On Account Of All The Shouting Elsewhere, Texas Republicans Aren't Staging Austin Town Halls

AUSTIN, TX — If you were hoping to attend a good, old-fashioned, no-holds-barred town hall meeting hosted by your Republican congressman, you're out of luck. While lawmakers in other parts of the country have organized such gatherings for their constituents — sometimes at their own peril — no such events are scheduled locally.

KUT, the local NPR affiliate, noted the pattern in a recent recent report. In it, the news station theorizes that Texas congressmen currently in their districts might be wary of facing the Tea Party-style crowds of years past that led to the current Republican control of Congress, but this time fueled with a focus on maintaining the Affordable Care Act (and, by extension, their health care) that many people fear will be dismantled by the GOP.

Across the country, Republican members of Congress are facing angry crowds at town hall meetings that quickly zero in on the ACA, including one recently staged by Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, who had to cut his town hall short on account of all the people screaming at him.

The shouting masses may have taken their charge from President Barack Obama himself, in the wake of comments he made on the podcast called Pod Save America, KUT reported.

“I think the work is local as opposed to federal,” Obama said during the broadcast. “I would pay attention to what a lot of the Tea Party did fighting the Affordable Care Act. You may disagree with the Tea Party, but they were effective in making sure their views were heard and amplified.”

The dearth of locally staged town halls leaves constituents only the other traditional options of writing letters, sending emails or making phone calls. Here's the rundown:

• Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has not announced any town halls.
• Republican Sen. John Cornyn has not announced any town halls.
• A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul told KUT that while no town hall was scheduled for this week, he's "working on details for listening posts for the week after.
• The office of U.S. Rep. Bill Flores told the news station “the congressman will be meeting with constituents, on a variety of topics, during the district work period the week of the February 20th.” But he won’t be holding town hall events until April.
• The office of U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith says he'll only be conducting individual meeting with constituents.
• A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Roger Williams says the congressman has an "active work schedule” this week.
• The office of John Carter reports he’s not scheduling a town hall, either.

Conversely, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Austin's lone Democratic congressman, has already staged events in Austin and San Antonio that have focused on the ACA, also known as Obamacare in the vernacular. He also has an event planned for Sunday, March 5.

KUT provided a spreadsheet for those curious on how the Texas congressional delegation compares to the rest of the nation in terms of its access to constituents. Read it and web in this spreadsheet.

>>> Read the full story at KUT

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