We couldn’t be more pleased

As reported by the Dallas Trail Blazer's Blog:

A new conservative organization, inspired by the Texas Public Policy Foundation to push the cause of free markets and less government spending in the Texas Legislature, will begin providing lawmakers with daily summaries and analyses of bills reaching the floor of each chamber.

The fledgling outfit calls itself the Texas Public Policy Action. It announced its launch in two emails late Monday. 

The group’s floor report presumably will offer more advocacy and more of the conservative point of view in its daily floor report for the House than one distributed for years by the House Research Organization. The House Research Organization calls itself a “nonpartisan independent department” of the House. It’s overseen by a steering committee with eight Republican House lawmakers and seven of their Democratic counterparts.

Still, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the conservative think tank that’s been around for two decades, is growing rapidly.

Texas Public Policy Action executive director Nathanael Ferguson, while stressing its independence from the think tank, praised the foundations as “an outstanding resource — and agent of change.”
“Being able to complement [the foundation's] record and agenda with detailed bill analyses during the legislative session is a privilege — and we look forward to laying down our own record of accomplishment for Texas liberty in the years to come,” Ferguson said.

In a separate email, Texas Public Policy Foundation president and CEO Brooke Rollins said, “We couldn’t be more pleased.”

I would normally think this is a good idea but I can't help but think this is Brooke's way of distancing TPPF from the members of the House of Represenatives since one of her board members gave over 100K to Speaker Joe Straus' opponent in the Republican primary.   In addition, they hired Brendan Steinhauser as the TPPF communication director.  If you will remember he was the person at FreedomWorks who ran a campaign against both Straus as Speaker and David Dewhurst in his bid for US Senate. 

So TPPF shoots at and misses two of the most powerful leaders in Texas politics.  This effort by Brooke is pretty transparent.  I don't think the members are going to buy it and if I was a member and wanted to move legislation I would keep it as far was from TPPF and the "new, separate" Texas Public Policy Action.  I wonder if Tim Dunn is a board member as well?