Dennis Bonnen

In 2013, Bonnen was appointed by Speaker Joe Straus as the Speaker Pro Tempore, in which capacity he acted as the presiding officer of the House in the Speaker's absence,[1] during the 83rd, 84th and 85th session of the Texas legislature, from 2013 to 2018. He also served as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. He previously served as chairman of the Sunset Advisory Commission[1] and the House Special Purpose Districts Committee, and as vice chair of the Joint Committee of Oversight of Higher Education Governance, Excellence & Transparency. He also served on the Natural Resources Committee.[6] That year, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, managed in Texas by Cathie Adams, a former state chairman of the Texas Republican Party, rated Bonnen 87 percent favorable. The Young Conservatives of Texas gave him a cumulative career score of 66 percent.

In 2015, Bonnen authored legislation deemed an emergency item by Governor Abbott to keep the Texas National Guard troops at the border, increase staff at the Department of Public Safety, and establish a transnational crime center on the border to analyze crime data.[17] Bonnen voted against a taxpayer-funded breakfast program for public schools, though the measure passed the House, 73–58. He co-sponsored legislation to provide marshals for school security as a separate category of law enforcement officials. He co-sponsored an extension of the franchise tax exemption to certain businesses. Bonnen voted to prohibit texting while driving, and to require narcotics testing for recipients of unemployment compensation. He co-sponsored bills forbidding state enforcement of federal firearms regulations, allowing college and university officials to carry concealed weapons in the name of campus security, and reducing the time required for an individual to procure training to obtain a concealed handgun license; the latter measure cleared the House, 116–30. He did not vote on a bill establishing term limits for certain state officials, and the resolution failed on the House floor.[18] He authored HB 1914, the passage of which increased the allowable time between parole hearings for the egregious crimes of capital murder and aggravated sexual assault.[19] In 2018, he received an A rating by the National Rifle Association.[20]

On November 12, 2018, Bonnen announced he had 109 votes to be the next Texas House Speaker, more than the 76 votes needed for election.[21] On January 8, 2019, Bonnen was unanimously elected by the Texas House of Representatives to serve as Speaker of the House.[22] In his opening remarks as Speaker of the House, Bonnen declared school finance legislation to be the number one priority for the 86th legislative session, in addition to school safety, combating human trafficking and providing property tax relief.[22] The Texas House passed House Bill 3, its $11.6 billion school finance measure, which includes about $4.5 billion in new spending for education reforms, $2 billion for teacher pay raises, and over $5 billion to lower property tax bills of Texans.[23] Among the elements of the school finance overhaul supported by Bonnen was a proposal to provide "additional funding to schools to help students with dyslexia".[4]

The Legislature also passed legislation to eliminate the rape kit backlog, slow the growth of property taxes, and improve emergency preparedness and disaster response.[24][25][26] On June 21, 2019, Bonnen joined Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick at a press conference to announce that Texas would deploy an additional 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the border amid the migrant surge.[27]

Bonnen apologized following a 2019 controversy in which Michael Quinn Sullivan, the president of conservative advocacy group Empower Texans, secretly recorded Bonnen making negative comments about other legislators, and offering the group press credentials providing floor access in exchange for their working against moderate Republican members.[28] On October 22, 2019, Bonnen announced that he would not seek re-election, paving the way for a new House speaker in the next session of the House.[29] An investigation by the Texas Rangers ultimately concluded that Bonnen did not break any laws in the exchange.[30]

Bonnen voted in support of legislation to ban sanctuary cities in Texas, legalize open carry, authorize concealed carry on college campuses, require Voter ID, permit religious organizations to decline to perform marriage services, require the Texas Rangers to investigate public corruption, and require colleges and universities to fund student centers for family and traditional values.[31] In 2019, he voted in support of House Bill 3, legislation that invested an additional $4.5 billion in education, $2 billion for teacher pay raises, and $5 billion in property tax relief.[32] He also voted for HJR 38 to authorize a constitutional amendment banning a state income tax, a measure that passed the House 100–42.[33] Texas Monthly named Bonnen as a Best Lawmaker in June 2019 for his work as Speaker of the Texas House of Representative during Texas' 86th Legislative Session.[34] The Conservative Roundtable of Texas rated Bonnen a 94 percent on their Conservative Effectiveness Index in 2017, a 100 percent in 2015, and a 100 percent in 2012.[31]