Texas House ethics panel to meet for first time since Paxton impeachment

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The ethics committee for the Texas House of Representatives will meet publicly for the first time since its seismic votes last year that led to the impeachment of Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

A notice went up Monday that the Texas Committee on General Investigating will hold a hearing on July 17 at 11 a.m. The agenda includes no information about what the committee's five members will discuss, only generalizing that they'll "consider committee business" and possibly go behind closed doors to talk in executive session. Numerous committees announced hearings in the weeks ahead, though, to talk about interim charges or newly-enforced state laws ahead of next year's regular legislative session.

However, it's still significant because the House General Investigating Committee has not met since May 28 last year. That's when the members approved issuing at least a dozen subpoenas related to their investigation into Paxton. Three days prior to that meeting, the panel rocked the Texas political world by agreeing unanimously to move forward with impeaching Paxton after they heard from a team of lawyers specializing in public corruption lay out extensive details about alleged misconduct by the three-term Republican official.

Those investigators said they began looking into Paxton in March 2023 after a proposal emerged to use state funds to pay $3.3 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed by four former employees who accused Paxton of wrongdoing. Testimony from those former workers played significantly in the September impeachment trial held for nearly two weeks in the Texas Senate, which ended with state senators voting to acquit Paxton on all the articles of impeachment.

That contentious period fueled Paxton's "revenge tour" during the primary elections this spring, as he endorsed and actively campaigned for dozens of challengers to unseat some of the GOP incumbents who supported his impeachment. Reporting shows eight of the candidates he backed ended up winning their primaries in March, while nine races advanced to runoffs in May.

The last regular legislative session significantly raised the profile of this House committee, which usually operated quietly and drew little attention in years past. According to the Texas House rules, its responsibilities center on looking further into "workplace conduct and inappropriate workplace conduct to ensure that members, officers, and employees may exercise their rights and responsibilities under those rules and policies."

In addition to the splashy Paxton investigation last year, this same panel looked into a complaint about Texas Rep. Bryan Slaton, which led to his eventual expulsion from the House. The lower chamber voted unanimously in early May 2023 to oust the Republican lawmaker over allegations he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 19-year-old female staffer. A report released by the committee detailed Slaton showing a pattern of inappropriate behavior with the aide.

Slaton became the first state representative to be expelled from the Texas House since 1927.

Given the high-profile work it did during the last regular legislative session, there will be undoubtedly be lots of eyes tuning into the committee's next hearing and seeing what potentially could come from that.

The agenda for the committee's next meeting in a little over two weeks denotes that it should be led by its chairman, Republican Rep. Andrew Murr of Junction. Following Paxton's acquittal last fall, Murr announced in November that he would not seek reelection to the seat he held for a decade. He said he wanted to spend more time with his family.