by Texas Senator Bob Hall
All businesses and all jobs are essential, PERIOD.
Government should never again assume the authority to tell anyone or any business that the work they do is unimportant. The Legislature owes it to all of Texas to protect their right to earn a living and feed their family.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the Covid-19 Pandemic that it unleashed has affected, in some way or another, just about every person on the planet. One unfortunate consequence that has arisen was not from the virus, but from the government’s reaction to it. From the state level down to the local, millions have been told over the past year that their livelihoods were no longer “essential” in the eyes of the government and would have to close their doors for the “good of the community”. Unfortunately, many of those doors will never reopen. During this same time period, diseases of despair, such as alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, and depression have all risen, corresponding with an increase in suicide.
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Because government refused to allow people to make their own choices and decide for themselves the risks, they were willing to take on, or trust business to make the necessary precautions on their own, the Texas economy went from seeing unprecedented growth, to taking a sharp nosedive. When businesses are arbitrarily labeled as essential and non-essential, it sends a wrong an unfair message to the millions of Texans who just desire to go to work to earn a living for themselves and their families.
It is for these reasons why I have introduced a resolution, SR 5, that the Senate of the 87th Texas Legislature recognize that ALL BUSINESSES ARE ESSENTIAL, and that every Texan willing should be free to do so without the interference of the government. I am fully committed to this fight to protect individual liberty by declaring that all jobs and businesses are essential.