House Unleashes Belated Wrath on Woke
with ESG, DEI, Tenure & Drag Bans on Plate
Capitol Inside
May 21, 2023
Texas House Republicans are scrambling to keep pace in a war against woke with votes set in the next two days on bills that take aim at environmental, social, and governance policies in the corporate workplace, college tenure, diversity in higher education hiring and drag shows that seek to sexually arouse.
But the Republicans in Austin - contrary to claims from Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick - are simply are playing catch-up with GOP counterparts in Tallahassee where Florida Governor Ron DeSantis solidified his status as the nation's premier anti-woke warrior without rival with legislation that he signed in the past week.
The Republicans who control the Texas Legislature have copied some of the proposals that DeSantis has championed while declining to include some of the most controversial provisions that Florida lawmakers have approved like bans on political loyalty tests and the use of pronounce for gender identification.
But the Texas House has a chance to one-up the Sunshine State Republicans with a Ten Commandments posting mandate that it plans to debate on the floor here on Tuesday before a deadline for a tentative vote that night. The Republicans in Austin have a chance to beat Florida legislators to the punch with legislation that seeks to capitalize on a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that may have cleared the way for such a move.
The DeSantis administration has attempted to skirt legal roadblocks on religion in the classroom by having state education officials draft policies that require students to recognize the impact of the Ten Commandments on the rule of law in America - a myth that some fundamental Christian conservatives are using in a pitch for Senate Bill 1515 in Texas.
The Texas House put the state in position to scoop Florida on a transgender female prohibition in college athletics that cleared the lower chamber here in a Senate bill late last week. The Senate forwarded a measure to ban gender-affirming care to Abbott on Friday after voting to accept changes that the House made to the bill. The House can complete the trans triple play with a final vote on the drag show bill at some point before a deadline on Tuesday night.
But the Republicans in Florida already have a significant jump on GOP lawmakers in Texas on the vast majority of the bills that were hatched for the first time in the past two hears to confront a demon that had roamed free on their respective watches throughout history.
Patrick could go three for four in bills that he designated as major torpedoes in the quest to turn back woke in the Lone Star State. But a fourth Patrick anti-woke priority - a critical race theory ban in Texas colleges and universities - died in the House without a hearing or a vote. Patrick said in April that the Texas Senate had done more to stop the spread of woke in academia than any other legislative body.
more to come... |
