Texas House No Automatic Approval Stamp
on Hot Button Priorities for Conservatives

Capitol Inside
April 15, 2021

The Texas House could be shaping up to be the burial ground for the conservative agenda with bills that revolve on election regulation, abortion restrictions, social media censorship, transgender separation and taxpayer funded lobbying gathering dust with more than two-thirds of the regular session in the books.

A constitutional carry gun rights measure is the only high priority on the hard right that appears to have any traction in the Legislature's lower chamber with only 44 days left before the 2021 session must end on May 31. The gun measure that GOP State Rep. Matt Schaefer of Tyler is carrying in House Bill 1927. The Schaefer bill is set for debate on the House floor on Thursday after clearing the Calendars Committee earlier this week.

But Republicans who control the west wing of the Capitol don't have a monopoly on the gun legislation that conjures visions of the wild frontier with a pair of Democrats in State Reps. Terry Canales of Edinburg and Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City as co-authors on the Schaefer bill. But the constitutional carry plan has been moving at a turtle pace since the first of two public hearings three weeks ago in the Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee. HB 1927 cleared the committee on April 1 - 12 days before its assignment this week to the Calendars Committee that regulates the flow of legislation to the floor.

The Senate - in dramatic contrast - has been a high-speed assembly line for proposals that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has deemed to be a personal priorities. Patrick and the Senate continued to cater on Wednesday to the far right with an 18-13 party line vote on a measure that would prevent young people who were born as males from participating in high school sports for girls that are administered by the University Interscholastic League in Texas.

Sponsored by Republican State Senator Charles Perry of Lubbock as a Patrick top 30 priority, Senate Bill 29 was tentatively approved late this afternoon with a final vote set for Thursday. Perry defended the measure as a safety precaution designed to prevent serious injuries to girls in competitions with rivals who are bigger and stronger.

SB 29 could face an uncertain future across the rotunda, however, with a similar proposal for the separation of sports based on biological sex stalled in the State Affairs Committee without a vote or hearing since early last month.

The election integrity plan that Patrick guided through the Senate along party lines appears to be no guarantee in the House where a typhoon of corporate opposition could have a chilling effect. Senate Bill 7 was referred this week to the Elections Committee where a separate but related plan in House Bill 6 received an initial nod almost one week ago. The House has been more in sync with the business establishment and could be fertile ground for a killing of the election limitations as a result.

The Senate Republicans' proposed ban on social media censorship was referred to the State Affairs Committee in the House more than a week ago. GOP State Rep. Scott Sanford of McKinney is sponsoring the Senate plan in the House where it was left pending in committee a week ago.

The prohibition on taxpayer funded lobbying that Governor Greg Abbott has endorsed has languished in the House State Affairs Committee for the past three weeks. GOP State Rep. Mayes Middleton of Wallisville is the chief sponsor on the local lobby ban in House Bill 749. A similar measure that GOP State Senator Paul Bettencourt of Houston is sponsoring was added to the intent calendar on Tuesday.

But the Senate push for election integrity, sports gender separation and free speech online proposals won't be automatic in the House regardless of the partisan majority it would appear to have on paper at this point.