Controversial bills expected to draw protests
Lawmakers brace for demonstrators as hearings begin
Lawmakers in Austin gird for a series of protests for and against contentious issues — from the bathroom bill to abortion and school funding — as a flurry of hearings begins in the special legislative session.
AUSTIN — State lawmakers are preparing to be swarmed by demonstrators and activists on all sides of some of the most contentious issues facing Texas during public hearings that kick off Friday.
Among them is the bathroom bill that already has drawn crowds of hundreds of activists — pro and con — to the Capitol for earlier hearings and votes.
Also on tap: banning health care coverage for abortions, finding a fix to school funding and authorizing a study on the state’s skyrocketing maternal mortality rates.
State legislators are about to begin a blitz of hearings to vet legislation that Gov. Greg Abbott wants lawmakers to take up in the 30-day legislative session that began Tuesday. Advocates are trying to keep pace by calling on the public to show up for committee meetings to speak out for and against hot-button bills.
“We need you at the Capitol to make it clear that discrimination has no place in our state!” read an action alert on Facebook from Equality Texas, a political action and organizing group advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.
The biggest attention-grabbing bill up for committee debate Friday is the so-called “bathroom bill” that would
ban transgender people from using the bathrooms in schools and government buildings that best correlate with their gender identity.
The legislation is heralded by proponents as a way to ensure the privacy and dignity of women in the restroom but is seen by critics as a tool to discriminate against people who are transgender.
The other issues are largely red meat, conservative Republican proposals that failed to pass during the regular 2017 legislative session. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a tea party Republican from Houston, is eager to passing all of the bills out of his chamber by the end of next week.
‘This isn’t a race’
The breakneck speed means the Senate will host a dozen committee meetings over the next three days. Meanwhile, the House met for little more than two hours this week and adjourned for the weekend, resolving to begin taking up the hotbutton legislation next week.
“This isn’t a race,” said House Speaker Joe Straus, a San Antonio Republican who has compared the special session agenda to a pile of manure.
Lawmakers are facing a broader agenda after Abbott significantly expanded the focus of two education-related priorities to include grappling with the state’s beleaguered school funding system and retired-teacher benefits.
The call to include school finance on the special session todo list follows a year after the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state’s method for funding education was constitutional but in need of major improvements.
‘A good 30 days’
House lawmakers pitched a plan to improve the school funding system during the regular session, namely by doing away with outdated provisions in the law and adding more money on public education.
That bill died during the regular session after it got caught up in political gamesmanship that tied its future to a Senate plan allowing parents to send their children to private schools using public dollars, which the House was opposed to.
The expanded call, which Abbott released early Thursday, would allow legislators to pass bills improving a staterun health care plan for retired teachers, also.
“I think if we, in the House, can continue to focus on the issues that really matter to most Texans and stay away from the divisive, harmful stuff, I think we’ll have a good 30 days here,” Straus said.