Matt Rinaldi

84th Legislative Session

During the 84th legislative session, Rinaldi served on the Agriculture & Livestock committee and the Business & Industry committee. He joint- and co-authored successful pieces of legislation that were signed into law, including: HB 11^[7] (authorizing additional troopers for border security and strengthening smuggling laws), and HB 283^[8] (increasing government transparency by requiring certain governmental bodies to make audio and video recordings of open meetings available online).

Rinaldi fought to eliminate or minimize the effects of the Robin Hood plan on Texas public school districts with HB 945^[9] and HB 1411.^[10] Neither bill received a hearing in the 84th legislative session due to constitutional problems with the bills and decades of court rulings addressing the issues in the legislation.

Rinaldi co-authored legislation that would repeal in-state tuition and end welfare benefits for undocumented immigrants^[11] as well as penalize businesses that knowingly hire undocumented immigrants.^[12][13]

Rinaldi was rated the number one conservative in the Texas House by a Rice University study that drew on the 1,138 non-lopsided roll call votes taken during the 2015 regular session.^[14] He received a 100 percent rating which tied him in the number one spot on the Texans for Fiscal Responsibility index with seven other conservative members.^[15] He was also the top-rated Representative by the Texas Eagle Forum with a 98% rating.^[16]

Rinaldi had a 100 percent record on the Texas Right to Life scorecard and was designated by the organization as one of 14 "Pro-life Heroes" in the legislature for his work in passing pro-life legislation.^[17][18]

85th Legislative Session

During the 85th legislative session, Rinaldi served on the Agriculture & Livestock committee and the Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence committee.

Rinaldi was, according to the Dallas Morning News, "instrumental in strengthening the punishments in the sanctuary cities ban,"^[19] and authored and passed into law measures that: remove from office public officials who adopt sanctuary city policies,^[20] require government contractors and subcontractors to use e-verify,^[21] revoke pensions of teachers convicted of committing sex crimes against students,^[22][23][24] allow churches to utilize volunteers to provide security services without risking heavy fines,^[25] and prohibit any taxpayer money from going to Planned Parenthood.^[26] He also re-introduced legislation he had previously proposed to end the Robin Hood school finance system.^[27]

He served as the Pro-Life Whip for Texas Right to Life.^[28]

Rinaldi also co-founded the Texas Freedom Caucus during the 85th legislative session. The caucus was founded by members of the House of Representatives committed to protecting life, strengthening family values, defending the Texas and U.S. Bill of Rights, restraining government and revitalizing personal and economic freedoms.^[29]

In May 2017, Rinaldi claimed to have called Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers on protesters who were chanting that they were illegal and here to stay.^[30] He claims that Representative Poncho Nevárez threatened his life during the incident; Nevárez claims that Rinaldi threatened his life during the incident.^[31] In a video of the incident, representative Rinaldi can be seen being physically pushed by a Democratic representative, who was then restrained by other Democrats.^[32] After the incident, Poncho Nevarez said in front of a crowd of supporters, "For that that guy to say what he did, and think that there's no reckoning, or no reprocussion, or nothing coming, he's wrong, and today he just picked the wrong people to say that to. And he's lucky that there were more people around, because while pushing and shoving, and anything beyond that isn't acceptable, and it shouldn't be happening out there, and I'm sorry it happened, the fact is he's asking for it."^[33] A statement was issued contrary to Nevarez's later claim that Rinaldi had been physical aggressor in this incident.

During Rinaldi's second term, he remained ranked as the most conservative legislator (tied with Briscoe Cain and Jonathan Stickland) in Austin according to a Rice University's study roll-call vote analysis drawing on 1,460 non-lopsided roll-call votes taken during the 2017 regular session.^[34] He was also named one of the Top 10 Legislators by Empower Texans,^[35] and his voting record earned a perfect 100 score from Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.^[36]