State Rep. Vince Perez fined almost $10,000 for quorum break

AUSTIN, Texas (KVIA) -- Texas State Rep. Vince Perez, who represents part of El Paso, says that the Texas House Committee on House Administration sent him a letter assessing $9,354.25 in fines and penalties incurred while Perez was out of the state protesting Republican efforts to pass a new congressional district map. Perez was one of more than a dozen Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas in an effort to break the quorum in the house to slow down the vote on the new congressional districts. About two weeks after they broke quorum, Democrats returned and the measure passed.

Read through the letter Perez received from the Committee on House Administration above.

Now, Perez says that the house committee sent him a letter on August 21, 2025, several days after he had returned to Texas. He says that Chairman Charlie Geren notified Perez of the fines and "costs for his absence during quorum calls of the Texas House earlier this month."

Perez has formally responded to the letter and the fines it outlines. In his formal response, Perez said he had not received adequate notice of the hearing process. He also requested a due-process hearing with counsel.

“I will not be intimidated by a government that is only in power not because it has consent from the governed but because it systematically silences the majority through increasing use of voter suppression tactics and now with racial engineered maps that were outlawed in 1965," Rep. Perez said. "If I could go back in time and do it all over again, I would do so without hesitation or reservation."

Read Rep. Perez's formal response above.