Division threats of retribution attacks on peoples religious beliefs & distortions of peoples records have no place in this House.
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas 82nd Legislature Texas House of Representatives Tuesday January 11 2011
This is a day of great purpose & meaning for each of us. To those members who have just taken the oath of office for the first time you have become part of a great institution where ordinary Texans do extraordinary things by serving causes greater than self. You have become part of a grand tradition of public service and we all share in the responsibility of upholding it.
Thank you Chief Justice Jefferson. Thank you for being here to administer this oath and Madame Secretary - Hope thank you for chairing our proceedings today. Both are proud San Antonians like me and dear friends. Welcome to all state and federal officials families and our fellow Texans who have joined us here today. You honor the House of Representatives with your presence.
Governor Perry is expected to arrive shortly. We look forward to your arrival and thank you for your service starting in the House then as presiding officer of the Senate and now as the longest-tenured Governor in our states history.
The Texas House of Representatives looks forward to working with you Lt. Governor Dewhurst and the Members of the Texas Senate to achieve our shared goals for the best interests of the people we all represent. Together we will keep Texas strong secure a great place to do business live and raise a family.
To my colleagues in the Texas House thank you from the bottom of my heart for your friendship and trust. I am truly humbled by your overwhelming support for my re-election as your Speaker. Together we can and we will faithfully fulfill the solemn Oaths of Office we have all taken today. To Rob Senfronia Drew Pete Beverly and Byron thank you for your extraordinarily kind words. I will do my very best to live up to them and I promise that I will once again exercise the responsibilities of this office fairly judiciously and with respect.
The value of respect is a lesson I learned at an early age and for that I want to thank my parents. For my sisters and me our Mother and Dad identified fundamental values of faith respect responsibility honesty and through their lives and example an unwavering commitment of service to others. I thank them today for that and for their love and support.
My wife Julie is the greatest blessing in my life. When we met she was working for Secretary James Baker as an assistant in the Reagan Administration. She outranked me then and she still outranks me now at our House where she is the powerful chairman of all of our committees. Julie
and I have been given two great gifts: our wonderful daughters. Robyn and Sara Im very proud of you and I love you.
I know all the Members of the House join me in thanking the people of Texas for giving us the privilege and the opportunity to serve. We thank all our families for making sacrifices that allow us to be here. We appreciate your love support encouragement and counsel.
Legislative spouses are often left alone to keep our households running while we serve in this House. Its not an easy task. Though I have heard from several legislative wives who shall go unnamed that sometimes more gets done when we are not around! For so many of us our families inspire our service. We want to leave a better Texas for our children and their children.
I regret that one of our greatest role models and a fine servant of this Institution is no longer with us. This House will not be the same without our friend the late Representative Edmund Kuempel. To Birdie Margaret Michelle and the rest of the Kuempel Family including our newest colleague his son John we embrace you and mourn the passing of a great man. No one did more to bring a spirit of civility and unity and a great sense of humor to this House!
He was a sterling example of how enjoying the work we do here leads us to do a better job for the people of Texas. Edmund believed the members who served with him were colleagues not enemy combatants.
We have differences of philosophy and Party but we are all Texans first. With that always in mind as I promised when I first became Speaker two years ago Ill do my best to empower members so that they can do what is right for their constituents and for the people of Texas.
I know that in recent weeks Members of the House have withstood threats harassment and attempts at intimidation because of the fair and respectful way in which you want this House to operate. Division threats of retribution attacks on peoples religious beliefs and distortions of peoples records have no place in this House.
Members….Members I hope you will work with me to make the Texas House a place where decent and honorable people want to come and serve our state. A place where we can learn from the differences that make up our great state without letting them divide us.
I believe how we govern matters. I want Texans to look at the House and see leaders who can debate the most contentious issues of the day in a spirit of respect and civility. I want our citizens to know that the rules of the peoples House are not subject to the whims of the chair or the pressure of powerful special interests. This House is where Truth rules and where Reason prevails.
The will of the House should guide this House. And the will of the House does not begin in the Speakers office. It begins in the homes and office buildings on the farms and in the cities in the
suburbs and in the high tech centers. It begins with the 25 million people who are proud to call themselves Texans. These are the people who sent us here and if we fail to respect each other we fail to respect them.
Every member of this House deserves to be heard and have a voice to contribute his or her best because every member was sent here by the people of Texas. In the months ahead we will face tough issues from balancing the budget to the always difficult job of redistricting. Yet we also face a challenge as great as improving education securing our border and creating jobs. The challenge to restore peoples confidence in public service.
A recent study from the Pew Center found that just 22 percent say they can trust the government in Washington among the lowest measures in half a century". That same study indicated that rising criticism was not limited to the federal government".
- We can rebuild trust by the way we conduct ourselves and the way we treat others. We will disagree at times because we are passionate about the principles we hold dear but we can choose to make our arguments constructive rather than destructive.
- We can rebuild trust by setting high ethical standards by being transparent and always making government accountable to the people it serves.
- We can rebuild trust by making Texas state government live within its means. In Novembers election the people of Texas made it clear: they want a more conservative government that is limited and fiscally responsible.
- We can rebuild trust by conducting ourselves in ways that Washington might learn from.
Our state faces many challenges but is blessed with even more opportunities. None of us here would want to trade places with legislators in any other state. Texas continues to be the place where businesses want to locate and expand where people want to raise their families and realize their dreams.
Great challenges require great leaders. Together we will work for a Texas that continues to be Americas frontier of innovation and opportunity. My favorite Texas historian happens to also be my constituent T.R. Fehrenbach and he wrote in his epic book Lone Star": Men who exist get overrun by men who act. Men and women of the Texas House we were sent here to act and to act on behalf of the people.
We may not all share the same ideology but we share a common identity: we are all Texans.
We have inherited a birthright of independence a spirit of boldness a vision of what is possible.
The great promise of this state is inclusive. It belongs to all who work hard respect the rules and persevere.
The men and women who are remembered beyond their years are not those who sow the seeds of
discord but those who plant for a future they may never see. May the laws we write reflect an understanding of the best that Texas can be not only today but tomorrow and for decades to come.
I am grateful to start this new session with each of you.
May God bless the Great State of Texas and always keep Her brave and strong. Thank you.
A 5th-generation Texan Joe Straus represents House District 121 and was elected Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives by his peers at the commencement of the 81st Regular Legislative Session January 13 2009. Straus has been a leader on economic issues common sense tax relief & energy efficiency measures and is a San Antonio native.
