Deep discord threatening Abbott’s desired ethics bill

Disclosure of donors to some nonprofits at heart of disagreement.

Opposing visions for ethics reform are threatening to sink a major piece of legislation that has been ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott.

State Sen. Van Taylor, R-Plano, said Wednesday he won’t accept a key provision that state Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, inserted into his overhauled version of Senate Bill 19, the broad ethics reform proposal by Taylor that was aimed at legislators, lobbyists and political hangers-on.

Taylor is opposed to a socalled “dark money” requirement that has been a priority of House leaders this session. Cook, chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, wants to force politically ac-

tive nonprofits, such as 501(c) (4) nonprofit organizations, to disclose their donors.

Such groups can currently spend an unlimited amount of money on advertising, advocacy and other election-related activities, but they don’t have to disclose where their funding comes from, hence the term “dark money.”

The House passed SB 19 — with Cook’s dark money provision — on final reading Wednesday 94-49. Its next stop is a conference committee, where the differences between the House and Senate versions would have to be reconciled before it would go to Abbott, who declared ethics reform an emergency item at the beginning of the session.

Taylor and Cook are both expected to be named to the conference committee and have significant influence over the discussions. Without an agreement between the chambers, the bill could die.

When the negotiators from the House and Senate come together, Taylor will fight to keep any dark money language out of the bill, he said.

Lawmakers are in Austin to protect citizens’ rights, Taylor said. “Taking away people’s rights is wrong.”

Cook said he won’t budge either. He cited the 124 out of 150 House members who signed on as co-authors or joint authors to a signature piece of ethics legislation to eliminate dark money — which he sees as a mandate to make sure a dark money provision is part of the final bill.

“That’s something the House clearly wanted to move on,” Cook said, adding that it would be impossible to have “meaningful ethics reform” without a dark money provision.

While the House overwhelmingly supported a bill with the dark money provision, the representatives softened some language on another divisive provision loathed by Taylor.

The House approved an amendment Friday to di- lute the part of the bill that requires consent to record a person within the walls the Capitol. The last-minute tweak of the proposal says that if a person fails to disclose, when asked, if he or she is recording someone else, then the person being recorded could file a civil lawsuit.

Cook added the provision to the bill as an answer to the American Phoenix Foundation. The group said it has amassed more than 800 hours of video of legislators and lobbyists that show a culture of corruption, hypocrisy and generally bad behavior. Cook criticized Taylor for not agreeing to protect lawmakers, who have complained about being stalked by the foundation’s operatives this session.

The senators “aren’t the ones who are being harassed every day,” Cook said.

Joe Basel, the CEO of the foundation, said he believes Cook’s original amendment and the new version are both “blatantly unconstitutional.”

“Just because they’re trying to make me an outlaw doesn’t change my plans at all,” he said.

For all the discord between Cook and Taylor, there are some basic principles that they can agree upon in the legislation. For example, both favor not allowing convicted felons to serve in public office.

“I’m going to focus on areas that we agree on,” Taylor said.

But ahead of the conference committee on SB 19, Taylor seems to be hedging his bets. He has amended a bill by Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, to include the ban on convicted felons serving in public office. Turner said he will consider whether to accept the change.

Taylor also tacked another amendment to a bill by state Rep. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, that reflects a large portion of his original legislation. Davis won’t concur with the amendment until she sees the final version of SB 19, she said.