Last-minute bills filed in final flurry
Fantasy sports, feral hogs among legislative topics
AUSTIN — In a legislative session that already has produced bills on limiting bathroom access, banning abortion, dumping daylight saving time and making the cannon the official gun of Texas, Friday was the deadline for filing lawmakers’ other great ideas.
True to form, lawmakers unleashed a torrent of additional must-haves in state law, almost 900 for the day, addressing such things as legalizing fantasy sports, protecting feral hogs, creating a new commission to study slavery and segregation, even protecting “expressive activities” at state colleges and universities already covered by the First Amendment.
In all, legislative clerks said the last-day filings surpassed the session two years ago. More than 4,200 bills were filed in the House, a 3 percent increase over 2015, and 2,200 bills have been filed in the Senate, an 11 percent increase.
“The record in the Senate was 2,439 in 2009, and we didn’t break that this year,” said Patsy Spaw, the secretary of the Texas Senate. “But it’s been a very busy day.”
Most bills are filed at the deadline for one of three reasons: They are favors to constituents or lobbyists and are not expected to pass; they are complicated and took months to draft; or they are contentious and the author hopes they get lost in the crush of lastminute filings.
Among the bills filed Friday was Senate Bill 1970 by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, RBrenham, that supporters said will affirm the legality of fantasy sports in Texas at a time when some colleagues have suggested those games should be regulated by the state.
“Texans love fantasy sports and their freedom,” Kolkhorst said. “We must protect our liberties and rights, and that includes our ability to play a game of skill that millions of
Texans already enjoy.”
Similar bills already are pending in the House.
According to the Texas Fantasy Sports Alliance, a lobbying group for the estimated four million Texas players, 10 states already have clarified the legality of the games, which are being played in 40 states.
Good news for feral hogs came in a bill by Sen. Kirk Watson, DAustin, and Rep. Lynn Stucky, RDenton, that would block a plan by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller to use poisoned baits to create a “hog apocalypse” in favor of a state university study into what effects poisoning the nuisance critters would have on hunters, agriculture and the land before the controversial program can begin.
Miller, who as a state legislator passed a bill allowing feral hogs to be hunted by helicopter, has faced pushback to his plan from environmentalists and wild-meat processors, the latest on March 2 when a Travis County Court issued a temporary restraining order against Miller’s rule.
Beefing up revenues
Amid reports of conservative events being banned or restricted on college campuses, a bill by Rep. Terry Wilson, R-Marble Falls, would protect “expressive activities” — protests, assembles, speeches and circulating petitions — on campuses from those restrictions.
Rep. Shawn Thierry, D-Houston, would create an 18-member Texas Slavery and Segregation Commission to promote the study of slavery and segregation issues in schools and public events.
A state task force to study “intentional violent deaths” would be created to recommend ways to reduce them under a bill filed by Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin.
Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, proposed to repeal the criminal penalty for violations of the Texas interior designers licensing law.
In a move to take the once-adecade political process of redrawing legislative boundaries away from the Legislature, Rep. Victoria Neave, D-Dallas, filed a measure to create a Citizens Redistricting Commission, an idea that has failed several times previously in the Legislature.
Several bills seek to beef up state revenues in the face of a projected multibillion-dollar shortfall.
Rep. Tomas Uresti, D-San Antonio, filed bills seeking to increase the state gasoline tax from 20 to 22 cents a gallon and to tap $150 million from the Rainy Day Fund to restore Medicaid therapy services for disabled children that were cut in the last legislative session.
Another measure by House Appropriations Committee Chairman John Zerwas, R-Richmond, would take back about $2.8 billion in funds approved by voters in 2015 for transportation projects to help balance the state budget.
Non-emergency items
Other deadline bills address such issues as allowing DNA testing of criminal-cases evidence previously submitted to a faulty testing lab, guarding against wrongful convictions, reforming the state’s troubled Child Protective Services system and addressing school finance.
Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, took a stab at a school voucher plan in a measure that would implement several recommendations from the Equity Center, a state organization that was part of a suit that led the Texas Supreme Court to urge lawmakers to reconfigure Texas’ public school funding formula last summer.
In addition to the spurt of lastminute bills, Friday also marked another important milestone: Next week, the Legislature can begin passing bills that were not designated as emergencies by Abbott. During his state of the state speech in January, the governor cited four emergency items for lawmakers to tackle early: ethics reform, a resolution calling for a national convention of the states to consider changes to the U.S. Constitution, banning sanctuary cities and reforming the state’s child protective system. mike.ward@chron.com twitter.com/ChronicleMike