AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The path for Texas to enact its version of a North Carolina-style bathroom bill is poised to get far tougher as the Republican-controlled state House closes in on a key midnight Thursday deadline to approve legislation.
A proposal mandating transgender Texans to use public restrooms according to their birth certificate gender sailed through the Texas Senate weeks ago, but a similar measure that bans schools and local communities from passing ordinances to protect LGBT rights has been bottled up in the House. That’s despite Republican Gov. Greg Abbott urging fellow members of his party to support it and even calling pastors at evangelical churches around the state to increase public pressure.
Outnumbered House Democrats have been using tactics to delay a vote on this and other hot-button issues since late last week. House Speaker Joe Straus, a San Antonio Republican who sees the bill as bad for business, hasn’t intervened.
Top firms and lobbyists have opposed it. Many top Hollywood actors and music stars have suggested state boycotts, and the NFL and NBA have warned about canceling future Texas events if it passes.
Any bill not approved by midnight dies in its current form but could still live on as a proposed change to a related bill that’s already advancing. Efforts could also be made to revive what the Senate already passed, though so far it’s been a non-starter in the House.
Rep. Ron Simmons, who has been the issue’s top House champion, said supporters will look to attach public bathroom restrictions that at least extend to public schools onto educational legislation, even if more widespread bans fizzle.
“I think the likelihood of something getting passed this session as it relates to schools is pretty good,” said Simmons, a Republican from Carrollton in suburban Dallas. “We’re looking for opportunities to amend to other bills that would allow us to be able to protect the school scenario, which is where our number one concern is.”
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TRANSGENDER WRESTLER
When transgender wrestler Mack Beggs won a girls’ state championship, his victory drew jeers and complaints that his steroid therapy treatment had given him an unfair advantage against girls who risked injury just by getting on the mat with him.
Now Texas lawmakers are pushing a bill that could ultimately deny Beggs, a Dallas-area junior, a chance to defend his title next year.
The proposal working its way through the Legislature would require transgender students like Beggs to turn over their medical information to the University Interscholastic League, the state’s governing body for public high school sports. The UIL would be allowed to disqualify an athlete undergoing hormone therapy if “the safety of competing students or the fairness of a particular competition has been or will be substantially affected by the student’s steroid use.”
Beggs’ case drew national attention in February when he won the state championship in Class 6A, the classification for the state’s largest schools. Before he got that far, the father of a girl who had wrestled against Beggs filed a lawsuit trying to get him disqualified. His title-winning match earned him a bloody nose on the mat and boos from a crowd upset by his victory . He has a 56-0 record and wants to wrestle next season in his senior year.
The UIL prohibits steroids use, but Texas has a “safe harbor” provision that allows transgender students undergoing hormone therapy treatments under the direction of a doctor to compete. Texas also requires transgender athletes to compete in the gender listed on their birth certificate. For Beggs, that meant he had to wrestle against girls against his wishes, and the proposed bill would not change that rule.
Beggs family spokesman Alan Baxter said the family has a good relationship with the UIL and questioned why lawmakers are pursuing the change.
“I would hope they are not singling him out,” Baxter said, noting that a now-defunded UIL program that tested more than 63,000 athletes caught just a handful of cheaters before it was scuttled in 2015. “If politicians are truly concerned with safety, they should test everyone.”
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HEALTH DEPARTMENT INSPECTOR GENERAL OUSTED
The former watchdog over U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq has been forced out of a powerful Texas job after he moonlighted as a consultant for the Iraq government.
A spokesman for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that Stuart Bowen had committed a “serious and unacceptable lapse in judgment.” Abbott appointed Bowen as inspector general of Texas’ health agency in 2015 following a contracting scandal.
Bowen was previously special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Documents show a Washington firm representing the Iraq government wrote letters to top Trump administration officials pointing out Bowen’s addition as a senior adviser.
Bowen didn’t mention the Iraq consulting in a statement announcing his resignation. He says it was time for new leadership.
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REPORTING ABORTION COMPLICATIONS
The Texas House has voted to require medical clinics to report complications from abortions performed statewide, and have the health department produce an annual report compiling that data.
Approved 94-52 on Thursday, the bill needs only a final floor vote Friday to pass. The Texas Senate has already approved a similar proposal.
Supporters say state health codes require clinics and hospitals to report complications from surgeries and major procedures, but not abortions. The bill’s sponsor, Southlake Republican Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, said “a lot of people have serious concerns” about abortion and that patients need protecting.
A late tea party-backed change on the floor requires physicians to report complications within 72 hours of them occurring.
Democratic opponents argue that the requirement is unnecessary since abortion is among the safest procedures performed.
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CAMPUS FREE SPEECH ZONES
The Texas Senate has given preliminary approval to barring universities from establishing so-called “free speech zones” which are sometimes used to confine demonstrations to certain areas of campus.
Supporters of the ban say using the free speech zones actually prohibits speech by implying free expression is not allowed across the rest of campus. The measure would still allow colleges to set some regulations to keep demonstrations from disrupting classes.
Free speech zones became common in the 1960s as a way to control campus protests against the Vietnam War. Many colleges dropped the practice decades later, but experts say it has survived at some schools as a way to rein in protests and to regulate outside provocateurs looking for campus soapboxes.
Colorado and Utah this year approved bills banning free-speech zones.
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POLICE REPORTING CIVILIAN DEATHS
The Texas House reconsidered and passed a bill placing new accountability measures on police departments reporting when an officer kills a civilian.
Lawmakers late Wednesday night voted 71-70 against a measure requiring the state attorney general to investigate law enforcement agencies that failed to report officer-related deaths or injuries.
But the House subsequently passed a motion to reconsider and approved the bill Thursday morning in seconds, with no debate and few lawmakers even paying close attention.
Law enforcement is already required to submit reports about officer-related deaths, but the new bill imposes fines of $10,000 for failure to do so. Agencies could have been fined an additional $1,000 a day for failing to comply.
According to The Washington Post, Texas police fatally shot 82 people last year.
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ON DECK
The House is working until midnight Thursday. After that, any bills that originated in the House but have not yet been approved by the chamber die by default - though their issues could live on as amendments or changes to other bills. Things were far less busy in the Senate, which has later bill-pass deadlines, and that chamber is adjourned until Monday.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Y’all seem to be so obsessed with women’s health. I wish you were as equally obsessed with men’s health” - Rep. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, opposing Thursday’s bill requiring abortion clinics to provide timely and detailed reports on complications from abortion.
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