Cecil Bell Jr

Cecil Bell, Jr. (born May 17, 1962) is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 3, which encompasses Waller County and part of Montgomery County in Southeast Texas.

On May 29, 2012, Bell defeated Bob Bagley and Troy Bonin in the Republican primary election with 7,249 votes (57 percent) to Bagley's 3,359 (26 percent) and Bonin's 2,133 (17 percent). There was no Democratic candidate in the general election.

Representative Bell serves on the Appropriations and Land & Resource Management Committees and the Subcommittee on Articles VI, VII & VIII.

In January 2015, Bell introduced legislation, HB 623, that prevents salary, pension, and other benefits from being paid to any Texas state employee who issues a same-sex marriage license. The bill included a provision to forestall legal action challenging the proposed law by mandating that state courts dismiss any such challenges and award court costs and attorney fees to the state. Rep. Bell is a strong advocate for traditional values, an advocate for state and citizen sovereignty and for a limited federal government.

Bell supports expanding career and technology training at public high schools so that interested, motivated students can enter the job market with a career certification, without following the college or university route.

In 2015, Representative Bell sought unsuccessfully to prohibit the State of Texas from complying with Obergefell v. Hodges, the United States Supreme Court legal opinion sanctioning same-sex marriage. In 2017, Bell introduced a more comprehensive bill to allow his state to declare federal laws and court edicts unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable within the boundaries of Texas. Bell proposes that federal treaties and presidential executive orders be subject to state scrutiny to block actions which the state considers unconstitutional. The legislation would establish a 12-member Joint Legislative Committee on Constitutional Enforcement, with six members each from the House and the Texas State Senate, to consider federal actions in light of constitutional interpretation in 1787. "I think it is important for patriotic Americans to recognize the strength and necessity of our Constitution. It is also important that we defend that Constitution,” Bell told the Texas House Select Committee on State and Federal Power and Responsibility.