The House Select Committee on Transparency in State Agency Operations meets today to decide whether Hall’s conduct pursuing evidence against University of Texas President Bill Powers warrants a recommendation that he be impeached.
A vote in favor of impeachment would set the Legislature on course toward the first direct removal from office of a governor-appointed official in state history. The matter would then go the full House, which could send Hall to the Senate for a trial and a vote on whether he stays or goes.
There have been very few impeachment trials in state history and only two have been successful: Gov. James “Pa” Ferguson in 1917 and a district judge in 1975.
“This is a historical time,” committee co-chairman Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, said of the pending vote. “Years to come, people are going to be looking at this.”
At issue is whether Hall, a Dallas businessman appointed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2011, abused the power of his office through massive open records requests that swamped university and system officials, as well as whether he violated state and federal student privacy laws and harmed the university’s reputation.
An investigation report for the committee says Hall may have broken the law. The Travis County District Attorney’s anti-corruption unit has opened a separate criminal investigation.
