00:00Members, may I have your attention. The roll has been called, and a quorum has not been
00:12established. Here is where we are at today. Yesterday, Attorney General Ken Paxton and I
00:19took action to domesticate the civil arrest warrants in the state of Illinois, seeking
00:25to make them enforceable beyond Texas state lines. I expect suits in other states will
00:31be forthcoming. Chairman Guerin of House Administration has also contacted the Sergeant
00:36at Arms of Illinois House of Representatives requesting their direct assistance in returning
00:41absent members. I have been in constant communication with Department of Public Safety, which has
00:47been working to track down absent members in an effort to return them to our chamber.
00:52These efforts will continue through the weekend. For those that have fled to Illinois or to
00:59California, be reminded that the FBI's assistant has reportedly been enlisted, and their powers
01:06are not confined to any singular state's boundaries. As far as new administrative policies in our
01:13chamber go, Comptroller Kelly Hancock and I have enacted a new policy stating that any
01:19member absent for the purpose of breaking quorum will no longer have their paycheck or per diem deposited
01:25electronically. While the Constitution forbids us from withholding pay, it does not dictate how we
01:35issue the pay. Those checks must now be picked up in person on capital grounds effective immediately.
01:43Starting today, to safeguard taxpayer dollars and account for forthcoming liabilities under Rule 5, Section 3 of House Rules, which authorizes fines for members absent without leave,
01:5830% of each quorum-breaking member's monthly operating budget will be reserved and made unavailable for expenditure.
02:06Absent members must also appear in person to approve or enact any of the following requests for travel reimbursement, personal action requests including those increasing or decreasing staff salaries,
02:20approval for newsletters, and house of reproduction services. Failure to appear in person will result in the cancellation of your newsletters and the encumbered funds.
02:33We have all hands on deck. We are continuing to explore new avenues to compel a quorum and will keep pressing forward until the job is done.
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