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More drama in the Texas House. Jimmy Skipton IV has been fired after he allegedly went behind the speaker's back and told committee chairs to kill or pass certain bills, claiming he was doing so on behalf of the speaker.
Brandon Waltens with the Texas Scorecard claims that Skipton was telling lawmakers to "move certain pieces of legislation, kill certain bills, not based on what Speaker Burrows actually directed, but instead what would benefit his lobbyist wife and her clients."
Skipton was recently listed as a “General Counsel and Policy Director” for Speaker Burrows. His position and name are no longer listed on the Texas House website. His wife is a prominent Austin-based lobbyist, Carrie Simmons, who currently works for Texas Lobby Partners.
Waltens says these allegations raise serious concerns about what else might be going on in the back rooms of the Texas House. He asked, "What kind of culture has there been that would allow this behavior to go on at least this long? This is someone who has been working for Speaker Burrows at least since January."
Waltens also says that this could offer at least a partial explanation as to why the Texas House, which is dominated by a supermajority of Republicans, has failed to pass a number of bills supported by the GOP base. He said, "The House has been on a trajectory this session to kill a lot of conservative priorities. There's still time for them to deliver, but that window is shrinking."
That being said, Waltens made it clear that at the end of the day, the buck stops with Speaker Burrows, and if the legislature fails to make up this lost ground, they'll have to answer to the voters.