Who would negotiate the terms of separation with Washington?

The government of Texas would, on behalf of the people who just voted for independence. Once the result is certified, Texas and the United States deal with each other as two governments across a table, the same way sovereign nations settle their affairs every day. The Referendum Act sets up the body that drives the work, and the existing Texas government carries it out.

The committee maps it, the state executes it

A yes vote triggers a Texas Independence Committee, a joint interim committee of the Legislature, charged with recommending the most effective and expeditious method for Texas to return to independence within sixty months of certification. That committee is the planning engine. The executing is done through the government Texas already has: the governor leads, the Legislature legislates, and the office handling foreign relations, expanded for the new role, carries the diplomacy. Texas does not have to invent a state to negotiate. It already runs a constitutional republic, structured much like an independent nation.

The mindset shift that makes it work

From the moment the vote is certified, Texas and the United States become, for all intents and purposes, foreign to one another. Negotiating with Washington becomes like negotiating with Mexico or any other government. That is not hostility. It is just the new footing. Both sides send representatives, both sides have interests, and both sides have every reason to get to a deal that keeps trade flowing and the relationship calm.

One missing tool gets restored first

There is a practical first step at home. As a state, Texas is barred by Article 1, Section 10 of the United States Constitution from making treaties. To sit across the table as an equal and sign binding international agreements, Texas restores its own treaty-making power. That is handled through a focused update to the Texas Constitution early in the process, the same kind of streamlined amendment Texas has used before, not a years-long rewrite of the whole document.

What actually gets negotiated

The list is shorter than people imagine, and it sorts into a clean basket: the Social Security credits Texans earned, the disposition of federal property in Texas, the standing of Texans serving in the United States military, and the federal debt. Texas is under no obligation to assume that debt, and may choose to negotiate it in good faith against the federal assets and property sitting inside our borders. Most of the rest of the relationship, trade, travel, currency, can ride on agreements that already exist and simply convert from internal arrangements to international ones.

Both governments want the same outcome

The strongest fact in Texas's favor is that a smooth separation serves Washington too. A negotiated, recognized exit keeps goods moving and the border quiet. Stonewalling a peaceful, democratic vote would isolate Washington internationally and disrupt its own economy for nothing. The practical course, the one governments almost always choose, is to come to the table and settle the terms.

The bottom line

Texas negotiates as a government, for its people, with a committee charting the course and the existing state carrying it out. Washington has every incentive to negotiate in good faith, because a clean settlement is in its interest as much as ours.