Senate Gives Nod to New Lobby Regulations
that Keep False Staffer Tale Alive at Capitol

Capitol Inside
May 5, 2021

The Texas Senate followed the lead of several major blue states on Wednesday with a vote for fast-track legislation that would force lobbyists from the private sector to complete sexual harassment training before they can perform their jobs at state capitols.

Senate Bill 2233 cleared the upper chamber on a 31-0 vote without a whisper of debate eight days after it had been filed amid a furor over a female staffer's claims about an alleged drugging by a lobbyist at the Austin Club near the statehouse.

The House could vote this week or next on its own version of the new proposed state mandate that lawmakers decided they needed to pass immediately amid their shock and outrage at the aide's accusations.

Texas leaders and legislators on both sides of the aisle have shown no concern that they could be tainting the credibility and integrity of the #MeToo movement with plans to keep the bills alive despite the fact that the staffer's story was exposed as a lie that had festered in an attempt to hide the sexual conduct of others.

GOP Speaker Dade Phelan and several top GOP lieutenants parroted the allegations for several days before they were discredited by the Department of Public Safety and Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza last week. A DPS probe that the Austin American-Statesman had revealed on April 24 had cleared the targeted lobbyist less than 48 hours after Democratic State Senator Jose Menendez of San Antonio had filed SB 2233 without having realized that date rape drug claims had been a hoax.

Phelan and a couple of Democratic women allies said in a joint statement that the legal process had ended in an apparent reference to the findings of the criminal investigation that culminated in an announcement that no charges would be filed because no wrongdoing had occurred. The speaker's statement on to which State Reps. Donna Howard of Austin and Senfronia Thompson of Houston signed didn't elaborate on information from the falsely accused lobbyist's lawyers that pointed to a set up with their client as the victim.

While Phelan had condemned the culture at the Capitol in a special speech based on the narrative in the newspaper report two days earlier. Thompson followed up the inception of SB 2233 as the author of the same basic plan with the filing of House Bill 4661 exactly one week ago. Two dozen female representatives - 22 Democrats and two Republicans - signed a letter that Howard penned to the aide who'd come forward with the date rape drug claims with an assurance that the legislators believed her story and would be watching her back as the case unfolded.

The Republican-controlled Legislature is taking a page from California, Illinois and Maine - three of the few if not the only states where lobbyists have been required in recent years to receive sexual harassment training as a condition of their registrations. But Texas doesn't force private companies to sponsor the same training to curb sexual misconduct in the workplace like California.

The Texas House and Senate added sexual harassment education for lawmakers and staff members in the rules that they adopted in 2019. The first tangible results of the rules revisions suggest that it needs substantial refinement based on the behavior of the staffer at the heart of the date rape drug scandal that has the potential to wreck multiple careers at the Capitol if additional employees or lawmakers are implicated in the case.