A Republican lawmaker says one of the Texas GOP’s legislative priorities is being quietly sidelined this session by the chairman of a key House committee.
State Rep. Brent Money (R–Greenville) says that taxpayer-funded lobbying—a long-standing target of conservative activists—won’t be getting a hearing in the House State Affairs Committee.
“For the last few days, we have been trying to get particularly taxpayer-funded lobbying pushed through State Affairs,” said Money in an interview with Texas Scorecard. “Middleton’s Senate Bill 19 has been sitting in there since late March—over a month. And so it’s just like, where is it? Can we get it moved?”
According to Money, he spoke directly with both House Speaker Dustin Burrows and State Affairs Committee Chairman Ken King about the issue. The response was not encouraging.
“Ken King has said that he is not going to [hear] taxpayer-funded lobbying at all,” Money revealed. He added that Speaker Burrows has declined to recognize his motions that would allow the bill to be moved to a different committee.
BREAKING: @brentmoney says State Affairs Chairman Ken King told him he will NOT allow a hearing on Texas GOP priority legislation to end taxpayer-funded lobbying #txlege pic.twitter.com/ZOqsFA2mLd
— Brandon Waltens (@bwaltens) May 1, 2025
Taxpayer-funded lobbying has been a legislative priority of the Republican Party of Texas for years, and Senate Bill 19, authored by Sen. Mayes Middleton (R–Galveston), would prohibit cities and counties from spending taxpayer dollars to lobby the legislature.
Money said King’s refusal appears to stem from his opposition to the legislation itself.
“Basically, he doesn’t like the two bills—Middleton’s and David Spiller’s—and he’s afraid that they’re going to be stronger than what he’s comfortable with,” Money said. “I think he would say this: he just disagrees with the policy. And so you have a chairman who’s, at least on that policy, not in alignment with the party. And so he’s holding it up.”
Even more frustrating to some lawmakers is that King himself signed the “Texas Conservative Commitment,” a pledge that explicitly supports banning taxpayer-funded lobbying.
“He signed the conservative commitment, which most of us didn’t sign because we thought it was too weak,” said Money. “But even that had a promise to end taxpayer-funded lobbying.”
With just over a month left in the session, options to move the bill are running thin. When he was asked what recourse lawmakers have left, Money admitted it’s limited.
“We can hope that Ken King will change his mind, honor the conservative commitment that he made, and at least get one of those bills to the floor so we can debate it,” he said. “We can continue to try to pressure Speaker Burrows to let a different chairman make that decision. Very, very small, almost zero chance of that actually happening.”
Chairman Ken King did not respond to a request for comment.
