The measure formally cleared the House, sending the modified bill to the Senate, which should easily support it. Texas’ legislative session ends May 29, but that’s plenty of time – even if the bathroom bill is scaled-back enough to only affect the state’s roughly 5.3 million public school students, and not the general public. But because of senators’ concerns about problematic wording, which they did not detail, Senate leaders said they took no further action.
Advertisement
“We’ll put all these pimps, all these traffickers in prison, and the word will get out, and people won’t be doing this anymore because they’ll be too afraid to go to prison”, Dallas Police Detective Michael McMurray told the Tribune of his crime-fighting strategy, which he calls the McMurray Theory.
If adopted, the business group said, a bathroom bill “could lose billions of dollars in GDP, a critical loss of revenue that would profoundly threaten the state’s ability to fund education, transportation and other essential services”, according to the letter. There was no word out of Abbott’s office on whether he was planning to call for a special session, a period that could last up to 30 days with the governor setting the agenda.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has repeatedly suggested that the bill is a top priority for him. Van Taylor said the House “created the crisis you see in front of you today”, and argued that while the House’s proposed fix on the pending sunset legislation would continue five agencies at risk of closing, it would not extend chapters of state code, Taylor said. “I think the pieces we have in place now make this a true win for every hardworking man and woman in West Virginia, and it gives our seniors and our military the benefit they deserve”.
Patrick wants the house to work with the senate to expand transgender bathroom restrictions.
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have signaled that they are writing their own version of the bill, which would then have to be reconciled with the House.
Amid threats of a special legislative session over the “bathroom bill,” the Texas House on May 21 approved a proposal that would keep transgender students from using school bathrooms that match their gender identity.
“That’s why the courts are there”, Republican state Sen.
The Senate was expected to agree on the same budget later. The lieutenant governor was tight-lipped Sunday when asked about his recent talks with the governor – and whether he had received any indication of Abbott’s willingness to call a special session.
The bill is sponsored by 69th District Rep. James Frank, who also authored companion legislation in the Texas House of Representatives.
“We’ll pass it in the special”, Patrick said Sunday of the oversight legislation.
Advertisement
“One day, I’ll retire and I’ll be sitting on my porch in that rocking chair with my grandkids”, said Patrick.
