very key conservative Board members.  The elections of November 2010 sent a clear message of what your constituency expects in return for their support and votes and therefore we oppose HB600.  We request that you VETO HB600.

We represent over 2000 members and last week our Citizen Lobbyists were joined in Austin by the Galveston County TP, the Pearland TP, and the San Antonio TP - representing over 10,000 conservative Texans in all.  Together, we presented a white paper outlining our opposition to HB600 and requesting a veto.  We delivered that statement to your office on Thursday, May 12th, and are following up with this document today on May 17th.

Next stop was Senator Dan Patrick’s office.  We questioned him about P3s (private-public partnerships) especially with regards to foreign entities and funding infrastructure.  He explained that to pay for new roads, there are only three sources of revenue:  1)  hike the gas tax  2)  tax per mile driven 3) toll roads financed by the company building it.   Unfortunately, he explained that there is only one American company that can build toll roads.  This needs to be researched because that sounds unbelievable.  Only one?  Apparently, that dearth of American companies leaves the job to foreign firms who can finance the infrastructure based upon payback from tolls.  We need expert input on this issue.

We then visited Senator Mike Jackson in his office.  We discussed the SBOE map with him and he stated that he spoke with Perry about the public call for Perry to veto the map.  That’s interesting since he voted FOR it in the first place.  It didn’t sound like he advised the Governor one way or the other, but discussed the situation. 

We  spoke with Jackson about the hazards of counting illegal aliens in the voting population and then using those skewed numbers in the redistricting considerations.  He seemed unaware that illegal aliens were counted in redistricting.  One of our members had testified earlier in the redistricting hearings and had confirmed with the demographer that there was no breakdown of Hispanic surnames into those that were legal citizens and those that were not. Senator Jackson appeared a little surprised to hear that his Texan constituency did not appreciate illegal aliens being included as voting public with rights to representation in the redistricting process.  He also confirmed that he would vote for the House redistricting map (HB 150), against our advice, since that was “the way things had always traditionally been done”:  the Senate rubber stamps the House map and vice versa.

Next, we made the rounds of all of the Senate members of the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee in order to lobby for HB12, the anti-sanctuary city bill.  Here is the text of our white paper that we left in each office:

REASON FOR OUR VISIT:

We understand that the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee is holding a public hearing on HB12 on May 18th.  We transported a van of our Tea Party leadership and members to the Capitol today to inform you that our membership (2000+ members and growing) fully supports HB12, which would end “sanctuary cities” in Texas.  It is important that you understand that we Texans support HB12 and want you to send the bill to the Senate floor for a vote and we want you to vote in favor of HB12.  We believe it is necessary for the safety of our communities, the solvency of out towns and cities, and the law and order of our State.

Please support HB12 and end “sanctuary cities” in Texas.  We demand that our laws be enforced and our communities secured.

This letter was delivered to all the following Senate Members:

Tommy Williams (chairman)
Kirk Watson
Wendy Davis
Rodney Ellis
Chris Harris
Juan Hinojosa
Robert Nichols
Florence Shapiro
Jeff Wentworth

Also, copies were delivered to Senators Mike Jackson and Dan Patrick.

We then went and observed in the Senate gallery as they debated proposed amendments for SB31, the Senate redistricting map.  The only topic under consideration was the race and ethnicity of the majority-minority districts in Tarrant County (via Sen. Wendy Davis, D).

After lunch, we visited Harris County area Representative Wayne Smith.  We have not yet visited his office during this session, and since one of his constituents was with us today, we thought it would be a great opportunity to introduce him to the Clear Lake Tea Party.  He was in the House Chambers, but we did visit with his friendly staff and sign his guest book.

We then spent quite a good bit of time visiting with the chief of staff for Rep. Leo Berman, specifically about the MOVE Act, which proposes to move Texas’ primary date.  We believe we have some good connections that may offer some alternatives for ensuring military ballots are mailed and collected in a timely manner, as it is imperative that we not push back our primary date any further than it already is (in March).  To the contrary, we really need to move Texas’ primary up to Super Tuesday (early February) in order for our large delegation to be counted in the nomination process. 

Note:  earlier in the day, we had already heard from Senator Jackson that the Republican National Committee (RNC) had threatened the Republican Party of Texas with sanctioning if they dared to try and move Texas’ primary to an earlier date.  The national Party apparently threatened to withhold campaign funds from the State, but considering that Texas donated over 5 times the funds to the National Party that they received back in campaign funding, their threat to withhold that paltry sum is ridiculous.  Note the heavy-handed threats from the national Party though.

Rep Leo Berman’s office is extremely welcoming to conservatives and we were treated with a great deal of friendliness and respect.  It visiting countless legislative offices, it is quickly obvious that you can deduce the personality of a representative from the behavior of his staff, and Leo Bernam can be proud of his staff.

We next popped in on Rep. James White, the Tea Party freshman from East Texas.  We wanted to meet him and encourage him to NOT sign a pledge card for Straus, and to reiterate our opposition to Straus and remind him that the Tea Parties across Texas were aligned to oppose Straus again in in the next session.   We then thought it would be a good idea to impress that point upon all of the Reps we visited to dissuade them from signing a pledge card to Straus.  That pledge card was the inside secret that caused so many of them to precipitously pledge their support to Straus at the end of the last session, and prior to the November elections.  We are well aware that Straus promises Reps re-election funds and support in exchange for their pledge.

That led us to visit Larry Taylor’s office to encourage him to NOT sign a pledge card for Straus.  We had been extremely disappointed in Larry Taylor’s support for Joe Straus, believing that it disadvantaged crucial legislation that was important to us. Therefore, it was only fair to stress our continued opposition to Straus, and to request that Taylor NOT sign a pledge to support Sraus for Speaker in 2013.  We had quite a lengthy visit with one of Taylor’s legislative aides, Carrie, who defended Taylor’s record on the biggest votes, citing them in lieu of the other legislation that had gotten killed in Committees or Calendars. 

Carrie also informed us that Texas Association of Business (TAB) had successfully lobbied the Republicans to kill the E-Verify bill (which the Tea Party was for).  She advised us to turn our attentions to the lobbyists, but we told her that our Representives work for us, and that is who would get our attention.

We then went to Senator Duell’s office to drop off our statement on the SBOE map, and requested that he advise the Governor to veto the map.

We spent some time in the House gallery to observe the debate on SB 1811, which would allow the State to collect the small business franchise tax 9 months early in order to pay down the shortfall  between the Senate and House budgets concerning  education spending.  We stand in direct opposition to SB 1811, and so we emailed Larry Taylor from the gallery, to ensure that he knew of our position on the matter and to solicit his vote in opposition.  The vote should happen tomorrow on May 18th.

The Senate had recessed earlier in the day around 1pm and the House adjourned at 5pm until 10am tomorrow.   Before we left Austin, we stopped for dinner and saw many Republican representative members of the Texas Conservative Caucus (TCC) meet at the restaurant with some lobbyists.  It was interesting to note who was there and who was not.

Along the way, we lobbied in favor of the Health Care Compact with any of the relevant legislators we spoke to.  Also, we discovered the that anti-“sharia law” legislation (HB 911) had been amended to a weaker House bill (274) which was getting some resistance in the Senate and therefore looked like it was going to die.  This is unfortunate, because HB 911 was a strong bill and likely to pass on its own merits, without being dragged down by HB 274.  We found this out towards the end of the day and tried to get more information, but just ran out of time.  This topic will be worth following up on.

The next Citizen Lobbyist trip to Austin is scheduled for Wednesday, 25 May. 

Governor Perry, please stand with us.

This is the message that this powerful video made by Texas conservatives is sending out not only to Gov. Perry but to all of our Texas Legislators.

Today’s video is Pt. 1 with more to follow from Texas’ conservative leaders:



We will not go away, and our numbers are growing with each new outrage during this Legislative Session.  The elections of 2012 are just around the corner, and we will not forget those Legislators who stood with us and those who stood against us.

Donna Garner

Background on SBOE Vote

“A Vote for the Record Book”
by Donna Garner
5.5.11

*Today’s vote on HB 600 (State Board of Education/E120 redistricting map) will be one of the prime votes by which conservatives rank candidates when it comes time for the 2012 elections.


THIS AFTERNOON

In spite of our pleas to our Texas Legislators, they have managed to pass one of the most dastardly bills to come out of this session because if left to stand, the Texas State Board of Education redistricting map will negatively impact what happens to our public schools for ten years to come.

The House took a record vote today on HB 600 (Sen. Seliger’s rogue E120/SBOE redistricting map) and concurred with the Senate.

The vote in the House today was 80 yeas, 61 nays, 3 present not voting, 2 absent excused, and 4 absent.

The representatives who voted against the dastardly HB 600 (Sen. Seliger’s rogue E120) in the House this afternoon were Allen; Alonzo; Alvarado; Anchia; Berman; Burnam; Cain; Christian; Coleman; Davis, Y.; Dutton; Eiland; Farias; Farrar; Flynn; Gonzales, V.; Gonzalez; Guillen; Gutierrez; Harper-Brown; Hernandez Luna; Hochberg; Howard, D.; Hughes; Johnson; King, P.; King, T.; Landtroop; Larson; Laubenberg; Lozano; Lucio; Mallory Caraway; Margo; Marquez; Martinez; Martinez Fischer; McClendon; Menendez; Miles; Muñoz; Naishtat; Oliveira; Paxton; Perry; Pickett; Quintanilla; Raymond; Reynolds; Rodriguez; Simpson; Taylor, L.; Taylor, V.; Thompson; Truitt; Veasey; Villarreal; Vo; Walle; White; Zedler. 

Please take time to thank these courageous representatives who voted against HB 600.

When HB 600 (Sen. Seliger’s rogue E120) was passed in the Senate on 4.29.11, the only two Senators who voted against it were Sen. Brian Birdwell and Sen. Dan Patrick.  Please take time to thank both Sen. Birdwell and Sen. Patrick.

You can go here and click on “Record Vote -- 5.5.11” to see for yourself how the House members voted:

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Actions.aspx?LegSess=82R&Bill=HB600

Now HB 600 (Sen. Seliger’s rogue E120) has been sent to Gov. Perry’s desk.

We have a chance to stop this bill.  I beg of you to call Gov. Perry and tell him that we want him to veto HB 600 and announce a Special Session to produce a fair and equitable SBOE map, honoring the conservative voting patterns reflected on Nov. 2, 2010.

Gov. Perry is one of the most conservative Governors in the entire United States. I believe he will listen to us if we make our voices heard.

Gov. Perry’s phone numbers:  1-800-252-9600; 512-463-1782; 512-463-2000

Gov. Perry’s e-mail address:  http://www.governor.state.tx.us/contact/assistance.aspx
 

GOV. PERRY’S THREE OPTIONS

Gov. Perry also has three options that are open to him by law:

(1)  Gov. Perry can SIGN the SBOE bill as presented to him.

(2)  Gov. Perry can veto the bill as presented to him, but then the map would go to the courts to decide the SBOE redistricting map.

(3)  Gov. Perry can veto the bill as presented to him AND CALL A SPECIAL SESSION for the purpose of coming up with an acceptable map that he would sign.


==================================
“We the People Showed up in Austin Yesterday”
by Donna Garner
5.5.11

http://alicelinahan.net/2011/05/05/governor-perry-stand-with-us-we-the-people-showed-up-in-austin-yesterday/


Yesterday 24 conservative leaders from all across Texas drove hundreds of miles at their own expense and on their own time to go to Austin to meet with the Texas Attorney General’s (TAG) office.

These 24 conservative leaders were tea party and/or Republican activists who represent thousands of other Texas conservatives who have become totally frustrated with our Texas legislature.

Most of the people who came to the meeting had taken personal leave or had left their own businesses to spend the entire day in Austin, not going to fancy malls and eating at exotic-sounding restaurants but instead to do the grunt work of strategizing for the remainder of this legislative session and for the elections of 2012. (You will soon see visual evidence of our hard work.) 

These conservative leaders have already begun spending the hours required to vet candidates for 2012, and they shared their ongoing results yesterday.  We want to make sure that the ever-growing conservative numbers of Texas voters are not fooled in the next election by those who run as conservatives and then legislate as left-leaning Republicans-in-Name-Only (RINO’s) as we have seen in this present legislature.


OVER 3,500 SIGNATURES ON OUR PETITION


One of the things that we did was to present our petition that held over 3,500 names, gathered in only 6 days.  This was the petition that voiced Texas citizens’ passionate displeasure over the redistricting process that we have seen thus far by the Texas Legislature. The redistricting process will determine the direction in which Texas will go for the next ten years!

 Next stop for the petition is Gov. Perry’s office. It is not too late for other concerned citizens to sign the petition at:

 http://austinreteaparty.com/Signthepetition.aspx

Priority Action Items!

Read this behind the scenes update from Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas (IRCOT)...

On Monday all Conservative Bills will be dead in the Texas House unless the Calendars Committee hears from you today!  You can be sure the other side is burning up the phone lines!

THE 3 TOP PRIORITY ITEMS AND CORRESPONDING ACTION YOU MUST TAKE IN THIS ORDER:

1. CALL THE CALENDARS COMMITTEE ON THESE 3 BILLS
   HB 3252 This was the only E-Verify bill that passed out of committee  & it is the most important bill!
   HB 301 English as the Official Language.
   HB 911 Prohibition on application of foreign laws.
 
Call the Calendars Committee at 512-463-0758.  Tell them you want them to vote YES for these bills quickly to meet the Monday deadline. 
Tell them Citizens do not want to compete with illegal aliens for Texas jobs and you, Our sovereignty, must be their priority!

2. HB 12 Anti-Sanctuary City.  Call your State Rep and ask them to vote YES for HB 12 Anti-Sanctuary City on Monday when it returns to the floor.

3. HB 608 Cost of benefits for illegal aliens. Call your State Rep and ask them to support this bill when it comes to the floor on Tuesday!
_______________________________________________________________

2ND TIER OF PRIORITY LEGISLATION

Amazingly, 4 GOOD BILLS and 1 BAD BILL on illegal immigration are sitting in THE Calendars Committee from our 2nd Tier of important legislation.

ON MONDAY ALL BILLS WILL DIE!  
 
We ask that you CALL the calendars committee to vote YES TO THESE BILLS BEFORE THE DEADLINE.
HB 911 Application of Foreign Laws and Forums in the State
HB 875 Identifying illegal aliens prior to granting bail
HB 892 Unlawful transport of illegal aliens
HJR 86 Constitutional Amendment to deny bail to illegal aliens arrested on a felony
 
VOTE NO TO KILL THIS BILL:
HCR 88 Calling on Congress, Senate, the President to fix the immigration system using a comprehensive immigration reform solution.
 ______________________________________________________________

  After viewing the proceedings on the House Floor today and throughout this past week, it is clear that the House leadership is not up to the task of defending conservative legislation.  During the debates on the House floor, liberals are relentless in using procedural rules to stymie the unprepared House leadership.  Frankly it is an embarrassment.  But they believe that everything they do occurs in a vacuum, and no one will notice.  We must let them know we are watching. 

NOW IS THE TIME TO LET THEM KNOW THAT WHEN THEY SAID THE TEA PARTY WAS DEAD AND GONE - WE ARE VERY MUCH ALIVE AND WATCHING EVERY MOVE!
 
We have the opportunity to call them on their shortcomings and demand something be done.  I urge you to call your State Representatives and the Speaker's office and demand they bring in a parliamentary expert to defend their own bills because it's obvious either they don't have the ability to do so, or they don't want to.

Your Action Item:
Call your State Representative & the Speaker of the House.
Tell them you are watching the liberals continually kill conservative bills over minor procedural moves.  It is obvious to you that House leadership must bring in another parliamentary expert who has the ability to deal with the liberals' procedural moves. They do not have the expertise within their current team.

House Speaker Joe Straus     512-463-1000
State Rep Doug Miller 512-463-0325
___________________________________________________________

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE LEGISLATURE...

HB 12 was brought down Friday night by a questionable point of order and sent back to the State Affairs Committee.  The Bill will come back to the House floor on Monday for a vote.  If Straus does not bring on a strong parliamentary expert we are doomed to have the same thing happen.

HB 608 is now out of Calendars Committee and is scheduled for first reading on Tuesday, May 10th.

HB 3252 was voted out of State Affairs Committee last night and is moving on to Calendars. The bill is not out of danger, however.  If the Calendars Committee chaired by Todd Hunter does not move it out immediately the bill is dead.  Calls must go to the Calendars Committee over the weekend urging them to pass the bill and get it scheduled for a floor vote.

HCR 88 Is a resolution calling for Congress, Senate, and the President to fix the broken imigration system with comprehensive immigration reform, or amnesy light.  With the mandate conservatives gave Republicans this past November, it is outrageous that Republicans in the State House would send a mandate to this administration for anything other than eliminating magnets which draw illegal aliens to the state and addressing the violence which our open borders allow.  Please call the Calendars Committee and tell them you are against HCR 88.  
_____________________________________________________

RECAP OF ACTION ITEMS
 
 
FIRST PRIORITY:
1) CALL THE CALENDARS COMMITTEE ON THESE 3 BILLS:
   HB 3252 Only E-Verify bill passed out of committee  & the
                 most important bill this session!
    HB 301 English as the Official Language.
    HB 911 Prohibition on application of foreign laws.
 
 2) HB 12 Anti-Sanctuary City.  Call your State Rep and ask them to vote for HB 12 Anti-Sanctuary City on Monday when it returns to the floor.

3) HB 608 Cost of benefits for illegal aliens. Call your State Rep and ask them to support this bill when it comes to the floor on Tuesday!
  
SECOND PRIORITY:
4) Call the Speaker's office & your State Rep urging them to bring in a parliamentary expert to defend conservative legislation on the House floor.
 
5) Call your State Representative and tell them to support HB 1129, HB 608, and HB 804 when they come up on the House floor.
 
6) Call the Calendars Committee office and tell them to VOTE FOR HB 875, HB 892, HJR 86.

7) Call the Calendars Committee office and tell them to VOTE AGAINST HCR 88.

House Speaker Joe Straus 512-463-1000 office  512-463-0675 fax

Calendars Committee 512-463-0758 office

State Rep Doug Miller 512-463-0325 office

or find your State Representative http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/   

Summary of 1st Austin Van Trip

By Robert Gonzalez

Dear Patriots,

On Thursday, April 28, 2011, the Clear Lake Tea Party sponsored a van trip to Austin.  The purpose of the trip was to lobby elected officials and encourage them to move bills that have been held up in different committees, i.e. Calendars & State Affairs.  The bills in question were related to immigration reform.

We also discussed the recent vote by the House on redistricting.  The redistricting plan didn’t go as we had expected.  The “Solomons Redistricting Map” was the only one debated, amended and voted on.  This will force incumbent Republican lawmakers to be paired against each other in the upcoming primary races.  There was a more favorable plan, “The Nixon Map”, but it never saw the light of day.

We enjoyed many face to face discussions with lawmakers and their staff and on almost all occasions, we were treated warmly.  During our conversation with the staff, many of them made a special mention that we needed to make frequent visits.  This is to counter the bombardment of emails and special interest groups (lobbyist) who run through their offices on a daily basis.

We lobbied to push immigration reform bills HB12, 183, 197, 608, 1275 & 3152 (all House bills).  While at the Capitol, two of these bills, HB608 & 1275 where voted out of committee.

In addition we lobbied for the passing of immigration bill SB9, (a Senate bill) backed by both the Governor, whose staff we spoke with, and conservative Senators.  This bill passed on the Senate floor the same day.

We believe this trip needs to be replicated by every Tea Party or conservative group in Texas.  A day off from work with fellow Patriots will make a difference for generations to come.  We implore you to take advantage of the remaining 27 days of the 82nd Legislative session.

We’re either going to make history, or we’re going to be history!

Our State and Country needs you!!!!!

Second Van Trip To Austin: May 5

The Clear Lake Tea Party had a very successful trip to Austin last Thursday.  Three of the bills we lobbied for were moved out of committee and will hopefully be voted on in the near future.

We have scheduled our 2nd van trip to Austin for Thursday, May 5, 2011.  We need at least 10 Citizen Lobbyists to be involved in this trip.  We will leave Houston at 7:00 am and arrive back from Austin at approximately 7:00 pm.  The Clear Lake Tea Party will pay for the van rental and gas.  You will only need to pay for your food.

If you are able to come with us to Austin on Thursday, May 5th, please respond to Tanya  as soon as possible with your name, phone number and email address and you will be contacted with all the details.  Please put "Austin Trip" in the subject line of your response.