Houston, TX – Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) is asking a series of direct questions to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo (D-Harris County) about her proposed “Stay at Home” (or “Shelter in Place”) order to effectively shut down the nation’s third largest county, as it is not posted for the public to review.
- Rather than issue a draconian shelter in place, or “Stay at Home” order, why are you not asking for voluntary compliance from the public in the spirit of American liberty and Texas friendship?
- Anecdotal evidence around Harris County indicates that residents have already taken substantial steps to comply with the existing guidelines. With the lion share of residents in compliance, what specific examples of non-compliance have changed your mind since your press conference yesterday morning?
- According to records from the Department of State Health Services, Harris County has seen an increase of just 4 cases Sunday and 3 additional cases yesterday (a declining daily case increase out of a population of roughly 4.63 million), while the City of Houston has just 23 cases total (out of a population of roughly 2.3 million), or 0.001% of the population. Given this data, what has prompted this significant change since yesterday morning?
- Why will approximately 100,000 Harris County employers only have 15 hours and 44 minutes from the start of your press conference to comply with this shut down order?
- How do you expect business owners and employees to walk away from their livelihoods and jobs in less than a day at businesses that have been open up to 10, 20, and even 30 years plus in the nation’s third largest county?
Allegedly, on a conference call with County Officials and Mayors yesterday, the “Shelter in Place” was renamed to a “Stay at Home” order to call it something different, by second-hand accounts.
In the words of General Dwight Eisenhower, former President and 5-Star General who won World War II in Europe, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” That spirit of leadership is absent from this order.